In a recent post, we looked at 4 ways to find more prospects using CRM. But one of the biggest challenges advisors face is turning that tide of raw leads into clients. Luckily, Equisoft/connect can help with that as well.
Equisoft/connect is a customer relationship management software solution built for the modern financial advisor. It contains great tools for helping you define the type of prospect you want to find (one who is most likely to become the kind of client you most desire), for helping you create and distribute highly-targeted marketing materials, and for creating an effective and efficient follow-up system that will turn more prospects into clients.
Read on to learn the three ways to convert more prospects to clients using Equisoft/connect.
Step One: Identify Your Ideal Client #
If you don’t identify and codify the characteristics of the type of client you’re looking for it’s likely that you’ll spend a lot of time and energy pursuing low-quality leads. And, as a result, it’s equally likely that your conversion rate will be low—or, if you do turn the prospect into a client, they likely won’t be the type of client you most want to work with.
The definition of an ideal client is different for every advisor. Before you define your ideal client profile you can use your advisor-specific CRM’s filters to search your ‘A’ and ‘B’ client segments for commonalities amongst your current clients. You may find that you have a large number of professionals and that that could be a good target group for you. Or you may see that most great clients fall into a certain age range, location or salary band. If you find these common traits, you can make them part of your profile.
A good ideal client profile identifies both the demographic and psychographic characteristics of a great potential client.
Demographics #
Demographics are the characteristics of a potential client that can be described quantitatively. They include things like:
- Age
- Income
- Education
- Family size
- Marital status
- Use of financial products
Psychographics #
Psychographics are the ‘softer’ characteristics a person has. They describe the qualitative aspects of a prospect— often the things they value or fear. Psychographics are important because they describe the things that motivate a potential client.
Psychographics may include things like:
- Attitude towards risk
- Type of relationship they want with you
- Attitude towards the future (optimistic, negative, etc…)
- Strength of desire to be financially independent
- Preferred method of communicating
- Decision-making style
Defining your ideal client gives you a way to measure the potential value of a prospect to you. As you define your marketing strategies you will be able to target prospects who are closest to your ideal client profile. As a result, you will find that your efforts will begin to yield prospects closer to your ideal.
A great way to take advantage of the power of an advisor-specific CRM is to use the software’s filters to search your contact base for people who match your ideal client criteria. These contacts are good candidates to become great clients.
Step Two: Use your ideal client profile to find prospects using targeted marketing campaigns #
Once you have defined your ideal client profile you are ready to begin creating the targeted marketing campaigns that will speak most directly to their needs.
When putting together your targeted marketing materials:
- Make sure they reflect the specifics of the profile you worked so hard to assemble.
- Speak to their needs, their concerns and fears.
- Have one message (call to action). Speak about one product or service, and why it would benefit them in particular.
- Be clear and direct. Don’t be afraid to ask for the time to help them with something they need a solution for.
- Keep it short.
- Don’t try to make the sale in the materials. Just provide information and give them the option to contact you.
And, lean on your CRM to help you throughout the process. Use fillable forms and templates to create marketing materials that speak to the defined needs of your target prospects. Use the integrated email functions in your CRM to easily send your materials. Track the responses to each piece of mail you send in your CRM.
Periodically review your conversion results and optimize your prospect list and your marketing materials as you go.
Step Three: Develop a system for staying in touch (nail the follow-up) #
One reason many marketing campaigns fail to deliver the hoped-for results is a lack of follow-up. Effective follow-up is more than just sending out one email or making one call—then abandoning the effort if you don’t get a positive response. The type of follow-up that converts strong prospects to clients involves a consistent series of ‘touches’ over an extended period of time.
These touches can take many forms—from follow-up emails requesting a call, to product information, to value-added content that may appeal to that prospect, to updates and announcements about events or activities that may interest them. It may take as many as five to eight touches (or even more) to achieve a good conversion rate—but the best advisors understand the value of sticking with it.
And they understand how their CRM can help them stay on course. Prior to conducting a campaign, great practitioners define how they will conduct the follow-up phase. They know how many touches they will make, what form those engagements will take and when they will happen. Then they schedule everything in their CRM so that, when the time is right, they get alerts about the required activity. They never have to worry that something will fall through the cracks. And the consistency of the approach ensures great results.
Wrap up #
The key to increasing your conversion of prospects into clients is to first use your CRM to figure out who you want to work with. Then leverage all of its powerful tools to help you craft the right message and get it out to those who would be most interested. And, as all top advisors know, the real value lies in using the CRM to ensure that you don’t suffer from follow-up failure. Equisoft/ connect’s activity management and opportunity tracking features can ensure you consistently complete the follow-up activities that will make conversion more likely. The more heavily you lean on your advisor-specific CRM, the better results you will see in your marketing and sales campaigns.
