Thanking people isn’t just a nice thing to do… it will generate lots of new business for you. If you don’t think so, try it for 3 months and then tell me I’m wrong. It’s cheap to do, so it won’t cost you much to try and prove me wrong. And I’m not wrong, this works.

But, I don’t have anything to thank people for!

Did you really just say that? I hope not! You have every single one of your clients to thank for your business. You have every single one of your client’s accountants to thank for doing a great job for your clients (same goes for their attorneys). You have every single one of your prospects to thank for their interest. And believe me you have plenty more people to thank!

“What a waste of time”
I have had many an advisor tell me that he doesn’t have time to do this. OK, it takes 30 minutes a week with a mailing cost of say $10 for cards, postage and envelopes for a dozen cards. I can tell you in no uncertain terms that this will generate tens of thousands of dollars of INCOME, not production, but INCOME if you do it for a year.

What other marketing takes you 2 hours a month (30 min. X 4) and costs $40 a month, that can generate huge amounts of income for you.

Put your Thank You on Steroids. On the bottom of your Thank you note, add a p.s.

Do you have a new product or service you wish everyone would know about? Here’s where you want to put it. Add one of these p.s. ideas to the bottom of your thank you note:

-P.s. I have just posted a new video/audio on my website about __________. You can find it at www..com
-P.s. I have just posted an article you might find interesting on my website titled ________. Find it at www..com
-If you are interested in _______________, you’ll love this: www..com
-If you have not done so already, make sure to register for my free Webinar about _______________, on Tuesday the 16th at 4:00 p.m. Register at www..com

So we actually have to take someone that is skeptical and help them towards wanting to talk to you. How?

First, we have to realize the old sales adage:

They don’t care how much you know…until they know how much you care.

How do we show that we care? How do we show our friends or family that we care? We contact them right? Well the easiest way to contact them is with a phone call right? But you can only make 20 or 30 calls an hour and you can only make that many because you are going to get the answering machine most of the time.

Plus by the end of the day you are going to be sick and tired of calling and you’ll be ready for the funny farm by the end of the week.

What’s the alternative? Very focused…Very personal direct mail. If you do it right, you can have a conversation with 1000’s of people in just one week. Try that with phone calls!

How do you do it right?

1. Make it sound personal—send a targeted message to the prospect or client. If they are retired make sure the message has something to do with retirement issues. Or make it even better by targeting even more precisely…address it to the woman and make it about retirement issues for women…Or make it better yet by targeting even further…address it to the woman who retired from a teaching job…IF YOU GET IT DOWN THIS FAR…YOU’LL BLOW THE DOORS OFF YOUR PREVIOUS LEAD GENERATION!
2. Make it look personal—send your message in a manner that ensures them that you care about them as an individual…send it handwritten. It takes time and effort to write a handwritten note…when you spend time and effort on someone they know that you care.
3. Get it Read—The best message in the world is worthless if nobody hears it. You must make sure that your direct mail gets read. There is only one way that I know that guarantees your direct mail will be read. 100% of handwritten notes get read. There is something magical about a handwritten note, you can’t throw it without first reading it.

When you follow the 3 suggestions above, you are going to see huge returns on investment as Bruce E. did last month.

I know of nobody that is getting 3 or 4 referrals month in and month out.  Why?

We’ll talk about clients on another blog.  Let’s talk about CPA’s and attorney’s today.

Do You have a system to get Professionals to refer to you?

Oh sure, we would maybe take a CPA out to lunch or refer a client or two to an estate planning attorney, in the hopes that they would reciprocate and refer back. However, most advisors do not set up the same type of systematic marketing for professionals that they do for the public with seminars, lead programs, and advertisements.

Smart financial advisors everywhere are beginning to realize the advantages of leveraging referrals from CPAs and attorneys.  As an industry, we have allowed them to take advantage of us for years.  We have in good faith referred our clients out for tax preparation and legal work.  We have ushered client after client out our door and into theirs.  We have become their main source of referrals and income.  In fact, many CPAs and attorneys would find their income cut in half if it wasn’t for referrals provided to them by Financial Advisors.

