Informational interviews can help you expand your network of contacts and find new ways to build your practice, says Sylvia Garibaldi, founder of SG & Associates in Toronto.
This type of interview presents an opportunity to make contact with connected and successful individuals in your community and ask them for advice on how you can grow your business, Garibaldi says. You can learn business-building strategies from successful entrepreneurs and professionals outside your usual network.
The key is selecting the right individuals and asking the right questions. Here are five tips to help you conduct successful informational interviews:
1. Avoid your peers and clients
In conducting informational interviews, you are not looking to develop a mentoring relationship with another financial advisor. Nor are you approaching clients or prospects.
Instead, you should be contacting individuals who are successful in their own careers — outside of the financial advisory business — and connected to others in the community. They would be people who can provide you with guidance and new ideas to help you build your business. They might introduce you to others within your target market, but that is not your primary objective.
Approach people such as business acquaintances, friends, centres of influence, small-business owners and members of local community organizations or boards.
2. Take the right approach
The way in which you propose such a meeting must indicate clearly that you are not trying to sell this person anything; you are hoping to learn from them.
You might say: “I admire the way you have built your career and I would really like to take you out for a coffee and talk to you about how I might advance my own business.”
3. Be prepared
Know your objective and be ready to ask the right questions.
Says Garibaldi: “The intention is always to pick their brain and lead the discussion into asking: ‘If you were me, what would you be doing?'”
Successful business people can answer questions such as how they grew their client base, where they go to network, and how they market themselves.
Explain the details of your business clearly, such as your specialties, your client base and the length of time you have been in the industry.
4. Be sure to follow up
After an interview, send a thank-you card to the person. Also, send an email outlining the various ideas that came from your encounter and remind your acquaintance of any further help he or she volunteered.
For example, maybe your contact said she would introduce you to her award-winning marketing professionals. You can state in the email that you welcomed her ideas on becoming more active on social media and are looking forward to meeting her marketing team.
5. Conduct these interviews regularly
Your goal is to engage with several people and meet each one multiple times.
Touch base with your contacts, says Garibaldi, and inform them when you try one of their ideas.
Develop a small network of these contacts and take them out for lunch or coffee every four to six months to brainstorm new ideas.