How to Become a Successful Financial Advisor: Your First Year
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What does it take to become a successful financial advisor? What are some good first year financial advisor goals? What are the characteristics of a good financial advisor? These are questions I'm sure that have bounced around in every financial advisor's mind when they were first starting out.
I took the time to ask some industry experts the following question:
“What’s the best sales/marketing advice you would give someone in
their first year in financial services?”
their first year in financial services?”
Here's what they told me...
April Rudin
April Rudin is the founder of The Rudin Group, a wealth marketing firm that works exclusively in financial services. She founded the business in 2008 and works with many firms of all shapes and sizes.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"Hire a professional marketing firm. Don't be a "do it yourself" marketer. Advisors resent 'do it themselves' investors but frequently don's use professional advice themselves."
April actually has a blog post that talks about this. You should think bakery, not bake sale.
April Rudin is the founder of The Rudin Group, a wealth marketing firm that works exclusively in financial services. She founded the business in 2008 and works with many firms of all shapes and sizes.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"Hire a professional marketing firm. Don't be a "do it yourself" marketer. Advisors resent 'do it themselves' investors but frequently don's use professional advice themselves."
April actually has a blog post that talks about this. You should think bakery, not bake sale.
Kacee Johnson
Kacee Johnson, founder of Blue Ocean Principles, is a regular speaker and commentator at Technology, Business, Accounting, and Legal conferences nationwide.; focusing on business development, marketing, sales and Cloud technologies. Awarded the CPA Practice Advisor Magazines Top 40 Under 40 Award in 2012, 2013 and 2015, she is recognized as one of the young professionals leading businesses into the future. With her diverse management career marked by a demonstrated ability to create solid business plans, determine product needs, achieve revenue goals, build teams and achieve cross-functional business objectives.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"The first year in financial services is critical for a growing firm; my top recommendation would be that you carve out 20% of your time each week to dedicate to sales and marketing. All too often we see the firm so focused on servicing the client and not driving their own business. This results in flat-line growth and bottlenecks that deplete the organization of any scaling power. Dedicating a specific timeframe to the business development of your own practice will keep the sales pipeline full and set the firm up for growth."
Kacee Johnson, founder of Blue Ocean Principles, is a regular speaker and commentator at Technology, Business, Accounting, and Legal conferences nationwide.; focusing on business development, marketing, sales and Cloud technologies. Awarded the CPA Practice Advisor Magazines Top 40 Under 40 Award in 2012, 2013 and 2015, she is recognized as one of the young professionals leading businesses into the future. With her diverse management career marked by a demonstrated ability to create solid business plans, determine product needs, achieve revenue goals, build teams and achieve cross-functional business objectives.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"The first year in financial services is critical for a growing firm; my top recommendation would be that you carve out 20% of your time each week to dedicate to sales and marketing. All too often we see the firm so focused on servicing the client and not driving their own business. This results in flat-line growth and bottlenecks that deplete the organization of any scaling power. Dedicating a specific timeframe to the business development of your own practice will keep the sales pipeline full and set the firm up for growth."
Mike Scanlin
Mike Scanlin is the CEO of Born To Sell, a web site dedicated to self-directed covered call investors. He has been trading covered calls for 35 years.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"(1) When you set your pricing, consider how much you will pay your affiliates, because you will have much higher sales if you have a strong affiliate network. Check other companies similar to your and see what they pay their affiliates, so that you'll be competitive (you don't want to offer 10% to affiliates if everyone else in your space is offering 40%, for example).
(2) Learn to use Facebook ads. Much better targeting, and much cheaper than Google AdWords."
Mike Scanlin is the CEO of Born To Sell, a web site dedicated to self-directed covered call investors. He has been trading covered calls for 35 years.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"(1) When you set your pricing, consider how much you will pay your affiliates, because you will have much higher sales if you have a strong affiliate network. Check other companies similar to your and see what they pay their affiliates, so that you'll be competitive (you don't want to offer 10% to affiliates if everyone else in your space is offering 40%, for example).
(2) Learn to use Facebook ads. Much better targeting, and much cheaper than Google AdWords."
Farhad Divecha
Farhad Divecha is the Director of AccuraCast, a London-based digital marketing agency.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"My best advice would be to invest in both the long run and the short term / immediate return i.e. do SEO for the long run, but definitely put in a continuous, growing investment in search and social media advertising.
