The core aspects of business development, as a Financial, Insurance advisor & Lending Advisor, are marketing and sales. Along with building a brand, you need to inform your potential client of who you are. The potential client may reach out to you after they read about you in an advertisement, on social media, through content marketing, or a networking event. But at this stage, the potential client only “knows” you.
Marketing intends to educate the potential client so that they start to know, like, and trust you. Through prospecting, you make “suspects” who can be potential clients because they have the financial capacity, buying authority, and are willing to buy advisory service. The “suspect” qualifies as a “prospect” when they are willing to meet you or have met you.
You must have heard other financial, lending and insurance advisors say, if they enter my office or talk eyeball-to-eyeball with me, I would close the deal. This is because when you can get them to come to your office, you are ready to begin the sales process.
Business development approaches come in all shapes and sizes, which can help you acquire new clients and assets. But there are only a few key approaches that are data-based and are used by experienced advisors for client acquisition.
Business Development with Profitable Clients
In this article, we are going to talk about how you can grow your business by growing the number of profitable clients. Your goal should be to acquire profitable clients and build strong relationships with them.
To balance the cost of the services you deliver, you need valuable clients who give you back, what you offer to them.
At some point, you must have considered this strategy but were disappointed when you could not get many profitable clients.
So, let’s talk about how financial, insurance, and lending advisors acquire those profitable clients?
Getting Profitable Clients
For most advisors, it is not a piece of cake, and acquiring profitable clients is among one of their top challenges. Reflecting on the same quote, “If I can get them to meet me, I’ll make sure the deal is closed”. This is what most advisors say because the hardest part is getting the profitable business to meet you.
Around 80% of your clients make up 20% of your profit and 20% of your clients make 80% of profit for you according to the 80/20 analysis. Think about, how you can replicate your profits by finding more clients.
The profitable clients are the HNW (high-net-worth) individuals, who have liquid assets worth several millions of dollars and a lot of cash at hand. These are the most desirable clients and fit the description of “ideal clients”.
There are ways to get the HNW individuals to become your clients. These individuals are savvy investors and intelligent beings who have complex problems and need expert advisors. To acquire profitable clients, you need to ask yourself several questions:
Are these the clients, you want to work with?
If yes then, can you provide valuable service to them?
How can you make them choose to work with you?
Make a goal of acquiring a returning profitable client semi-annually or quarterly. A business model that targets profitable clients will help you grow your business in the long run. Change your game plan, rebrand your services and start looking out for these individuals.
Successful advisors don’t stumble across these profitable clients, they establish themselves as advisors who can get the job done for their clients. They build client loyalty and retain them by providing excellent services and in return their profitable clients fully accept their business model and fee structure.
Make Your Clients Your Fans
Give your profitable clients more time. Automate the other processes and workflows such as trading, rebalancing, and reporting. Such procedures can minimize the chances of error and you’ll also have more time for prospecting.
Your clients come to your office for customized solutions that you can create for them by understanding their financial needs. Make your clients your fans by showering them with attention.
Go above and beyond to maintain your relations. If they are comfortable talking to you about what their hobbies are and what they do at the weekends. Offer to play golf with them on one weekend or take them to an exhibition.
This is will help you form a stronger bond with the profitable client and get to know other people in their social circle. It can also be an opportunity to rub shoulders with other HNW individuals from their social circle.
Your goal when working with a client or walking them through risk assessment or a financial evaluation should be to add value to the service, gain a better understanding of their problems and build trust. To get your profitable clients to trust you and keep coming back to you, empathize with your customer’s pain points and always go above and beyond to maintain the relationship.
On that note, remember the 80/20 rule at all times.
Cheers, To Your Success!
-- Ramzi Malas.
