I get calls every week from wealth management businesses — companies that help rich people keep their money and grow it for their retirements and heirs — who know everything about money except for one thing:  how to grow their own business.

They spend thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars on fancy websites and brochures.  They waste money on SEO campaigns, PPC, banner ads, and many other forms of traffic generating advertising.

But the one thing they don’t do is think like their prospects, put themselves in their prospects’ shoes.  Yet that is the one thing they can do to create a virtual FLOOD of new clients pouring into their wealth management business.

When they do that, when they look at their fancy website or brochures from the perspective of their prospects, everything changes.  Here are five easy ways wealth management businesses can think like their prospects and attract new clients like bees to flowers.

Step 1.  Figure out what your prospects really want.  When someone does a Google search for wealth management services or for estate planning, what are they really looking for?  At first, what they’re looking for is information — basic information about what is involved.  They know what they don’t know, and, before they will even consider talking to someone or making a phone call, they need more information.  So, that is your first tasks:  tell your prospects the basic information they need and want to know.

Step 2.  Create a simple information product that provides this basic information free and in an easy-to-follow, friendly way.  This product can be a downloadable special report (PDF), a series of emails or a Powerpoint video.  It should have ZERO selling and simply outline what wealth management actually is and why it’s important.  It should only be 2 or 3 pages maximum, a very concise, very helpful introduction.

Step 3.  Offer to send this valuable free report, video or series of emails to the visitors to your website in exchange for their email address.  Make it clear that you won’t try to sell them anything.  This information is valuable and you’re not going to just post on the Internet for everyone to steal.  You need their email address to send them the information.

Step 4.  Send them the information along with an email or note explaining what your company does.  Offer to answer any questions they might have — again with no pressure to buy or anything like that.

Step 5.  Once or twice a month, send them an automated follow-up email that elaborates on some particular point in your original information product — again, with zero selling.  This email should be jammed full of super-helpful information… the kind of information you would give your own sainted mother if she were in the first stages of wondering about estate planning and wealth management.  (You wouldn’t try to sell your mom on your business if she asked for some basic information, would you?)

Step 6.  Only after 6 or 7 helpful emails, make your prospects a special offer:  Explain that you set aside a particular day to answer questions from interested people about wealth management.  Say that you charge $500 an hour for your advice but that you set aside this time because, quite frankly, you know that if you selflessly help people like this… eventually they will consider your firm for their business if and when they’re ready to get serious about planning their financial future.  However, they one thing you ask is that they commit to a specific day and time.  Your time is very valuable and you can’t afford to waste it.

Step 7.  Keep the appointment.  Talk to your prospects for 15 minutes on the phone.  Spend 14 of those minutes probing for pain… the very real problems that your prospects have that led them to make the appointment in the first place.  When you identify the source of their pain, explain that there are solutions available that can not only make that pain disappear but that can actually help them enjoy a far better financial future.  You don’t have time to go into all the details on this brief call, but you’ll be happy to meet with them in person (or again on the phone) for a more substantial exploration of what they can do going forward.

At this point, it’s a done deal.  You’ll “close” at least 20% of your prospects.

You’ve already proven that you (a) know what you’re talking about through a series of low-key special reports, videos and emails; (b) are not a pushy salesman; and (c) are someone that your prospects can trust.  By this point, you should already have made it clear that you can massively help your prospects and that whatever your help will end up costing… whatever fees or percentages you earn… it’s so miniscule compared to the benefits the prospects will receive… it’s a no-brainer offer.

So, there you have it.  Implement these 7 simple changes to your existing lead generation efforts — usually on a website but also possible through other vehicles — and I guarantee that you’ll soon have more clients than you know what to do with.

Help people first… and then you don’t even have to ask them for their business.  They’ll ask YOU.

If you have any questions about this topic, give me a call anytime at 949-492-5421.  If I’m not there, leave a message and I’ll call you right back.

Robert Henderson

Related Content:  How to Use Outside Copywriting Specialists to Finish Projects… Reach More People… and Accomplish Your Organization’s Goals.