How to Choose a Center of Influence – Part II (as seen in Investment Executive)

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Successful referral relationships require diligence and patience

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

By Fiona Collie

To build an effective referral strategy you must start with a plan about the kinds of
professionals you intend to partner with.

Take a strategic approach when developing relationships with centres of influence, says Terrie Wheeler, founder of MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com in St. Paul, Minn. Your objective is to build a lucrative referral network in which your contacts understand your ideal client profile.

While networking with accountants and lawyers is a good start, there are other professionals you can work with to create a referral network. Follow these tips to help you find the right COIs for your business:

> Check out your client list

Start your search for COIs by looking at your own clients.

Advisors often look externally first for a COI instead of looking internally,
at their own client bases, says Kevin Toney, marketing coach with Primetime
Promotions in Winnipeg.

Consider clients who are professionals or business owners with whom you could
develop a referral relationship, he says.

> Think outside the box

Consider everyone in your network — not just accountants and lawyers but
gardeners and nannies — who might be able to introduce you to the right client.

So long as they can help you connect with your target market, a COI could be
anyone, says April-Lynn Levitt, a coach with the Personal Coach in Calgary.

> Work with a marketing partner

Once you have found a professional who shares your goals, consider a joint
marketing initiative with that contact, Wheeler says.

You could co-write articles for a local newspaper with your new marketing
partner. Or you might host a seminar together, to which you each invite a large
group of clients and prospects.

> Give it time

Developing COI arrangements can be a long process, so be patient.

It can take two or three years to build a relationship with a centre of
influence, says Levitt. That’s why it’s important to stay top of mind with a
COI, just as you would with a prospective client.

Keep in contact by sending potential COIs your newsletter, she says, or holding
a seminar exclusively for COIs.

> Set up a routine

Keep your referral strategy on track by consistently meeting with your COI.

Make arrangements with the COI to meet regularly, says Toney. It could be once
a week, every two weeks or once a month. At those meetings, discuss what has
happened so far in the relationship and what will be the next step for your
joint referral strategy.

IE

How to Choose a Center of Influence – Part I (as seen in Investment Executive)

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How to choose a Center Of Influence (COI) – Part I

A centre of influence — like a client — should be a good fit

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

By Fiona Collie

A good centre of influence can be an asset to your business, providing referrals for
you and valuable service to your existing clients. The key is to find the right
COIs — professionals with whom you cultivate reciprocal referral relationships
— and that means doing your homework.

“If [advisors] don’t do the planning, then they tend to be disappointed with
the results,” says Kevin Toney, marketing coach with Primetime Promotions in
Winnipeg. Advisors become disillusioned by COI relationships, especially when
they believe they are referring clients frequently but do not receive any in
return.

To create a mutually beneficial referral relationship, look for COIs with these
five attributes:

1. Similar client base

Look for a centre of influence with a target market that’s similar to yours.

“Look at the client base of that centre of influence to make sure that it is
congruent with the types of clients that you’d like to build additional
relationships with,” says Terrie Wheeler, founder of MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com
in St. Paul, Minn.

To do that, you must have a clear understanding of who your ideal client is,
and be able to articulate that to others. If your target market is retiring
business owners, look for a COI who serves retiring business owners. If your
target market is IT professionals, look for COIs who serve that market.

2. Shared values

“Find a company or individual who shares your values,” says Toney.

If your core business value is excellent customer service, Toney says, a COI
that doesn’t share that approach can reflect badly on you and your practice.

3. Similar business model

Take a look at a business that is similar in size to your own when looking for
a COI, says April-Lynn Levitt, a coach with the Personal Coach in Calgary.

“If you’re both small-business people, you’re going to have a lot more in
common then you are with a huge accounting firm,” she says. “You can even share
business ideas and strategies.”

4. Personal character

When looking at a potential COI, consider his or her personality.

You can’t build a successful relationship strictly on the basis of a person’s
ability to provide referrals, Wheeler says. Instead, create a genuine and
lasting business relationship by looking for someone you trust and respect.

5. Willingness to share advice

Building a relationship with a COI is about more than just exchanging clients.
It’s also a chance to act as a valuable resource to another professional.

A great centre of influence, says Levitt, is one who knows he or she can call
to ask you a few questions about your area of expertise with no expectation of
payment or business in return. That COI would welcome a similar call from you.

This is the first of a two-part series on centres of influence. Tomorrow:
Where to look for COIs.

