"By embracing a single market, advisors can focus their time and resources on the activities with the highest payoffs."

The Center of It All

By John Bowen

The most successful advisors focus on a single, defined market of affluent clients. Whether their niche market is wealthy retirees in Naples, technology executives in Silicon Valley or Northwest Airlines pilots in Minneapolis, these advisors understand the benefits of becoming part of a distinct community of clients and prospects.

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By working with only one target market, they become highly proficient in helping those in their markets address their financial challenges. Because they become so well known by members of their niche markets as the true experts who really understand their issues, it is easy for them to get referrals. Perhaps most important of all, by embracing a single market, these advisors can focus their time and resources on the activities with the highest payoffs.

What if you want to work with a particular niche market but don't yet have the expertise that you'll need to serve that market or the relationships that will enable you to ingrain yourself deeply in that community? The answer is to tap into the centers of influence—the niche leaders—in that market. By connecting with these key individuals in a meaningful way, you'll gain the insights to help you establish yourself within your niche and the contacts that will enable you to effectively market to it.

Every niche has a certain number of individuals who can help you to some degree, but the true centers of influence all share some important characteristics:

• They are the "movers and shakers" in their market—the individuals around whom the members of the niche naturally congregate.
• They understand the unique needs of the community.
• They are familiar with the niche's trade press, which you will use in building your credibility and reputation.
• They know all of the key people, like attorneys or CPAs, whom you might leverage as part of strategic alliances.
• They know the venues where you could make group presentations.
• They are willing to share all of the above information with you.

The most effective way for financial advisors to forge useful contact with their centers of influence—and to start to establish their credibility at the same time—is to interview these individuals and then write an article for one of the publications read by members of the niche. Virtually every niche is targeted by at least one association, and most associations have their own publications. These are generally relatively easy to break into.

An excellent resource for this purpose—one available at many libraries—is the Encyclopedia of Associations. This valuable guide is a reference for more than 22,000 national associations and 115,000 regional, state, and local associations, including professional societies, trade associations, labor unions, and cultural and government organizations.

There are two ways to identify the centers of influence whom you will interview. The first is to talk to existing clients who belong to the niche. Ask them who the most influential people are in their group. In particular, ask about the individuals whom the clients know personally and would be willing to introduce to you.

The second way is to phone the association itself and ask for the contact information of four or five high-profile individuals in its market. Make it clear you will be conducting research for an article and would like to interview these people in order to gain a better understanding of the financial challenges facing members of the niche.

Once you've identified these niche leaders, your next step is to contact them. Call and let them know that you are a financial advisor, you are focused on serving their particular niche, and that you would like to interview them to better understand all the challenges facing them and how you could better serve their niche. Tell them that you're planning to publish an article based on what you learn that will benefit all of the members of the niche and, by association, the center of influence as well.

I recommend the following interview process:

1. Call to set the appointment. When you initially call the center of influence, introduce yourself and give the name of the association executive who referred you. Explain that you are in the process of conducting some research to determine how you can add the most value for members of the niche and that you will be using the information you gather to write an article that will be helpful to the community. Assuming the center of influence is willing, set up the appointment to meet with him or her.

2. Open the interview. Take the first few minutes of your meeting to describe what you'd like to accomplish and how it will benefit members of the niche and the center of influence. Assure the center of influence that you are uncovering how you can better serve his or her community, not selling anyone anything.

3. Introduce your questions. Explain that you'd like to ask a series of questions to obtain a deeper understanding of the financial challenges that members of the niche face and how you can help them to conquer those challenges. Ask if you can record your conversation, assuring the center of influence the recording will be confidential and only for your own internal use.

4. Begin the interview. Since you are judged by the quality of your questions, it's critical to have thoughtful, open-ended questions prepared in advance for the interview. Each question should be designed to reveal specific aspects of the niche that will be useful to you in attracting and serving its members. (See "What to Ask" below for a bullet-point list of the key questions that you should consider posing.)

5. Close the interview and get an ongoing commitment. At the end, simply express your appreciation for the insights the niche leader has provided you. Because you want to retain this individual as an ongoing resource whom you can contact when needed, ask if you may call him or her for your ideas and opinions as you serve the community.

6. Follow up with a thank-you letter. This leader has given you the benefit of his or her time and unique knowledge of your niche market. It's important to express your thanks in a letter (preferably handwritten) mailed the same day as your meeting.

7. Close the loop. As soon as you have completed interviews with the four or five "movers and shakers" in your target niche market, write your article summarizing your research results and mail it to each niche leader. You can do this either after it has been accepted for publication in an association newsletter or, if it has not yet been accepted for publication, as a pre-publication release.

If conducted correctly, this process results in a win-win situation for both you and the niche leader. Not only will you obtain valuable market research, you will also often get immediate opportunities for significant income. And you'll add substantial value to the centers of influence by helping the community to which the niche leader belongs and cares deeply about. The leader will also benefit through his or her association with you and the value that you will add to the community members.

What to Ask

When you're interviewing a niche leader, you want to collect information about eight topics. Here's a list of the questions to ask.

Topic 1: Uncover the primary challenges facing your niche.

• What are the major financial challenges faced by members of the community today?
• Have people in the community generally been successful in addressing these challenges? If not, why not?
• How would a financial advisor be most helpful in solving their problems or achieving their financial goals?

Topic 2: Find out the best ways to market to members of the niche.

• What is the most compelling thing I could say to members of your community that would interest them in doing business with me?
• If you were me, how would you make people like yourself aware of high-quality financial services focused on members of your community?
• If you were me, what specific markets would you target within the community? Why?

Topic 3: Identify outlets to which members of your niche belong that you can leverage.

• Which social organizations do the members of your community typically belong to?
• What sports or activities do they generally enjoy?
• Which publications do they like to read?

Topic 4: Identify competitors in the niche and their value proposition.

• Which other financial advisors do members of your community work with?
• How would you compare what I offer to what is offered by these other advisors? (Ask this question only if you are interviewing an existing client who is familiar with your services.)

Topic 5: Determine avenues for building your credibility.

• Which industry events do members of your community typically attend? Do you personally know any of the organizers of these events that I should talk with?
• Are you familiar with the trade publications most often read by members of the community? Do you know members of its editorial staff that I should talk with?

Topic 6: Discover other advisors with whom you could potentially form strategic alliances.

• Which other advisors, such as attorneys or accountants, do people in the community often work with? Can you introduce me to any so I can ask them a few of our market research questions?

Topic 7: Uncover names of prospects from your niche.

• Do you know any members of the community who you think might benefit from meeting me?
• Do you know any members of the community who you think might benefit from attending one of my seminars?

Topic 8: Uncover additional centers of influence with whom you can meet.

• Are there any other people such as yourself with a deep knowledge of this community that I should contact to find out more about what I could do to better serve the community?
• If you were me, knowing what you know now, what else should I have asked you?