Marketing Or Sales? Why Choose?

Most marketing people will tell you that marketing is the key to selling anything, if the client or customer doesn’t know about it then they’re never going to buy it. The salespeople will tell you that marketing is great but if you don’t know how to sell and have good people doing it, all the marketing in the world will never make a dime. So, the world goes round and each believes they are the moneymaker for the company but in reality, without either of them the system doesn’t work.

Now if you’re the kind of advisor that says,"I’m not a salesperson, I advise my clients on their options!” Well, I hate to tell you, but you don’t know what business you’re in. You Are In Sales…actually, no matter what we do, we are in sales and that’s not a bad thing. The only issue is, without marketing, selling is much harder! I know some people don’t like to think they are salespeople but it’s the truth; the client is buying you, your strategies, your products and your philosophy so don’t mistake the fact that you are a fiduciary or any other thing into believing you’re not in sales. People will work with people they like and trust but if they don’t know much about you it’s a lot more work to get them to agree to work with you. That’s why content marketing is so powerful, it allows you to connect with potential clients well before you ever have a conversation, exchange an email or meet in person. It gives you an advantage because they get to know who you are, what you stand for, why you do this work and how you can help them. This alone will ensure you’re meeting with more qualified people who already know what you do, who you are and how you can help them!

Okay, now that we have that out of the way; as we all know, if you’re in sales, your main focus needs to be on getting new clients, taking care of your current ones and doing administrative work to keep the business operating smoothly; that is if you aren’t supported by an admin already. Because of the time invested in gaining a new client and running the business, the marketing you do (in many circumstances) is probably a passive style of marketing and it isn’t generating the kind of results you expect, need and deserve. That’s because your whole focus is on what’s important, running the operations of your practice day to day and seeing new prospects and current clients alike. The more people you see, the more opportunity to help people and bring in new business. That’s the catch-22, you need to market your business to grow and to grow your business you need to see people; so you’re forced to do 1 of 2 things more than the other.

You can either spend your hours in a day marketing your business so tomorrow you have people to see, or you can see people, make money and do the marketing another day. Usually, in my experience, it’s the latter that most advisors choose because they all know the truth, people in the seats equals new business and marketing doesn’t guarantee new business will come to you. But, if you can, why not get the best of both worlds? What if you could hire a marketing expert who can help fine-tune a strategy that fits your business philosophy, attracts new clients, builds your brand and allows you to focus on what you do best, seeing clients? What if the money you spent on marketing isn’t a cost but an investment? What if you viewed the fees you paid to that marketing expert as an investment in the future of your practice? I’m here to tell you that’s exactly how you should view marketing and marketing spend.

But, none of that changes the fact that marketing as a financial advisor can be a bit nerve-racking considering all the legal mines we can step on as advisors. Dealing with compliance and regulatory boards are 2 major headaches that all professionals face. The fact remains though, those advisors willing to take the risk are being rewarded handsomely for their effort. It is still a barren field in social media for financial advisors, insurance professionals, CPA’s and attorneys to make their mark! By starting a content marketing strategy today, you are creating an investment in yourself and your business that will pay dividends for years to come. Once you begin to build a following, get people to know who you are and become omnipresent you’ll be unstoppable! That is our goal at AMP, to make you unstoppable and give you the tools and strategies to execute your most grand plans. Customizing a content marketing strategy takes time, creativity, mindfulness of your market and a deep understanding of the current trends, tools and platforms available. It is something that can take a day to learn but years to master so why try to do it all yourself? Let us help you craft your approach, we will work with compliance, ensure all our content passes our comprehensive checklist of characteristics to meet or exceed your expectations.

So, there are a few ways to go from here, you can either decide to take it on yourself, to figure it out and do your own marketing, you can invest in courses and other guides, you can go to marketing events (When they start happening again!) and you can read a ton of stuff online but that might just confuse you even more. OR, you hire an expert firm to craft a strategy specific to your audience, create custom campaigns, fine-tune your website and SEO, flesh out your social media, create video, audio, written and graphical content, begin to drip campaign to a list of approved clients, craft a powerful referral gathering strategy through value based marketing and do it all with the approval of your marketing and compliance department! If you ask me, it sounds worth any investment to get the results you deserve! So, stop wasting your own time and start working smart, schedule an initial consultation with Michael and the AMP Marketing Co. team. Our initial meeting doesn't cost anything but the time it takes to have it!