IE

Measuring Your Marketing ROI: Part IV

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By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC

TWheeler@MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com

This is the fourth and final post on Measuring Your Marketing ROI. This post will focus on the fourth pillar of marketing–Creating Targeted and Effective Communications. Below are listed Pillar IV marketing strategies, along with suggested techniques for measuring ROI.

Strategic Communications

Does your practice have the ability to send out truly strategic communications? Targeted and effective communications are not broad-based “practice newsletters” but instead are communications that are sent to various segments of your client base with targeted messages relevant to them.

If you invest your time and energy to create this level of targeted messaging, you can measure you ROI by tracking the number of direct responses from clients and referral sources because of your various communications. In addition, over time, you should see an increase in the level of client retention and flow of referrals into the practice.

Marketing Database

A marketing database is only valuable to you if you keep it updated. A strong marketing database should be easy to update, allow segmenting of client type for targeted communications, and interact with other practice data (like client revenue numbers).

Your ROI for creating your marketing database can be measured in saved time and increased client communications. In return for investing in your marketing database, you will save billable time by not needing to send individual lists to professionals for updating. Additionally, as a result of the database, you will find it easy to communicate with various groups of clients, contacts, and referral sources because you will have email addresses and other contact information for each person on your list.

Website

A website is a must-have for every advisory practice. When used correctly, a website can be a powerful marketing tool with the ability to attract new clients and retain current clients.

The content on your website should be regularly updated and should reflect the overall branding and identity of the practice. You should also ensure that your website is search engine optimized, which will result in higher rankings on Google and other search engines.

Website ROI can be measured tangibly by tracking search engine rankings and by using Web-trends, Google Analytics or other programs to track and measure website visitors and activity on your website. You can also track your website’s strength by monitoring direct client inquiries from the website, seminar registrations using web-based registration options, and client comments on the website.

Learn more about maximizing your website. Read my blog post on Online Marketing Strategies for Advisors: Make the Most of Your Website.

Client Events

Hosting a client event can be a time consuming challenge for any practice. Advisors often wonder if the event is worth the hassle. How can you tell if your client event is a success?

Start by tracking the number of clients who attend the event—the more clients there, the better! Next, be sure to provide an evaluation form and ask clients what they thought of the event. In the evaluation, ask clients if they would attend the event again next year. Repeat attendees demonstrate that clients appreciate your event and see it as a valuable service. Track how many professionals from the firm attend the event and ask them if they were able to actively build relationships. Ideally, the event will lead to new clients or new matters generated from the event.

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Measuring Your Marketing ROI: Part III

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By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC

TWheeler@MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com

My last post examined ways to measure marketing return on investment under the second pillar of marketing– Attracting New Clients and Developing New Business. This post will explore measuring marketing ROI under the third pillar, Increasing Name Recognition and Awareness. This is an area of marketing where it is very easy to spend lots of money (buying advertising, hiring public relations firms, or attending tradeshows), so carefully measuring your return is particularly important. Below are listed Pillar III marketing strategies and their corresponding ROI measurement techniques.

Advertising (Print and Web-based)

Considering the generally high costs associated with advertising, it is important to make sure that your advertising dollars are truly well spent. While you may like to think that your advertising helped you to land that new client, you can’t be sure unless you ask. Check in with new clients and ask why they hired your practice. If they cite specific advertising as one of the reasons they hired the practice, your advertising has resulted in measurable ROI!

Another simple way to determine whether your advertising works is to include a call to action in your ad (such as registering for a seminar). You can also determine if your advertising works by seeing if there is higher name recognition of your practice in the marketplace based on independent market research. Finally, if you are using web-based advertising, monitor your search engine rankings to see if they improve.

Branding and Identity

Developing professional, cohesive identity and branding materials for your practice is a smart investment. Your materials should include a logo, letterhead, brochures, and website that, when viewed together, are consistent and have the same strong visual identity. Done correctly, your materials will result in a higher level of professionalism conveyed through your practice’s brand and resulting identity materials that will generate compliments from clients, contacts and referral sources. You will know your branding and consistency has paid off when your practice “becomes known” in the marketplace for some element of its branding or identity.

