Ehhh.

The Truth about Free Consultations

As a client of an advisor and knowing loads of good people in the business I’ve got to come clean …

I DON’T WANT TO MEET WITH ANY OF YOU.

You’re all nice enough but the idea of meeting with a new person I don’t know very well to talk about my money, and all my mistakes, is right up there on my bucket list with a double root canal and my next IRS audit. Shivers.

It’s not that the consultation concept isn’t salvageable, but I want to ask you to look at it from my perspective and re-evaluate your own business reasons for doing free consultations. I think you’ll come out the other end of this with a different point of view.

Repositioning In Your Funnel

While they’re not wrong, traditional free consultations often aren’t good business. There is a simple reason: Most advisors mistakenly think of consultations as a prospecting tool that helps fill the very top of their funnel. WRONG.

Unless you’re famous and meeting you fulfills one of my lifelong ambitions, a consultation meeting with you IS NOT ENTICING. Filling the TOp of the FUnnel (TOFU) requires other methods, like blogging, networking (social and otherwise) and client referrals. These activities are meant to attract people who already need what you have to begin a relationship so you can be there when they’re ready.

If Free Consultations aren’t good for TOFU, then what are they for? Meet MOFU, Middle Of the FUnnel. MOFU, is about developing relationships by moving people through a process to get to know you well enough to make a commitment. In other words, MOFU helps people move down the funnel. This is the point at which a traditional free consultation can work.

With that in mind, the role of a free consultation is to reduce conversion friction at the stage in the funnel where qualified opportunities become new clients. At this point in the marketing process, a free consultation simplifies the decision to work with you by removing the cost and commitment of a becoming a client.

Free consultations can still be used to great effect done traditionally, given you’ve got your expectations set correctly. What’s really exciting are all the ways advisors are now combining new technology and new thinking with the idea of a free consultation and seminar marketing to completely redefine what is possible in Financial Advisor marketing. More on that in a future article. Subscribe now so you don’t miss it.

It’s true, Blueleaf has no salespeople.

But why? Are we a bunch of hippies uninterested in profit? Given that I spent time as an investment banker, not likely. Does our team have a thing against polyester? Well, maybe. But that’s not the whole story.

Our goal is to create happy customers. So I have a question for you: when was the last time you thought, ‘I’m so glad that salesperson called!?’ Our team had trouble remembering too. In fact, we don’t believe that traditional selling is an effective way to make people happy.

So if old school selling isn’t the answer, what is?

Service Rocks

It’s simple really. We treat people as customers before they buy anything from us. We want all Blueleafers to create relationships, deliver service and demonstrate value before asking for anything. In other words – we’ve decided to prove our mettle and walk the walk from the first time you ask about Blueleaf.

Blueleaf Coaches

We do have some special people assigned to make sure this all goes well. They are our Blueleaf Coaches. Their responsibility is to make sure that every time you deal with Blueleaf (as a customer or potential customer) you get the most out of it.

That’s it. Service over sales. We’re excited by the approach and how well so many of you have responded to it. We’ll keep working hard to refine things and try to improve as we go. We think we’re off to a great start. And, as ever, thanks for all the support.

An hour or two into the trip it hits you: You have no idea where you’re going. You forgot the directions. You knew just enough to get you where you are, but now you’re several hours in, completely lost. You’ve got two options: double-back home and start over again or stop, pull over and ask for directions.

This is EXACTLY what it’s like after you jump into social media. Sure, you had a few ideas for posts, a fancy Twitter background and a Facebook page. Now what?

Where am I going…

Here you are, stuck with a few lousy followers, little interaction or engagement and even fewer posts. And all the while worrying about compliance. Is this worth it?

Consider yourself pulled over. I’m that friendly gal in the cute little town in Kansas you’re talking to on the side of the social media road.

This your stop-and-pullover guide to finding the right Social Media direction.

START HERE – Strategy

• Purpose – Everything you write or do for your business needs a purpose. You need to know why you’re doing this?  See HBS’ take here.
• Real-time – Social Media unfolds in real-time, so your content MUST be timely. 2007 called, it wants its articles back.
• Facts – Make sure you’ve got your facts straight. There are a lot of smart people out there and they will call you out.
• Opinion – Your opinion is WAY MORE interesting than the facts. It’s yours and and makes you unique no matter how often a story has been told.  Bonus – the more popular the story, the more likely you are to engage someone.
• Process – You need a social media process. Without it, social media can be a black hole for your time.