Yet, how often do we see referrals back to us?  Rarely.  Up to this point all we have done is whined about the unfairness of it all.  Enough is enough.  Clients regularly ask their CPAs for the name of a good financial advisor and so do attorney’s clients.  Do they recommend us?  Rarely.

Why don’t CPAs and attorneys want to refer to us?

They give us all sorts of reasons why they don’t refer.

• I’m not comfortable
• You are just one of the many advisors that refer to me and I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me
• It doesn’t come up
• I will next time
• And on and on

I believe the reasons they don’t refer back to us is different for CPAs than it is for attorneys.  Of course, I am making general assumptions here, but hear me out.

CPAs have big hearts

I know that we think of CPAs as being these robotic, wooden humans that are void of emotions but think about it.  CPAs protect their clients.  They are almost like mother hens sheltering their broods from the big bad world.  They do not want anything to hurt their clients.  This is to be applauded.

Unfortunately, many CPAs are not really familiar with what we do for our clients. Since unfamiliarity breeds mistrust, they feel the best way to protect their clients is to recommend for their clients to stay the course…to do nothing.

Yes, maybe our suggestion could save their client taxes…but it might lose them money.  Yes, maybe our solution is beautiful to us but it is foreign to them.  Yes, we MAY want to help their clients BUT they REALLY want to help them.

It is much more difficult to get into trouble by doing nothing than doing something (as financial advisors, we know the trouble people get into by doing nothing:  Paying too much in taxes.  Not growing their money enough.  Or trying to grow the money too fast and having a portfolio that is too aggressive during a market correction.)

However, to an accountant, we all look like money grubbing salespeople that want to get at their clients wallets to fatten our own bank accounts.  They know that a few of us are good but why take the risk.  So, just like we tell our kids, they tell their clients, “Just say no,” to whatever that financial advisor recommends.  And God forbid that they would put their clients into the lion’s den by recommending their clients come see us!

Attorneys have big egos

No surprise to most of you.  Attorneys always have to be right.  They have to be the center of attention.  Their egos have to be fed.  If you know an attorney, you know that they know everything about everything and would never stoop to having to ask for help from a mere mortal, like a financial advisor.  They feel perfectly qualified to give their clients advice on any subject from law to heart surgery to car mechanics to financial planning.

Need I say more?

Same solution works for both problems
So CPAs don’t trust us and attorneys think it is beneath them to refer to us.  Two different problems but luckily the same solution works for both problems.  In Dr. Cialdini’s book Influence: Science and Practice, he breaks influence down into 6 principles.

Cialdini and Ethical Influence

Utilizing a simple combination of five of those principles is what works.

Reciprocation – You then me, then you, then me…Be the first to give:

1. Service
2. Information
3. Concessions

Authority – Showing knowing…Establish position through:

1. Professionalism
2. Industry knowledge
3. Your credentials
4. Admitting weaknesses first

Consistency – The starting point…Start:

1. Small and build
2. With existing commitments
3. From public positions
4. Once you start, deliver on time, every time

Liking – Making friends to influence people…Uncover:

1. Similarities
2. Areas for genuine compliments
3. Opportunities for cooperation

Consensus – People proof, people power…Unleash people power by showing:

1. Responses of many others
2. Other’s past successes
3. Testimonials of similar others

Build a referral machine
First, what is a machine? It is a device that modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of a repetitive task.  Another definition is a device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point.  Both of these concepts work well with how to get referrals from other professionals when combined with Dr. Cialdini’s Principles of Influence.

For years we have known the value of dripping on our clients and prospects with newsletters, phone calls and other methods.  It is a testament to how well this has worked that more and more entities use these tools.

Have you ever considered a drip program for CPAs and attorneys?  Not simply sending them the same thing you send your prospects and clients!  That does not make them feel special.  If you try to use your client/prospect drip on them it simply seems like you added them as an afterthought…that you don’t even look at them as professionals but just as some other sucker.