Public Relations

We all know that, generally speaking, publicity for your practice is a good thing. But how can you measure the ROI of such an intangible marketing function? If you have an article written about you or your practice in a local or national publication, or if you appear on the radio or television, check the media outlet’s advertising rates. Multiply the cost of placing an ad of similar length by 3 or 4 to arrive at the approximate dollar value that the public relations “advertising” has been worth to your practice. Next, count the number of media impressions your practice made – how many people had the opportunity to see the article or hear the interview.

In a more general way, you can measure your public relations ROI by looking at how often your practice gets substantive content placed in publications which are read by A-level clients. Look at the number of news releases the practice proactively distributes each month and the number of bylined articles published per year by you or other professionals in your practice.

You can also measure your public relations ROI by examining the relationship between your practice and reporters. How many times in the last year have practice professionals been quoted in the press? How many reporters does each professional know and have a relationship with?

To learn more about effective public relations, see Tip #10 in my blog post, Marketing Your Advisory Practice in a Tight Economy—Part III.

Trade Shows

Participating in key trade shows in your area of expertise and within your community can be a great way to reach a focused group of potential clients. However, with your limited time and resources, it is important to only commit to those trade shows that generate the most ROI.

To measure the ROI of a participation in a trade show, look at the number of new client or referral source leads generated as a direct result of the practice’s participation in a trade show. Also, count the visitors who leave their card or ask for additional information and the number of your own practice professionals who participate in the event. If you or someone from your practice is a speaker at a trade show, it is likely that you were able to reach more potential clients. Finally, look honestly at your level of proactive follow up after the event. Are you truly reaching out to and connecting with the trade show participants?

Community Involvement

Volunteering in your community is the right thing to do. It can also be an opportunity to build your skills and your network. Is your practice taking advantage of this great professional and marketing opportunity?

To measure how well your advisory practice is doing in its community involvement efforts, look at the number of professionals in your firm serving on non-profit boards and delivering pro bono work (hours per year).

Does your practice create an environment and culture where volunteerism is encouraged and rewarded? If your practice encourages its professionals to volunteer for organizations they are committed to and passionate about, your practice can become a community leader with a reputation for excellent and ethical work. While not every volunteer or board position will directly lead to new clients, it is important to stay consistently involved. Positive results may take time but community involvement is always rewarding!

To learn more about the importance of community involvement in your marketing efforts, read my blog post Giving Back: Why Advisors Need to Spend More Time Volunteering.

Social Networking

Considering how recently online networking has developed, it’s astounding how pervasive it has become in such a short time.  And it’s only growing!  As you consider ways to market yourself and your practice, keep in mind that social networking allows you to communicate your key messages and make connections with people that you would likely never find using traditional methods.

Although social networking can seem amorphous, social networking can and does lead to the development of new relationship and clients. To maximize your social networking activities, participate actively in groups on several social networking sites. Be willing to share expertise and NOT use social networking to directly sell. Finally, spend time on each site at least once a week to update your profile or status, to contribute to conversation, or to post an informative article.

To learn more about the social networking for financial advisors, see my blog post An Advisor’s Guide to Social Networking.

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Measuring Your Marketing ROI: Part II

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By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC

TWheeler@MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com

Our last blog post focused on ways to measure marketing return on investment under the first pillar of marketing—Retaining and Growing Relationships With Existing Clients. This week’s blog focuses on measuring marketing ROI under the second pillar of marketing, Attracting New Clients and Developing New Business. Below are listed Pillar II marketing strategies and their corresponding ROI measurement techniques.

Networking

While it would be nice if all of your networking efforts resulted in a new client, networking doesn’t always work that way. However, if you are networking successfully, you should begin to notice other benefits, including having a loyal base of friends and contacts who will always return your calls and who begin sending you more referrals for A-level clients.

Successful networking means that you have two to three networking meetings each week, you always make time to meet with someone who was referred to you, and you look for ways to open doors for others on a regular basis. As you increase your networking activities, you will notice that you actually start to enjoy staying connected to great people. Remember, effective networking is more about looking for ways to help others (versus what’s in it for you)!

To learn more about successful networking, see my blog post on Effective Networking Strategies for Financial Advisors Part I and Part II.

Targeted Business Development

How can you tell if your time spent on targeted business development has been successful? First, do you have a written list of your top ten prospective clients, with a plan for each prospective client on what your next steps are to land their business? A written plan is an important investment in your marketing success that will lead to results as you put your plan in place.

