You’re not logged in!
You’ll need to log in to get access to all of the premium content on this site.
How I Acquired 1,242 Clients
As you may know, we are about to launch a new course for financial advisors based on the #1 question we receive from our members:
“How did a single advisor ever acquire 1,242 clients? What specific methods did you use to acquire that many clients?”
Ultimately, I transformed my business and now deal with a small community of Ideal Clients. Nevertheless, the time has come to document all of the specific methods I used to acquire new clients. But I could use your help.
While I’m putting the finishing touches on this material over the next few weeks, I invite you to leave a comment below with any client acquisition-related questions you have.
Maybe you’re curious about how I quickly and effortlessly acquired new clients, even though I’m introverted, have call reluctance, and have a low tolerance for clients who aren’t serious about their goals. Or maybe you have a question about how I inspired my clients to provide a consistent stream of referrals without me asking them to.
If it’s something I haven’t already included, I’ll add it to the course. Maybe it’s something no advisor has ever asked me before!
I bet you’re a bit like I was before I transformed my business:
- You prefer simplicity over complexity, and a simplified client acquisition process appeals to you
- You’re tired of the financial services industry teaching client acquisition methods that make you look like every other Financial Advisor out there
- You just want to know the top 1% of strategies that really work best (and have actually been implemented successfully)
Well, now’s your chance to find out, and also have some input into the development of this course that will address all of those issues and more. I documented everything that worked best when it came to acquiring new clients (while eliminating strategies that were a waste of time). I also want to tailor this material around what you’re most curious about. Comment below and help me make sure I don’t leave out anything important.
Ask Me Anything
Let me know: What are you struggling with? What questions would you like answered from a Financial Advisor who’s actually done it? What stands in the way of you adding more clients quickly?
What would you most like to know from a financial advisor who’s acquired more than 1,500 new clients over the past 30 years? What questions do you have for someone who politely disengaged from more than 1,225 Non-Ideal Clients in order to focus only on Ideal Clients? What aspects of the Client Acquisition process have you never seen discussed and want to know more about?
Comment below with your top two questions about client acquisition, and I’ll work them into the course. It’s okay if you need some time to think about it—just bookmark this page, and come back when a client acquisition question pops into your mind.
So: What are your top two (2) questions about Client Acquisition that I absolutely NEED to answer in my new course?
Just received this feedback from Brandon, a Financial Advisor in N. California, here’s what he’d like to see in a course on Client Acquisition -Mark (Brandon’s comments to me are below)
I know listening, gaining trust, gathering important personal information from recording all client meetings, knowing the scripts, and taking potential clients through The Initial Client Interview is first on the list of onboarding clients. But getting people in my office with their financial documents seems to be the main obstacle. I assume I must drive hard, never give up, and get lucky? Also throw in some referral “guerilla marking” techniques. Any ideas?
To Brandon: Yes, I’ll add a section to the new course about how I was able to get potential clients to bring all their documents to The Initial Client Interview.
But the real way I made that happen, Brandon, was to make sure that people sitting down with me for the first time were motivated to get their financial house in order to begin with.
I figured out pretty quickly that people who didn’t bring their documents weren’t serious about getting their financial house in order. They were just do-it-yourselfers who wanted free advice, or sometimes people who mistakenly thought the meeting was just a sales pitch… or whatever.
But after I began confirming that every potential client was as serious as a heart attack about getting their finances into perfect order, before I would agree to meet with them… well those potential clients ALWAYS brought their financial documents to our first sit-down. The key is focusing only on potential clients who care more about their financial situation than I do, and only meeting with people who already know they needed financial advice. -Mark
I’ve been a Financial Advisor for over 20 years and what I struggled with most as a newer advisor was answering the quick question, “What do you do”?
While I know exactly what I do and the value I bring, articulating that in 4 – 5 words that truly reflect me, my process, and value, has always been difficult — still is.
That’s a great issue Cindy. I’ll make sure to include a section in the course about that.
How to describe the value you provide to a potential client in a way that’s concise, coherent, conversational, & compelling. Every Financial Advisor has struggled with that issue at some point, including me.
Btw… Every Financial Advisor needs to custom tailor their message so that it’s “authentically you.” But for me, what I’ve ended up saying since 1999 when asked, “So what do you do Mark?” Is… “I coordinate all the personal financial affairs for a small community of affluent families who all have a number of specific things in common with each other.” Short. Sweet. And must be mildly intriguing because I normally get a follow-up question.
