Without a doubt there is a huge gap between dreaming about success and actually achieving it. What holds back so many small business owners and entrepreneurs? There are certainly many factors but one of the main culprits is business development.

Put simply, many new business owners, especially those in services businesses, greatly underestimate how difficult it is to attract consistent streams of new clients. This comes as a surprise to many entrepreneurs, especially when their business model only requires that they add two or three new clients each year. Intellectually we think to ourselves that this can’t possible be all that difficult.

What makes this deceptive is that getting our first few clients is usually fairly easy. If we’ve done anything close to a reasonably good job of developing a network of clients, a few of them will throw some work our way.

However what most fledgling consultants and advisors fail to realize is that their network doesn’t have an infinite amount of business to give them. After the first rush of activity it’s likely that you’ve received most of the business you will get. Returning to to this group in 6 months is likely not to yield much more gold. The reality is that you can very quickly lap the track if you are not bringing new people into your circle of relationships. This is where things often start to fall apart.

Which is why systems become so important. Systems for getting new people to raise their hands and express interest in who you are and what you do, and systems for building trust and credibility through regular contact.

Without such systems, small and solo services providers are almost always doomed to failure. The initial clients go away, pleased with the work you’ve done, but unable to offer you more. This puts you back at the starting gate. From this proverbial square one, you must once again start the process of trying to get that next piece of business. Since the cultivation time for developing prospects into clients is often considerable, the repeated cycles of feast or famine become inevitable.

Although it’s not particularly difficult to set up a system that will alleviate this problem, so few business owners do. Which raises the question of, why?

It’s my belief that many people think that it is too complicated and too much hard work. I find that ironic that these same people are willing to work extremely hard servicing their clients, but are unwilling to do so on their own behalf.

What do you think?

If you can relate to that, this video will be of interest.

A Valuable Lesson from Mark Satterfield on Vimeo.

Either my one-on-one coaching or my monthly video lesson might be helpful to you. Call or email me at 770-643-8566 or mark@gentlerainmarketing.com and we can discuss how I might be of assistance to you.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with her, Katherine is CEO of Vestment Advisors and one of the top advisors to the financial services industry. In this interview, Katherine shares some extremely practical ideas for improving results from marketing seminars and how to make networking events a lot more productive. I think you’ll enjoy it and the link to listen to it is here:

Let’s take the questions in order.

Regarding length…letters that are one or two pages in length will get the greatest response.
This makes a great deal of sense when one considers the environment in which the letter is read. One main characteristic of the affluent is that they are very busy. Competing with your letter are phones that are ringing, appointments that are waiting and a myriad of other distractions. Thus it is imperative that the opening sentences hook the reader’s attention.

Let me share with you some excerpts from letters that have done quite well.

This is from a letter I wrote for a client called “Financial Peace Of Mind”

Dear—

The tech bust of 2000 … real estate bust of 2007 … credit crisis of 2008 … recession of 2009 — throughout it all of my clients have breathed easier knowing that their advisor was communicating with them-often daily-with ideas and suggestions they needed.

I believe that the reason why this letter worked so well was that it immediately personalized the relationship. Secondly, my research of the affluent suggested that the number one complaint they had about their advisors was a lack of communication. As you can see this is addressed very early on.

Let’s take a look at another example.

This is the beginning from a letter I wrote for a client called Shoring Up Your Financial Future

Dear-
As I grow older, the number of people I meet who are near, or close to retirement continues to grow. Certainly they’re all mentally prepared for leisurely rounds of golf, time spent watching the grandkids, and languid walks on the beach, very few of them are financially prepared to realize their cherished dreams.

I also have many younger friends, people still in their prime and just starting their careers. They’re many decades away from retirement, and they’ve fallen victim to the mindset of those with whose career horizon stretches out far into the distance. Although they “Talk” about investing for the long term, their actions…lavish spending…living paycheck to paycheck, ignores the future that will soon become their reality.

The response to this one was even greater than I hoped. The advisor I wrote this for felt that readers could really relate to what was being communicated.