Look at the number of proposals you have submitted to A-level clients each year, as well as the number of new clients you actually attract to help you determine if your targeted business development efforts have been successful. You can also measure your success by looking at the amount of revenue generated by the new clients you have attracted. Make sure you remain focused on business development by developing a strong sales pipeline with dates, action items, and next steps.

Proposal Development

Proposal development is an important place to spend some time focusing your marketing efforts because of the direct correlation it has with securing new clients. One way to measure your ROI is to look at the number of proposals you submit to A-level clients each year. Strong proposals that lead to a client selecting you and your practice over the competition during a competitive bidding/RFP process are a great way to measure your marketing ROI.

Another important measure of your ROI is the existence of a proposal archive at your practice, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time. A strong proposal will contain current examples of representative experience for everyone in the practice and should begin with a summary of the client’s situation and your approach to meeting the client’s needs (not with practice history and bios).

Market Research

Market research is an important tool that advisors can use to understand more about their clients and prospects. Time spent conducting market research prior to meeting with a contact can lead to increased business, a new client, or a new referral source. Your contacts will be impressed by the time and effort you take in understanding their company or industry.

To ensure your market research yields positive results, make a point of taking the time to research a new client or prospect before your first meeting. Keep an electronic file or “dossier” on your top prospective clients and review and update the files periodically. Track the activities of key clients or prospective clients using Google Alerts or other web-based research tools.

Trade and Professional Association Involvement

Involvement in trade and professional associations is a great way to network, build name recognition, and generate new clients. The most important way to ensure a strong ROI in is to measure your actual involvement with the association. Look at the number of years you or your practice has been involved with the association. Trade association involvement requires a long-term investment to the association and its members. Make sure you regularly attend meetings—belonging to the association without participating will not build trust with other members.

You can also measure your ROI by looking at the strength of your network of contacts within the industry. Does a member of your practice serve in a high profile position within the organization? Do you or your practice have regular speaking engagements for the group or regularly contribute articles to the association’s publication? Do you have clients who have who hired the practice because of its perceived industry expertise?

While attending association events, speaking to association members, and writing for association publications can be time consuming, measuring your ROI can make you feel more secure in knowing that your time is well spent.

Learn more about maximizing trade association involvement by reading my blog post, Be Where your Clients Are: Tips for Maximizing Trade Association Involvement.

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Measuring Your Marketing ROI: Part I

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By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC

TWheeler@MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com

Advisors are results-oriented and often have questions about how to quantitatively measure marketing success. Determining return on investment of marketing initiatives can be challenging because not every marketing initiative will directly result in a new client. However, in addition to attracting new clients, marketing success can be measured in a number of ways. This blog post will address ways in which to measure marketing ROI under the first pillar of marketing—Retaining and Growing Relationships With Existing Clients. Below are listed a number of Pillar I marketing strategies and some corresponding ROI measurement techniques.

Client Satisfaction and Retention

How can you tell if your clients are truly satisfied, and how can you tell if your marketing related efforts to increase client satisfaction are working? One key measure of marketing success is to look at the duration of your client relationships. Long-term relationships with clients are a strong indication of client satisfaction.

In addition, clients who have increased the amount of work with your practice are expressing their satisfaction with your client service. Clients also show that they enjoy working with you by referring you and your practice to others. Maintaining strong relationships with clients is the best return on investment you can get for your marketing efforts!

See my blog post on Low Cost, High Impact Strategies to Market Your Advisory Practice: Part II to learn more about keeping your clients satisfied.

Client Service

Measuring your return on investment in your client service efforts can be tricky because most clients only let you know if something is wrong—not if you’re doing everything right.

Because of this, one easy way to measure your client service is to measure the number of client complaints you receive. Very few client complaints likely means clients are satisfied with your service.

Clients also demonstrate their satisfaction with your services by paying their bills on time and by referring you to others. You can also gauge how well you are serving clients by honestly evaluating your responsiveness to client phone calls and emails. A great way to increase and ensure client satisfaction is to develop client service guidelines that are followed by everyone in your firm.

Read my post on Client Service Reminders: What Advisors Can Learn from Toyota.

Cross Marketing

The best way to measure your ROI on your cross-marketing efforts is to track how many of your clients utilize more than one service of your practice. Clients who are satisfied with your work and are aware of you and/or your practice’s depth and breadth of expertise are likely to increase their work with you.

