Two or three times a year, we will invite an advisor to our offices to host his or her private, one-day marketing retreat. We used to do a lot more, but I am too busy with my own practice!
We just hosted one last week and I realized the process we use could be good for readers to implement on their own. This is the perfect time of year to do a marketing retreat, so you can be ready to go in January with a plan to see lots of new people in 2014.
First, do these work? A few years ago, we did a marketing plan around a very successful advisor's 30th anniversary in the business. Prior to the marketing plan, he had two qualified, hot prospects in his pipeline. After the plan, he had over 50! Putting the effort into your marketing plan, can pay huge dividends if you do it right.
Second: Always start with the goals of the day. Here are some typical things we cover in our retreats:
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Identifying the ideal or heavenly client
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Identifying the ideal client's pain points
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How do you, as a firm, fix their pain?
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Why do your favorite clients enjoy working with you?
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Draft your compelling story
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Draft an elevator statement
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Draft a tagline
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Create a 12-month plan of educational and social events to go after the ideal client
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Address ancillary marketing efforts like newsletters and memberships in different groups
Yes, this is a lot to cover in one day. I remember one successful client firm that had over 20 million-dollar advisors—it took me three days just to draft their compelling story. If you can't get this done in one day, then just add additional days until you cover all these items.
Third: I find these retreats are hard for advisors to do alone. They work best when you can get as many of your team involved as possible. If you don't have a team now, then I would look to strategic partners, spouses or people at your broker-dealer to help. You will need someone to bounce your ideas off of. It helps to have a young intern there with a laptop to take notes. I also find these retreats work best when you are off-site and not distracted with the day-to-day of running an advisory business.
Fourth: Before the meeting, it helps to survey your top clients—the ones you want to clone. We have a few questions we like to ask, but the most important one is: "Please give us three reasons you like doing business with us." One of the things we do in the retreat is to consolidate these responses into our compelling story. If they appeal to our favorite clients, the same services are likely to appeal to our ideal prospects.
