As you may know, I’m working on a course about how I acquired more Ideal Clients faster than any other Financial Advisor on record, before or since. This is the most requested course we’ve ever created. My goal is for you to come out of this course with all the tools you need to beat my records. If you’re serious and focused, there’s no reason you can’t.
When I was transitioning my business, I came up with 2 client acquisition projects to help fill my schedule with new potential clients who wanted to “talk business” with me. The first project is about Internal Referability.
We’ve talked about Internal Referability in several recent posts. Internal Referability is the ability to get referrals from your existing clients by providing them with an extraordinary client experience. My premise was that most of my clients already knew more people than I could possibly ever serve—and I was right! My goal was to consistently impress clients in the hopes they would share the experiences with other people in their lives when I wasn’t around. Therefore, I didn’t focus on providing services I thought clients needed—rather, I focused on services clients themselves already wanted (and were willing to pay the most for). I invested the time required to understand what each client’s expectations were, and then I shared those expectations with my team so we could continually brainstorm new ways to pleasantly surprise each one.
The second project is about External Referability. This project is all about creating a positive reputation out in the community as someone who’s highly competent and worthy of trust.
I set out to solve my biggest Client Acquisition problem—very few of my potential clients even knew my name, much less knew what I did that was different and better than other Financial Advisors. So I made the decision to get out of the office most days of the week and began meeting lots of new people.
I joined committees, causes, and projects that already interested me. I focused on developing relationships, and never discussed business until the other person asked first. I simply focused on being a nice likable person who “added value” in every venue I chose to be in. I never used any sales scripts or appointment closing techniques, but rather waited until people asked “what do you do?” or volunteered money issues they were facing. At that moment, I’d offer to schedule a meeting to talk business, but only if I saw any signs the person might meet my Ideal Client Profile.
That’s it. I was able to continually fill my schedule with potential clients who wanted to explore the idea of working with me. That’s how I generated tons of leads to potential clients, helping me break national records for the pace at which I added new Ideal Clients. I had no special skills or advantages—I simply got out there and worked diligently to be highly referable to my existing clients, and have a highly referable reputation out in the community.
In this new course, I’ll be sharing every element of these two projects that worked so well for me. But I don’t want to leave anything out. So I’m asking for your help in identifying every obstacle or issue you’ve ever encountered when adding new Ideal Clients.
Many of you have already provided me with great insight into issues you’ve struggled (or are struggling) with, and I thank you for that! Your comments are bringing back many memories, and it’s having a huge positive impact on this course—so keep them coming. I’m taking your comments and adding elements to the course because I’m committed to covering everything any Financial Advisor will need to beat my records at lead generation of potential clients.
So let me know—what questions or comments do you have about your own Client Acquisition process? Leave them below!
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