Feed Their Need!

By creating a systematized drip designed specifically for CPAs or attorneys you will give them both what they need.

You will give CPA’s the information they need to determine that you will not hurt their clients…that you only want to help.  By having a specialized drip program that leverages all of Dr. Cialdini’s principles, you will effectively influence accountants to begin to refer to you.  What should your CPA drip system include?

• Reciprocation – Give them information about the financial industry that can make their job easier.  Not product information but how different tax laws are affecting investments, easier ways to get 1099′s at the end of the year, resources they may not have heard about. Give them heads up about financial scams to look for, etc.  Give them success stories about happy clients.  And give them referrals.
• Authority – By doing the above it will also show them that you are a person that knows what’s going on and that they could count on if they have an investment related question.
• Consistency – By doing these things in a consistent manner, monthly or bi-weekly, they will see that you are here to stay and are reliable (HUGE issue with accountants.)
• Liking – By including things about your family and your activity in the charitable arena they will begin to know you and your values.  They will start to feel like they know you as a friend.

You will give attorneys the information they need to feel important and to feed their ego…

• Reciprocation – Always genuinely compliment them.  Mention other attorneys that have done a great job for your clients. Make them stars. Also, give them information about the financial industry that can make their job easier. Not product information but how different estate laws are affecting investments, information on Medicare or LTC as it applies to legal advice, issues that may affect their clients, etc.  Give them success stories about happy clients.  And give them referrals.
• Authority – By doing the above, it will also show them that you are a person that knows what’s going on and that they could count on you if they have an investment related question. This is important to them so that they can have all the answers for their clients.
• Scarcity – By mentioning attorneys that have done a great job, it will make other attorneys want to be mentioned as well…did we talk about egos earlier?
• Consistency – By doing these things in a consistent manner, monthly or bi-weekly, they will see that you are here to stay and are reliable.
• Liking – By including things about your family and your activity in the charitable arena they will begin to know you and your values.  They will start to feel like they know you as a friend…and with attorneys it’s all about who knows who.

Does This Really Work?

Nope. Because nobody does it.  Yep.  Because nobody does it. I take that back.  I coach 150 of the top financial planners in the country.  These guys are easily in the top 5% in income for advisors.  How many of them take the time and effort to create and utilize these professional drip systems?  Two, even with me yelling at them monthly to do it!

These two have had terrific success with it.  They have had attorneys that they have been referring to for over 10 year without a single referral back hand over 10 referrals in a week within a month of using a professional drip system.

They have gone from being just another broker to someone that is respected and known and invited to speak at their gatherings.

They have gone from relying on the old methods of seminars, leads and ads to getting highly qualified and pre-sold prospects (I hope you already know that when an attorney or CPA refers their client, you have a 99.9% chance of getting the deal.)

Do it?

You know that this works. Why aren’t you doing it?  Too hard? Haven’t considered it before?  Don’t know how? No one else is doing it.  You have a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a strangle hold on the professionals in your town. Don’t blow it.

Few people in the financial industry go after professional referrals aggressively which is baffling.  If you asked 100 advisors in what manner they would like new people to come to see them…99 would say referred from an accountant or attorney.

Yes it takes some time to come up with a drip system skewed towards them but don’t you agree its worth it?  Sit down and think about the Principles of Influence and how you could incorporate them into regular scheduled contacts with targeted professionals in your community.  The time spent will put hundreds of thousands into your pockets.

What to Do Next

Don’t let all of the everyday hassles we all face in the financial industry everyday keep your from getting started on the above information today.  Remember the difference between urgent and important.  It is the important things like putting client acquisition strategies in place that will ensure your profitable practice…not answering the phone that is ringing on your desk right now. 

1. A good headline that is addressed right at your target market
2. A good FREE offer
3. Multiple mailings

I’ve discussed headlines before, but if I get some feedback that you would like me to discuss it again, I’ll be happy to. But for now, let’s focus on the last two items.