Finally, this is a letter I wrote for another advisor called The Big Picture. The target here were highly affluent investors who like to take an active role in their investing. They want to align themselves with advisors who will bring them interesting ideas and who are smart “big picture” thinkers.

Dear –

And more specifically: What are the biggest crises brewing, and how can we profit from them?

The tone reflected a “team-based” approach that resonated very highly with this targeted group of affluent prospects.

These excerpts are from 7 of my all time most successful letters. I sell only 25 copies of these each year. If you would like a set ($49) delivered to you electronically send two emails (one with your credit card number minus the last 4 digits, and a second email with the last 4 digest and the expiration date) to mark@gentlerainmarketing.com

Alternatively, if you would like to consult with me about writing a custom lead generation sales letter for you please let me know via email mark@gentlerainmarketing.com or by calling 770-643-8566.

Thus the challenge for any website is to s-l-o-w visitors down. Get them to pause, to read, to understand what you can offer them. Begin the process of building a relationship. So how exactly do we do that?

Let’s start by discussing what you don’t want to do. There are two things that will turn your website into a marketing tool that actually helps you build more brand new client relationships vs. just an online brochure hanging out there in cyberspace

Let’s start with, why are people searching on the internet in the first place? In today’s fast paced society, “surfing the net” is hardly the preferred activity for the clients you most want to do business with. According to Pew Research, the two most common reasons people are on the internet is to 1) solve a problem and 2) seek out specific information. There’s naturally an overlap on these two objectives.

However the point that most advisors miss when they create their websites is that people are not searching for you. They don’t sit down at the computer and say to themselves, “I wonder what Hincklebottom & Schmelbrain are up to?” Granted, it would be nice if they did, but they don’t.

Rather, they’re in front of their computer, frustrated with the level of service that they’re currently getting from their advisors and wondering/hoping, “Is there anyone out their who understands my needs?” “Is there anyone who specializes in working with people like me?”

Unfortunately when you go to most websites you’re greeted with a message that says “Since 1897 Hincklebottom & Schmelbrain has prided itself on superior customer service and clients satisfaction. As the oldest family owned financial firm in the the tri-state area…”

Remember why visitors went online to search in the first place. It wasn’t to find the “oldest family owned financial firm in the the tri-state area…” No, your visitor had frustrations, issues, problems.

That’s what you want to focus on. That’s what you want your message to convey. It can be something as simple as, “If you’re similar to many of our other clients, your needs for financial services are unique. The issues are more complex and involved, and require the services of a firm that takes a holistic approach to serving the affluent market.”

Now obviously I just made the previous statement up, largely off the top of my head, but I’m sure you can see my point. What we want to do with the message that greats visitors is to convey, in completely unambiguous terms, that our target market has arrived at the right place. This is what is often referred to as the “message to market match”. We want to make sure that our visitors see a reflection of themselves in all of our marketing materials. So take a look at your current copy on your website. Who is it about? You or your visitor?

I mentioned that there are two ways to slow down visitors and make them want to learn more about you. This is the first method. I cover the second in an early lesson in the Gentle Rain Affluent Marketing Advisor. I encourage your to enroll by going here.

Naturally if you would like my personal perspective on your website or any of your marketing efforts, you will find the Gentle Rain Coaching & Advisory Services to be helpful. To learn more please call 770-643-8566 or email mark@gentlerainmarketing.com

As one explained the concept to me, it basically meant that they would take a number of moves to accomplish a goal, rather than a single direct assault on their opponent. “Finesse and subtlety rather than direct confrontation wins more wars” said one grand master.

There’s a valuable lesson here for any advisor who seeks to do more business with the affluent market.

I was talking the other day with Thomas Cloud, CEO of his family’s manufacturing company and an ultra-affluent investor, about getting pitched by advisors. His comments were interesting.

“They all say pretty much the same thing. Variations on ‘growth with minimal risk strategy’. Pretty much straight at you with, ‘Here are all the reasons you should do business with me’,

What none of them seem to get are the real concerns and issues that keep me up at night. To be honest most of them aren’t financially related. However, if they could get to know me, without it being so obvious that they just want my business, I’d be more inclined to probably do business with them. I know that may not make a whole lot of sense but to me and my friends it does.”

