Strategic Consulting and Training Dashboard data shows the advisers of the most profitable businesses are spending around 60 per cent of their time - nearly three full days every week - in front of clients, business partners and prospects.
These business' profitability (after allowing for a notional owner's salary of $120,000) was about 60 per cent greater than those businesses whose face-to-face time with clients tracks around the average of 20 per cent.
Businesses with low face-to-face time are wasting their talents and efforts on internal, non-income-generating activities. Top advisers stand out from the crowd by using pull marketing, that is, relationship-based techniques, to motivate qualified prospects to want to meet with them. It's these relationship-based activities that will build your face-to-face time and reward your business with growth and improved profitability.
One business that focuses strongly on relationship building marketing techniques is Argyle Financial Strategists, Canberra. As a result, Argyle senior financial adviser Belinda Cheong spends around 50 per cent of her work time on client-facing activities.
There are three key components to a relationship based marketing program:
1. one-on-one interactions with members of your niche market that you generate through referrals;
2. interactions with business partners and other professional advisers who serve quality private clients, such as accountants and lawyers;
3. group presentations that have specifically been endorsed either by individual members of your target market or the associations connected with your market.
Since participating in our Cultivating Advice program, Cheong has refreshed her formal referrals program, asking all of her ideal clients for referrals at every service opportunity. She has built strong alliances with a few accountants and has had tremendous success with group presentations.
But be warned, as a relationship-based marketing program focuses on the methodical building of relationships with your future clients and business partners over time, don't expect immediate results. For example, Cheong's accounting alliances have been in the making for an average of five years. It's time that has given the accountants she works with an appreciation of the benefits of Argyle's wealth management process. More importantly, they now better appreciate what an ideal client is for Argyle and the clients they are best placed to advise. As a result they now only refer ideal clients.
Argyle also connects with every client's accountant. Cheong insists on meeting with them as "two heads are often better than one and if there are any issues with clients' affairs that need to be discussed with the accountant moving forward then I've established the relationship".
A subsequent beneficial flow-on effect is the ability to forge new relationships with other professional advisers. So the lead time in the development of these relationships can be long, but the rewards are significant in that, when successful, it will generate a stream of pre-qualified prospects for your business.
Cheong contrasts qualified referrals of ideal prospects against unqualified prospects. Occasionally, Argyle will get a cold prospect with whom there is no connection and Cheong's experience is that these prospects are shopping around and are the most price-sensitive of prospects. They are also unlikely to fall within one of Argyle's niche markets.
According to Cheong: "If I work in my niche I have systems and processes in place and everything is seamless but for clients outside of our niches, for which there's less process, it's far less profitable to service them."
So what are the keys to success in relationship marketing?
1. Focus clearly on your niches.
2. Deliver a consistent service approach so that clients and business partners have absolute confidence in your process.
3. Keep the client's best interests in mind.
4. Keep the client or business artner in the loop.
5. Maintain touchpoints with clients and business partners, not just diarised events, but also ad hoc, tailored contact.
6. Ask clients and business partners for referrals at every service/communication point.
Remember, potential buyers of your business will consider in their assessment the nature and extent of your relationships with business partners, the media and other referral sources. They will also be assessing to what extent the goodwill and value attached to those relationships can be transferred.
This is another reason to ensure you have an industrialised process and client experience. If all your processes are blueprinted and there's consistency in your approach, then should the business be sold or should the ownership/structure change, the goodwill attached to those relationships will be maintained.