Workflow

What is a social media workflow? It’s a system of process and tools to execute your social media plan every day that will save you TONS of hours. Here are some quick steps to take TODAY:

• Use Twitter Lists, RSS, Google Alerts, Twilerts, SocialMention & other tools to make sure there’s fresh content in your lap every morning. This will save you countless hours of refreshing your feed and hand-curating the most valuable content among the chaff.
• Reference List: Create a list of the top 5 industry / news sites that will keep you in the loop at all times. That one day where you just don’t have time for social media? Round-up a few posts from your favorite news sources and schedule them to go out through the rest of the day.
• Measurement Tools: Tracking your efforts in social media doesn’t have to cost you. With a variety of free tools like Google Analytics, Crowdbooster, PeerIndex, Klout, TwitterCounter, and other measuring tools to get instant or weekly reports to track your progress.

After you have all those steps and tools set up here is a daily checklist:

• Use Safari’s Bookmark folder auto-click (this opens all the Windows you need w/ one click) __
• Review your twilerts in the morning __
• Check your twitter list for the top 10 influencers in your industry to see what they’re talking about __
• Engage in conversation with relevant topics __
• Research material to write, tweet, or post throughout your                             social channels __
• Use RSS feeds, Google alerts to skim for news and other content material relevant in your industry __
• Set daily goals to achieve (i.e. 3+ followers/ day, @reply 3 people) __

The bottom line is this: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Do yourself a favor – stop and pull over if you’re not sure where you’re heading with your social media efforts. Take a day off from posting and get on the right path.

Step 1 – Stop blogging.

Return to Step 1 until you have stopped blogging.

Step 2 – Stop thinking about your blog.

Return to Step 2 until you are no longer thinking about your blog in any way.

Step 3 – Start thinking about your business – the service that you deliver. Is it as good as it can be?

Stop reading this post entirely if your service, much like your blog, isn’t AWESOME, and focus on making it better. Not sure if your service is as awesome as it should be? Ask yourself: When was the last time a client said “Wow” about your service?

Step 4 – Start thinking about your service experience, and what your experience means to your clients. Think about all of the touch points where your clients interact with your business (e.g. you, your website, your emails, your brochures, your secretary, etc.). Ask yourself, “are all of my touch points consistent? Are they awesome?”

Return to Step 4 until you can clearly picture your service experience and all of its touch points.

Step 5 – Start thinking critically about your service’s experience – it’s your BRAND. Question your existence. Is your brand interesting? How do you improve your clients’ lives? What is the purpose of your brand?

Return to Step 5 until you understand how your brand improves your clients lives.

Step 6 – Return to thinking about your blog. Why do you have a blog? What purpose does it serve for your brand? How does it fit with your business model; should it generate leads (requires real commitment), should it help prospective clients get more comfortable with you? Is it just to ‘get your name out there?’

Return to step 6 if you said ‘just to get your name out there.’ Think harder.

Step 7 - Start thinking about your content. What qualifies as content? What kind of content have you already put out there? Are you using Social Media as part of your content strategy? Do you have any sort of content strategy? Do you even know what a content strategy might look like? Does your content reflect the brand you have or want? How do you know it’s working?

Stop reading this post if you don’t think that you need a content strategy.

Step 8 - Complete the 4 Simple Steps To Financial Content That Works.

Return to Step 8 until your blog (and all other content) is no longer sucky.

Thanks to the bloggers at Helium for the brilliant graphic.

1.) PURPOSE – Write down why your business exists

An internal point-of-view about your advisory business and how it relates to the world. It will guide your content. This shouldn’t be limited to your views on money. It’s everything.

Question: Why do you exist?

Pro Tip: Beliefs + Values = Purpose

Exercise: Fill in the blank with 10 words or less. Make it personal, not generic.

We exist to_________________________________________________.

(Source: The Ad Club Blog)

2.) PERSONALITY – Describe your business’ personality

This is also about the larger entity, not a specific piece of content. It will determine your voice/tone.

Question: What makes you interesting?

Pro Tip: Personality is Interesting –> Interest leads to Caring –> Care leads to Conversion

Exercise: Answer these three questions, each in 25 words or less:

1. How do you change your clients, prospects or partners’ life?
2. What do you stand for?
3. Who or what do you hate?

(Source: AVC Blog)

3.) CONTENT – List interesting topics that align with the steps above

This should be all about the prospects, clients and partners that will be receiving your content.

