"Remember, people with significant net worth do not have financial problems; they have challenges."

The Best of Times

By John Bowen

If, on occasion, you wake up feeling overwhelmed about the current market conditions, it's okay. It seems that each morning we awaken to headlines reporting new lows in the stock market, new corporate scandals and ever-eroding investor confidence. If you aren't overwhelmed on occasion, you are not paying enough attention. It's very easy to become discouraged. The challenges faced by financial advisors in helping their clients achieve their financial goals and, at the same time, building a great business, seem insurmountable to many advisors today.

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It would be all too easy to give in to these challenges. That would not be okay.

If these challenges seem great to you, consider how overwhelmed many of your clients must feel. Your clients are counting on your ability to provide the leadership necessary to meet these challenges. Your job is to help your clients through this confusing period so that they are financially well-positioned and not so distressed by the events of the day that they make foolish decisions about their money. Advisors who succeed at this will build great, enduring businesses. The elite financial advisors I work with at CEG Worldwide recognize that these challenges actually make this one of the best of times to be a financial advisor—provided they stay focused on their clients.

There are very few times in life when events conspire to present an unbelievable opportunity to expand your business. One of these times is now—if you seize it. In today's market, investors cannot help but be concerned; many are downright scared. These investors are looking for trusted and competent advisors to guide them through this confusion. Right now, you have a unique chance to build a hugely successful financial advisory business. However, your competitors are also rushing to capture these assets. To compete effectively, you need a marketing strategy that will provide you with an endless stream of pre-qualified and pre-endorsed affluent clients whose financial challenges you can profitably solve. There are five important steps to creating such a strategy:

1. Create a compelling vision of success. The first step is to forge a persuasive image of success that you share with all stakeholders. A clear vision is an emotional lighthouse, pulling you continuously toward you objectives. You must know where you want to go so that you can begin with the end in mind.

Paint a mental picture of what your business will look like in five years. It will become even clearer as you write down your thoughts. Once you precisely define your vision, you're ready to begin laying out each of the marketing components required to reach that vision.

2. Develop a target market. There are so many opportunities available that most financial advisors jump from opportunity to opportunity, never setting up a long-term marketing strategy. They never establish themselves in one community of prospects. They're island hopping.

Your marketing challenge is to narrow your focus by choosing a target market where you can specialize and profitably add substantial value. Targeting carries many benefits. First, it allows you to focus your time and resources on only those activities with the highest payout. Second, it becomes easy to get referrals because you understand the deep and narrow issues that affect your market. You will become known inside the community as the expert who really understands the issues-because you do. Working with only one target market allows you to become extremely proficient in assisting that market.

3. Discover niche opportunities. A niche is simply a market particularly suited to your talents, skills and interests. All of us have unique talents and we all have comparative advantages in different areas. You want to build a business that provides you with a high quality of life by working with a group of people with whom you have an affinity. Make sure, though, that this market has a high concentration of qualified, affluent prospects.

Niche opportunities exist everywhere in your community, but you'll have to do some research. I live in Silicon Valley, which created many affluent niches. What I find surprising is that many advisors in my area fail to really understand the enormous potential that targeting an affluent niche provides.

For example, consider Internet millionaires. With the Nasdaq at a five-year low, most advisors dismiss this segment as no longer having money. But if you define Internet millionaires as people with $1 million or more in investable assets (not including stock options in their companies), even with the prolonged decline in technology stocks, there is still $318.1 billion in the hands of the Internet millionaires. More importantly, this niche needs help and is more than willing to pay for it.

To identify a niche in your own community, make sure prospects have shared perceptions and similar problems, values and desires for solutions. Most importantly, as a group this niche must need your help and be able to pay you for it.

4. Position yourself as an expert. Communication is something we all want to do immediately. The key to effective communication is to position yourself properly first. This means controlling your clients' and prospects' perceptions.

As a financial advisor, you have to stand out in a very crowded and confusing marketplace. You have to design your position so you are first in the minds of your niche market. If you are perceived as a specialist to a particular market, you have a huge advantage. For example, a recent divorcee has several major financial challenges to address immediately. She can work with a general practitioner or she can work with you, a known specialist in work with divorcees. No question, you will win hands down—if you are the expert. In today's market, affluent investors are looking for financial specialists who can help them make smart decisions about their money. They are not looking for the traditional product-pusher playing a transactional role. You want to be perceived by the affluent not as a problem solver, but as a person who meets challenges effectively. Remember, people with a significant net worth do not have financial problems; they have challenges. You want to be known as the person with the expertise to meet these challenges.

5. Communicate your benefits cost-effectively. You must deliver the right message to the right prospects at the right time. The right message should touch upon a prospect's emotional as well as financial needs. In today's market, you need to effectively communicate that you assist investors in making smart decisions about their money.

There are three main channels of communicating with prospects: the relationship channel, the credibility channel and the mass market channel.

• The relationship channel is the one-on-one interaction that you generate through referrals or strategic alliances.
• The credibility channel is reaching audiences through public relations such as appearances in the media and writing articles and books.
• The mass market channel is contacting those potential clients who can be reached through direct response advertising and promotions.

Most financial advisors believe that if they could only sit down with qualified prospects on a regular basis they'd be hugely successful. Many advisors try to accomplish this by using mass marketing techniques that, unfortunately, are not very successful.

If you were a multimillion-dollar prospect, how would find your financial advisor? Through a direct mail piece? From a flyer someone stuck in your mailbox? Of course not. Instead, you would ask for recommendations from your trusted friends or associates. And these people would provide referrals only if they truly trusted and were impressed by their advisors.

To be successful in today's market, you must focus on relationship-based marketing. You can generate a large number of personal referrals when you have truly delighted clients. The key to this is focusing your attention on your existing clients and completing diagnostic reviews of their investments to ensure they're on track to achieving their financial goals. With this client-centered approach, you will be well-positioned to ask for referrals. More importantly, your clients will want to refer their friends and associates.

Credibility-based marketing also works. It complements relationship-based marketing because publications of any sort give you instant credibility with prospects and reinforce your credibility with your current clients. Appearances on radio programs, columns or interviews in local newspapers or trade publications, public speaking or publishing your own newsletter can all be very valuable in getting across your message.

There has never been a bigger window of opportunity for you to grow your business by effectively serving affluent clients. Ultimately, it's your choice to become overwhelmed by the challenges you face—or to rise to the occasion and serve your clients well.