The biggest mistake I’ve seen financial services start-ups make is to invest in just one channel and not in any others, especially in SEO and not in PPC because the CPCs are too high, or not in SMM because they think social is just about branding."
Farhad Divecha is the Director of AccuraCast, a London-based digital marketing agency.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"My best advice would be to invest in both the long run and the short term / immediate return i.e. do SEO for the long run, but definitely put in a continuous, growing investment in search and social media advertising.
The biggest mistake I’ve seen financial services start-ups make is to invest in just one channel and not in any others, especially in SEO and not in PPC because the CPCs are too high, or not in SMM because they think social is just about branding."
Flynn Zaiger
Flynn is the CEO of Online Optimism, a marketing agency based out of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"When starting out, there's nothing more crucial than building up a solid reputation. Good word of mouth year one pays off for decades to come. To ensure that everyone you interact with feels positive about the experience (whether they become a client or not), make sure to have customer care as a top priority from the start. This can mean anything from handwritten thank-you cards after meetings, to Holiday gifts, to offering an abundance of free work. It might be a bit difficult to do at the start with all your other responsibilities, but it's honestly the smartest thing you can do to stay in business (and potentially grow it too)."
Flynn is the CEO of Online Optimism, a marketing agency based out of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"When starting out, there's nothing more crucial than building up a solid reputation. Good word of mouth year one pays off for decades to come. To ensure that everyone you interact with feels positive about the experience (whether they become a client or not), make sure to have customer care as a top priority from the start. This can mean anything from handwritten thank-you cards after meetings, to Holiday gifts, to offering an abundance of free work. It might be a bit difficult to do at the start with all your other responsibilities, but it's honestly the smartest thing you can do to stay in business (and potentially grow it too)."
Javed S. Khan
Known as the Small Business “Chief Marketing Officer”, Javed S. Khan brings 20 years of corporate experience and 8+ years of successful business ownership.
Javed is an accomplished & engaging professional speaker, voice over talent, and President of EMpression: A Marketing Services Company. His company focuses on working with highly motivated business owners and organizations who are ready to breathe life into their innovative ideas and great vision.
EMpression has been a strong partner with Boston based software firm, Constant Contact.
He’s been a featured keynote presenter to more than 8,000 business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals teaching the latest marketing trends & best practice. Consistently the highest ranked presenter of the day, Javed is often asked back by event organizers.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"Video Marketing is currently one of the best strategies and is the strategy of the future, as financial service professionals are trying to find new and inventive ways to use the medium to stay in touch with their client and reach potential clients. Videos stand out on social media, giving your client or potential client the opportunity to get to know you and see you as an expert in your line of business.
Video is another form of content marketing – which continues to be one of the hottest digital marketing tactics.
As a financial services professional, you have the ability to communicate in a way the audience is not used to being engaged with someone from this industry.
Ideas for videos can include and aren’t limited to; interviews with third party experts, sharing your experience, and sharing success stories.
According to Syndacast, 74 percent of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video. Not only that, studies show that using the word “Video” in the subject line of an email can increase open rates by 19 percent, click-through rates by 65 percent and reduce un-subscribers by 26 percent. According to Twitter, videos and photos get the most re-tweets. Forrester Research found that videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages.
As a financial services professional you gotta get in on the action!"
Known as the Small Business “Chief Marketing Officer”, Javed S. Khan brings 20 years of corporate experience and 8+ years of successful business ownership.
Javed is an accomplished & engaging professional speaker, voice over talent, and President of EMpression: A Marketing Services Company. His company focuses on working with highly motivated business owners and organizations who are ready to breathe life into their innovative ideas and great vision.
EMpression has been a strong partner with Boston based software firm, Constant Contact.
He’s been a featured keynote presenter to more than 8,000 business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals teaching the latest marketing trends & best practice. Consistently the highest ranked presenter of the day, Javed is often asked back by event organizers.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"Video Marketing is currently one of the best strategies and is the strategy of the future, as financial service professionals are trying to find new and inventive ways to use the medium to stay in touch with their client and reach potential clients. Videos stand out on social media, giving your client or potential client the opportunity to get to know you and see you as an expert in your line of business.
