A few weeks ago I wrote about how we are currently in one of the best possible environments to get new clients.  Well, how are you doing on that?

Last week I set two new appointments with multimillion dollar prospects.  I’m running the appointments tomorrow and the potential is huge.

As most of you know, earlier this year I started marketing in a brand new part of the country with no office, no staff, and no contacts.  I did a seminar right out of the gates and gathered about $3 million in new AUM.  One of those new clients is who referred both of these prospects.

Here’s the cool part and what you can copy.

The referrals came via my blog (not this one, my business blog).  I didn’t beg, grovel, or awkwardly put the new client on the spot.  I just provided value in a time investors were frustrated and let my blog readers know to share the blog posts/videos with people they thought might get value.

The beauty of this method is I’m simutaneously creating value for my clients and giving them an easy way to introduce me to the people they influence.  Everyone wins.

So if you aren’t getting new referrals without ever directly asking for them just follow these steps:

1. Gather all your client and prospects email addresses.
2. Start a blog.
3. Send an email to your list letting them know to check out the blog.
4. Take 15 minutes each week to make a post or put up a quick video.
5. At the end of each post or video let people know how to automatically subscribe to future updates AS WELL as how to share the blog with their friends, colleagues, etc.

After about 6 weeks you’ll find your list growing and inbound questions coming in.  Every couple of months make an offer via one of your posts that if your readers have questions you are happy for a personal phone call or meeting to help them out.  Give the phone call or meeting a cool name and explain in advance what the benefit is for them to take you up on the offer.

That’s it.  It’s easy and will help you grow your business.

If that’s not enough, it will also free up time.  For me, since I started my blog the amount of calls and emails from clients have dropped dramatically.  It’s like overcoming objections before they come up.  Sales 101.

Now the final touches to this blog post:

If you’ve not checked out MM1 Method yet – I’d suggest you do now.  You can get there by going to www.MM1Method.com.  There’s 4 free videos as well as the big reveal to our next session which opens this week.  Vegas this time around and it’s sure to be a blast.  Not only will I be covering everything an advisor needs to do to grow their business old-school – I’ll also be teaching all the new school methods using the web (blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

Cheers,

JW

A couple weeks ago I surveyed the roughly 300 investors who follow my personal blog at www.JasonWenk.com.  What I was looking to know was how investors were feeling about the market, economy, and what information they were most interested in learning about in today’s market.

I wasn’t totally surprised, but some things were pretty eye opening.

Here’s what I learned:

I found that of the 153 clients of my firm that completed the survey 152 were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied”.  One client was “dissatisfied”.  The reason for the dissatisfied client was (to use exact words) – “This requires a dialog to convey effectively. A simple note box is not effective. However, to start, you have not met expectations instilled by your comments at the dinner introducing your firm.”

Stings at first, but hey, that’s why survey’s of your clients is important.  One other client suggested we communicate more regularly – which should really make other advisors take note as I meet with all clients twice per year, write a 4-6 page quarterly commentary, and post videos and text blogs almost every week.  If you’re not keeping up then I would imagine your clients/prospects feel the same or worse regarding contact.

I asked in the survey “In your opinion, what do you think is the greatest concern facing investors in the coming one to three years?”

55.8% replied a potential stock market crash
23.3% replied inflation
14% replied low interest rates
4.7% replied bad financial advice (keep in mind about half of those surveyed are currently non-clients)
2.3% replied high investing costs

I asked “Do you think rising USA national debt is a major issue for investors?”

83.7% replied yes
10.2% replied no
6.1% replied not sure

I asked “Do you think social programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will still be around in 20 years?”

81.6% replied yes, but with reduced benefits
8.2% replied yes
4.1% replied no
6.1% were unsure

I asked “What do you think the value of the US stock market will be in 12 months?” (this was mostly gathered the last week of August and first week of September, 2011)

39.1% thought it would be up between 1% and 10%
23.9% thought it would be down between 1% and 10%
21.7% thought it would be about the same as today
10.9% thought it would be 10% or more than it is today
4.3% thought it would be down 10% or more than it is today

I asked “What do you think is the smartest investment for the next year?”

33.3% said US stocks
25% said Gold
22.2% said Foreign stocks
8.3% said Cash or money markets
5.6% said Bonds
5.6% said Real Estate

For that same question I also allowed investors to type in other and leave comments.  Here’s a snippet of what was left:

I asked “Are you worried about the economy or investment markets at this time?”

75.5% said Yes
14.3% said No
10.2% were unsure

My last question is harder to type out that just show the image, so here that one is.  I asked “Please Rate the value of educational information on the following topics:”

So what does this tell us as financial advisors?

Well, first of all investors are concerned.  There is tremendous opportunity to be the advisor that leads investors in your marketplace.  Second, it tells you exactly how you should be marketing right now to attract new clients.  Lastly, it tells you precisely what you need to be doing for your existing clients to ensure they stay with you, refer you, and are happy doing both.

If you’d like me to spell out what I’m doing with this information – here’s my action plan:

1. Continue to use my blog to deliver information on where we see the market going, whether good or bad; as well as updated on how US debt, inflation, and a potentially lowered value of the dollar impacts investors.
2. I’m building some educational webinars for clients and prospects to get more in-depth information on how to manage investment risk, including the risks of a major market crash, inflation, and low interest rates.  This may spill over into some live local seminars as well.
3. In my quarterly letters to clients I’m going to start a feature article written by an outside expert in areas I’m not an expert.  For example, in the areas of ways to reduce income taxes and estate taxes.
4. I’m going to continue to use surveys at least once per year to measure satisfaction among existing clients.  And I plan to take hear what they have to say about ways we can improve the services of my firm.

I hope you found my sharing this useful.  If you’d like to copy my survey there are a bunch of free tools that make it easy.  I used SurveyMonkey.com to manage my survey and you can find the link to my actual survey at www.JasonWenk.com.  Just don’t try to complete the survey and give bogus results.  I’m sharing to help everyone out in better serving their clients and communities.  Advisors trolling and giving bogus feedback hurts us all.

That’s it for now.  Now get out there and make something positive happen in your practice/community.

Best,

JW