Free webinar — Using low-cost client lunches to build prospecting momentum

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Many advi­sors are strug­gling with a strat­egy to com­mu­ni­cate with prospec­tive clients.Last week, I con­ducted a webi­nar with U.S. advi­sor site Hors­es­mouth, out­lin­ing a sim­ple approach to prospect­ing using a series of low cost client lunches that advi­sors can host in their boardroom.

You can lis­ten to the webi­nar at the link below — there’s no cost, you sim­ply have to enter your email address.

http://​reg​is​ter​.web​cast​group​.com/​l​3​/​?​w​i​d​=​0​7​2​0​6​1​0​0​9​4​7​2​3​&​a​m​p​;​p​r​e=1

For much more infor­ma­tion, please visit http://​www​.cli​entin​sights​.ca.

Sorry, it turns out the webi­nar referred to above is no longer avail­able, how­ever, here is the tran­script of the pre­sen­ta­tion by Dan Richards:

Sur­pris­ing infor­mal sur­vey con­ducted by Dan Richards…says that the most com­mon answer is “None” when advi­sors are asked, “How much time did you spend in your office last week talk­ing with clients?”

Dan sug­gests advi­sors can host a reg­u­lar round­table lun­cheon series with their clients. It’s impor­tant that they do this regularly.

Only requires about three hours a week–two 90-minute time blocks. Book room for lunch, call peo­ple to invite.

Can hold them in your board­room, or a coun­try club or a pri­vate room at a restau­rant. No need to do it elaborately.

Dan rec­om­mends hold­ing it in your office and cater­ing with sandwiches.

Tim­ing: Do it from 12:30–1:30.

Says do two or three of these lun­cheons in your first campaign.

Goal for guests: eight or nine. Sug­gests that is opti­mum for dynam­ics. It’s a work­shop, not a pre­sen­ta­tion. Invite six or seven client and two or three prospects.

Looks and feels like a client event. That’s what you want. So you only want 33% prospects.

Rule of thumb for invites: Invite 10–15 prospects to get two or three.

Stay away from folks who are anx­ious or dom­i­nate dis­cus­sions. Avoid them for this approach.

What advi­sor should say on invites: “I’m host­ing a series lun­cheons this sum­mer. Hope you can come.” Say, “Next lunch is July 8. Does that work for you?” If no, go on to next two days.

Call them “infor­mal sand­wich lun­cheons to talk about the market.”

Says one advi­sor he knows does one lunch at his down­town office and then does other lun­cheons at firm’s branch offices in sub­urbs. Can also do other lunches at a hotel or restau­rant in sub­urbs.

Week One

Stress it’s very infor­mal, 10– to 15-minute talk in the begin­ning and then open­ing it up for ques­tions and conversations.

Prospects not typ­i­cally cold. You know them, but not that well. May play golf with them. Share mem­ber­ship in an orga­ni­za­tion. They’re not cold.

Break this car­di­nal rule of prospect­ing: Actu­ally leave mes­sage on voice mail if you’ve got a good rela­tion­ship with the per­son. They will call you back if it’s a good relationship.

Empha­size you’re lim­it­ing the lun­cheon to 10 peo­ple. Ask them on phone if they’re on some ques­tions or top­ics they’d like addressed. Ramps up com­mit­ment level. Also ask what type of sand­wich they want.

This is a low-stress invite. You give them three dates. If they say no to all three dates, then you can eval­u­ate whether they’re really inter­ested. Per­haps invite them by e-mail next time you do the campaign.

Write down now two to three names of peo­ple you can see poten­tially inviting.

Week Two

Con­nect with clients by phone who’ve agreed to come. Call to ask them about ques­tions they may have and get sand­wich order. If you have an open­ing, go ahead and ask them if they know any­one who might want to attend…

Struc­ture talk around ques­tions asked by attendees…Makes it per­sonal. Makes it more participatory.

If new to busi­ness, you can ask branch man­ager or whole­saler to be present to help with ques­tions. You deliver the talk.

Week Three

Final­ize open remarks. Prac­tice your remarks; you want to sound con­fi­dent. Send con­fir­ma­tion e-mails. Con­sider send­ing an arti­cle along or link to some­thing you’ve read that per­tains to talk.

Final details: It’s crit­i­cal to fol­low up with peo­ple who attend.

Tips: Think about seat­ing. Have pen and pad, and copy of slides if you use slides. Might ask some­one to ask first ques­tion. Be sure to have folks com­plete eval­u­a­tion. Keep it short and sweet. Use scale 1–4 on lun­cheon, talk, com­ments and a line for their name. Short and sweet.

Follow-up call with clients. Review eval­u­a­tion form. Any spe­cific ques­tions. Ask how they might sug­gest you change or improve the lunches. Respond to any ques­tions they have. Ask them if they want to attend one later in the future.

Follow-up call with prospects. Sim­i­lar as above but…

Over­all: Make prospect­ing a pri­or­ity. Be sure to time block…Integrate prospect­ing into ongo­ing client com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Pick one strat­egy as a focal point. Refine and repeat and get really good at it. Don’t be scattershot.

Dan says some clients like to come to such events a cou­ple of times a year. So it’s OK to invite clients to come again later in the year.

    Lat­est Advi­so­r­An­a­lyst Prac­tice Growth Sto­ries

Tags: Advertisement, Amp, Boardroom, Campaign Goal, Email Address, Free Webinar, Informal Survey, L3, Lunch, Luncheon Series, Luncheons, Minute Time Blocks, Momentum, Private Room, Prospective Clients, Prospects, Register, Roundtable, Rule Of Thumb, Sandwiches, Wid, Www Ca
Posted in Dan Richards | Comments Off