Taking Risks and Reaping Rewards

Honesty isn’t easy

It's very difficult to balance the desire to please with the need for honesty. Far too often you're in a situation where it's not all wine and roses and you need to tell someone something they don't want to hear. You need a plan to deal with that situation.

Here's a couple of idea's that may help:

Review the situation to date to frame the problem and put it in perspective.

Identify and get them to acknowledge the facts as the relate the to problem.

Explain how that set of facts, not them, can lead to situation that troubles you. Potentially use a case study or example to show that they aren't the only ones that have this set of facts. Statistics could help here, but a story, a personal one perhaps, would have more impact.

Always end with the good news and there is always some good news. The most obvious good news is that you can't fix a problem that you don't know you have. So that's a positive. There are probably others. By putting the good news last, you more toward options in a better frame of mind.

Assess the clients understanding of the situation without them having to decide what to do. Once the acknowledge the problem, your half way home.

Assess both your need and their need for additional information. Often they haven't told you everything nor have you communicated all they want to hear. Flush out any communication issues.

Be aware of unshared meanings and emotions. What risk means to you is likely not the same as them, for example. Also, they may have emotional ties to things that you wouldn't have any idea about, ie. grandma's inheritance.

Identify all their concerns, and help break them down to manageable concerns through prioritization and differentiating between what's in their/your control and what's not.

Clearly articulate your suggested action plan with exactly what they should do and what the probabilities of the potential outcomes are. All support for your suggestions should be used here (using a third party as evidence ie. study from well-known name, or research firm, etc. will help here as that third part endorsement of your suggestion course of action is like a second opinion. It also works better if it's in writing.)

Try to stay as positive as possible, giving hope and emphasizing the quality of their overall life, despite this issue. You want to be their safety net, the one that they count on to make sure they don't get in trouble. They may want to shoot the messenger, so be sure you lay out the facts that they told you, and those from other third parties that suggest courses of action, and then the options as you see them with your recommendation - All without a hint of judgement.

Don't rush to action. Let it settle in.

Offer to talk to others that are involved.

Set up a follow up appointment so they don't have to make a decision and can go consider their options.

Make the written materials available.

Consider their other support systems. Who else to they confide in? Would they agree that this is an issue and with your analysis. If not, consider bringing that up ahead of time. For example, if Grandma told them not to ever sell that stock, and you believe that they should for a good reason, then you need to address Grandma's interests or they are unlikely to follow your advice.

I hope those help. I have no evidence to support my claim that honest objectivity builds trust, but it is nevertheless my claim.

Attract and maintain clients

PR is supposed to attract and maintain clients. So even for a new planner it's possible to use it effectively. New clients will either hear about you in the press or you can send your clippings to them, use them in marketing materials, etc. Existing clients will be happy that you are at the status that your opinion is being sought after.

Storytelling

One of the most powerful ways to connect with prospects, clients, colleagues, and economic buyers of the world is through storytelling. All our life we've been told stories: as children, in school, at camp, through books, movies, opera and even TV and radio commercials. As humans we're hard-wired for stories. We're conditioned to respond to them...and we do. You can use stories to effectively sell yourself and your services.

Cost of promoting seminars

Many people have gone broke promoting seminars and events. It's a gamble. But let me say this: A 1% response to direct mail is really good, probably more like 1/2% So if it cost you $300 for the room, and $200 in misc expenses, you could spend $1500 on mailings, which after printing and postage of about .50 each, gives you about 3,000 pieces. at one percent it's 30 people, at .5% it's 15. Not counting your time, you can see how the costs add up quickly.

Column for a local paper

If you like to write, consider doing a column for a local paper. Many small papers will print your work and give you some advertising space in return. These are small papers, but with your market, it might just be the ticket to building a reputation.

PR is free media attention

Advertising costs money, while PR is free media attention. Writing for magazines is better as you can get paid for it and it will advertise you to a certain extent. You could call it PR, but I doubt anyone in the PR biz would call it that. PR would be a magazine doing a story about you. ;-) Basically, public relations is getting someone in the media to promote you in some way.

What can you do for them?

Your most important consideration regarding media centers on what you can do for them and their readers or viewers. Their business needs ratings to be successful. If you can help them with that, they don't mind you gaining an advantage from the relationship as well. But you need to be clearly focused on what you are delivering to their audience that will benefit them and make them better off. The media, generally speaking, couldn't care less about you, unless you help them with their audience in some way. You need to get more people to watch their show. If you can do that, you can be a star! (well, at least you can get booked on some shows or quoted in the paper)

Email marketing

Email marketing, commonly referred to as SPAM, is surely NOT a way to get clients. It's a way to ruin your good name and make people hate you. However, we have to consider email as a contact method that we can use. No doubt that some communication with existing clients will occur though email, but also we can use email to communicate and find perspective clients.The main way to find clients with email is through a email newsletter or email magazine or ezine for short. Perhaps you already get a few of these. I do. I get them from people that have something interesting and helpful to say on a regular basis. Yes, they are also trying to sell me something but I am willing to trade being open to a sales pitch for their content.

Advantages of your approach

Advisers should differentiate themselves through their approach to planning. Sometimes we take it for granted that everyone does basically the same thing and we forget that we are actually different, sometimes quite a bit different. This difference can be used to our advantage. You need to spell out how you work with clients, the advantages of your approach, and why it should be clear to your ideal client that you are exactly what's needed.

Add clarity

A side benefit to generating your own marketing material is that the process of developing these materials can add clarity that you won't have until you put it on paper. Also, it's easier to talk about your services and yourself after you have written it into a brochure or other materials.