First, what are some good FREE giveaways?  Your giveaway should be connected in some way to your offer.  Don’t give away steaks if you are selling insurance, all you are going to get is people that like to eat steaks not people that are interested in insurance.  With that said, your offer should be attractive enough to get those people that are even moderately interested in insurance to raise their hand for your FREE stuff. An example of that for a property casualty agent would be–A free home safety booklet just for setting an appointment. A booklet of ten free car washes when we write your auto insurance. Guaranteed handling of your accident claim in five days or a 10% cash bonus on the settlement.

An example for an annuity sale would be—A free booklet about how to not outlive your income.  An free check of their current annuity for correct beneficiary or annuitants. An example for a life sale would be—A free analysis of current policies to ensure they are using the new life expectancy tables and to-age-100 guarantees.  A book on a life insurance concept like “Missed Fortune: 101.” But…and it’s a big but, the most important thing when it comes to direct mail, lead generation and prospecting via mail is repetition.

Now here’s the secret about direct marketing that virtually no one in the financial industry understands.  In order to acquire new clients – no matter how good the offer is, a single exposure to a given group of prospective clients, it will have minimal effect. But multiple repeated exposures will have a positive effect disproportionate to the number of exposures.

You really need to stop and pay attention here.  If you get this your marketing is going to get a lot more effective, very, very quickly!

If you are patient enough to give prospective clients repeated exposures or mailings you will have a positive impact, far greater than the number of exposures.

Here’s one example – say you’re doing a lead generation mailing of 5,000 people. From a single mailing you might pull anywhere from as low as 1% response or less. Maybe twelve to sixty responses. The variants between the twelve and the sixty may depend on how attractive your offer is.

But if you’ll mail to those same 5,000 prospects six times over a four month period your overall response might be as high as 20%, 150 to 1,000 people. You should only expect 6 times the response because you mailed 6 times but instead you got about twelve times the response from the single mailing not just six times. Why?

See, the multiple contacts don’t just increase response proportionately they increase it exponentially. Is this always true? No. Sometimes you have a crappy or old list, the offer is weak, the company lacks credibility, whatever and no amount of mailing will overcome it. But, presuming the list has been chosen with reasonable care and intelligence, the offer is good, the mail piece is good then this kind of effect should be achieved.

In next week’s tip I will reveal another way to get multiple exposures for your business that can multiply your results.

The system is the handwritten note and I’m going to tell you why it works. For 12 years I was making no more than $50,000 a year. The system I am going to tell you about catapulted me to collecting $33 million in new money and making $1 million a year of income in just two years! How?  Take a look.

The Power of the Handwritten note:

It’s cheap

• Pen or pencil — free (Your local service station will give you one for free.)
• Paper –  one penny
• Envelope – one nickel
• Stamp – 42 cents
• Total cost – 48 cents

It’s effective

The one piece of mail that is guaranteed to be read 100% of the time is the handwritten note.  If done right — your message will:

• Be kept for at least a week
• Be shared with other people you normally couldn’t reach
• Create referrals…and the most effective referrals – UNASKED FOR REFERRALS.
• Sets you apart from your competition. You will be demonstrating the Golden Rule of selling:

They don’t care how much you know

Until they know how much you care

Your competition is playing a game that can’t be won. They are all trying to prove:

• That they are smarter than each other
• That they have better customer service

You will be alone in demonstrating that you care!

The handwritten note can:

1. Create over 100 referrals in a year from your top ten clients
2. Create hot prospects that will be dying for you to call them
3. Create a campaign that will have prospects calling you for your product
4. Double your seminar invitation response rate
5. Find all the money your clients have but have never told you about

Why it works

I am a commodity.  You are a commodity.  Financial advisors are a commodity.  We like to think that we aren’t, but we are. We all look the same to the public.  We all sell the same things.  Our products all cost the same and we can’t put things on sale like retailers to pump up our business.