Video is another form of content marketing – which continues to be one of the hottest digital marketing tactics.
As a financial services professional, you have the ability to communicate in a way the audience is not used to being engaged with someone from this industry.
Ideas for videos can include and aren’t limited to; interviews with third party experts, sharing your experience, and sharing success stories.
According to Syndacast, 74 percent of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video. Not only that, studies show that using the word “Video” in the subject line of an email can increase open rates by 19 percent, click-through rates by 65 percent and reduce un-subscribers by 26 percent. According to Twitter, videos and photos get the most re-tweets. Forrester Research found that videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages.
As a financial services professional you gotta get in on the action!"
Kelly Edwards
Kelly Edwards is the co-founder and CEO of Lawton Marketing Group, an Oklahoma-based marketing agency with financial and insurance industry clients in 45 states. Kelly graduated in 2002 from The University of North Texas with a degree in advertising and worked in corporate marketing for ten years before founding LMG.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"First and foremost, a new agent should make sure they have a great website that clearly articulates who they are and what they do. Everything else they will ever do in marketing links back to it, and it's the one place that tells their whole story (as opposed to ads and such that just give a snippet of information). It doesn't have to be super expensive or fancy, but it does have to be good because people WILL look at it. That's modern consumer behavior - people research everything online before making a decision. Even if they work on referrals, those referrals are going to vet them online before they call, guaranteed. They have to be able to find them, and what they find has to impress them and compel them to call.
If they absolutely cannot do a website, then they should do a LinkedIn profile and maximize it by filling out every single field to it's fullest capacity. That can serve as a temporary website until they have the time or money to build one. The profile should be written in first person, and it should explain who they are, what they do, why they do it, how they do it, and what makes them different and better than other people who do the same thing.
Once they get the website and/or LinkedIn profile up and running, they should run targeted Facebook ads that point back to it. In the history of marketing, there has never been a better way to get a very specific message in front of a very specific segment of people, and it's dirt cheap to do it. Just imagine running ads about charitable planning only to people who are wealthy and regularly give to charity. Or running ads about succession planning to affluent business owners over the age of 55. Or targeting medical school residents about disability insurance. The possibilities are endless, it's dirt cheap to do, and you can see the results in real time and optimize the ad to perform even better. It's truly the goldmine of modern marketing once you learn how to do it."
Kelly Edwards is the co-founder and CEO of Lawton Marketing Group, an Oklahoma-based marketing agency with financial and insurance industry clients in 45 states. Kelly graduated in 2002 from The University of North Texas with a degree in advertising and worked in corporate marketing for ten years before founding LMG.
The best sales/marketing advice is:
"First and foremost, a new agent should make sure they have a great website that clearly articulates who they are and what they do. Everything else they will ever do in marketing links back to it, and it's the one place that tells their whole story (as opposed to ads and such that just give a snippet of information). It doesn't have to be super expensive or fancy, but it does have to be good because people WILL look at it. That's modern consumer behavior - people research everything online before making a decision. Even if they work on referrals, those referrals are going to vet them online before they call, guaranteed. They have to be able to find them, and what they find has to impress them and compel them to call.
If they absolutely cannot do a website, then they should do a LinkedIn profile and maximize it by filling out every single field to it's fullest capacity. That can serve as a temporary website until they have the time or money to build one. The profile should be written in first person, and it should explain who they are, what they do, why they do it, how they do it, and what makes them different and better than other people who do the same thing.
Once they get the website and/or LinkedIn profile up and running, they should run targeted Facebook ads that point back to it. In the history of marketing, there has never been a better way to get a very specific message in front of a very specific segment of people, and it's dirt cheap to do it. Just imagine running ads about charitable planning only to people who are wealthy and regularly give to charity. Or running ads about succession planning to affluent business owners over the age of 55. Or targeting medical school residents about disability insurance. The possibilities are endless, it's dirt cheap to do, and you can see the results in real time and optimize the ad to perform even better. It's truly the goldmine of modern marketing once you learn how to do it."
So there you have it - several experts tell you what you need to know in order to become a successful financial advisor!
If you have any questions about how to become a more successful financial advisor, feel free to contact me.
Also check out some of my other blog posts:
27 Financial Advisor Marketing Ideas That Work
How to Handle Rejection In Sales
7 Fatal Prospecting Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make