So what’s the message here and why do so many advisors fail in this regard? I think it’s summed up in one word-patience. Like most everyone, advisors have “production” goals that must be met. As sales trainer Mahan Khalsa correctly points out, nothing is a greater cause of poor salesmanship than sales quotas. Quotas have the unintended consequence of making advisors focus on “getting the business” rather than creating relationships.

So suppose someone was willing to “look deep into the game” and take a longer term approach to building a relationship with someone such as Mr. Cloud. What exactly would they do?

Here’s an interesting answer. One financial advisor (who requested to remain anonymous) took a somewhat unusual approach that has enabled him to build business relationships with over 4 dozen ultra-wealthy clients in Southern California. He looked “deep into the game” and observed that one common trait his prospective clients all shared was teenage sons and daughters.

It’s the dream of many affluent and ultra-affluent parents to send their children to the Ivy League or other prestigious universities. However, the process by which admission is granted (or denied) is a bit of a “black box” unless one has sat on an Ivy League admissions committee.

While it is virtually impossible to get the ultra-affluent to attend a traditional financial seminar, it is another matter entirely to get them excited and literally lining up to attend “The Secrets of The Ivy League Admissions Process”. This came about as a result of a unique joint venture between the advisor and three former admission officers.

I go into the mechanics of how this seminar (and others) were developed and implemented in the Gentle Rain Affluent Marketing Advisor, but suffice it to say, these events have enabled this financial advisor to gain access and build the foundation for long-term business relationships in a way that is unique and different.

Certainly something to think about.

Naturally if you would like my personal perspective on how you can build more relationships with the affluent you will find the Gentle Rain Coaching & Advisory Program to be helpful. To learn more please call 770-643-8566 or email me at mark@gentlerainmarketing.com

One “I-guess-I-shouldn’t-be-too-surprised” outcome of the recent financial turmoil is that more and more of the affluent are seeking out new financial advice.

Whether it is an outright dismissal of their current advisor (still relatively rare) to actively seeking second opinions, there has not been a better time for advisors to actively pursue the affluent market.

However, that doesn’t mean that marketing to the affluent is necessarily getting easier. Unfortunately most financial advisors still adhere to their time honored approach of “This is me. This is what I do. You should talk with me.” While this may work with the mid-market or the entry-level investor, if one is serious about attracting more affluent clients, one needs a bit more finesse.

This point was emphasized by a recent survey in Investment News that stated, 65% of the affluent have an initially negative reaction to someone who says they are a financial advisor. A meager 5% of the affluent believe the well trod out statement that financial advisors offer, “unbiased advice”.

Why is this the case? Undoubtedly for a variety of reasons, but my own informal survey leads me to conclude that the shear similarity in messages that come from financial advisors must play a role. When everyone mouths the same platitudes it not only gets repetitive, but starts to lack credibly.

The affluent are not shy about what they are looking for. Unlike just a few years ago, what today’s affluent desires is an individual (or increasingly, a team) who can provide a holistic approach to their financial needs. Someone who can serve as the quarterback of their financial game plan.

What this means for the advisor who wants to build more affluent relationships is that he or she must elevate their game so that they are providing advice that that resonates with the level of sophistication of their audience.

For example, many financial advisors assume their prospects have little knowledge or interest in investing. And up to fairly recently, that may have been a correct assumption.

However there is nothing like an economic downturn to turn passive investors into active knowledgeable clients. As one such transformed affluent investor commented, “Given the returns I’ve gotten recently, I can’t do any worse than that guy I’ve been paying all that money to!”

Although advisors can correctly argue that their training gives them a unique perspective on the market, it’s also true that with a modicum of effort, any investor can learn a surprisingly large amount about their financial options. Moreover by simply reading the Wall Street Journal and listening to CNBC, most investors can quickly get a good understanding about the economic factors that affect their investments.

So what doe this mean to the advisor? First, it means that they need recognize that the financial sophistication of their prospects (particularly the affluent) has increased. As one very successful advisor to the affluent said to me, “It is much easier to start the conversation at a high level and then bring it down if you find you’re talking over their heads, then vice versa.”

