How to Win Prospects During a Crisis
By Michael Schwabe, Director of Customer Success
Zig Ziglar once said: "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude."
What kind of attitude do you have about growing your business right now?
Despite the unknowns created by nationwide lockdowns and an up-and-down stock market, you have to continue finding and talking to prospective clients—because your business depends on it.
What you don’t want is to get stuck putting your energy and effort into prospecting strategies that don’t work, especially now that the majority of the United States is working remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Your strategies will have to adjust to your new reality.
Below, we’ve summarized three articles that offer ways to boost your prospecting strategies, work with your current list of clients, and inspire more engagement.
Boost Your Prospecting Strategies
John Diehl, senior vice president of strategic markets at Hartford Funds, offers various suggestions to light up your prospecting in his article Five Ways Financial Advisors Can Up Their Prospecting Game:
Replicate your ideal clients
Look at your current list of clients to identify their problems, lifestyles, and what they’ve done to become one of your top clients. From that point, create messaging to appeal to similar people.Rely on Social Media
Use LinkedIn and other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to share business updates, community outreach efforts, and network with prospects.Host Virtual Events
Plan virtual client events people will actually want to attend—like happy hours with live music, or office hours where prospects can ask you any question they want about their finances.Keep Up with Important Contacts
Build strong relationships with estate lawyers, accountants, and other professionals who serve a similar clientele.Focus on the Youth
Secure your place in estate planning conversations by engaging with the beneficiaries of your clients and make it known you can help them, and want to help them establish a confident financial future.
Identify Your Favorite Clients and Find More
Step 1 - Look in the mirror and start with yourself by examining your values. What sets you apart?
Step 2 - Look at your client List to identify your favorite people and ask yourself “Why do I enjoy working with this person?”
Step 3 - Paint a picture that describes your perfect prospect. Where do they live and work, what lifestyle activities do they enjoy, and why do they need to work with an advisor?
Step 4 - Figure out where your perfect prospect spends their time, and put efforts into reaching them there.
Bonus Step - Segment your client list for targeted outreach so you can more effectively communicate with the people you already serve.
Narrow Your Focus
Our last article comes from U.S. News and World Report. It encourages advisors to be counter-intuitive and to narrow their focus to target the right prospects.
You’ll get better results, and more qualified prospects, if you don’t cast the net so wide.
If you read each of these articles, you’ll notice some similarities between them. The common thread in all three is the importance of identifying your best “next” client by looking at your best “current” clients.
Go through the exercise below to know with certainty who you should work with, and why they should work with you:
Can you identify your top tier clients and what makes them that way?
What specific demographic and financial attributes can you use to help define the perfect prospect?
Can you identify what differentiates you from other advisors?
One of the best prospecting questions the top advisors who are using Asset-Map ask their current clients is this:
“Who else do you know that could benefit from seeing their Asset-Map?”
When you get those referrals, remember to remain positive, and stay focused on what people can do in their personal lives to create confidence during volatile times.
If you’re not familiar with Asset-Map’s practice management tools that help financial professionals engage more deeply with clients and prospects alike, click here to book a personal demo.