Question: How do you help your audience accomplish their goals?

Pro Tip: Necessary Content = Appropriate + Useful + Focused + Clear + Concise

Exercise: Complete this checklist for each piece of content you create:

Does this piece cognitively engage (educate, inspire or pose a question) the reader?

Which emotion(s) does this piece target? (Circle one or two)

Does this piece encourage doing something specific, does it contain a call to action?

(Source: A List Apart)

4.) PLAN – Create a simple plan for each piece of content

The tactical execution for each piece of content.

Title: Is my title eye-catching, memorable or provocative in some way?  

SEO: Am I optimizing this piece for search engines without being a dick about it?

Links: Does my content contain all appropriate links?

Visuals: Does my content contain at least one photo, video, graphic, audio or other piece of media?  

Conversation: Does my content allow for commenting, sharing and subscribing, if possible?

____________________________________________________________

Sound like a lot of work? Yep, it is. We said simple, not easy. But, 1 GREAT post per month that matters is better than a bunch of content that doesn’t.

Pro Tip: The stuff that you subscribe to and then post sucks. STOP PAYING NOW & DROP IT. It has nothing to do with you, which is why it doesn’t work.

Your alternative is to either:

1. Find the time to do a little bit of writing well or
2. Read our upcoming article about ways to create financial content that matters without writing it yourself.

Subscribe Now so you don’t miss it!

or Just ‘Meh’?

Is your About page working for you? Does it just sit there like a wallflower or help fill your client dance card?

“About” is a standard section on every website so it tends to get overlooked. That’s too bad because in terms of your site traffic and search engines, the About page typically ranks right up there with the home page. Blueleaf’s about page receives the most traffic of any page on our site other than the home page. Which means, it’s likely that people searching for you on the Web will see your About page before ever clicking on your home page. Crafted well, your about page is one of your most powerful marketing tools. Ignored or crafted poorly and people will look elsewhere for a more compelling story.

Following are a few practical tips to keep in mind when creating or redesigning your About page.

1. Keep it real

When you meet a prospective client for the first time, you smile, shake hands, exchange pleasantries. Because you tailor your services to each individual client, you look for a way to connect on a personal level. You don’t drone on about yourself or use a lot of industry jargon.

Your About page should be like that. Your website is a virtual “first impression” for those who discover you that way, and a conversational, personable tone can go a long way toward attracting new clients.

There are many ways to reach out to your site visitors. Talk about why you’re in this business. Post a candid photo. Include a short video that demonstrates your expertise.
There are no hard-and-fast rules, but if you’re a solo practitioner, write your About text in the first person. Third person is generally more appropriate for a team with multiple biographies.

2. Use an inverted pyramid structure

One of the first things they teach in Journalism 101 is the inverted pyramid structure of news writing. A news story always leads with the five Ws:  Who, What, When, Where and Why (and sometimes How). The remaining information is arranged in decreasing levels of importance.

Your About page should follow this same pattern. Who are you? Why did you become a financial advisor? When are you available for consultations? Where are you located? How can people contact you? What are your credentials? Don’t get hung up on conveying the data. Tell a story. Make it compelling. It can help to group the contact, credentials and hours data in a group by itself that people can scan.

After that you might list your certifications or publications, talk about a success story or add anything else you think is relevant.

3. Include a call to action

Just like a sales pitch, no About page is complete without offering your client a next step. That’s where a call to action comes in.

A call to action is your communication bridge, an invitation to connect. Offer an opportunity for a free or fee-based consultation.  Invite people to join your email list, subscribe to your Twitter feed, Like your Facebook page or connect on LinkedIn. Another growing trend is to include a contact form at the bottom of the About page and eliminate the Contact page altogether.

Now it’s your turn
Try revising your About page in different ways:

1. A reporter from a local paper wants to interview you about your business. List five questions you’d like a reporter to ask, and then answer them. Tell your story.
2. If your About page is written in the third person, revise it in the first person. Use an informal tone, as if you’re talking to a friend about your company.
3. Add a call to action. Do you have a newsletter or email list? Are you offering a discount on an initial consultation? Think about how you’d like to compel a site visitor to take the next step, and design a button around that.

In the comments below, share any great, unusual or interesting about page examples.

Or link to your about page in the comments and we’ll diagnose it and give you suggestions to improve it.

(Ready to get started? Jump ahead.)

Billing at the touch of a button

Billing should be simple. You should be able to turn it on, tell us how you bill and get a file with all your calculations in a format that is easy to change and audit. And it should be as simple as a spreadsheet. So that’s what we’ve done.

