Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
November 01, 2009 at 02:00 AM
The converse of the age-old adage that “you get what you look for” is that if you don’t have in mind what you’re looking for, then you’re going to end up with whatever happens to come along. Unfortunately, that’s how most financial advisors build their businesses.
If someone can fog a mirror and write a check that clears, then that person is considered a qualified client. The end result: a weak book, a weak practice and a business with no leverage.
A key secret to business success is to build something once, then use it many times.
But if your clients have nothing in common, then you can’t build the “something” — the specific expertise applying to certain types of people and their financial circumstances — that enables you to exert substantial business leverage as you come to understand and master their common financial challenges. As a result, you are doomed to have a less efficient and less profitable practice and business.
Besides “be successful on purpose,” having an ideal client profile (ICP) is probably the single most important piece of advice offered by CEG Worldwide in our coaching programs. When your clients have substantial commonalities — not just commonalities of interest, but common problems and challenges to overcome — you gain huge leverage across every aspect of your business, from knowing just what your clients need and how to get it for them to putting together a spot-on expert network.
Most important, you have greatly increased your value to such clients, and can expect to be commensurately rewarded over the short run and long run.
Eight Factors
The eight ICP characteristics that we teach advisors to focus on are:
o General description
o Geographic location
o Investable assets
o Minimums
o Financial challenges
o Source of clients
o High-net-worth personality
o Personal enjoyment
Advisors are asked to write out all eight factors so they can hone and refine their ICP and make sure that everyone in their firm knows it cold.
Think about it this way: “These are our ideal clients, this is what we’re looking for and this is whom we’ll serve extraordinarily well and therefore be of great value to. And in markets like the ones we’ve just gone through, these are the clients who we want to make sure we hold onto by making exceptional client contact and demonstrating strong leadership.”
The first factor is a general description. This includes stage of life (e.g., working vs. retired), industry or occupation, specific job and company, marital status, educational level, age range, source of wealth and perhaps most importantly, the niche they fall into.
