The Referral Magnet Growing Your Financial Practice Through the People You Already Know

:	Kelly Edwards
:	The Referral Magnet Growing Your Financial Practice Through the People You Already Know
:	Lioncrest Publishing
:	9781544509716
:	1
:	CHF 10.50
:

:	Werbung, Marketing
:	English

:	274
:	kein Kopierschutz
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	ePUB

Choosing a financial advisor is one of the most important decisions people make in life. They're entrusting someone with their livelihood, their future, and their family, so the choice is not something they take lightly. Given the stakes, the search almost always begins with a referral, and that's why the most successful advisors in the industry are the ones who know how to get them and are proactive in doing so. In The Referral Magnet, Kelly Edwards shares the formula for generating more referrals than ever before, all without asking for them. Her proven approach has been used by successful advisors all over the country to become more referable and make small but impactful changes in how they operate. This paradigm-shifting book is packed with practical advice you can implement right away, and includes downloadable content for each chapter along with stories from the industry's top advisors about their creative solutions, lessons learned, and mistakes made along the way. The search for a 'magic bullet' is over. Referrals are-and always will be-the best way to grow your financial practice, and this book shows you how to get more of them than ever before.

Introduction

“How do you get new clients?” That’s one of the first questions I ask every financial advisor who hires me, and the vast majority give me some variation of the same answer.

“I know this is bad, but they’re mostly just referrals. I know I should be doing marketing; I just never have. But that’s why I’ve hired you!”

I love hearing that answer, and not because it means I’m getting a new client. I love it because it means I’m about to give them a big paradigm shift, and it’s going to be the first step in a process I love—turning them into a Referral Magnet.

Most advisors think of their referrals as a naturally occurring thing, and if theyreally want to grow their business, they need to do marketing to reach people they have no connection to. In most industries, they’d be right, but this is not like most industries.

The Anomaly of Advisor Marketing

Over the last twenty years, I’ve done marketing for lots of different industries. From real estate to restaurants, from hotels to hospitals, I’ve done it all, and I can tell you that advisor marketing is truly unique for several reasons.

First of all, in most other industries, the sky is the limit when it comes to how you’re allowed to market your business, but it’s not that simple in the financial world. There are rules—lots and lots of rules—from FINRA, the SEC, brokers, and more. Trust me, I work with compliance on behalf of my clients every day, so I know how frustrating all the rules can be and how hard it is to keep up as they change. You can’t just listen to a marketing podcast or read a hot new marketing book and implement what you learn; you have to figure out what you’re allowed to do and how you’re allowed to do it.

The restrictions really complicate things, and marketing is complicated enough in the digital era. Twenty years ago, when I started my career, digital marketing was just a small segment of the industry. Now itis the industry. It’s the dominant form of marketing today, and the platforms and methods are constantly changing. There’s always something new around the corner, and it’s hard for advisors to keep up with what they should be doing and whether they’re allowed to do it.

The rules and restrictions definitely complicate things, but that’s not the main reason advisor marketing is an anomaly. It’s because of what’s at stake when someone is looking for an advisor.

Think about this for a second. If you were deciding where to go for lunch today, how would you make the decision? How much time and energy would you put into choosing the restaurant? If you’re like most people, it would just come down to what’s convenient and sounds good. What if you were deciding where to take your spouse for a special anniversary dinner? Would it still be aspur-of-the-moment decision based on what was most convenient and sounded good? Hopefully not! If you value your marriage, you’d probably plan ahead, ask for recommendations, and maybe read some reviews. Your approach would be different because there’s more at stake.

Now think about ho