5 Secrets to Maximize Sales

3. Find a need and fill it.

Because he knew the senior market so well, Adair was able to identify its unmet needs. While working at his family’s agency, he noticed a major hole in his clients’ financial preparedness for the expenses they would face in retirement. “We were a private-pay agency so I saw these families really losing everything they had worked for when they needed our help and started to have to pay for the care,” he says.

He began putting the different pieces together and saw that “nobody at that time, in my opinion, was servicing the seniors comprehensively and frankly that’s how the whole thing was born,” he says, referring to his decision to jump into financial services.

4. Partner with charities, local and national.

Adair has found that working with charities you believe in can be a win-win situation for both parties. “We play a role in several charities even at the national level. Ironically, they have asked us to assist in their efforts because, as you can imagine in today’s economy, with where we are with the interest rate environment, you’ve got these charities going to the same donors year after year asking for money and people are saying, ‘I can’t help.’ So the charities actually ask us to work with some of their donors to help them—which then ultimately benefits the charity.”

5. Mix business with pleasure.

Every year, Adair throws a Christmas party for his clients at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh. Last year, 250 clients showed up. “Our families love us,” he says. Spending time with clients outside of a conference room is one way he helps build a sense of relational trust, which he believes is critical to developing a relationship that can stand the test of time.

“We’re the furthest thing from an asset gatherer,” Adair says. “We know our families. I don’t have to open their file to know their story.”

For sales & marketing tips from other top advisors, see SMA’s 2012 Advisor of the Year Finalists.