When it comes to marketing, the beauty of it is that everything works. Whether it’s being a guest on or even hosting a podcast, sending mailers, or hosting informational sessions over dinner, it will work. Honestly, everything works. That statement may ease any worry you have about marketing and how to go about it. However, the important distinction is whether you want it to work… for you.
There’s something I call the “curse of success.” With that curse, you believe that what has worked for you in the past will work for you again in the future. That brings the tendency to repeat the effort. For example, if door knocking and cold calling worked for you in the past, you may be inclined to start knocking on doors again. If it worked in the past, it will work again in the future. Everything works.
That’s both good and bad news. The good news, of course, is that it will work. The bad news is that repeating what’s worked in the past may not be the right approach for you in the present. When a financial advisor is just starting out, a mass-model may be the right choice. In the beginning, you’re working to get clients and build your book. If you opt for social media or another mass approach, it requires an infrastructure to be effective. You may have the time needed to manage that infrastructure, but as your success grows, infrastructure management can become burdensome.
Everything works as long as you have a model and stick to that model over time. If you opt to be a guest on a single podcast, you’re not really going to get results. You have to do dozens of them, maybe even more. Do you have the time and are you willing to stick it out? All marketing and advertising needs repetition. With repetition, everything works. Once again, do you want it to work for you? And in asking that question, what I really want to know is do you want the results you get?
For example, a mass marketing approach will typically generate greater numbers of leads. Sounds good, unless they’re not the prospects (and ultimately clients) you want to have. Large numbers of leads also require more work. What’s your infrastructure for handling a lead? How much effort does it take and does this lead have the potential you want? Is this prospect worth your time? It can quickly turn into the problem Mickey Mouse faced during “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” scene from Fantasia. After laboring with heavy buckets of water to fill the well as directed by the sorcerer, he concocts a spell enabling a broom to do his bidding. However, he falls asleep (a.k.a. fails to manage the infrastructure) and the broom continues the work, flooding the dungeon. And the more he tries to stop it, the worse it gets with brooms multiplying and Mickey drowning in chaos.
While you’re trying to manage the leads and potential new assets coming in, there are very likely assets leaving due to your inattention. You certainly can’t do it alone. You need folks to qualify leads, set appointments, and be closers. You become an appointment-setting machine. Scaling has certain attraction. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to scale if that’s what you want and if it’s part of your design. It will work. Everything works. But without management, you end up quite like Mickey. The real question is: Do you want this kind of business? Perhaps you do. Simply be truthful about what you want.
Everything works. What do you want to work for you? The game can never be won, only played. However, when you enhance the player, the game improves. Determine the prospects who align with what you want and your design, and the game gets better for you. The more fun it is to play, the more you’ll play.
Coach Ken