Anyway, many thanks for sharing that Cindy. Every Financial Advisor struggles with some aspect of Client Acquisition. Guess that’s why I was asked to create this course on how I acquired so many clients so quickly. -Mark
Good points Mark. I’ve been an advisor for 17 years and what I struggled most with at first was confidence in the process. We were trained using a script and it was uncomfortable at first, however when I stuck to it (verbatim), I actually got more clients. How do you get new advisers to let go and be comfortable with the uncomfortable?
Even today I still get uncomfortable about parts of the process. For example I still get nervous when asking for a referral. Crazy. Any tips around this?
Thanks,
Jason
Excellent Jason. Thanks for the candor… and just in time too. I’m wrapping up the development of this course, but because of your comment, I’m going to add a section about asking for referrals. Those are “solicited referrals” which you’re referring to when you talk about “asking for a referral.” It’s funny, I never asked for referrals until I began receiving coaching and advice from Bill Bachrach in 1999.
He more or less persuaded me that it was a smart business tactic to begin asking for referrals, which it is. But if not asking for referrals, then where did all my referrals come from before that? …and I was receiving lots of referrals before that!
Well, the strategy I perfected was to drive UNsolicited client referrals simply by consistently exceeding my clients’ expectations. This is the step-by-step strategy we share in all our programs, and I’ll be sure to include in this course as well. Utilizing this method, while many clients are actively introducing potential clients to you on their own without being asked, you’re less nervous about asking for referrals from the rest since most have already confirmed that you’re exceeding their expectations. Not crazy at all Jason, thanks for bringing it up.
As for scripts, there are 3 skills every Financial Advisor must master before they can be successful, and scripts can be useful for just one of the three.
Skill 1. Lead Generation: finding potential clients who need your services
Skill 2. Lead Conversion: Being able to skillfully convert Potential Ideal Clients into paying clients.
Skill 3. Exceeding Client Expectations: Ensuring Clients, once they hire you, continue working with you forever.
When I first started as a Financial Advisor in 1987, the Wall Street-based firm I worked for required us to use scripts for everything. They made us use scripts for lead generation, scripts for lead conversion, and scripts for serving existing clients after we were hired. I hated it, but I came to realize that scripts can be great for Lead Conversion since you’re trying to articulate a lot of important information in a very short period of time, usually during a meeting of an hour or less.
However, I found that scripts don’t work as well for Lead Generation or Exceeding Client Expectations, which require more natural relationship development. I’ll include a section in this course describing how & why developing a relationship works better than scripts for Lead Genearation and Exceeding Clients’ Expectations (client service). Since you brought this up I’ll map out exactly the way I did it myself (and I’m an introvert who normally hates idle chit chat).
Jason, I broke all records acquiring clients simply by implementing the process I’m outlining for this course which is all about consistently establishing relationships with lots of people. Because my process quickly established a human relationship first, these potential clients smoothly and easily (and quickly) transitioned into my Lead Conversion process, if they were a good fit for the type of client I serve best.
To this day, no Financial Advisor working with Bill Bachrach has ever acquired as many Ideal Clients as quickly as I did using this method (83 Ideal Clients in 34 months). I’m creating this course so that somebody will now break my record… by using my same process.
This course is all about Lead Generation. How to meet tons of potential clients.
I’ve been a Financial Advisor for 24 years and what I struggled with most as a newer advisor was client acquisition. Why?
1. Head trash (e.g. fear of rejection, lack of confidence)
2. Hiding (e.g. doing activities like developing a great marketing piece) rather than working on what really drives client acquisition, such as talking with people who could become a client. Why, because of head-trash (e.g. fear of rejection…)
3. Not blocking out client acquisition time on my calendar, every day, for at least three (3) hours (should have been more like 6 hours per day when I was brand new because I didn’t have any clients to service) and then HONORING that client acquisition time with activities that will really lead to adding clients like talking to people who could become a client.
4. Not being clear on my leading indicator (e.g. how many people do I need to speak to in order to add one client)
5. Not being clear on my niche (e.g. trying to serve everyone rather than a specific demographic like Dentists who are specialists in Lone Tree and Highlands Ranch, CO) and building network relationships that can refer this demographic to me
6. Focused on selling people rather than serving people
7. Not knowing exactly what I intended my practice to look like when I was done adding clients
8. Not knowing exactly what I was going to say at each critical part of each meeting
Wow… a treasure trove here John. Thanks so much for the candor and the feedback.