We are all basically proficient at being financial advisors much the same as dentists are all proficient at dentistry.  We don’t all flock to a dentist because he is the “best.”  We go to a dentist simply because we needed one.  He or she had an office close to our home, we heard they were good, and they were as good, in our eyes, as any other dentist.  Sorry, but for most people, that is about the same amount of time and effort they put into choosing a financial advisor.

No wonder I had never made more than $50,000 a year in my 12 years as a financial planner.  I tried everything and it all kind of worked…just not enough for me to make more than $50,000 a year.

I tried:

• Seminars – Expensive and risky.  One failed workshop and I was $5,000 in the hole.  Three failed workshops and I could be out of business.
• Newsletters – Sent out thousands and they always seem to generate enough business to pay for themselves…just.
• Newspaper Ads – Got a lot of people wanting free information…just not a lot of people buying products
• Referrals – I asked for them a lot at the beginning but after making clients feel on the spot and still not getting many good referrals I quit asking.  I figured why make client feel uncomfortable when the likelihood of a good referral was slim to none anyways.

So finally, through desperation, I sat down and tried to figure out an inexpensive way (I couldn’t afford anything but cheap) for me to look different than all my competition.  And I had a lot of competition.  I live in Rochester, MN, the home of the world famous Mayo Clinic. Since 7% of the entire Rochester population is doctors, every broker and their brother have set up shop in our city.

Here’s what I stumbled on:

1. Trying to look smart doesn’t work.  They either take your information back to their current broker and he made the commission on it or they just take the information home to “think about.”
2. You can’t give better customer service.  Your competitors answer their phones courteously.  They promptly return phone calls.  They fulfilled their client’s requests quickly and with a smile on their face.  Your competitors all have good customer service
3. You can’t promise them higher returns than my competitors for two reasons.  It’s illegal and it’s a lie.  Heck, if I could actually get them the highest returns I’d be living large on a Caribbean Island right now!

I had been ignoring the Golden Rule of sales for 12 years:

The prospect doesn’t care how much you know Until they know how much you care

I had been spending the vast majority of my time trying to demonstrate how much I know to prospects and just expected them to know that I care.

THAT IS BACKWARDS!

They already know that you’re competent; they think all financial advisors are competent just as they do with dentists.  What they don’t know was that you care.

How can you show them that you care more than other financial advisors?

I sat down and tried to think how I could show them that I cared more about them than my competition.  I couldn’t tell them because prospects by nature are very skeptical. Their attitude is:

• Words are cheap
• Just SHOW me

So how can you show them that you care about them?  If you just keep coming up with financial ideas to share with them, it’s just making them think that the only thing you care about is getting at their money.

You need to show them that you care about them as people as you would a friend or family member.  People do business with those who treat them like a friend.

What do friends do?

• They share stories about what has happened to them or their families
• They help each other out
• They keep in contact
• They time for each other

The only way you can do these things is by phone or by mail.  Phone is labor intensive and you run into the do not call list and making intrusive calls that cause people to dislike you.

Mail is not intrusive and can be done very time efficiently.  Unfortunately, the time efficient way of mail merging form letters is a waste of money.  99% are going to get thrown away.

The one piece of mail no one throws away without reading it is the handwritten note.

So I began to write handwritten notes.  A few at first and then dozens and then as my business began to explode instead of stopping…I wrote hundreds of handwritten notes and within two years, without changing anything else I was doing, I went from making $50,000 a year to over $1 million a year.

I don’t know how they get by calling them leads when for the most part they are not leads.  These are not leads in the sense that the prospects have indicated a need or desire to talk to you, though they are sold as such.

Think about these numbers.  A lead generation company will send out 1,000 mailers to the general public offering some sort of FREE information, report or trinket.  So out of 1,000 mailers, they’ll get say 100 people saying they want something for free…mind you, NOT to talk to someone… but that they want this FREE thing that is being offered.

So the lead generation company spent:

Initial mailing:  29 cents for the mailer X  1,000 pieces = $290

Sending information:  $1.25 mailed report  X  100 people that requested it = $125

Total Cost = $415

Cost per “lead” = $4.15

Four dollars and 15 cents for these lead generation companies to generate a “lead.”  A “lead” that did not want to talk to someone but merely wanted to receive something for FREE.  A “lead” that when you call them up, get angry at you for calling or claim that they never asked for any information in the first place.

