Whites Of Their Eyes

How can you effectively market with no or little marketing cost?  Find out how in this 43-minute video.  You’ll learn how to leverage your professional strengths into new clients with virtually no capital outlay.

Better yet, you’ll get the greatest marketing hack of all time and how you can use it for your business too!  AND, you can get the any of the 32+ systems we talk about in the video, at no-cost, courtesy of ECA Marketing.  Give Matt or Jerry a call at: (877) 941-9710 to get any of the systems we have available.

Lead generation will do 3 things for you

1. Generate short-term leads
2. Generate long-term leads
3. Create brand recognition

That said, lead generation should provide measurable ROI over a measurable period of time.

Research has shown that of financial leads, about 25% are short-term and 75% are long-term.  Of course, we would like all of our leads to be short-term… they have a need right now and we have the solution, so they will close quickly.  Yes, sometimes this will happen, but if you don’t pay attention to the other two aspects of lead generation, long-term and brand recognition, you are flushing money down the drain. 

Another aspect of short-term leads is that these people are probably looking at other solutions as well.  You will most likely not be the only person pursuing the business.  If the prospect knows they have a problem, they aren’t just talking to you.  Do you sign up with the first roofer you see on the internet when you need a new roof?

That’s why the most successful firms pay particular attention to their long-term leads.  There are more of them, and if handled right your prospect will come directly to you when they have a problem vs. shopping around.  Some advisors lament that the 2, 4, 6 month or even a year waiting period is too long.  But remember, not all prospects wait a year… some it takes 2 months… some 4… some 6 and some a year.  That means if you have an on-going lead generation system, you WILL have someone to work with continually.

How do you correctly handle long-term leads AND generate brand recognition to create the most effective lead generation?  Drip Marketing.  Send them helpful, value-driven and fun information continually.  It is cheap and easy to do.

If you have ever received sales training, you will be familiar with the classic formula to overcome objections:

1. Listen and hear them out (this is a great thing to do!)
2. Put in a softening statement—feel, felt, found.  I understand how you feel… many of my clients felt this way (STOP!!! This is a HORRIBLE thing to do.  People are on to this BS.  They see you coming from a mile away and will doubly prepared themselves for whatever you say next.
3. Question them to isolate the objection… “What is it about ______ that makes say that?
4. WRONG!  They know the only reason you are asking these questions is to back them into a corner and try to force them to buy.
5. Answer the objection
6. If you try and answer their objections, they know the only reason you are doing so is to sell them something… and they will fight you!
7. Confirm your answer… “Does that make sense to you Mr. Client”
8. They don’t want to argue so they say, yes.  But then you find out in the end that yes was not really a yes… but instead just a word to shut you up.
9. Ask for the deal – NOPE!  When you ask, they’ll say yes to get out of your office… and then they’ll leave a message on your voice mail, after hours, to cancel the deal.

So, if those things don’t work… what does?

I’m offering you, never before access, to some of our 5Q sales training absolutely for free.  You can access 150 minutes of video training walking you through a process that not only overcomes 100% of objections… no matter what they are… it will also turn the normally high stress objection situation… into a RAPPORT building tool! 

You can access those trainings here:

• Objections: Part 1 – Formula for handling Objections Tutorial
• Objections: Part 2 – How to create powerful rapport with GOTS
• Objections: Part 3 – Bring it all together with “Bottom lines” and the FIA presentation

How do you, me and other people process information?  50% process based on what we see… 38% primarily on what we feel… and just 7% on what we hear.  So, how do you capitalize on this?

You want to use descriptive and vivid language (or better yet, pictures) to capture the visual learners.  Use sound-related language for the auditory folks.  An example of this would be— “like hearing the crash of coins from a jackpot on the slot machine”.  For people who relate best to feeling you need to use tactile language— “Have you ever reached into the pocket of some pants you haven’t worn for months, and you feel a dollar in your pocket… and then you pull it out and it’s a 20-dollar bill?”

You’ll want to tap into all these senses in your marketing with the heaviest emphasis on the sight related language and pictures.  If you do, you will be much more effective in your marketing.  By using stories that tap into all the senses, you can leverage the 3 rules of advertising and presenting:

1. Get their attention
2. Communicate your main point simply and effectively
3. Persuade the audience to think, feel, or act differently

Do this and you will be getting the biggest bang for the buck on all your marketing and presentations.

