Prospecting for financial advisors has often come in the form of cold calls and referral marketing. Financial education is more effective and efficient.
For decades, client prospecting for financial advisors has taken familiar forms: referral programs, cold calls, direct mail advertising, and seminar dinner events. There are good reasons these sorts of methods have been standbys in the financial services industry. For one, they’re possible to handle by oneself or with the help of a small office. But this isn’t the main reason.
Referrals and dinners make use of a crucial element for marketing of financial services — a chance to establish trust in a personal way. There are other, more efficient ways to accomplish this, though, such as financial education offerings. In fact, teaching an educational course can make prospecting for financial advisors far easier and more scalable. Here’s why.
Relationship-building and credibility are important drivers of client growth in any sort of consulting business. A dinner seminar allows the financial professional to appear in person, make a connection, and demonstrate the value in their services. A referral draws upon the innate trust of a personal relationship with another satisfied client.
However, these methods are less relevant than they once were. Many individuals today prefer to rely on the internet to consume information and conduct research on services in which they’re interested. Dinners, cold calls, and referrals are also less efficient on a time investment scale than more current approaches, such as financial education services. Results that require a lot of personal time investment for slow growth are not competitive when compared to more modern approaches to prospecting for financial advisors.
Any method that requires a 1:1 investment of the advisor’s time per prospect has a real scalability problem. You can check out the math on that here.
Casting too broad a net is inefficient. Billboards and radio ads will reach many eyes and ears, yes, but many poor-fit, wrong-time, or ultimately uninterested prospects must work their way through your message before you uncover a potential lead.
With a financial education offering, this is no longer the case. Attendees who have registered to attend your course are raising their hands and saying, “Yes, I have an interest in my financial future and what you have to tell me.” These self-selected prospects dramatically increase the efficiency of your message. Not only have you trimmed your audience down to just the most relevant people, but you’re able to engage them 10, 15, or 20 to 1. This saves you time and makes your message more impactful.
Your financial education course provides inherent value to prospects, whether they convert into clients or not. As an educational offering, the focus is on helping attendees to take control of their own financial lives. Your audience will be at ease, knowing you’re here to empower them and provide resources with take-home value — no further commitments required.
Without the pressure of a sales push, it’s also easier to get to know your audience while demonstrating your expertise on financial matters. This is a much more productive environment for encouraging prospects to consider their financial needs than the natural skepticism that comes with a sales pitch.
Much like with a referral program or a dinner presentation, a financial education course provides you the opportunity to establish a meaningful relationship with the attendees. Especially if the course is interactive and includes helpful opportunities for personal conversations or to ask questions that are specific to the attendee’s circumstances.
You also have the freedom to tell stories and give situational examples from your professional experiences to illustrate your points. These personal anecdotes help to humanize financial literacy and contribute to natural relationship-building with prospects. Attendees who get to know you are more likely to feel confident and comfortable in your expertise and more able to visualize you as their financial advisor.
Finally, financial education offerings can take a lot of the legwork and time investment out of marketing for financial advisors. One reason is that there’s no need to re-invent the wheel. With a turnkey financial education marketing program, you can gain access to a fully built-out course and marketing material that’s already proven to work.
FMT Solutions has provided tried, tested, and trusted financial education course materials to advisors like you for more than 20 years. Our courses have educated over 500,000 attendees and result in an average of $4M in new AUM in your pipeline for every course taught. We can assist with promoting your course, provide you with FINRA-reviewed course materials (including speaking notes), offer instructor training and certification, and even handle all registrations for you.
After just a few course sessions, the follow-up appointments from impressed attendees will almost book themselves. Contact FMT today to learn more about our program and how financial education offerings make prospecting for financial advisors easier than ever before.
This article was originally published in May 2022. Updated February 2023.
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