How much do they sell this crappy lead for?  A lot more than $4.15 a piece and what is it worth?  Butkus.

You would be far better off creating your own leads.  As usual, if you want something done right, do it yourself.  By using a 10:1 ratio technique you can generate REAL leads…leads that want to talk to you…leads that are interested in what you have to say…leads that might actually LEAD to a sale for God’s sake!

What is the cost?  About the same as the lead generation company “leads” if you do it yourself.  About $15 a Great Lead if you want someone else to generate them for you.  Buying “leads” that aren’t really leads are never, I repeat, NEVER a bargain.  However, creating your own leads will build a business that is profitable, ethical and enviable!

One time mailing – A mailing that is mailed just once to get your phone ringing right now.  You should expect a lower response of about 2% to 3% with this type of mailing.  Not bad if you send out 100 pieces and get 2 appointments.  But please be warned, these appointments will be in looking for information so it will be up to you to be at your best when presenting your solution.

Though less effective the One time mailing is a way to get appointments quickly.

10:1 Ration to Riches technique – (this is the one of the techniques I used for my practice) A Fool-proof way to dominate a zip code within 6 months.  How would you like everyone in your target market to know you, love you, and think of you anytime they need financial services?  If that is what you are looking for then you are going to find that this system will explode your practice!

For when you can afford to take a slightly longer time period (about 3 months) and more profitable approach. How much money can you make when you are the BIG FISH in a small pond? Imagine if 99% of the people in your target market, whether it be seniors, college planning, or pre-retirees, all knew who you were and that you cared about them.  What would that yield?  I am living proof you can make over $1 million a year.

Not everyone has the luxury of waiting for 3 months to build a very profitable practice.  They need money right now.  Well for those folks we will first discuss the One Time Mailing possibilities of the handwritten note.

One Time Mailing

Tools needed:

1. List of your target market
2. Your offer
3. Creative postcards
4. Pen
5. Postage stamps

List of your target market

What is your market?  What kind of people do you want calling you?

Some Do Not’s:

• Do not just mail to everyone with an address.
• Do not just mail to people in homes
• Do not just mail to people with high incomes or net worth

Do some thinking before hand.  Do I want to tap into the 401k rollover crowd?  Do I want to be a magnet for seniors?  Do I want to become the expert for college planning in the area? Do I want to be the mortgage broker for everyone in a neighborhood?

Once you have your “perfect” type of client in mind, purchase a list of names and addresses (no phone numbers, the list is cheaper and you aren’t going to call these people.)

There are many list companies that you can find on the Internet.  Simply go to Google.com and type in mailing lists.

Your offer

It’s really pretty simple.  Find a need and write a great headline.

Unfortunately in all simple and elegant solutions there is a large portion of genius needed. So let’s try to create some genius.

First, you need to identify the one thing that keeps your target market up at night.  What is their biggest fear?  What is that one thing that they desire more than anything else?  If you can figure that out then you are one step closer to a homerun.

So let’s use a typical target market:  People with retirement dollars to move like 401k rollovers.  What keeps them up at night about their retirement dollars?

Probably a couple of things:

1.  Is it enough or will I run out of money?
2.  How do I get it out without paying taxes?

So let’s use “Will I run out of money.”

Choose a card:

You can get cards at places like Hallmark (very expensive) or online or even pick up fistfuls while you are on vacation.

Next you need to create a headline for them.

Headline for their worry of running out of money.

The Writing is on the Wall for People born between 1937-1948
These people are facing a hurdle never faced before!

What hurdle?

• It could be the skyrocketing cost of nursing home care.
• It could be the accelerating diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease if you sell long term care insurance.
• It could be the cost of health insurance and pharmaceutical costs if you are going after middle and upper-middle income households.
• It could be the big estate planning changes occurring in 2010 if you are going after the wealthy.

