Mary McIntosh is one of those ingenuous people who isn’t afraid to speak her mind if something doesn’t make sense to her.

I had learned that during the best practices workshops we conducted for her company a year earlier. So, here we were at a follow-up session, and Mary was as blunt as ever.

“That whole ‘target marketing’ thing we talked about doesn’t work,” she said. “I’ve been trying it for almost six months and the results have been dismal.”

“Obviously, Mary, I am disappointed to hear that such a key strategy hasn’t been as effective for you as it has been for other advisors,” I told her. “The good news in what you have just said, however, is that you gave it six months. Building a profile in a market is a gradual process, and it can take time for the results to be felt. Before you abandon the approach altogether, can we see if there are any clues as to why it might not have worked out as expected?”

I asked her to think back to our first meeting. At that time, she had been in the business slightly more than three years.

“You left the nursing profession to become a financial advisor because it genuinely fulfilled your passion to help people,” I recalled. “That same motivation initially drew you to become a nurse, but after a few years, the long, often thankless hours wore you down. You also felt frustrated by the ‘system’ that didn’t deliver the level of patient care you felt it should. The role of financial advisor, however, provided the opportunity to set your own ‘standard of care’ and be entirely responsible for its delivery.

“Knowing you as I do,” I continued, “I’m certain that it isn’t for lack of trying that your strategy hasn’t been as successful as you had hoped. So, let’s look a little deeper. First, how did you define your ‘target market’?”

“It seemed obvious to concentrate on the health-care industry,” she replied. “I know a lot of people at the hospital, as well as most of the doctors who have privileges there. In fact, I zeroed in on doctors. After all, they are the ones with higher incomes, more complex financial needs and less time to deal with personal matters. It seemed like a natural choice.”

“On the surface, that appears to be logical,” I responded. “Let’s evaluate doctors as a target market against some commonly applied criteria. A ‘target market’ is first defined as a group of people with common interests and common needs, who are connected to and communicate with one another. And doctors would meet all those conditions.”

“Yes,” Mary said. “I also know that they really need help. Many of them can’t manage their financial affairs. I used to hear them talking about that all the time.”

I continued: “Hopefully, you also recall the other target market qualifications: the group should be large enough to justify the focus and its members must be approachable by you. How many people are in your target market?”

“I did some research and discovered there are about 2,000 health-care workers of some kind in town. I’d estimate I can identify almost half of them either personally or through an association they have with someone I know.”

“That’s great,” I replied. “Your network within the health-care industry is certainly large enough to justify special attention to it. How many of them are doctors?”

“According to the Canadian Medical Association’s Web site,” she said, “there are 109 general practitioners and 66 specialists, for a total of 175 doctors.”

“How many of those 175 would you expect to develop as clients?”I asked.

“There are other good advisors in town who already have some of my target market as clients,” she said, “but, given my background and contacts, I think I should be capable of eventually capturing, say, 10%. It will take time, so my objective was to have 15 to 20 doctors as clients within two years. But here we are after six months and I don’t have any. That’s why I think the strategy was all wrong.”

“Before we concede that,” I said, “tell me about your experiences so far.”

“I thought I had a pretty inclusive marketing plan,” Mary said. “In the workshop, you emphasized how important it was to have four to six robust promotional activities as part of a marketing strategy, so I laid out what I thought was a good program.

@page_break@“First, I set up a direct-mail campaign to every physician and followed up by telephone to arrange appointments. That was my broad-based tactic for letting doctors know that I now had a financial advisory practice focused on their unique needs. Even cases in which I couldn’t get through to the doctor directly, I assumed I would easily get in because I knew many of the nurses and doctors’ office receptionists. Most of them, however, were reluctant to make room for me in the doctors’ schedules without first checking and, more often than not, the doctor declined the appointment.

“I know personal introductions are the most powerful way to initiate new relationships, so I asked the nurses and receptionists I know if they’d be willing to introduce me to the doctor if I just dropped by the office. Some agreed but, overall, I wasn’t very successful. I also organized a Financial Planning for Doctors seminar and posted notice of it in the hospital, but no one came. It was embarrassing and frustrating.

“Finally,” she said, “there are a few doctors with whom I worked closely at the hospital, so I approached them directly. I had better results there in that I had some exploratory appointments but just couldn’t seem to generate any real interest in what I could do for them.

“So, I had my four to six promotional activities, but they didn’t work. That’s why I have concluded that I should probably abandon the strategy.”

“Mary,” I said, “because you are a person who doesn’t like to beat around the bush, let me be candid about why I think your strategy was flawed. Is that OK?”

“Sure. All I did was follow your advice, so go ahead.”

“Yes,” I responded, “you did as was suggested in putting together your marketing plan, but you ignored two very important factors. No. 1: the promotional activities you undertook weren’t appropriate for your target market. Doctors and other professionals are generally not responsive to direct-mail solicitation. In fact, it often offends them because they think it doesn’t acknowledge their stature in the community.

“As well, they are also extremely busy,” I went on, “and, as a consequence, are reluctant to take time from their schedules to attend seminars. Dropping by their office unannounced generally doesn’t court much favour, either. Your promotional strategy must recognize the ego, position and preferences of the intended audience. Yours didn’t do that.

“But the No. 2 issue is even more important. Recall that one of the criteria for a target market is that it has to be approachable and — let me emphasize this, — by you! I know you were a dedicated, well-regarded nurse, but please be honest: how do doctors typically perceive nurses? Is the relationship one of mutual respect?”

“Well, there are a few good ones. But I’d have to admit: there are too many doctors who think of nurses as subservient to them rather than as their equals.”

“And that, Mary, is where the root of the problem lies. You have targeted a relatively small market of people who generally do not hold anyone with your background — not just you — in high esteem. Then you approach them in a way in which they find disrespectful. Some of them may even be bitter that you are no longer around to assist them. Wasn’t the outcome predictable?”

“I guess it was,” she said, adding, “so, I just wasted six months.”

“No, I don’t think you wasted six months at all. Sure, you could have been more effective, but today there are many more people who know about your expertise as a financial advisor than six months ago. Where have you been and who have you talked to?”

“I’ve spent almost all my time in and around the hospital and in doctors’ offices and clinics,” she replied, “so I’d have to say the people I’ve encountered there know what I do.”

“And there’s the answer, Mary. Start a marketing campaign directed at the people who are comfortable speaking with you — the nursing supervisors, hospital administrative staff, medical technicians and, of course, the nurses. My guess is that you could capture a significant share of that market. I also sense that, if you have a large number of clients who work alongside the doctors, it won’t be too long before word of mouth will get you the access and respect that has so far eluded you.”

Over the next few weeks, Mary developed a new marketing strategy aimed at the non-doctor medical community. She leveraged her contacts for personal introductions, offered “lunch and learn” seminars to hospital staff, including a couple at midnight right after the shift change, and arranged to write a regular column on financial fitness in the hospital’s internal newsletter.

She volunteered everywhere in the local medical community — at charity events, on a committee to attract new doctors and in fund-raising activities. Six months later, she was the acknowledged local “health-care industry” financial expert.

And, not surprising, several doctors began to notice what she was doing; to date, six of them have become her clients.

Mary still wants to have 15 to 20 doctors as her clients by the end of the next year — and it is my guess that she will. IE