Click on the “Calculate Billing” button and we’ll get your billing files set up. Once the file is ready, we’ll let you know by email. Then you’ll be able to tell us about your billing rules in as much detail as you need to get it right. Then at the end of the period, you’ll be able to make adjustments to your file or just download it as is, ready to go.

Flexible, Familiar Interface

Nothing beats a spreadsheet for flexibility. It’s familiar and simple to use. Blueleaf adds automation to that familiar interface to create the simplest, easiest to use billing calculation system available.

It’s all there. Your data, the formulas, the results. No mystery, simple to see and change. Download it and you’re ready to go.

To get started

Don’t have a Blueleaf Advisor Account?

• Go to our For Advisors page and click the “Try it now” button.

Already have a an account?

1. Sign in to your Blueleaf Advisor account.
2. Go to Billing Calculations under Settings.
3. And click the big blue button.

(Ready to get started? Jump ahead.)

Automated Integration with Dropbox

We’ve partnered with Dropbox to bring you the very best in document sharing for your clients. Dropbox has over 40 million users and is growing at nearly twice the rate of anyone else that provides a document sharing platform.

Why Dropbox? Because it just works.

We won’t spend lots of time telling you about all the incredible features you get as part of Dropbox, they do that a lot better than we do. At the end of this post, we’ve included links to resources that tell you about all their features, supported platforms and partners. We use their software everyday at Blueleaf and know firsthand how amazing they are. We want to deliver that same experience for you. Here’s what we do for you.

One button is all it takes

That’s it, just sign in to your Blueleaf account, click one button and we’ll set up dropbox folders for you and all your clients on the blueleaf system. We’ll set up all the folders automatically and manage things for you. And it will look like this:

You’ll have secure, anywhere, anytime access to any client document you want organized by client/household. Then, when you’re ready, we’ll invite clients and allow them to access their folders. They’ll get the same secure, anywhere, anytime access to the documents you provide to them, and they’ll be able to securely provide documents to you as well. Documents are accessible on the web or right on their personal computers as if you saved the documents right there for them. This is document sharing that just works.

It’s all included in the price of the Blueleaf Advisor platform

That’s right, no extra charge or separate bill. It’s all included. Up to 2GB of document storage for free. Just think of it as one of the benefits of being part of Blueleaf nation: group of some of the best financial advisors in the world who are dedicated to making clients lives better through simplicity and transparency.

To get started

Don’t have a Blueleaf Advisor Account?

1. Go to our For Advisors page and click the “Try it now” button.

Already have a an account?

1. Sign in to your Blueleaf Advisor account.
2. Go to Document Sharing.
3. And click the big blue button.

More about Dropbox…

Looking for more information on all the amazing things Dropbox can do for you? Here you go:
Learn more about amazing Dropbox features.
Find out more about mobile access options.
Or browse Dropbox many application partners.

We hope you’ll love this new addition to Blueleaf Advisor.

Those same clients go to their inbox or mailbox each quarter and open that report you send them without fail. What they inevitably see are those familiar squiggly lines and percentages of your QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT.

“Focus on reaching your long-term goals” appears to be footnoted

It’s a bit like you’re saying “Do as I say, not as I do (write/ report).”

“Focus on your long-term goals and dreams, and by the way, here are your performance numbers for the last three months”. Oops. The bottom line is that you’re contradicting all your good advice when you give clients reports that consistently highlight the short-term. And you do this four times a year. Why?

It’s not you, it’s your software

Your Software Sucks. The problem as I see it is that you use the same portfolio accounting software (the program used to monitor all clients’ investment activity to the penny) that is designed for you to analyze and track data to also generate reports for clients. Not good.

Yes, if you need portfolio accounting down to the penny, you might need portfolio accounting software. But the performance reports these programs generate are only really useful to you. You use these reports to compare client investment performance against multiple benchmarks, review household asset allocation, and identify accounts that need rebalancing. That’s exactly what these reports are for. But you can’t send these same reports to clients and expect them to convey your message of maintaining a long-term perspective.

It’s time to delete the footnote

Most clients don’t really care what their quarterly performance numbers are. Markets go up; markets go down. They’d much rather focus on living their lives. That’s why they hired you. And you already know that most clients don’t bother to read the reports you send.

