By Gail B. Goodman
With prospects answering the phone less and less often, advisors can always use opportunities to engage with people in person. Consider these two approaches:
Small business breakfasts: Do small business breakfasts for eight people who have something in common. If you have a particular client you want to clone, this is a great idea that is easy and not expensive.
You invite four clients who have something in common. Let’s say your favorite clients are architects. So you invite four architect clients and tell them you’re having a small business breakfast meeting. Their price of admission is to bring a colleague who is an architect and someone you don’t know. (Hopefully, they don’t think of each other, but a new person.) That means you get to meet four new people.
The speaker is either a center of influence (COI) or someone you want to develop as one. Make sure that person is a good speaker and has a 20-minute presentation on something relevant to your group. A lawyer, tax advisor, PR expert, etc. would be good for this group. Any professional that has something of interest to this group of eight people is a candidate for being the speaker. You pay the bill, which is now breakfast for 10. Not expensive, and easy to set up.
This is what you get from doing this idea once a month: You reinforce your relationship with your favorite clients. You meet four more people like your favorite clients. You create or reinforce a relationship with a COI.
I suggest finding a breakfast buffet at a nice hotel in your town for this type of meeting. Try to pick a quiet day of the week. I’d rule out Mondays.
Instead of trying to cold call architects, this is a much more modern idea.
Trade shows/Fairs/Expos: Many advisors look at the opportunities to have a booth at trade shows or fairs. I would encourage you to rethink how you do these activities. First, I would forget the idea of raffles. Raffles worked when we used to go home with all those names and be able to call them. That boat left the dock a long time ago. Now, you need to see these events as one-on-one meeting opportunities. Make your booth open by moving the tables to the side. Stand near the area where people walk so you can engage them in conversation. Talk to them one at a time and really find out who they are.
Goodman has been training financial professionals for nearly 30 years. Learn more in the October episode of MDRT Presents.
I like first idea alot