November 12, 2018

How do you offer more to your ideal clients?

Why would financial advisors offer more? More value, more services, more advice? This will take time, effort and will cost more. After all, they are happy with me and appreciate what we do. Why would you want to do more?

Who is your competition?
In today's competitive environment, can you confidently make that argument with your top 25 clients? Do you do annual feedback and total transparency with your ideal clients? Unless you do feedback on an annual basis, is your business at risk? I know that 85% of advisors don’t do feedback (Business Health Pty Ltd. Key Value Drivers USA 2016 www.businesshealth.com.au ) so if your one of the 15% who do it annually, congratulations. If you also do total transparency, in other words, show the total annual fees in dollars and percentages (for example on a million-dollar portfolio, the total cost of advice and money management is $18,000 per year which equals 1.8%) then you can be confident that your ideal clients are happy with your current level of advice, service, and communication. But when was the last time you added more planning, more advice, more technology or more communication to your best clients? If you don’t add more, someone else will.

Why do more
I get it, why add more to your best clients, when you don’t have the time or capacity to do so? Time and capacity are the two biggest challenges I coach advisors on, as I hit capacity three times as an advisor, and it is not fun. It may be time to segment your business. Why would you do more, when your clients are happy? Well, let me change the question? Do you want to get more clients or better clients? We know the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you are looking for more ideal clients, who will pay more, don’t you think you will have to do more? Maybe the reason why you can’t get more ideal clients who will pay more is you. Think about this question for a minute.

Do wealthier clients expect and want more?

Are you delivering the same level of services, advice, and planning as someone with $500,000 and someone with 5 Million or more to invest? Why would anyone pay 10X as much for the same level of service? The sole reason why you should do more is that you can acquire more ideal clients who are already paying more to their current financial advisor or institution. If you are not interested in growing your practice, growing your revenue, delivering more, and growing your own skills, you can stop reading now.

An exercise of value
In my workshops with financial advisors, I ask them to write down what ideal high net worth clients are NOT getting from their current advisor or financial institution. The list is long, and details what advisors uncover why clients switch, what they are getting and not getting from their current advisor. Create your own list, go ahead grab a pen or keyboard and write out what you think ideal clients are NOT getting from their current financial advisor. The list ranges from advice, comprehensive planning, technology, communication and relationship with both spouses and the whole family. (In a future article I will give you the list) Now here is the problem. Do these ideal prospects understand that they are not getting these valuable services? In most cases, high net worth clients don’t know what they are getting and not getting for what they are paying for. This is the question to ask them. “How do you feel when you find out you are paying for something and not getting it?

What does doing more look like?
Now you have a list (or potential list) of services what ideal high net worth clients are not getting. Now you have a compelling reason to talk to them, to see if these items would be valuable to them, that they may or may not be currently getting. The better question is” What is your ideal client acquisition process and how do you articulate it for ideal clients and prospects?

Get more confidence in your practice 
If you are looking for more confidence and thinking of raising your fees or targeting clients who pay more, then contact us to help you with your ideal client acquisition process by emailing me at grant@ghicks.com or click my calendar to set up a time to talk about your practice management processes. https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ 

Grant Hicks, CIM, President, Coach and Consultant
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com