I’m going to go through the entire course this weekend & make comments about everything you mention here.
See everyone… your candid feedback here will definitely custom tailor this course to be exactly what’s needed. I’m committed to ensuring that every Client Acquisition obstacle you’re facing is fully addressed in this course. Assuming, of course, it’s an issue that I encountered myself (and I CERTAINLY DID encounter all eight of the ones you list here John).
Many thanks. -Mark
I’ve been a Financial Advisor for 24 years and what I struggle with most even today is staying focused on the Big Rocks. For example being clear on the 1 “measurable” goal per year, quarter and month that will REALLY make a difference in driving my business forward. And staying focused on the daily activities that will REALLY help me accomplish my goals. In essence, it is getting distracted by the tyranny of the urgent (e.g. email, text…) rather than keeping focused on the priority of the important.
Me too!
Before my transformation, when my practice was focused on serving too many Non-ideal Clients, I had to figure out a way to turn the chaos of my 80+ hour weekly schedule into calm.
I wasn’t impressing very many clients and I disappointed too many of them for the very reason you mention John. I was not putting in the Big Rocks to my schedule first. When I read Steven Covey’s Book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this strategy you mention was #3 of 7: Put First Things First.
And this one strategy literally transformed my entire schedule (and my life) in less than 2 weeks’ time. Here’s a short video of Dr. Stepehen Covey describing this strategy you’re talking about in his own words (definitely worth 4 minutes of any Financial Advisor’s time to watch. It was that transformational for me). Thanks John, -Mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV3gMTOEWt8&t=155s
I’ve been a Financial Advisor for 24 years and what I struggled with most as a newer advisor was client acquisition. Why? (Part II).
9. Because I was in-authentic: I was focused on looking good, not looking bad; and being right, not being wrong. Rather than being transparent and authentic. Focusing on looking good, not looking bad; and being right, not being wrong is the recipe for in-authenticity. I was really worried that if people really knew the truth they wouldn’t like me and they definitely wouldn’t hire me.
In retrospect, this was a BIG mistake. What I have found is that people really crave authentic relationships. However, we live in a culture in America that is very focused on success and looking good, rather than authentic relationships. And I am convinced that ALL people (introverts and extroverts) crave real, authentic relationships. We are all broken people in a broken world. So why not be real with people. We’ve all made mistakes and we’ve all had success; in some way, shape or form. Why not have authentic relationships and compare notes on our successes and our failures. I’ve learned a lot more from my failures than I have my successes. And being in-authentic kept me from seeking outside eyes from mentors and coaches on my business and life. And when I did seek help, at first, I was so in-authentic that I did not tell them the real truth because I was afraid they would not like me if they knew the truth. This leads to #10
10. Lack of trust, especially in men who are in authority over me, but people in general. Being transparent, I did not even know I struggled with this until last year. So I invested 23 years in practice not knowing I struggle with trusting people. So that is something that I am working on intentionally this year. As I said in #9, we are all broken people in a broken world. And I am learning more and more about my brokenness, digging into it and working through it. Years ago I would have been afraid to go public with this information. Today, I am happy to go public with this information because I know that we’re all broken and we can build authentic relationships by being transparent; and we all desire transparent, relationships.
I truly hope this helps and serves you
So why not be real with people! Exactly right John.
And your “trust issues,” well thanks for that.
What you describe is so raw… so honest. I certainly can identify with what you’re describing.
Thanks for sharing all that. You’ve now given me a new high bar to meet in being as up-front and as brutally honest as you are here John.
Since 1992 I have struggled with meeting the “right” people. To this day I see the trite and phony scripts as fake. I want to get better at creating a straight forward – “This is what I do, do you want to explore working with me” screening process. I like networking and one on one situations where I can build relationships. I’m not going to “work a room at the local chamber”. I’m want to find the easiest way to get to the one and one relationship building meetings without be the sale rep looking to show you a product. How do I do this?
G’day Mark,
Thank you for the invitation to join your new initiative.
I am looking forward to this new experience.
After 30 years in the business, I am still excited.
Cheers, Murray
After 30 years in the business, you can only still be excited if you have a crystal clear vision for your business, and if you’re convinced the value you’re providing clients is huge. After 30 years… that’s impressive Murray.
I’m sure most Financial Advisors reading this, hope their passions are as high as yours after decades of serving individuals and families.