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Before
he joined my coaching program, Herb had a very successful
financial service business. But it was mostly transaction
oriented. He wanted to establish deeper relationships
with wealthier clients. His goal was to provide them with
a broader range of products and services. He also wanted
to help the other financial advisors in his office and
he had a higher purpose for being successful. He wanted
to contribute more money to his favorite causes.
By
becoming more client-centered, Herb is spreading wealth
and happiness among his clients, colleagues and favorite
charities.
Herb
was primarily building his business with product-oriented,
public seminars for middle market clients. He wanted to
move up the food chain and attract large IRA rollovers
and other multimillion dollar accounts. Herb knew the
key was to become more client-centered. He started by
implementing the research interview technique he learned
from the Effort-Less Advisor Coaching Program. He met
with a few of his best clients.
The
first client he interviewed had over $1 million invested
with another financial advisor. Through their meeting
Herb learned that this client was not happy. He had no
interaction or communication with his current advisor.
He felt abandoned. He wanted a closer relationship with
someone he could truly entrust his financial security
to.
During
the interview Herb discovered that his client was passionate
about sushi and sake. So he took his client and his wife
to dinner at one of the best sushi restaurants he could
find. He said, “It seems kind of silly. But sharing
food, drink and fun with them transformed our relationship.”
A
few days after the dinner, the client asked Herb if he
would manage his $1 million portfolio. The client got
what he wanted -- a relationship with a competent advisor
he could trust and that he could drink sake and eat sushi
with. Herb got what he wanted -- a closer relationship
with a great client and a million dollar account.
Herb
has also taught his associates how to use research interviews.
Dan, one of Herb’s colleagues, just closed a $2 million
life insurance case that will pay $95,000 in GDC. He had
sold the client a product before but did not have a client-centered
relationship. The client was reserved and defensive. After
Herb and Dan conducted a research interview with his client
he opened up. They discovered he was worth over $4 million.
He told them his concerns and Herb and Dan recommended
client-centered solutions. In addition to the insurance
commissions, they expect the client to add another $500,000
to his account.
Kevin,
Herb’s newest rep has used the research process to
get his new business off to a quick start. He started
with Herb last October. Herb taught him to conduct research
interviews to build trust and to gather the “soft
data” that motivates people to action. Then he taught
Kevin how to complete the “fact finder” part
of the process to gather data on current assets and specific
goals, risk tolerances, etc.
“Kevin
uses the interview process to discover what his research
subjects want. Then he brings the information to me, I
make recommendations and go in and help Kevin solve the
person’s problems.”
Herb
says that Kevin, “made $12,500 his first month in
the business. For the first three and a-half months of
2002 Kevin has already earned $292,000. One of the business
owners he was referred to during a research interview
invested $1 million with him and purchased a life insurance
policy. Kevin made $150,000 from one client! He is on
track to earn $400,000 this year.”
Not
bad for a rookie! Way to go Kevin.
What’s
his secret? Herb explains how Kevin got started. “He
read your book, Effort-less Marketing. Then I taught him
how to conduct research interviews. He follows your process
more closely than I do. He’s developed a lot of his
own questions and has them down cold.”
Says
Herb, “Kevin is a man of integrity. People naturally
trust him. He is client-centered, wants to help people
and is a good listener. That client-centered approach
inspires his new clients to introduce him to their friends.”
Herb’s
team is also using research interviews to build alliances
with CPAs. They just conducted a seminar for a CPA’s
clients. Of the 25 participants, 10 asked for appointments
to meet with Herb and his colleagues. Another CPA has
already co-sponsored a seminar for his clients and one
of Herb’s colleagues is seeing the benefits. Say
Herb, “He is just referring business to us like crazy.
Kevin, our new advisor, has already reported $30,000 in
insurance commissions and over $10,000 in investment commissions.”
Herb
still does some seminars but now they are all for referred
prospects. “They are basically ‘referral only’
seminars. The marketing cost is almost nothing and the
prospects are much more receptive to working with me.
Our ‘referral only’ and CPA seminars are much
more profitable than our old public seminars.”
Herb
has also broken through with introductions. “Since
I learned Steve’s marketing methods, I have started
working almost exclusively from introductions and referrals.
I am rolling over much bigger IRAs and the size of my
life insurance cases are much bigger also. The process
I learned from Steve is the only marketing system that’s
consistently gotten me better clients and bigger accounts.
And it costs almost nothing to implement.”
I
asked Herb what success secrets he wanted to share with
my readers. Herb says, “I highly recommend that your
readers participate in your coaching program. It’s
incredibly effective and has helped me a lot. It’s
hard to comprehend the power of research interviews until
you start doing them.”
“Once
you get ‘behind the eyes of your client’ you’ll
find out what he really cares about. Then you can help
him get what he wants. That creates raving fans. My goal
is to create 40 raving fans who each introduce us to four
high quality clients a year. That would be 160 great new
clients a year. That would make my marketing and my life
totally effort-less.”
Herb
and his team are on the way to becoming Effort-Less Advisors.
They are committed to helping their clients clarify and
take action on their values and goals. The research interview
process allows them to tap into their clients deepest
aspirations so they can spread financial success and genuine
happiness among their clients, their friends and their
colleagues.
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