One of my very first jobs was selling ice creams in a chocolate shop. The chocolates were expensive, the ice cream was not. The idea was that the ices would draw people in and convert them into buying the pricier item.
Classic loss leader stuff.
But what if that doesn’t happen? And you get stuck holding the Haagen Dazs while the Belgian chocolates languish in the chill cabinet? You better have a queue of people out the door wanting 99s and a year-long heatwave on the horizon.
Why am I talking about ice creams on a dull day? Because you may also be suffering from the same conversion issue, but without such a tasty product.
Clients who engage and buy a financial plan are of course free to go away and implement it themselves. Or get it implemented, and then toddle off into the sunset.
You need to clearly set out the solution to the problem your client may not know they have, in order to convert them to your ongoing service.
But of course, the initial plan and implementation aren’t the most interesting or the most valuable things to the client, or you as their adviser. You need to clearly set out the solution to the problem your client may not know they have, in order to convert them to your ongoing service.
If you go and buy a car, you might get offered a bolt-on deal at the end to get it serviced every year. But you’ve already solved the problem you had that day. You now have a car.
Now you’re being asked to spend more money on something that might give you some kind of benefit in the future, some kind of nice to have, but it’s all a bit airy-fairy, invisible and nothing like as exciting as the new purchase in front of them.
It’s the same as the benefits of ongoing advice, which suffer from being invisible, intangible and potentially complex and intimidating.
It’s the same as the benefits of ongoing advice, which suffer from being invisible, intangible and potentially complex and intimidating. Even a little murky. There are too many stories of bad experiences – rip-off merchants and flash Harrys – and not enough of the peace of mind, life changing scenarios you create for your clients out there to convince them of its obvious value.
You need to set this out yourself. A good place to start is with nomenclature.
Name that service
We’ve said the benefits of advice are hard to articulate. But creating a name for those services not only enables you to talk about what you do, but it helps clients understand that there’s a bigger picture here from the beginning.
Barnaby Cecil for example has created three separate services: Wealthmap, which is the financial plan, Navigate, the implementation, and Momentum, the ongoing support.
Tip 1: Three is the magic number.
Tip 2: Concrete words are better than abstract ones.
Frame that service
Now that you know what you’re calling your services, you can begin to articulate each of the problems they solve and how you solve these better than anyone else. Explainer videos and brochures offer two great ways of doing this.
But for the client who has already bought the plan, there’s something much more powerful you can do.
Send them an automated follow-up email sequence. Email is sometimes seen as the Cinderella of marketing tactics, but if you use it strategically it can be very powerful.
Email is sometimes seen as the Cinderella of marketing tactics, but if you use it strategically it can be very powerful.
An automated sequence written with this client persona in mind enables you to gradually go through each of the problems your ongoing service solves for them in an educational, engaging, and non-salesy way. It’s a regular touchpoint and a reminder of your value.
To them it feels highly personalised and helpful. It also makes it easier for them to get in touch by simply hitting ‘reply’ when they’re ready.
An example could be to show how you steady the ship during market volatility. Now that they’re out at sea by themselves, they won’t have anyone like you to turn to.
Too gentle? Step it up a little by checking in to see if they’ve implemented their plan yet. An email that explains the value of having someone press the button for them would be useful as you move through the sequence.
And finally, a framing of fees if you’re feeling brave enough. An email gives you the time and space to put your ongoing fees into context, giving a specific example and showing the benefits to a particular client.
Which leads to…
Social proof
What does everyone else do? One of the most persuasive things we can do is show what others do, but not just others, people like us.
We know this from the hotel towel experiment from 2013. Three different signs were placed separately in different hotel bathrooms, all of which gently reminded guests of the environmental impact of towel use. One of the signs added that: ‘75% of guests in this hotel reuse their towels’ with another sign that said ’75% of guests in this room reuse their towels’. Guess which was the more persuasive? The latter sign amounted to a 40% saving in the number of towels needing to be washed.
So be specific when using testimonials or case studies, gather them from people who mirror your ideal client. And of course, use the ones who’ve benefited from all three of your services.
And then?
If you’ve done the above, congratulations, you’ve won half the battle. Do pass go, do collect ongoing clients.
By articulating the vital role of good financial management in people’s lives and helping them understand the value of financial planning in the long run, you’ve done what the vast majority of advisers struggle to do… There’s no magic bullet, but getting this right is the way to convert that initial meeting or financial plan through to an ongoing client arrangement.
Faith Liversedge is a marketing consultant. You can follow her on Twitter @FaithLiversedge
Comments