Found Money

“Found Money” I’ve always found it entertaining the things that people will say about you when you’re not listening.

Recently I had a new client join our team. In the process he mentioned that he’d talked to some other clients that were friends of his. Naturally curious I asked what that had to say about me and our Wealth Mastery program.

The first comment was: “That guy found money laying around my business that I’d have never known was there.”
I loved that. It’s pretty straight forward and, on the surface obvious to me. I tend to start with new advisors with simple questions and review and discussion of what they are currently doing in their practice.

It’s common that things jump out right away:

1. Lower fees, lower revenue.

Any more, with fee only advisors there seems to be a belief that somehow lowering their fees will improve their revenue. That’s really the opposite of reality. A great line in the book Persuasion by Robert Cialdini is: “Absent other objective criteria, price determines perception of value.” Or, if you charge less then you’re assumed to not be very good at what you do.

2. Lead follow-up.

The lure of cheap and easy has led to HORRIBLE lead follow-up by most advisors. Someone expresses interest then they get a few (or, a bunch) or “Sequential Auto-Responder Emails,” and if lucky maybe an attempted phone call or two. That
leaves a BUNCH of money on the table. I’m always crafting follow-up that includes Text Messaging, Sequential Direct Mail, Facebook Re-Targeting, Google Re-Targeting, Automated “ring-less” voice mail, and more. The other mistake is to take a run on someone for a week or two, maybe a month or two then right them off. I’ve had prospects who became clients a year, two, even four years later. They stay on the list and keep getting educated about my services.

3. Client Rapport and communications.

It seems most everyone doesn’t do much to stay in front of their clients and effectively create multiple referral systems. Another great book was by Joe Girard. He held the world record for car sales. Anyone who EVER bought from him among other things received at least a card a month. Whatever excuse that month: Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th , St. Patrick’s Day, etc. He especially focused on customers around their “itch cycle – two or three years in from buying their most recent car from him.” There are many ways to increase the level of business relationship with a client and to multiply the referrals generated. All require constant presence and education.

I could go on with the “found money lying around my business” comment, but that’s for another day.

Another comment that a different client had said about me was “That guys sure seems to have a knack for turning shacks into mansions.” Again, humorous but true.

I’d love to chat with you this week about your 2021 marketing plan and ways that we could work together to find money lying around your business that you didn’t know was there.