Designed for MFDs (Mutual Fund Distributors)
How to Grow our Business?
New Investor onboarding is not that simple. But not that difficult too…if you attend the course offered…
For many Mutual Fund Distributors; the most important aspect for Business Development is acquiring new Investors on an ongoing basis. Change is constant and constantly we have to try new methods for growing our Business. You will learn tried and tasted methods of Designing and implementing a successful onboarding system in this course…
BENEFITS OF ATTENDING THE COURSE:
FINANCIAL ADVISOR prospecting is a constantly evolving art form. First, it was the art of the cold call with a nice direct mail follow-up, then cold calling was out and email marketing was in. Now it’s all about using the holistic and perhaps ambiguous content marketing campaign to bring prospective Investors to you. However you go about it, one thing is clear: If you’re a financial advisor, you need to be looking for new prospects.
“Prospecting is really the lifeblood of an advisory firm,”. “If you’re not growing, you’re dying, especially if the advisor has an aging book.”
As Investors grow older, they shift from accumulation to distribution. “And as an advisor’s assets under management decreases, so will their income”
So how is a financial advisor to keep book young? By continually bringing new Investors into advisory practice. But for Financial Advisors, cold calling and direct marketing are the way of the past. Cold calls are hit-or-miss and direct marketing is often chucked with the junk mail. Here are the top financial advisor prospecting ideas successful advisors recommend:
Financial literacy: When what and how
The need for financial literacy and its importance for financial inclusion have been acknowledged by all possible stakeholders – policymakers, bankers, practitioners, researchers and academics – across the globe.
Various financial literacy programmes have thus been implemented by concerned institutions, with a lot of them being unique in their approach and delivery mechanisms. For instance, programmes have been customised to suit the requirements of students, microfinance Investors, slum dwellers, bank Investors etc. Some programmes have a particular focus such as a specific financial product, developing saving habit among target group, investor protection, business management, and so on, while others are more general and deal with money management skills, advocating healthy financial practices etc.
Varied techniques such as videos, stories, activities, comic books etc. are used, along with traditional methods of classroom training. Banks like Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India have also begun setting up ‘financial literacy and credit counselling centres’ that people can go to for gathering requisite information.
While a lot of experimentation has been done in the realm of financial literacy, it is difficult to point to one standardised method or approach that works best in all scenarios with all kinds of target populations. Although this could be attributed to the lack of a standard definition or measurement tool, it is also a result of India’s diversity in terms of language, caste, culture etc. Hence, it is challenging to design a product that ‘fits all’ sections of the population equally well.
Upsell: Selling a higher level of service to investors or prospects. For example, you have tickets to a football game and they send you an offer to upgrade your seats to the club level for a discounted price. That would be an upsell offer.
Cross-sell: Selling a different service of yours to a investors or prospect. For example, you have tickets to a football game and they send you a notice that jerseys are on sale for that game day only. That would be a cross-sell offer.
Getting Women Investor Aboard
As women are increasingly becoming independent and playing a key role in the decision-making process for themselves and their families, the pressure on women to gather relevant knowledge of personal financing tools and to manage their individual investments have risen profusely. Whether a woman decides to pursue her career into the corporate world, work as an entrepreneur, take a leap from her career to pursue a talent, take a break and raise her family or do more than one of these things simultaneously, it is essential that she enjoys financial independence to secure herself as well as the dependent family members. The right investment made at the right time will provide her a safety cover such that it cushions the various financial retrievals in both planned and unseen situations. Hence this is a very big opportunity and also a unique category to explore and get women investors aboard.
Narrow Your Focus
Start your marketing strategy with a narrow focus. “It’s counter-intuitive but advisors will attract more of the right prospects if they narrow their focus,”. “The advisor who takes the time to narrow the dimensions of their target audience will maximize their investment in time and money and ultimately reel more of the right Investors in.”. The narrower you can go, the easier it’ll be to target your ideal Investor.
Define Your Ideal Investor
The process of narrowing your focus will help you define your ideal Investor profile or persona. “The persona allows you to look closely at the type of person that you would work best with and to create both a marketing strategy and more importantly a service model that will appeal to that person,”.
Try to identify your ideal Investor’s primary needs, questions and concerns. With these in mind, you can create a unique value proposition that speaks specifically to your prospect. The trick here is to know exactly who your ideal Investor is and what their individual needs are. “Specialize, don’t generalize,”.
Develop Content Marketing Campaigns
Once you know the questions your ideal Investor is asking, you can create content marketing campaigns that drive them to your website for answers. An advisor looking for business owners, for instance, might create campaigns around business succession planning. You could create short educational videos – which Broadridge Advisor Solutions has found particularly powerful at attracting Investors – that address the financial challenges business owners face.
By targeting your content to your niche, you can become the “go-to” resource for your ideal Investor. “If a prospect reads or sees content that speaks to their situation, they’re more likely to respond versus a generic message,”.
Leverage Social Media
If you want to get Investors as a financial advisor, you’ve got to be social. There’s no getting around it: Everyone and their grandmother is on social media in some way, shape or form today. Whether you love it or hate it, leveraging social media is one of the most effective financial advisor prospecting ideas.
“Finding prospecting success using social media can seem daunting, but it’s a robust source for uncovering new opportunities for new Investor relationships.”
Business Development
The process of building a book of business is different for everyone. Unfortunately, this is not an easy task unless you’re working with a notable and trustworthy brand that is feeding Investors to you. So, how do you build up your Investor base aside from the generic advice of starting with friends and family?
Join the advisor community, Networking
Meet other advisors in the field and build connections with them. Being an advisor is an entrepreneurial, and often lonely job. You’re on top of the world on some days and deep in the muck on others. Building out your network gives you people to bounce ideas off of, to learn from, and to share referrals with.
Visualization
Visualize the rings of a tree with you in the middle. You have life experience, innate skills, abilities, interests, beliefs, and a network. Work out from that circle.
Referrals
Most people prefer to do business with someone they know, or know of. This is why getting referrals should be part of your sales strategy. The referrals you obtain might only get you to the first stage of the sales process, such as securing a meeting, but that can be critically important. You will find the potential Investor has a certain level of comfort in speaking to you because you are a not a complete stranger. Of course, you still have a long way to go to establish trust, show that you can deliver what they need, and close the sale. The early stages of the sales process are much easier, however, if you are introduced personally to the potential Investor.
Given it is such an effective sales tool it is used surprisingly little. You can give your business the edge over your competitors by getting your sales team to generate more leads from referrals. If you have satisfied investors on your books you have nothing to lose.
Find a niche around
Beyond that, look for pockets of people with shared needs and figure out how to talk with them and understand how you can best serve them. Whether it’s your church group, a non-profit, or a meetup for entrepreneurs, take your passions and connect
Build relationships with other professionals
Some of your best prospects will come from accountants, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, etc; But remember that it’s a two-way relationship; aim to give more than you receive. Like any relationship, it’s easier to be top of mind when you’re proactively helping someone, instead of coming to them hat in hand.
Consider Collaboration
There’s a generation of boomer financial advisors looking for someone to succeed her/him one day; reach out to them. It’s a great opportunity for you to get mentorship. Together we can win…..
At the end CASE STUDY & Real Stories to share…..
Especially on ONLINE process – How to get the first time Investor on Board; sitting at Home?