But what clients do care about is whether or not they’re going to be able to meet their goals. They care about feeling informed and they care that you’re making things simpler for them. Deliver that experience through the information you share with clients and you both win. But portfolio accounting reports that detail the minutiae from a financial professional’s perspective do nothing to communicate that.

It’s time to rethink the information you share with clients. What can you do to emphasize the long-term perspective and communicate how well prepared your client is to meet her goals? Re-focus the information you share on on the long-term and de-emphasize the sort-term. Simple.

Now if you feel compelled to highlight your client’s portfolio performance over the last three months, that’s fine. Put it at the back of the package or put it in a form that they can get when THEY want it, not on the first page of an information package that you send. Avoid blasting short-term performance right out of the gate.

Consistency and simplicity IS client service

You’re probably thinking that, as a financial advisor, to service your client you need to periodically review their investments to keep them aligned with long-term financial goals and dreams, and to report to them what is going on with their money. You’re absolutely right. It’s also your role to simplify your clients’ lives and help them focus on the right things.

One of the easiest ways to help clients focus on the long-term is to organize the information you share around the long-term, too. After you do it, don’t be surprised if clients tell you how much more helpful the information is and how much more in control they feel.

Turn off the footnotes in your client information. It will change your clients perspective for the better and maybe yours, too.

One and done?

As financial advisors, you know how critical addressing the details is to helping clients reach their goals.  Tax circumstances, beneficiary designations, cash flow – these details often only emerge when communication is consistent. Simply meeting at years’ end to review account status is no way to satisfy projected needs and actively pursue financial goals. Doing so helps you check the “client touch” box, but it’s no way to build a practice of deeply serviced clients.

Aztec Calendar

Continual account management

Creating an initial plan is essential to identify things your clients can do to best meet their goals and objectives right now. But what many advisors fail to do is proactively review the plan according to new data collected as time goes on.

By consistently gathering client data, you’re able to keep lines of communication running freely to stay on top of ever-changing issues like:

• Cash flow: How are your clients spending money? Are they consistently cash flow positive? Or are they living beyond their means? For retired clients taking portfolio distributions, are the distributions enough to cover their expenses? Are they supplementing their distributions with credit cards or lines of credit and not telling you? Are they paying any interest or penalties on credit cards?
• Taxes: Are your clients, especially those who are self-employed, paying enough in taxes to avoid underpayment penalties? Are they paying too much and loaning money interest-free to the IRS? Will any additional year-end income cause the client to cross over deduction or credit income cut-offs, causing them to lose out on tax savings? Should medical payments be accelerated before year-end after the 7.5% of AGI threshold has been exceeded?
• Inflation: How does inflation affect your clients? Retired clients no longer commute, so they’re less sensitive to gas prices as filling up their car makes up a small portion of their spending. But clients with long-distance commutes and frequent travel are impacted significantly by price increases. Conversely, medical insurance premium increases have a big impact on retired clients versus those who are younger and physically fit. So how do you identify and apply inflation estimates for these clients?

Ongoing data access

Account aggregation is no longer exclusive to a handful of service providers. More tools are available today that are capable of aggregating bank, credit, and investment account information without requiring ongoing user intervention. Core aggregation services from Yodlee and Intuit make sites like Mint.com, Bundle, Mvelopes, and Blueleaf able to provide this proactive insight into daily financial activity.

Elephant in the room

If you’re not using these services, is it because you haven’t figured out how to do it efficiently and make the process scalable across all your clients? Maybe you think your clients aren’t comfortable sharing this level of detail on their personal spending with you. Why is that? Have you openly talked about the value they might receive through your proactive monitoring and planning? Are you prepared to demonstrate how you might adjust their financial plan based on insight you gain from their data?

Have Data, Then What?

Streamlining the ongoing data gathering process is a solvable problem, but it’s what you do with the data once you get it that matters.

Here is where the industry falls short on integrated solutions.

Data alone isn’t valuable. Insights are.

Seeing which clients are spending or saving requires considerable effort on your part to package the data into meaningful information. Want to identify a client’s personal rate of inflation? That may take a custom spreadsheet with twelve months of cash flow figures to calculate. And viewing interest and penalty payments? You’ll need some kind of custom alert to point out that needle in a haystack.

I think you’ll agree that proactively reviewing client financial data allows you to identify more relevant planning strategies for clients. Obtaining the data is easier today than in the past, but figuring out what to do with the data remains a challenge. I haven’t identified one catch-all solution that satisfies the need for useful, consolidated data in a user-friendly environment.

Have you?