By the time someone has reached their early 50’s, they have had to make nearly 8 billion… billion with a B… decisions.  Up to this point, many of those decisions were well thought out. 

However, after making so many decisions, we all tend to think less and rely on our instincts.  We make more and more decisions with our gut.  That’s important for us to keep in mind as most of the decisions that our retired clients make will be much more centered on how they “feel” about the decision.

Any advisor worth their salt knows that emotions trump logic when it comes to clients making decisions… but then why do so many advisors whip out charts, graphs, and tables to prove their point?

Stop doing that!  You need to become an expert storyteller.  Just talking about features, advantages and benefits is not going help you close sales or get more people in your office.  In all your sales and marketing, make sure you are using emotionally compelling ideas, words, and pictures. 

Not sure if you are?  Simply show what you are doing to some of your best clients and ask them how they feel when they see it.  That will give you the answer as to how effective you are.

Research by the Boomer Project has shown that retirees (Boomers) have 6 dominant traits:

1. Entitlement
2. Personal Gratification
3. Work ethic
4. Control
5. Optimism
6. Won’t accept the status quo

Are you leveraging these traits in your marketing and business?

You can tap into their entitlement by emphasizing benefits that they are owed… but not receiving.  I actually put together a website that uses that concept.  You can check it out www.fullchecklist.org, to help you kickstart your own ideas on entitlement. 

You can tap into Personal Gratification with fun events like wine tasting or trips to baseball games.  They want to have fun and feel like they are being pampered (which is what you are doing with the WOW!  Experience we previously talked about.)

When you talk to retirees, emphasize how hard they worked to get where they are… good amount of assets… low debt… and good income stream.  When you do this, you are tapping into a trait that they are extremely proud of… their work ethic.

All your marketing should be emphasizing their need for control.  They have an overriding fear that control of their lives might be taken away from them.  It could be having to change their lifestyle because their money isn’t performing as they thought.  It could be having a health problem that causes them to have to change their living situation.  It could be law or economic changes, like Social Security changes, that makes them realize that how they thought things were going to go isn’t exactly how they go in reality.

That said, Boomers are optimists, so always end your marketing with a positive note… a can-do attitude.

And finally, tap into their need to rebel. That they can make things happen, that they do not need to put up with the status quo… they can do things “their” way. When you tap into these 6 traits, you are going to see your marketing and your practice grow.

You want more referrals?  You must WOW your clients.  Just keeping them satisfied may keep them as clients, but it isn’t going to get them to refer to you.  You must give them something to brag about.  Something that your competitors are not doing. 

You and your competitors sell the same things and offer the same services… so you must do something outside your normal range of offerings to get their attention.  You must surprise them to get them bragging about you to their friends.

I’ve seen dentists do this by putting TVs on the ceiling and offering foot massages during exams.   Does this make them better dentists?  NO!  But it does get their patients bragging about their dentist visit to their friends!

I’ve seen advisors do this by hiring a mobile car wash service to wash their clients’ cars in the parking lot during their appointments.  Do you want to bet these clients brag about it to their friends? 

Hiring a mobile car washing service is expensive and time consuming… that said, this advisor doesn’t care because he works with the cream of the crop in his town and it more than pays off for him.

But… what can any, and every advisor do to create some semblance of this type of over-the-top customer service?  I’ve created what I call the WOW! Experience that any advisor’s office can put together for their clients and prospects.  It creates that feeling that Norm from Cheers got every time he walked into the bar, and everyone greeted him with, “Norm!”  The best thing… is you can create this terrific experience for you clients for less than a couple of bucks per client.  If you are ready to take your customer experience to the next level (and get your clients bragging about you), download your free step-by-step manual, courtesy of 5Q Group, here.

If I Googled you and your business, would I see Google reviews?  If so, how many… how old… how many stars?  In today’s world, reviews matter.  How much time and effort are you putting toward your reviews and image?

Would you work with an accountant with fifty-seven 5-Star reviews… or one with 12 reviews at 4.3?  If you are like most, you are going to go with the former. 

So, how do you get people to review you?  If you have great service… some people will review.  If you have great service AND reward them… MOST people will review, you.

