Marketing

8 unusual places to find high-net-worth clients

 |  Bryce Sanders

The brain of an MDRT member has two sides. The agent side of your brain wants to find businesses or people with a need for insurance. The advisor side of your brain is looking for people with assets to invest. You’ve tried the obvious places. You ask for referrals, and you ask yourself, “Where am I not looking?”

Here are several places that might be off your radar. While I’m in the United States, many of the strategies can be applied worldwide as well.

1. Towns with military bases.
Troops are on base for training. Tasks such as trash collection, cooking, cleaning and building maintenance are done by outside contractors. For convenience, these businesses are often located near the base. If you had a business and your primary client was the government, would you be doing well? Probably yes.

Finding them: In the United States, certified government contractors are on a searchable database, the System for Award Management or sam.gov. Enter your town name to get a list of businesses. You should have the names of contacts, which for a small business, should be the owner.

2. Private foundations. Wealthy people often set up family or private foundations. Lots of information is available online. You might be able to find the local ones in your town, the amount of money they have in the foundation and the charitable purpose. If it’s a pool of assets, investments are likely involved.

Finding them: Try the search engine on guidestar.org. Enter criteria. Start looking in your local community.

3. Business incubators. Yes, some tech startups begin in someone’s garage. Before companies scale up, there’s often an intermediate stage when they rent shared office space and the basics for getting the company established. These places are often known as business incubators. Sometimes they are affiliated with a university. These are startup businesses in the early stages. Think they need insurance? Retirement plans?

Finding them: Do an internet search for business incubators in your town or city. Visit their websites once you’ve found them. Do you drive over, walk around and check them out?

4. Heavy construction. Is there a lot of roadbuilding going on in your town? The companies that pour concrete, dig trenches and paint bridges can do pretty well for themselves. There are often professional road builders’ associations, which may include a directory of members, or at least a list of elected officers.

Finding them: Are you sensing a theme here? Do an internet search for road builders along with your state’s name. Almost every state has one.

5. Churches and religious organizations. If you belong, this is a connection you can make that can help people. Your religious leader is likely approached for advice by members of the congregation. They advise on spiritual matters, but what if someone in the congregation inherited money? The leader needs a “safe set of hands” where the person can get advice. They likely mention a few names of financial professionals in the congregation.

Finding them: This is a referral situation. Make a midweek appointment to meet with your religious leader. Explain you are a regular. (Hopefully, you are!) Explain what you do and how you help people. If someone needs this kind of help and advice, you will be glad to assist.

6. Real estate databases. Do you have a friend who is a real estate agent? There’s likely a computer program that can search local property records. You can see who owns enormous residential properties.

Finding them: Start by having a chat with your friend the real estate agent. There may be a public access database with similar information.

7. Who is your competition? You are thinking of joining (or rejoining) the chamber of commerce. Few people realize there are often multiple chambers in an area. Small towns have them. The county might have one. Some are aligned to cultural backgrounds. Build a list. Visit the website for each one. View the member directory on the public part of the site. Look for members listed under insurance, banks and financial services. Where’s the least competition?

Finding them: Start by doing an online search for chambers of commerce and your town’s name. In addition to the above research, look under “associations” to see if other local chambers are members.

8. Real estate transfers: Want to find people new to the area? Your local newspaper should run a weekly listing of real estate transfers, something like “(address) was sold by (A) to (B) for (X) dollars.” Now you know the name of the new resident and their address.

Finding them: Flip through the local papers until you find the listing for real estate transfers.

You are successful. You probably found some of these ideas years ago. Hopefully some are new to you.

Always remember:

1) Always read and respect the legal and privacy notices on websites.
2) Only use websites for the purpose originally intended by the site.
3) Get permission from your carrier or compliance manager before starting prospect research strategies on the internet.

Bryce Sanders is president of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. He provides high-net-worth client acquisition training for the financial services industry.

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