Are you creating your ideal market or hoping to find it?
Most advisors have an idea of the market they serve, on a broad level at least. Whether it be the medical market or Law or small business owners, you have an idea of the makeup of your book of business. But, I would argue that isn’t enough to really know who your ideal prospects are and that makes it difficult to prospect and market yourself successfully.
Let’s pretend I asked you, and you said you focus on the medical market (that’s probably like 78% of you anyway). Well, that could be a phlebotomist or a neurosurgeon, you see the dilemma? These are both medical professionals but their professional lives are very different, especially their income and demand, level of training, even prestige. Okay, before you get the pitchforks out, I’m not bashing phlebotomists, they are just as important but as an advisor, you need to know, how you reach them will be vastly different because of those differences.
If you have a book over 50 clients, it’s time to start doing some work to understand who those people are. I’m sure, as a good advisor, you know your clients but have you done a formal interview with them?
Let me get to the meat of this; how do you tap into your current book to grow and create new client relationships? Most, advisors know they need to get introductions, of course that’s true but the way I was taught to do that never really panned out for me. Basically asking the client if they “find what I do valuable, would you introduce me to a few people like you, who could benefit from the work I do?” I was taught to bring an actual list, from their LinkedIn, and start going through it with them, this person, this one, how bout them etc.?
It never really happened, so I started thinking about how I could get my clients to buy into the process. I realized, of course, there is nothing in it for the client unless I have given them massive value and they think that’s worth sharing but they are also taking a social risk introducing people to their insurance advisor, it can be awkward, etc. so even then they may be hesitant or unsure how to broach it so you have to guide them. But, I realized, if I came up with a process that was about the client, about being able to serve them at a higher level and understanding their motivations, fears and insecurities around money and financial planning, that is valuable and would give me insight into how I could earn introductions.
That is where I developed The Framework™ and a the first part of The Framework is The AQ™ which is what this post is all about! The AQ™ is a guided interview framework that gives you a list of probing, information seeking questions that will help you do 3 things;
To build stronger, more resilient client relationships
To better understand how we can serve our best clients and all the things that would make that possible from the clients perspective.
To help you as the advisor, narrow down on your ideal market, create a profile of your ideal client and use that profile to target market ideal prospects who mirror your A-Team clients.
The AQ™ and the entire AMP Framework™ are about sharing actionable ideas and strategies that advisors can implement to grow their business, increase client adoption and expand their reach.
Within The AQ™ we touch on personality, relationships, motivators, detractors, their favorite things, and most importantly the people in the client’s lives. Want to take advantage of The AQ™ check out my website or sign-up for AQ specific updates here.