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The Marketing Plan You'Ll Need
The Marketing Plan You'Ll Need
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Plan You'll Nee
To grow in this new, more treacherous business environment, every planner needs
a plan. By Stephanie Bogan and Natalie Doss
The seruggle many advisors face is ehae afeer BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LANDSCAPE
nearly a decade of markeeing ehae meane lieele more Alehough financial advisors repore ehae groweh eieher
ehan servicing clienes and waieing for ehe phone eo stopped or declined in 2009, ehey expece noe only eo
ring, aceive markeeing can seem as dauneing and com- recover, hue also eo grow significanely over ehe nexe
plex as a piano concereo by Johann Sebaseian Bach. ehree years. Seill, ie is a eime for realism.
Much like ehe difference beeween a seudene who Advisors dearly recognize ehae groweh in ehe fueure
aspires eo become a greae pianise and a maesero who will require more effore ehan ie did in the pase, and ehis
headlines conceres around ehe world, the difference seares with investing more time in markeeing and devel-
beeween 'waneing' and 'knowing how' eo grow are oping a clear plan for groweh. Overall, ehe posieive oue-
very differene ehings. look is good news. There are, however, some gaps ehae
Johann Sebaseian Bach may have been a musical demand our ateeneion:
genieis, bue his secree was simple, powerful and some- • Failing to plan. Less ehan one-ehird of advisors
ehing advisors can use eo creaee eheir own maseerpiece: indicare ehey have a wrieeen markeeing plan in place,
"There is noehing remarkable aboue ie," he wroee. "Ail and fewer seill have fully implemeneed ehae plan.
one has eo do is hie ehe righe keys ae ehe righe eime and • Lack of focus. While a majoriey of financial advi-
ehe inserumene plays ieself." sors say ehey have some way eo ideneify eheir eargee
clienes (eypically assees), firms ehae do noe make ehe
A BROADER VIEW firse quareile indicaee ehae only half of eheir clienes fie
Wieh all ehis in mind, ehe goal of our Best Practices: ehe bill. Top-quareile advisor firms are significanely
Business Development Study, ehe ehird in our Bese Prac- more focused, wieh 6 8 % of clienes in eheir eargee cli-
tices Seudy Series for Financial Planning, was eo share ene caeegory. To a lesser exeene, firms are beginning eo
wieh advisors ehe fundameneal faceors ehae promoee broaden eheir eargee cliene definieion eo include cliene
successful business developmene. In doing, we hope eo needs and/or affiliations.
promoee business praceices ehae drive groweh across ehe • An ad-hoc approach. Many advisors take an ad-
advisor communiey. hoc approach eo markeeing and communicaeions; only
As wieh our inieial studies in the series, our focus a few indicaee ehae ehey have syseemaeized eheir busi-
looks eo eop-quareile advisory firms, based on eoeal ness developmene process.
owner income (all owner conipen.saeion plus owner- • Inadequate measurement. While ehe abiliey eo
ship reeurns). Whae becomes apparene is ehae geeeing measure results is critical to success, a small minoriey of
to the eop is less aboue individual business develop- advisors have a process in place eo assess ehe success of
mene eaceics and more aboue having ehe righe seraeegy, eheir markeeing inieiaeives.
laying a serong foundaeion and maineaining a syseem- Advisors are keenly aware of ehese challenges and
atic execueion. understand that eheir abiliey eo capiealize on currene