Handwritten note for running out of money.

The Writing is on the Wall for People born between 1937-1948
These people are facing a hurdle never faced before!

Bob and Mary,

I just ran across an article  that I really thought would interest you.  Give me a call and I’ll get it to you right away!  555-5555

1. Our goal here is to get people interested in calling you for information as we talked about before.  When they call, you can engage them in a quick conversation, get their information, and let them know you will be mailing them the article.
2. Find an article by searching on Google or I’m sure you may have an idea folder, with all the magazine articles you have clipped out over time, addressing some of your target market’s concerns.
3. Simply mail the article to them with another hand written note that you enjoyed speaking with them and that you will be following up with them to answer any questions.
4. The day after you mail the article follow-up with another phone call making sure they received the article and engage them in a conversation about their perception of the problem and set an appointment for them to come in to review your solution.

It’s really very simple and can be used for any target market or product that would solve your target market’s problem.

What am I talking about?  There has been study after study showing how many times you need to touch or contact a prospect client or lead to get them to buy. I’ve seen the numbers 8 times, 12 times, even 21 times thrown around.  One number I’ve never seen thrown around is… 1 time.

People are bombarded with messages about buying one thing or another. Prospects have learned to ignore those messages. In order to grab and hold a prospects attention a lead has to be credible.  What is one of the best ways to create credibility?  Through consistency.

Your message must hit them more than once.  You must show them that you are consistent with your message.  That does not mean that your advertising pieces will be identical, it just means that their message to your prospects and leads will be consistent.

One of them most effective direct mail sequences I have ever seen was one that consisted of 10 sequential mailings to a targeted prospective customer list.  It last just under a year. It consisted of birthday cards, Holiday greeting cards, newsletters, special offerings, emails and phone calls.

The strongest of these tools were the newsletter.  Newsletters work for everyone.  I have seen people use them to bring doctors and dentists to the table.  I have seen hotels use them to boost their repeat business significantly.  I have seen them used by financial advisors to replace almost all of their other marketing.  Newsletters are the perfect way to introduce yourself, share your philosophy of doing business and creating relationships.

Another method that is almost completely ignore today is the simple thank you card.  Make sure you have at least 5 on your desk on every Monday and that there are none left by Friday.  Send them to clients, vendors and acquaintances. You will be surprised by what it renders.

Try telling a story through your direct mail.  Get the reader involved.  Make them interested.  This is a great way to get your current customers and clients to spend more, upgrade or refer their friends to you.

There are lots of clever ways to put a sequential mailing together but there is really only one rule that must be followed.  Once is not enough.

It’s as easy as:

“They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Great Leads contain the answer to:

• How does your Mother know that you care?

What is the #1 indicator to your Mother that you care?  Contact. Contact on her birthday. Contact on the Holidays.  Contact out of the blue just to check in with a story or a kind word.

Though we are not selling to our Mothers, Contact is the universal demonstration of caring:

• If you want your girl friend to marry you, you are going to need plenty of contact (Not that kind!  The notes, dates and phone call kind)
• If you want an acquaintance to turn into a friend it takes contact
• If you want any type of relationship to occur it takes contact

Great Leads are MADE not Born (good leads are born)

Good leads can be generated by coming up with a catchy headline or a neat idea.  A good lead will get people calling you about your nifty idea, they’ll want more information.

Great leads create a relationship with the receiver.  They will demonstrate that you care (saying you care is worthless, it must be shown.) That demonstration is in the universal show of caring…contact.

A Great Lead get clients…good leads get people seeking information only.

How do you know if something work?  I suggest the “Real Life Test.” Think of a real life situation…put the idea to work in that situation…see if it works.

10:1 Real Life Test—
“Straight to the point”–Let’s say you move into an office next to a Property/Casualty agent.  The very 1st week he comes over and introduces himself, hands you a card and says he can beat your current coverage.

What would you do?  I would politely tell him I already have a guy that I work with, thanks anyways.

