Financial Advisors Cold Calling | it doesn't work as well as it used to

Cold calling doesn’t work as well as warm marketing

For financial advisors, warm is better than cold! Why? Because cold calling can be exhausting. Facing rejection time and time again is hard on the ego. Too many “no’s” can turn a positive advisor into at demoralized advisor and cause “zombie face,” a condition where you stare at your computer screen not knowing what to do.

When financial advisors contact me for help in developing a prospecting plan, I coach them to develop multiple tactics, one of which is creating a Warm Marketing Plan.

What is a Warm Market?

A “Warm Market” is people you know, which could be:

Prospective clients
People who have expressed interest in your services but have not yet hired you
Friends
Relatives
Existing customers
Centers of influence
People from your Chicken List
Referrals

What is a Cold Market?

A Cold Market is a person who does not know you from Adam. They have never heard of you before, never spoken to you previously, and never met you in person. Many advisors I speak with continue to use “cold calling” to gain access to new prospects, despite the fact that it is not as effective as it once was due to caller id and the do not call list.

Cold Calling doesn’t work as well as it used to

Cold calling does not work as well as it used. Why not? I think you know. The Do Not Call List. People don’t want to be bothered in their homes by financial advisors they do not know.

Prospecting and Pipeline Success

With prospecting, you have a much greater chance of winning new business if you create a Warm Marketing Plan that sends your contacts a “touch” on a regular basis to your existing contacts in your pipeline. If your Warm Marketing Plan is aimed at people who already know you, success will follow because…

If you market to a list of 10 warm people over a 90-day period, you stand a good chance of winning 3-4 new clients

But you must have a Warm Marketing Plan that touches your list with a different tip, method, or idea, which they would find helpful and meaningful. Some advisors find it’s best to use an automated service so that you don’t have to be involved in a lot of time-consuming tasks.

You have two choices for creating a Warm Marketing Plan:

1.Develop your own custom Warm Marketing Plan

I have done this for my coaching practice using Aweber.com, a service that allows you to develop a series of automated emails that are sent at a predetermined time after the prospect “opts in” to download one of my e-books. I have created all my own content since I have a huge library of my own articles.

Want examples? Sign up for my ebook here.

As an example, some of my topics are:
Are you using inbound marketing?
3 Income Growth Strategies
4 Typical Business Errors Advisors Make
7 Powerful Success Strategies
80% of Sales are Made on the 5^th to 12^th Contact

2.Use an automated service. I have several that I can recommend to my clients.

Many of my clients have used an automated service successfully to create digital marketing programs that are pre-approved by most compliance departments. When they meet a prospective client at a networking event, they ask permission to add them to their “newsletter list.” When they have a meeting with a prospect that does not immediately become a client, they add them to the list. Existing clients are also added to the list. The choice of email topics, touch points, holiday emails, interesting articles, and other topics, all lead to a repeated pattern of communication. This in turn, leads to new clients.

Warm Marketing Equals Success

The reason a Warm Marketing Plan is so successful is that it can take up to 5-12 contacts for a prospective client to be READY to do business with you. If you have never heard of this concept, please place this search term into a search engine like Google or Bing: “number of times a person must see an advertisement before they will act.”

I will paraphrase it here:

The first time a marketing message is sent, the receiver does not even see it
The second time, they vaguely notice it
The third time, they think “oh there’s that person’s message again”
The fourth time, they think “maybe I should read this message”
The fifth time, they DO read the message
The sixth time, they have a need for what you offer
The seventh time, they have experienced pain over not taking action
The eighth time, they take action and contact you!
Or it continues on until they have a need

Hi, I’m Suzanne. I coach financial advisors like you.

I can help YOU!

I have been coaching Financial Advisors and Investment Managers on Prospecting Coaching since 2004! I help you build a professional business where you are growing and becoming the person and firm you’ve always wanted.

Just imagine what you could accomplish!

If I’m offering this wonderful information, imagine what else I could help you achieve! Consider completing the Consultation Form to explore how we may work together.