To ensure that you have a strong ROI on cross-marketing efforts, create a culture that supports cross-marketing. Consider implementing a compensation system that rewards growing existing relationships. Host practice-wide events where clients can meet other professionals in your practice, and work to actively introduce your clients to others at your practice who may specialize in a different area.

Referral Source Development

Finally, it is important to measure your ROI on your referral source development efforts. Taking time to build relationships with referral sources can seem like a frustrating waste of time when you consider that your time could be spent developing new clients. However, developing your referral sources pays off and it’s important to remember that by tracking your marketing success in this area

To measure your ROI, keep track of how your new clients found you. A strong base of people who regularly refer business to you is a great ROI for your efforts. Look at who your best referral sources are and determine what they have in common—are they from a particular industry or profession, do they have common personality traits? Knowing who your best referral sources are makes it easier to spot and develop relationships with other potential referral sources.

Make it easy for your referral sources to refer business to you by providing them with concise marketing materials and messages that they can pass along to their contacts. Maintain strong relationships with your referral sources by scheduling coffees or lunches with them to stay in touch and by providing them with referrals where appropriate.

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Myths and Realities of Marketing Your Advisory Practice

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By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC

TWheeler@MarketYourAdvisoryPractice.com

Sometimes the biggest challenge in marketing your advisory practice is overcoming a preconceived notion of what marketing your advisory practice really means. Many advisors have developed an aversion to marketing because they still believe in the following myths. Understanding the realities of marketing an advisory practice can help you get out of your marketing rut, help you develop your practice, and yes—even learn to enjoy marketing!

Myth #1: Marketing is really selling and I’m not a sales person

Reality: You don’t have to be a natural-born salesperson to market your practice! You do, however, have to overcome the idea that advisors don’t have to do anything to attract clients. To be a successful advisor with a booming business, you must integrate marketing and networking into your approach to serving clients. While marketing is sometimes about selling, it is mostly about developing relationships with others and helping others succeed. Don’t think of it as “selling” your services. Instead, focus on building relationships with existing clients, meeting new people that you would like to work with, and understanding and sharing with others how you can add value to their life or business.

Myth #2: Effective marketing takes too much time – – and I am just too busy

Reality: Effective marketing does take time. However, think about the fact that you will continue to have clients only if you continue to market. If you don’t make time for marketing, you may come to realize you have too much time on your hands because you no longer have enough clients! Marketing doesn’t have to be time consuming. If you schedule time into your calendar every week to market you won’t have to spend large blocks of time later, scrambling to catch up on your marketing activities. Here are 5 simple marketing activities you can do in ten minutes or less:

  1. Call one of your top contacts and schedule a coffee or lunch.
  2. Develop an elevator speech.
  3. Update your professional biography
  4. Create or edit your LinkedIn profile
  5. Send a copy of an article to a contact that you think might interest or affect them

Also, see my blog post on creating your marketing plan in just 20 minutes per day!

Myth #3: Clients will find me because of my exceptional reputation – why market?

Reality: The financial industry is more competitive today than ever before. There are literally thousands of advisors out there. In today’s competitive marketplace, you cannot just sit in your office and expect clients to come to you, no matter how excellent or well-deserved your reputation may be. You must go out and market!

Myth #4: Contacts will see right through me asking them to lunch or coffee as a ploy to get business from them

Reality:  Contacts will see through you if you are only trying to sell them. But effective networking is all about helping the other person. When networking, ask yourself: “How can I help this person in their life and business? Whom do I know in my network that I can introduce to this person? Is there anything I can do to help this person achieve a personal or professional goal?” Follow-through on commitments you make. If you tell a prospective client that you will introduce them to a great accountant you know—do it. If you say you’d like to volunteer in an organization they are involved in—do it. The point is, if you network and build genuine relationships with people you actually enjoy, trust, and respect, they will feel the same way about you.

Myth #5: I am an introvert and do not feel comfortable networking

Reality:  If you feel uncomfortable in large group settings, have no fear—effective networking can be done one-on-one! In fact, since effective networking is all about building relationships, one-on-one networking is particularly effective. Set up one-on-one meetings, lunches, or coffees. If you are going to an event where you know there will be a lot of people and you are feeling overwhelmed, set a goal for yourself of talking to one or two people. Prepare some questions ahead of time to help you feel more comfortable. You may want to ask questions like, “How long have you been a member of this association? What do you do? How did you decide to go into your profession? Tell me about your company—who are your clients/patients/members/customers?”

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