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Give It Away

Written by: Donald F. Pooley

Article Overview: I'm not crazy. During tough times, it takes more than the ordinary to get through. It takes the extraordinary.

Give It Away

I'm not crazy. During tough times, it takes more than the ordinary to get through. It takes the extraordinary.
Hyperbole about service, value and experience are not enough. It takes a drastic shift to get people to change their state of mind, and try something new.
Look for areas in your business where you can give something away. I know this goes against what you want to do. Your survival mentality says you should raise fees, rates, and commissions so you can stop the flow of red ink. You feel that you need to get more from fewer clients to stop the hemorrhaging in your practice.
The problem is if you try to get more from your existing clients, they will start to feel pressured. I'm not saying you shouldn't try to manage more of your clients' assets, or that you shouldn't try to grow your book with the people you already have. That is a must. What I'm saying is don't try to get them to spend more for the same services that they've already been getting.
So what should you give away? Things of real and perceived value. But you can't give away something you've been giving away, and make it look like you're doing something new.
For example, if you've always offered a free initial visit, you can't start giving that away because you always have.
What about a calculation or report that's easy to do with your amazing whizbang software? Sure, you may have charged for this in the past but now it's too important for your clients not to have the information.
What about having FREE days? Take your traditionally slowest business day and offer FREE meetings that day to all clients. If they want to buy or sell an investment, they must pay for that but your time will be FREE. Break it up into 30-minute sessions and once the day is full, people will have to wait until next week, or pay the traditional fee if they expect you to squeeze them in, perhaps after regular hours.
Look for other ideas. It could be fun! What else can you give to your clients to help your business grow and prosper?
Rainy days are here! As a business owner, I've always been told to take some cash generated by the good times and stash it away for the tough times. Here's another way to look at it: by offering some things for free, you're reinvesting from the good years to make it through the leaner ones.
Martin R. Baird, author of "The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing" is president of AdvisorMarketing.com , the premier Internet-based source for free marketing advice, tools, and information for self-driven, success oriented, financial advisors who demand information that helps them market their practice. Reach him at 480-991-6421

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