“Hi ya neighbor!”—Let’s say instead of coming over to present his business in the first week, this Property/Casualty guy comes over and asks if you need anything.

Then he starts dropping by every week, just to say hi or talk about the weather, share a joke or ask about your family for a minute or two.

He does this for 3 or 4 months.  He has now had 10 friendly conversations with you.  You have built a relationship and have become comfortable with each other…

He then says, “Say, I saw you the other day with a boat behind your truck.  My company loves boaters!  We have a great boat protection program.  Would you mind if I gave you a quote on your boat?”

What would you do? I would feel obligated to say yes.  Why? Well, first he just simply asking for a quote.  He seems up to this point, nice and caring.  He has never pushed or bothered me before.  Heck, what could it hurt? And maybe I will be able to save some money.

10:1 Ratio WORKS!

If you contact your prospects with nice, friendly and NON-FINANCIAL handwritten notes 10 times they know that you are a caring person. (handwritten notes are even more powerful than conversations because of the perceived time it takes to send one.)

Then when you touch them with a helpful, financial (call to action) message, they know you are doing it to be caring, not doing it to sell them something.

How often can you send a selling message?  After every 10 NON-FINANCIAL or what I call caring contacts. (Why 10?  Because we tried more and less and 10 is the sweet spot)

So what type of leads are you going generate? Those that attract people that want to suck information from you or those that create relationships with your prospects.  Choose carefully because your choice will shape your future practice.

It never ceases to amaze me how many successful people find something that works…AND THEN STOP DOING IT! (Yes, myself included). So let’s take a look at the top 6 trends in marketing in 2008:

6 Key factors to successful marketing in 2008

1. Having a Brand Matters
2. Know and dominate a niche within a niche
3. Integrate your marketing
4. It’s a lot easier with what you already have
5. Cold Calling Still works if…
6. Know the future of marketing and get there first

Having a brand matters – Being know by your target market is very important.

• Well known companies are 48% better at lead generation than “not very well known” companies. *
• 70% of firms say that they are not well known by their niche
• Contrary to common belief, traditional advertising like TV, radio and newspaper ads were ranked 33rd, 31st, and 29th out or 33 for effectiveness*

*”Future of Lead Generation” Benchmark report www.raintoday.com / leadgenerationreport.com

There are much better ways at reaching a target market that revolve around speaking to them directly.

Know and dominate your niche – You have to have a very clear picture of who and what you are going after. The shotgun approach of “I’ll get whatever I can,” will sentence you to mediocrity. You should have some basic research on them:

• Who are they? – age, income, hobbies, life’s experiences, etc.
• Who are the influence makers? – What are their trusted associations, organizations, etc. and who are the decision makers at those entities?
• What do they want? – What are their fears? What keeps them up at night?

If you cannot answer these questions in detail, you are going to have a problem marketing effectively

Integrate your marketing – Don’t just rely on one type of marketing. You should try to integrate several types into a cohesive strategy. The types of marketing that have proven most effective are (ranked by effectiveness):

• Referrals from clients
• Warm phone calls (to people that have received information from you)
• Seminars
• Referrals from professionals
• Newspaper ads
• Purchasing leads from lead companies

*Survey of Financial Advisors—Corona Research

It’s a lot easier to work with what you already have – It has been proven that it is over 14 times more profitable to attain new business from a current client than from a new client. Utilizing current client for referrals or new money is far easier than going after new people but sales people continue to make the mistake of ignoring the diamonds in their own backyard.

Cold Calling still works if you… — Cold calling has actually become more effective since the Do-Not-Call list made it unpopular. However, it has to have a purpose. The most effective purpose is to follow-up with a phone call on information that you have sent to someone. If you follow-up with a phone call within 72 hours of them receiving that information, you have an over 30% higher chance of setting an appointment.

Know the future of marketing – The future of marketing is NO MARKETING!
The future of marketing is finding ways to talk to the prospect one-on-one. People do not respond to marketing anymore. They do not want to be one of the masses. They want to be treated as a person. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through hand written notes.