To my personal amazement, their answers to the first question filled three pages of my flipchart easel. Clients told us that they really enjoyed our personal touch, having access to me personally, and the "boutique firm in a niche market" uniqueness that they'd never experienced before while with an institutional brokerage firm. "We feel like family whenever we see you all," several clients told us.
Later that night, we gave each couple three invitations to yet another dinner, an educational, invitation-only seminar to be held two weeks later at a local conference center. We asked them to "help us help you," by introducing us to people just like them, with similar needs in comparable circumstances, people whom they suspected we could help the way we'd helped them—and to accompany those people to that event. Doing so would help ensure that their personal access to me could continue, sparing us time-intensive marketing, and leaving more time to serve their needs.
Because of the strength of the relationships in the room at that second event, nearly every guest present became a new client in the weeks that followed. Moreover, because they became clients that way, many of those new clients have since introduced us to multiple "generations" of their friends and relatives. We now have table clusters of "Referral Families" at our annual Client Partner's Appreciation events, people whom we seat together, who bring altogether new guests each year, and whose satisfied laughter fills the ballroom within minutes of their arrival.
In mentoring other advisors nationally, my staff and I encourage them to stop selling, and create an experience instead—and to lose the term "database." Replace that list of sales conquests with a "client family" that will actively promote your brand and your mission. By doing so, you'll make every day in the office a series of warm introductions and annual reunions with great friends.
Next month: The importance of a mission statement
"We were spending too much time pursuing new clients and not enough time serving our
existing ones."
Thomas K. Brueckner is president and CEO of Senior Financial Resources, Inc. in Nashua, N.H., and Strategic Asset Conservation, Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. He is a Senior Market Advisor 2011 Advisor of the Year Finalist.
