Five ways to generate more leads

Willamette's founder and owner, Alan Koloen, recommends using direct mail only as a way to promote seminars or as a recruiting tool. The mailers help with name exposure and grab the attention of others. He says coupling it with another mass communication tool, such as print media, when not promoting a seminar, is more effective.

Media
Traditional approaches to media exposure, such as print advertisements, garner business, but some advisors have taken it a step further.

Jeff Kowal is the founder and president of Kowal Investment Group located in Elm Grove, Wis. Once a week, he hosts a one-hour, call-in radio show called "The Retirement Clinic." He also provides daily market reports on the same station to the Milwaukee area. He started in radio in 1996 and by 2001 had the backing of a 50,000-watt talk-radio station, with several Saturday morning shows.

In order to distinguish himself from the other shows, he chose the subject of retirement and targets those already in retirement as well as those about to retire. He believes it has helped in name recognition but says it is difficult to track exactly how much business it has brought him.

Integrated Direct and Integrated Interactive are wholly owned direct and interactive marketing agencies based in New York. They incorporate the high traffic volume of the Internet with the generation of leads through a variety of sources, including pay-per-click advertising programs. The cost for these can range anywhere from $.30 to $10 per click. They account for approximately 20 percent of the companies' business.

Web-based lead management companies
Leadbot, an independent Internet marketing company based in Tempe, Ariz., began in 1998 in response to the growing number of consumers using the Internet as a research tool to start the buying process.

Individual producers, as well as executives in the market for regional and national producers, use the service to get leads for their businesses. The leads are all Internet-based and come namely from search engines and marketing affiliates. Leadbot itself sells no financial products.

Leadbot's president and co-founder, Ben Wagner, says there are other similar companies, but his sells only exclusive leads, opposed to a lead sold with full disclosure multiple times.

The tradeoff with exclusive leads is higher cost, but advisors are not then in direct competition with three to five other advisors chasing after the same lead.

"We believe our biggest differentiator lies in the amount of technology that goes into qualifying a lead before it is released to a customer. Our systems analyze both the telephone numbers provided and words used in any prospect's quote request to determine whether it should be discarded as bad or frivolous information. Leads which pass both tests then get an automated phone call to give the prospect a choice to opt out of the process prior to being assigned a producer," Wagner says.

Avoid these mistakes
Developing leads is not easy. An advisor's success often depends on numerous external factors and where the client is in the decision-making process.

There are some things you can avoid to increase your chances of success:

1. Develop a plan and know the ratios. Koloen says it is important to understand how the ratios work. "Seldom is there any attention paid to the end result beyond making appointments. registered reps do not calculate the number of contacts it will take to make one appointment, and how many appointments it will take to make a sale, and how many sales it will take to consider this marketing activity a success. Without knowing these critical numbers, advisors often have too high expectations and too few contacts, which leads to frustration because they were unable to generate quality leads."

2. Don't let fear of rejection hold you back. Rosalind Joseph of AXA Financial in New York City believes success as a financial professional takes strong business skills, as well as initiative. "Failure to implement a sufficient suite of planned activities, (i.e., developing prospects and appointments) and exhibiting poor networking skills are some common missteps." And the hardest part about developing a lead is getting over the fear of rejection.

3. Don't go it alone. Garland says the biggest mistake advisors make is trying to handle everything on their own. He states the second biggest mistake is going beyond their level of expertise by guessing at an answer.

Both high- and low-cost solutions exist for keeping the pipeline full. Even in a new market there are many ways to get started and keep the business flowing. Don't forget that constant reminders of your name and the services you provide will bring clients to your doorstep.