Why do most advisors survive and only a few thrive?

The truth is, many advisors still run very inefficient marketing campaigns. Many still use “popular” advertising techniques to reach their prospects: seminars, radio, email and direct mail. And while their marketing content may be good, the majority fail to target each of their prospects efficiently.

Why do so many advisors cast such a wide marketing net? It’s as if they are trying to reach everyone in their market with the same message catered to those ready to take action today; however, most prospects are not ready to change advisors or attend a seminar, today. Now they may be willing to engage in those possibilities at some point in the future, but that all depends on you.

In most cases, advisors who utilize these “mass marketing” methods see only a 1 percent to 2 percent response. For example, an advisor may send out 5,000 invitations to a seminar but only see 50 people respond.

But what about the other 99 percent of prospects? Essentially, they are lost to the advisor and the advisors’ marketing dollars are wasted – simply because they did not understand how to target the other 99 percent of prospects who are interested, but not ready to take action today. The issue is trying to apply catch-all methods of marketing instead of utilizing marketing techniques that speak to and nurture prospects based on where they are today in the buying process.

Imagine an advisor dumping all his or her marketing budget into a funnel, but the funnel has holes in it, allowing the majority of the money to spill out. This is a common example of an inefficient sales funnel. However, the fallout isn’t necessarily wasted if you know how to engage with each of your prospects through the various stages of the buying cycle – as we discussed in last week’s blog.

Thrive not just survive