However the larger issue is how to approach the affluent market in ways that aren’t obvious and overtly “salesy”. How to finesse ones way into long-term relationships. Those strategies are what I discuss here.

It’s probably the most important factor that separates those who are successful in building relationships with the affluent and ultra-affluent, from those who do little more than dream about it.

I remember back many years ago, attending a lecture by one of the world’s most prominent investment bankers. He said, “Ask 100 people if they would like to become a millionaire, and you’re likely to have 100% say ‘Yes’. However, outline specifically what they need to do in order to achieve that status, and I doubt you would get more than 2% who would be willing.”

At the time I thought that was a bit harsh, but after 17 years of advising advisors on how to build more brand new relationships with the affluent, I think that percentage may in fact be high.

What I do believe is that any advisor can be successful in achieving that goal. I’ve had some clients who are extroverts and others who are painfully shy introverts. Those with awe-inspiring intellect, and those who I sometimes wondered how they found their way home in the evening.

Yet all of them were successful in their desire to build strong, long-lasting and numerous relationships with the wealthy.

Their one common trait?

Tenacity.

So what exactly does that mean? Interestingly for each of these individuals the path was pretty much the same.

First they decided upon Who they wanted as clients. Sometimes this was defined by groups/niches (i.e. affluent dentists, affluent retailers, ect.) and on occasion it was defined by actual individuals with whom they wanted to do business.

The “Who” never was defined as “affluent clients”. That’s way too broad. Much too general. A bit like saying let’s go eat American Food.

What they did next (and all false modesty aside-this was where I played my most helpful role) was to develop a plan for building relationships with this group.

Not a general plan. Not a plan that begins with “and then when I get a meeting I’ll talk about..” No a real plan. One that addresses the real-world reality that the affluent clients you want to do business with have absolutely no interest in meeting you.

Remember-Tenacity?

This is the first test.

Most people drop out at this stage. Sure they’ll do business with the affluent if it’s easy to get. But the reality is that it isn’t. It’s hard word. It requires creativity. It requires a plan.

If you’re serious about getting more affluent clients, it requires a lot of “heavy mental lifting” to create a plan that deals with reality, and then the tenacity to implement it.

If developing and implementing a plan for building more new affluent client relationships is important to you, you should sign up for this right here.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a seminar put on by a relatively well-known financial advisor. What he did well (and where the missed opportunities were) will perhaps be helpful to you as you plan your next seminar.

Venue. At first glance the choice of location was great. A private meeting room in an upscale golf club in a wealthy community was “spot on” as a venue. However, as the meeting started, the group next door started up with a terrifically loud movie that was either about Australian Aborigines or the fall of Saigon (Or perhaps some bizarre mixture of the two.)

Regardless, for the first half hour, the group’s attention was less focused on the speaker, and more on the only partially muffled soundtrack coming from next door.

Lesson? Check on who your neighbor is going to be and what they’re going to be presenting. As the old saying goes “The Devil’s in the details.”

The room was set up theater style with about 150 chairs, most of which were filled. (A testament to the organizations ability to attract attendees.) However the cheek-by-jowl nature of the chair arrangement, defiantly made the environment seem…in a word…crowded.

Now was this necessarily a bad thing? Not really when one looks at the market the group was going after.

As their collateral stated, they were seeking investors with a minimum of $15,000 to invest. Not a lot of money. Thus this event was primarily directed to new investors or those with relatively modest amounts of capital. So the seating was probably not viewed as a negative. (However there was a bit of a disconnect between having the event take place in a very elegant setting but having the seats jammed so close together.)

If one were focusing on affluent and ultra-affluent prospective clients, I would keep the venue selection the same, but organize the room so that it seated 30-35 guests. And that’s a deliberate choice of words. The event I attended last night,  definitely had “attendees”. The events I’ve visited that target affluent investors definitely had “guests”. That’s a true distinction in everything from how the invitations are made, to the room arrangement, to the content of the presentation.

