My kids love to celebrate birthdays at Chuck E. Cheese, ever hopeful that they’ll win big so they can get one of those “great prizes.” Their favorite game is Whac-a-Mole, with the older one whacking away at anything that moves and the younger one waiting for the prize tickets to emerge from the slot.
Watching them recently, I recalled a conversation with advisors and their questions about marketing. “Should I do advertising?” “Should I do direct mail?” “What about a Google Adwords?” “Social media is all the rage, what about that?” “How about direct mail?” It was like Whac-A-Mole. No strategy, just reactive tactics. Many advisors think that if they whack at enough tactics, something will stick and there’ll be prizes at the end.
My response to their questions is always, “It depends.” Some tactics are effective, but what works for one firm doesn’t guarantee success for another. Advisors should have a process for developing a plan. When I work with advisors, I use our Four Steps to Energizing Your Business Development and Marketing Plan:
Step 1. Goal Setting
Step 2. Evaluating Your Practice
Step 3. Identifying Opportunities and Setting Priorities
Step 4. Developing an Action Plan
Goal Setting
It’s been said that you can’t know where you’re going without knowing where you’ve been. For advisors, this means looking beyond the AUM target to the underlying drivers of AUM growth. You can see where new assets will likely come from by reviewing current year metrics such as:
• Referrals. How many client and center-of-influence relationships are currently referring? Are those enough to generate the type of growth the firm is looking for? What was the average AUM associated with each referral? How much more and what type of nurturing is required to match or exceed the current increase?
• Win rate. Of the prospects the firm met with, how many came on board? What was the average cycle time from initial meeting to conversion? To what were losses attributed? What will reduce the cycle time and increase the win rate?
These numbers enable a firm to set realistic targets for the following year and provide insights that can aide in defining focus areas for future marketing and business development efforts. The result of this first step might be:
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