Six weeks ago, I got an invisible fence for my adorable pooch.  There are five companies that offer invisible dog fencing.  I chose the company with 158 reviews, all 5-Star… even though it was a company I’d never heard of before.

It was a fantastic choice!  They have been fabulous, but I never would have chosen them without the reviews.  I would have gone with best known company.  Funny, the best-known company had less reviews and a lower star rating.

I learned how this smaller company was able to foster such a remarkable review profile. 

1. At the installation and training on the fence, the people were excellent.  Right before they left, they told us that in a month or so we would receive a request for a review.  If we did do the review… regardless of whether it was a good or bad review… they would send us a 5 year’s supply of batteries for our dog’s invisible fence collar.
2. The next week we received a call asking how things were going.
3. Over the next 4 weeks we received a text message each week and a helpful email with value added information each week.
4. I replied to two of the texts and they got back to me with helpful explanations within an hour.
5. And then, 5 weeks later we received an email with the request and links for a review (Yelp, Google or Angie) and reminded us that if we reviewed them… regardless of the review… they’d send us the batteries.  We only had to review on one platform.
   1. They even gave me a list of the kinds of things I could mention in the review
6. I reviewed with a 5-Star, because I truly believed they deserved it… I notified them… and 2 days later I got the batteries in the mail.

Here’s the thing… even though I thought they gave 5-Star service… I never would have taken the time to do it if they hadn’t rewarded me… and made it easy by providing the link.

This is a simple process with stunning results… are you willing to do it with your business?  If you want more people in your office, it is worth the time and effort.

Are people skeptical?  Do they ever trust us right out of the gate?  No.

We are in a Catch 22.  They won’t work us until we can show that we care… but we can’t show that we care until they work with us.  This is a failure loop.

The only way out of this loop is to provide value BEFORE you talk about their money.  I you go out on first date with someone and all you talk about is sex… what do they know about you?  If all of your first conversations with prospective clients are about their money… what do they know about you?  You just want to get at their money.  At least that’s what they think in their minds.

How do you get around this distrust?  How can you provide value up front?  Give them information they can use right now!

• Do timely videos on what is going on with the economy
• Send out a checklist that tells them: 1) What they should keep in their files 2) How long to keep those documents and 3) Suggest they should shred anything else
  • Better yet, rent a shredding truck and do a community shredding event
• Offer to help people decide whether it is better to lease a car, take out a loan or buy outright.  This is confusing to almost everyone and they don’t trust the car salespeople.
• Offer a Legacy Letter workshop at your place of worship— A Legacy Letter is a way for you to share your values, life lessons, cherished memories, hopes for your family’s future, and anything else that is really important to you. This isn’t a will, so you won’t be assigning any of your assets.  Here’s a guide to help you and your clients get started with that https://www.lakespublishing.com/gifts/Bonus-Legacy.pdf

There are many other ways you can do this but in today’s distrustful environment… always think about providing value in your marketing… long before you try to get them to commit to an appointment.

What is that thing that retirees love?  Their grandkids!  And on average they spend $2,500 a year on them!  They buy toys… take them on vacation… help with tuition.  And remember, that $2,500 is on average.  That means the affluent likely is spending much more than that.

So, what are you offering to retirees, who are grandparents, that would make them want to speak with you?  Funding future college?  Seeing how an IUL could provide tax free income for their grandkids for life?  There are many, many ways you can help someone create a legacy for themselves through their grandkids.

But if you try to approach them with these ideas through typical marketing or with a blunt pitch… you are going to get ignored.  How then can you get their attention and trust so that you can begin the conversation with a caring vs. sales angle?

Here are some ideas:

• Rent a movie theater to show a kid friendly movie and invite all your client’s who are grandparents or have them bring THEIR parents (the previous generation), who are your client’s kid’s grandparents.  With theaters struggling, you’d be surprised how cheaply you can do this!
• Have a bounce house party!  There are many inflatable entities that cater to bounce parties.
• Offer a special report like this one   https://www.lakespublishing.com/gifts/Bonus-Grandparents.pdf

What you want to do is make sure that you connect with grandparents in a caring way… BEFORE you bring up the financial.  When you do this, it will create a conversation where you are being helpful, not greedy.