Hope Floats. Fear Sinks!

Have you ever considered using a "hope-based" sales technique instead of using fear?

There's no doubt that showing a grieving spouse next to a casket is an effective way to motivate a prospect or client to buy life insurance; or, showing a 70-year-old woman working at a grocery store to make the case for having a solid retirement income plan.

But, consider the impact of using FEAR to justify your financial solutions. Do you really want the relationship you have with a client to be based on - and mentally linked to - fear?

I would argue that for every fear-based scenario there's a hope-based image or scenario that will work just as effectively. Think about it. When you’re meeting with a new prospect, instead of scaring them with statistics about how inflation can turn their retirement dreams into a nightmare, place in their mind images of being with their grandkids for their soccer games, dance recitals and holidays.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blessed:

The soul, uneasy and confined from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

– Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

Ultimately, isn't the goal of every well-drafted financial and retirement plan to give your clients peace-of-mind?

Hope-based marketing - give it a try!

Successful Advisors and Successful Farmers have a lot in common.

I grew up in a small rural town in Massachusetts. There were many small and medium sized farms in the area and my first job was working at a tobacco farm. I was reflecting on my October 30^th post calling for November to be "Pay It Forward Financial Planning Month” and I was searching for another way to make the case to help at least one prospect who didn’t meet the “ideal client profile.”

Then it hit me! Letting a field go fallow!

Leaving a field to lie fallow simply means leaving a field to be unseeded and unspoiled for a season or more. Farmers let fields lie fallow because it is one of the best ways to allow the land to replenish its nutrients and regain its fertility without resorting to the application of fertilizers. It also helps prevent erosion as the roots of the plants left to grow on the land help to hold the soil in place against the ravages of wind and rain.

How does this apply to working with prospects who might not have the “minimum” amount of money to justify you working with them? Well, all I have to do is take definition above and swap out some key words.

Paying it forward simply means empowering a prospect to grow their savings independently and support and educate him/her during this maturity. Advisors who help prospects that don’t have large amounts of investable assets is one of the best ways to allow the prospect to establish basic saving, investing and planning skills, replenish its their financial and retirement assets and regain their confidence without resorting to making the prospect have to make significant  – and often premature financial sacrifices. It also helps prevent losing this client to other advisors (once the amount of assets have grown to a level where they are now a target of competing financial advisors) all while helping protect the clients financial position against the uncertainty of the market and economy.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

I hope you’ll consider making November "Pay It Forward Financial Planning Month.”

First Impressions: A Prospect's Perception is YOUR Reality

Direct mail continues to be the preferred method of receiving information by Baby Boomer and Senior prospects. The way you look in the mailbox will say a lot about you, your firm and the services you provide. That is the very first impression that you make with your targeted audience. What do you want them to think or perceive? I see financial professionals with expensive business clothes, nice cars, nice homes, nice offices, nice presentation materials and yet, their direct marketing looks CHEAP!

It’s ironic to me that the same financial advisor who only wants to meet with affluent prospects ($100k+ in liquid assets) thinks that saving a few cents by sending out flimsy flyers or cheap postcards will attract this type of client. There’s a direct correlation between the investment you make in your direct marketing materials and ROI.

Remember, you’re marketing solutions – not products. That means the first impression you give in your direct marketing needs to immediately start generating a feeling of TRUST and CREDIBILITY.

Top performers in the financial services industry understand how important their image – their brand – is when they are asking prospects to take time out of their busy schedule to discuss the most intimate details of their finances.

So, before you send out your next marketing piece, take a critical look at it and ask yourself, “Is THIS the first impression I want to give to a potential client?”