So let’s talk a bit about that. The content of last night’s presentation matched up well with the audience. No time was spent on tailoring the talk to the specific need of the audience since lower-market events tend to attract a butcher-baker-candlestick maker group. Virtually impossible to customize a talk to that diverse a group, so there’s no real point in trying.

However if one were targeting the affluent market, you would want to take a different approach.

Remember that they key to marketing to the affluent is make sure they feel that you are catering specifically to them. Thus you would want to open with the issues of commonality that this affluent group faces. This would be even better if you sub-niched your marketing to, for example,  “affluent women business owners”. This would enable you to begin your presentation with specifics that make the guests feel that they we truly listening to an advisor who understands their unique needs.

So overall I’d give this presentation a good solid “B”. In terms of message-to-market match, it was well done.

However it does beg one important issue.

These financial advisors are going to a lot of effort to attract very small investors. At $15,000 a pop (and yes I realize that some-but probably not a lot-have more than $15,000 to invest) you need to get 34 of them to equal one investor with $500,000.

There’s an old saying in marketing that unless you can automate and remove the human labor element from the process, it takes just as much effort to attract a small fish as it does a big whale.

Marketing seminars by definition are labor-intensive endeavors. Thus I’m not sure that using them to focus on the small investor necessarily is the best use of money time and effort. (In fact I question why any advisor would focus on the small investor unless they simply do not have a process or plan-or self confidence- for targeting the affluent.)

I contrast this with high-end events, which attracted a very small number of prospective clients, but had a much higher potential result. I go into this in more detail in the Gentle Rain Affluent Marketing Advisor. You can learn more by clicking here.

Todd Martin is by any criteria a member of the affluent class and the type of client most advisors would love to have. As the VP of sales for a $200 million manufacturing business, his income consistently exceeds $750,000. With over $2 million to invest, he is on the “most desired” list for many financial advisors.

Last month Todd decided to make a change after 4 years with his current advisor. What prompted the decision? Was there anything his advisor could have done to retain Todd as a client?

“I really didn’t blame my original advisor when the market tanked,” says Todd. “However, what got me thinking about making a change was that I started to hear less and less frequently from him.”

“For a long time there was just deafening silence. And then when he did start to communicate it was all very defensive. It was obvious that he wanted to convince me that it ‘wasn’t his fault.”

Communication is a tricky issue. Certainly no one likes to be the bearer of bad news. However it’s during tough times that the need for communication goes up rather than down. Ironically this is when many advisors decide to go into “silent running” mode. It’s a decision with terribly consequences.

We surveyed 105 affluent investors who had changed advisors in the past 6 months. In 88% of the cases, “lack of communication” was the primary factor in making a decision to make a change.

Obviously communicating for the sake of communicating isn’t just the answer. Of even more importance is the content of what is being communicated.

Nancy Bradley, CEO of a chain of pet supply retail outlets says that her decision to change advisors was primarily based on a lack of substance in her advisor’s communication.

“My advisor did an OK job of communicating with me frequently, that wasn’t the problem. However what made me start to think about changing advisors was that  she didn’t seem to have an opinion about what was taking place. She never discussed the pros and cons of various options I might consider. It really caused me to think about whether she was a true advisor or just an order taker. I felt that I was being talked down to. Look I may not be as knowledgeable about investments as she is, but I didn’t achieve what I’ve achieved by being a dummy.”

This comment underscored what I’ve discussed before about how important it is to have a perspective and a philosophy. That is one of the key ingredients that separates an advisor from the masses or as Ms. Bradley says, “One who is actually an ‘advisor’ vs. a well-dressed clerk.”

Mr. Martin comments, “If an advisor is going to target the affluent and ultra-affluent niche, they have to assume that we’re relatively smart people. Advisors get themselves in trouble because they aren’t able to facilitate substantive discussions.”

So what’s the lesson? First, err on the side of more, rather than less communication. Resist the natural tendency to go into the “silent running” mode when you know you have a difficult conversation ahead. Secondly, be prepared to discuss a variety of options, not just your one solution. That demonstrates intellectual breadth which your affluent clients will respect you for.