Seven Essential Strategies to Get More Profitable Clients – Part 1

This is the first in a series of blogs that offer a complete plan to get a steady flow of profitable clients and freedom to work the way you want. 

The problem

I've talked to many financial advisors who are struggling to get enough profitable clients. They don't know how to attract ideal clients who pay them well and give good referrals.

 As a result they work hard with low paying clients. They feel the pressure to earn more money. They go out hunting for more clients. It's hard work. They're not sure where to find prospects or what to say when they meet them. They lack a follow-up system to nurture their leads. 

Most love what they do and are great at it, but word-of-mouth is not enough to get people ringing the phone. When advisors realize they need to market, they don't know how and don't like doing it. They dislike promoting themselves and asking for favors. They find it stressful. They bite the bullet and start marketing because they want to help more people. They study marketing, but all the books, webinars, lectures and even college courses don't work. They need something that works.

The solution

Imagine if you could turn all that around and you're able to....

• Get wealthy prospects and boost your bottom line
• Know exactly what to write or say to get ideal prospects interested in hiring you 
• Stand out from the crowd and be seen as an elite advisor 
• Work with more profitable clients, earn higher commissions and get more assets
• Fill your practice with clients you love and who pay you well.

Most financial advisors want this, but they don't know how to achieve it. Why? Because they don't know what works.

These advisors know a few strategies to get clients. They pick up an idea from a book they read. Another colleague gives them a tip. They attend a lecture, take a class or webinar. They learn bits and pieces, but don't have all the essential strategies. It's like trying to bake a chocolate cake without all the right ingredients. You don't realize you need sugar or you don't know how much sugar to use. You get poor results.

What works? Knowing and using a complete marketing system works. Here is a tested system based on the best practices for financial professionals.

It's called "The Seven Essential Strategies to Get More Profitable Clients."

This is the first article in a series of seven that will teach you all seven essential strategies and tell you exactly what to do. You will be able to create a well-paying business that supports a rich and fulfilling life.

Read and study each one of these biweekly article's. Put what you learn into practice. You won't want to miss a single one.

The First Essential Strategy to Get More Profitable Clients

Find a rich niche.

Marketing experts agree that one of the most powerful strategies for getting more profitable clients is to market to a niche.

Yet many financial professionals struggle with choosing one. They just don't know how to go about it or they don't understand what a niche really is. Many consultants and coaches make the process difficult and time-consuming. 

I have a simple system for finding a niche. It is effective for 90% of practicing financial professionals.

Firstly – Review Your Current Client Base

The best way is to choose from your present clients. Yes, you probably have a rich niche hiding right under your nose. (Not to worry if you don't. I'll show you other ways to find your rich niche).

Review your clients and grade them A, B, and C. Then select your A clients. These are the clients you love to work with, pay well and appreciate your advice. Give them an A+ if they also refer to you. 

Secondly – Analyze Your Best Clients

Analyze them and list their characteristics. Identify the following: 

• Age, 
• Gender, 
• Occupation, 
• Employment status, 
• Investable assets,
• Their socio-economic group 
• Their geographical location 
• Education 
• Income 
• Profession
• Where they congregate.

Look for similarities among them. Listing them on an Excel worksheet is a helpful tool. You could categorize them by industry, place of employment, employment status, position (CEO, owner retired, near retirement).

For example, you could wind up with something like, male over 35, plastic surgeon in your city. Belongs to the Academy of plastic surgeons. 

I bet most of you out there have some great clients you'd love to clone and have dozens of clients just like them.

Finally – Test Your Niche

You want to be sure that your niche is rich. You want to be sure that it can support you and make marketing easier, more effective and produce the results you want. You'll want to make sure that target market is easy to find, willing to talk to you, has the resources to support you doesn't have too many strong competitors and is enjoyable to work with.

Run your proposed niche through five tests...

Test 1 – Easy to find:  
Where do they congregate, which organizations, clubs, groups do they belong?  You don't want to burn up your time and other resources trying to chase down prospects. Can you contact them easily? Do you have access to telephone numbers, email addresses?

For example, building contractors belong to organizations like Associated Builders and Contractors. It's easy to use the Internet to get builders and contractors contact information at this site. On the other hand, if you try to market to anyone with over $500,000 in assets, you'll exhaust yourself trying to locate and contact them

Test 2 – Willing to talk to you: 
Are they willing to talk to you? answer the phone? your emails? Or can you meet them at the golf course or some other activity they engage in regularly?

Test 3 – You can beat the competition: 
Can you beat or match the competition, if any. Research who else you have to compete within this niche. If there's too much tough competition, you may decide on another niche. If there is no competition, be careful. It might be that this niche is not profitable for anyone. You'll have to do research to find out.

Test – 4 Your Niche Will Support You
Evaluate if you can achieve higher earnings from these people. You'll need to find out if they have adequate assets and use the services of financial advisors. You want high net worth people. If you are selecting from your current client base, you already know this or they would not be your ideal.

Test – 5 They're Gratifying to Work with
For example a client of mine was contemplating two niches. 

One niche was self-employed chiropractors. There were successful and respected, had good business sense, been in business for over five years, and were trying to grow their business.

The other niche was charitable church foundations. They had $100,000-$5 Million in assets and have long term goals for assets. The board is open to ideas and will create and follow an Investment Policy.

Both niches looked equally attractive and he wasn’t sure which to choose. Then my client checked his feelings towards these two potential niches, he felt drawn to the churches and the good works they performed. He clearly will have more satisfaction working in this niche.

The Crucial Tests
Of the five tests, numbers 1, 2 and 5 are crucial. Your niche must be easy to find and willing to talk to you. This will take the labor other prospecting. When you enjoy working with them it will motivate you, make work fun and easy for you to go the extra mile.

When You Don't Have Ideal Clients You Want to Duplicate

What if you don't have ideal clients you care to use to build your niche? Well, there's plan B.

Don't feel bad. Many lucrative niches have been created using the following methods.

Other Areas to Look for Your Niche

Choose a Market That Surrounds You.
You may have interactions with a particular group. One financial advisor's rich niche was a private school her kids went to. The parents had to be wealthy to afford the tuition. She naturally talked to other parents at school functions.  The advisor easily got to know the parents on a personal basis. She offered them useful financial articles. This positioned her as an expert on their financial needs and helped earn their trust. Then it was fairly easy for her to set up portfolio reviews (a.k.a. sales interviews) and her practice flourished.

Choose an Expensive Hobby
Do you belong to a hobby group; golfing, sailing, flying, etc. you can make his group your niche. This works similarly to the private school niche I described earlier.

Choose an Arbitrary Market
Just go for a market that appeals to you for whatever reason. Surprisingly, this can work extremely well. It's definitely better than trying to market to just anyone. Remember you will test whatever niche you choose.

Use this process to select a niche. Test it to make sure it is rich. Then focus all your marketing efforts on your niche. This is the first essential strategy for getting more profitable clients.

If you want to learn more, attend my monthly webinar called "The Seven Essential Strategies to Get More Profitable Clients." You can get details and how to register by clicking here. 

My next article explains how to overcome your natural resistance to choosing a niche. It's like eating broccoli. You know is good for you, but you don't want to do it. 

Do you have any comments on this article? Please feel free to post them by clicking on the Comments link below. Also, please share this on social media. I'm sure you know a few friends who are wondering how to choose a successful niche.