“Coach’s Forum” is a place in which you can ask your questions, tell your stories or give your opinions on any aspect of practice management. For each column, George selects the most interesting and relevant comments from readers and offers his advice. Our objective is to build a community of professionals with a common interest in making their financial advisory practices as effective as possible.



Advisor: I heard you speak as part of the coaches panel at the recent Top Advisor Summit in Toronto. When you were asked to identify one of the key strategies that high-performing advisors use that you felt contributed to their success, you replied: “The application of a consistent marketing program.”

I have tried various marketing techniques over the years — some worked; some didn’t. I have also found that the result often did not justify the investment of time and effort, and I am probably better off using my time in the old-fashioned way of meeting prospective new clients one at a time. Can you convince me I’m wrong?

Coach says: I would never suggest that you are wrong. If you have found your current strategy to be effective and if your business is growing at the pace you’d like it to, then there is no reason to make changes. Not every advisor wants to grow their practice aggressively and, therefore, not every advisor needs a marketing program that brings them a steady stream of new people who qualify as potential clients.

Consider this example: suppose you had a client with a low risk tolerance who required only a 3% return to meet his retirement objective. You probably wouldn’t construct an aggressive growth portfolio for the client that could earn substantially higher returns but also entails considerably higher risk. That wouldn’t be necessary — any more than it would be necessary for an advisor who is happy with the present growth rate of his or her business to implement an all-out marketing effort.

Having said that, if you visualize your practice three to five years down the road as being significantly larger than it is today or focused on a new type of client or a different market, you will probably have to attract a significant number of qualified prospects to your practice through a well-constructed marketing program to meet your objectives (short of buying another practice to leapfrog you there).

You are also correct in your quote that I used the word “consistent” to describe the marketing plan. By my observation, what causes most advisors’ marketing programs to fail to meet expectations is a lack of consistency — around the type of prospect advisors are trying to attract, the brand message they are delivering, the appropriateness of the delivery methods, and the frequency and duration of the effort.

Let’s look at each element in turn:

> Consistency In Your Target Audience. Every good marketing campaign starts with a clear understanding of the intended audience. In that regard, ask yourself: “Who are my preferred clients? What are their demographics, such as age, income, occupation and marital status? What are their psychographic characteristics, such as personality, risk profile and their willingness to take advice and delegate decisions to their professional advisor?”

One of the other speakers at the Top Advisor Summit suggested focusing on a “micro-niche.” Don’t target veterinarians, she said; go after animal ophthalmologists. That is an excellent strategy in a large metropolitan area, but it would mean slim pickings in a smaller community. Regardless of the size of your market area, having a definitive picture of who you want to target is essential for consistency in establishing your brand message and delivery strategy.

Trying to build your profile, for example, as “the man (woman) for all the people” requires you to communicate a variety of messages, to multiple audiences, in a number of ways — which normally dampens the effectiveness of your message for everyone.

@page_break@> Consistency Of Your Message. What is the message you want people to receive? In other words, what is the image you are trying to establish in the minds of your intended audience?

That image has to be consistent with what your target market expects from someone promising what you are promising.

For example, if you are positioning yourself as an expert in tax and estate planning for business owners, a tasteful, profile advertisement in your community’s most respected business journal describing the discipline of your planning process and the credentials of your team would probably appeal to your target market.

Coupling that ad with a full-page ad in your local newspaper promoting the lowest term insurance rates would send mixed messages: the first ad conveys professional service provider; the second, low-price product pusher.
> Consistency In the way your Audience Hears About You. Some marketing initiatives appeal to certain prospective clients more than others. High net-worth individuals, for example, generally do not respond well to broad-based appeals such as large-scale seminars that are open to everyone in the community. They do, however, like to be introduced to well-qualified people who have demonstrated their ability to help others whom they respect. To meet these people, your marketing program should emphasize events that create opportunities for existing high net-worth clients to introduce you to others in their circle.

You might consider a direct-mail program targeted toward the highest-income postal code in your community. But you’ll get better access to the HNW market with a more specialized approach. Try networking within other professional communities, such as lawyers and accountants; join common-interest groups supporting charitable or social activities; or create specialized client-appreciation events for a selected few.

> Consistency Of Frequency And Duration Of Your Marketing Program. Innumerable research studies have highlighted the fact that it takes considerable time for a marketing program to have an impact on a business. Some studies suggest that it requires as much as 10 to 12 “impressions” to develop brand recognition and differentiation in the marketplace — and that can take six to 18 months.

But most advisors quit too soon. They “try” a seminar or two and don’t get the results they hoped for. They advertise, but no one calls. They host a client-appreciation event, but few clients bring a friend.

Frustrated, these advisors move on to something else for another short period of experimentation, with the same, predictable results.

What is required is a series of activities — some large in scale; some small — that consistently convey the same message to members of the same target market in a manner they find appealing. The program must run for a long enough period to break through all the noise and capture the attention of the people with whom you would like to do business. These promotional activities should be planned well in advance, laid out on a calendar and adequately financed.

There is a second part to your comments that warrants further consideration: your involvement in the marketing effort. In my view, marketing is one area of a practice that cries out for delegation, either internally to a team member or externally to a consultant. When it comes to marketing, I strongly endorse the Frank Sinatra mantra: “I don’t move pianos; I just show up and sing.”

You should not be designing brochures, writing ad copy, organizing seminar venues, preparing invitations or worrying about any of the myriad details that accompany an integrated marketing program.

Your role should be to set the tone for the impression you want to create in the marketplace as a result of your promotional activities, to ensure your firm’s capabilities support the promises your marketing program is making and to be the face of your business.

If there is no one within your team to whom you can confidently delegate the whole marketing function, seriously consider hiring an outside resource such as a PR firm or a marketing communications firm. This might appear expensive at first, but accept that marketing is an investment rather than an expense and, as with any investment, you should want the best-qualified people managing it.

When it comes to an integrated marketing program, that person probably isn’t you. IE



George Hartman is president and CEO of Market Logics Inc. and a senior coach and facilitator with the Covenant Group. His latest book, Blunder, Wonder, Thunder: Powering Your Practice to New Heights (www.marketlogics.ca) was published in January. Send questions, comments and opinions on any aspect of practice management to george@marketlogics.ca.