Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Local sports, arts or education associations with events that are looking for sponsors (eg art gallery, theatre, golf etc)? Investment seminar - one group might be children and parents going to college? Inheritance planning seminar at a country club?

if I were in the financial services industry, I would do a series of small seminars on the topic of diversification. The Wikipedia article on diversification is a great place to start. I think it is easier to convince people they need to do a few more and different things, rather than asking them to throw out the baby with the bathwater. For example, my perception from reading that Wikipedia article is that you maximize return while minimizing risk when you have 23 or more unrelated investments. I would bet that few of your attendees have anything close to 23. I would not use the seminar to describe your specific offerings, but I would use the seminar to set appointments.

In this way, you are not trying to make the case that you are smarter or better or cheaper or faster. You are just encouraging them not to have all their eggs in one basket.

Heeey larry.sebbens,

could you briefly tell us more about your products...like who you cater to demographically or psychographically?

Another question would be "Do you have any existing Customers in that area? and if you don't could you please tell me how far away or how close is the nearest Customer to your new location? (that would help me understand what specific strategies I should recommend for you that would work better)...after I have a more clear picture I'll recommend a strategy or two or several depending on your response. Thanks so much.

Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passionate Executive)

*Caring Promotes Exuberance

PS
REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future.

Products are full service financial planning. Current customers skew slightly toward retiree and pre-retiree (baby boomers). But product suitable for all ages. Good name recgonition in city but not as many current customers in that area currently.

Heeey larry.sebbens,

Thanks sooo much for being willing to share a few more details. The more detailed information often get's you a better response...(and sooo do points in a point driven forum). The only other obvious questions I'd ask are these...Is there a marketplace for your product in this community? and if there is how do you know that? And if there is a marketplace are there competitors there and how much of the assumed market have they captured? And how many existing Customers do you have in this area?

Now Larry based on my experience working with Customers in close one on one situations the tendency is for them to be a whole lot less revealing than you or your individual brokers would want them to be (especially at an Open House)...so I'm quite positive that another open house would not be an effective next action step. You see until you really understand a whole lot more about the Customer Mentality than you currently know now about your Customer...it's going to be extremely hard to give you Real Ideas that will Really Work for you. What your company really needs Larry is an upgrade...an upgrade in the kind of Customer Attraction Strategies that are necessary to Appeal to the Customers in your specific marketplace.

Sooo I definitely would also recommend that for right now you all wouldn't spend another dime until you all as a group, team or company got back together in the huddle and had a conversation about "Who" you're trying to appeal to. I can absolutely tell you already just from paying close attention to the details of your communication of the product "suitable for all ages" that in this current marketplace you all will be losing more money soon enough. (and I hope you can appreciate me being honest versus allowing you to remain in the dark on that point but that's absolutely what I'd tell you if you were a client of mine because like a good doctor tells his patient that her leg is broken you wouldn't expect him to hold back that truth from the patient...allowing her to limp out of the door of his office ignorant of this truth...sooo I'm just trying to keep it real with you). If no one has told you we are in a fractured economy where the best marketing is appealing and even catering to the individuals needs of the Customer that's where we are at. If your product is suitable for all ages I would only hope that you all are using separate marketing vehicles to appeal to retirees differently than you all are trying to appeal to pre-retirees. Again since I can not see your products or your marketing information it's like I'm having to try to help you without clearly knowing what marketing products you all are using...and how to best modify these products for your specific Customer types. Because a pre-retiree has a whole different group of hot buttons to push than a retiree.

You see Larry attracting your Right Customer to you is really Simple when you Know "Who" your customer is...when you understand "Who" they are in the most genuine and sincere way they will be willing to show up at an Open House because they are Clear that what you all have to Offer them is Worth their time and energy. It appears your last Open House may have been missing this key bit of insight and I've got a lot more to share but I'm going to leave that right there.

So Larry even if I did an Open House as you all did...the way I would make it more successful would be to do separate open houses based on several different premises. But that's not what I'm recommending for you right now. I'm actually recommending that you all get back in the huddle and brainstorm and even do some research on "Who" your Customer is and "What" are the Attractor Factors that would appeal to them in this new community you all are in. Even in a marketplace culture of retiree's and pre-retiree's there are so many factor's I'm aware of that I wouldn't even approach this community without first making myself acutely aware of their specific needs. I wouldn't dare ask you all here on this forum how much money you all lost doing your open house but I would ask you that in private...because I'm sure that with the money you lost...I would have put that money into either the research or into creating the specific message that would appeal to this specific audience of retiree's and pre-retiree's.

Only after I took your team back to the huddle and brainstorm, would I dare try to create a specific step-by-step plan of Action we should take next...but it would be one where all of our Individual Brokers could buy into and rally together around this common idea for the sole purpose of taking New ground in this New Community you're in.

(I only have one suggestion that I could confidently make at this point with my limited understanding of what you all are doing right now and plenty of questions on how you all approached the Open House... the only suggestion you all could put to work for you right now but it really would require someone who is extremely seasoned at this kind of marketing and that is leveraging your existing Customers in this new Community to give you greater understanding and influence with your prospective Customers). Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passionate Executive)

*Caring Promotes Exuberance

PS
REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future.