If you touch your prospects with nice, friendly and NON-FINANCIAL touches 10 times they think that you are a nice, helpful person. Then when you touch them with a helpful, financial message, they know you are doing it to be “nice and helpful” not doing it to sell them something.
How do you know if something works? I suggest the “Real Life Test.” Think of a real-life situation…put the idea to work in that situation…then, see if it works.
10:1 Real Life Test—
“Straight to the point” —Let’s say you move into an office next to a Property/Casualty agent. The very first week he comes over and introduces himself, hands you a card and says he can beat your current coverage.
What would you do? I would politely tell him I already have a guy that I work with, thanks anyways.
“Hi ya neighbor!”—Let’s say instead of coming over to present his business in the first week, this Property/Casualty guy comes over and asks if you need anything.
Then he starts dropping by every week, just to say hi or talk about the weather, share a joke or talk sports for a minute or two.
He does this for 3 or 4 months. He has now had 10 friendly conversations with you. You have built a relationship and have become comfortable with each other…
He then says, “Say, I saw you the other day with a boat behind your truck. My company loves boaters! We have a great boat protection program. Would you mind if I gave you a quote on your boat?”
What would you do? Feel obligated to say yes, of course. Why? He has never pushed or bothered you and heck, what could it hurt? Who knows maybe I will be able to save some money.
10:1 Ratio WORKS!
You can use this ratio over and over and people will never think you are being pushy but instead, helpful and friendly. That you are a caring person.
How often can you send a financial message? After every 10 NON-FINANCIAL or what I call nurturing contacts.
If you give two nurturing contacts a month, that means that every 6 months you can give a financial offer. If you give one nurturing contact a month, that means that once a year (10 months) you can give a financial offer. Or, 3 times a month allows you to make an offer every quarter. It’s totally up to you.
Why leads rarely work – Finances are a VERY private thing. Most people do not want to discuss their finances with strangers (definition of stranger = people you don’t know or trust)
People know that you are smart– People know that if they ask you for some good ideas, that you would give them lots of good ideas…Then why don’t they respond to our marketing or ask us for our ideas?
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care
People that sell for a living know this…they may ignore it, but they know it.
You can’t demonstrate how much you care in a marketing piece—You can say you care, but think about what YOU think when someone says, “Trust me.”
Do you?
You can show that you know a lot…BUT SO WHAT!—So does every other financial advisor as far as the public cares. They really don’t think that any one of us is smarter than the other…the only way that you can demonstrate your different is too show how much you care.
How does your mother know if you care?—Simple, she measures how much you care by how much contact you have with her…more is better. And what kind of contact, if the only time you contact her is to borrow money, what does she think you think of her?
If all that you do is talk about money to a client or prospect, what do they think you care about? Them as a person? Or, getting at their money?
Create a friend and you have a client—What do friends and family want from you? That you demonstrate that you care about them. What is the easiest way to demonstrate it? Phone call, email maybe? Aha! In this case, easy is bad!
We’ll all do something for someone when it’s easy…only if you really care about someone will you do something more difficult.
Email:
- No cost
- Simple
- Easy and effortless
Sending a card:
- You have to go out and look at cards and choose one
- You have to buy it…you know, actually spend money
- You have to sit down and think about what you want to write because once you write it with a pen you can’t simply delete and fix it
- You have to actually write it
- Then address the envelope, lick it and affix a stamp to it
- And, finally drop it into a mailbox
So, put together a list of at least 100 people you would like as clients. Send them each 10 NON-FINANCIAL notes, articles and cards… then follow-up with an offer by mail or phone… so how much have you spent? 100 X 10 X $1.00 (for piece and postage) = $1,000. Guess how many of these 1,000 touches will now talk to you about your offer. At least 10… and if your offer is good… you’ll land at least 3… and how much do you make per new client? So, what do you think? Is it worth the effort?
