Two important pieces of the Supernova acquisition model are building strong niche markets and creating mastermind groups. Listen to Rob Brown and Rob Knapp discuss a great way to combine these strategies for even more success.
Building a niche based mastermind group
Here is a brief overview of the main points we cover in this recording:
A niche-based mastermind group was a breakthrough that we made almost by accident. We were teaching mastermind groups and we were teaching niche marketing. One of our students said, “I was just introduced to a mastermind group who focused on doctors that are selling their practice.” He said it was unbelievable.
He went on to describe what happened: “I went to present the idea of a mastermind group to a CPA. He told me it’s so interesting that I brought this idea to him because he just started a mastermind group and was looking for a financial advisor.” This was a group designed to help doctors when they sell their practices. For example, they had a person to do the business evaluation, a lawyer who would draw up the papers for the sale, a realtor that would be involved in the sale of their present location and a CPA who specialized in helping doctors with their practices who understood their tax problems associated with the sale of a practice. They didn’t have an expert on what to do with the proceeds from the sale. You can imagine the FAs excitement telling me about the opportunity he was given.
This then became an off-shoot of the way we coach on forming mastermind groups, a combination of the mastermind with a niche market. We call it a niche mastermind. The idea is to identify other professionals that service the same market as your niche…the CPA, the attorney, the business manager or consultants, the people who know the ‘ins and outs’ of that business. For example, it could be a group around car dealers. Who are all the people who service car dealers in your community… the people who help with the financing of cars, people that do their accounting, the lawyers, etc? You pick your niche and think about all those other professionals.
That’s why we say you can create multiple mastermind groups. Normally, we want you to have 2 niche markets and 1 mastermind group, but you could have a mastermind group for each niche plus your general mastermind group. That would give you a tremendous opportunity to not only to know your niche better, but also know the people who serve your niche. You market each other to people that fall inside that niche. That’s it in a nutshell. It’s really a fun idea that I’m looking forward to having other people adopt and hear more success stories.
The Supernova acquisition model calls for building two niche markets. Listen to Rob Brown and Rob Knapp discuss the critical steps for getting it done.
Here’s a summary of the key points we cover during our conversation:
Niche marketing is one of the major tools I find many financial advisors do not take advantage of. There are two different ways of looking at niches. A niche is an area of marketing focus. The first side is your natural niche. This is the niche you brought with you when you came to the firm. If you came from Proctor and Gamble, Gillette, 3M or any corporation, a university, the military or an airline, you have a natural group of affiliates based on the company you came from. What we do is help you to focus on that natural niche market and learn to do what you do very well (and probably already have done but maybe not to the extent you could have) take advantage of that natural niche. If you came from Proctor and Gamble, it would be major IRA rollovers north of $1M each. This can really be all you need to do in your practice. You do well with that group because you came from the culture. You speak the language, you understand the people and you certainly understand the benefit. You know their benefit program as well as the HR director. Therefore, you are an authority. A very good example of this is Proctor and Gamble.
If you were going to focus on a niche and it wasn’t a niche you grew up in, you didn’t come from Proctor and Gamble, what would you do in order to make that a niche for you? We call that a focused niche. You literally have to immerse yourself in their culture. You have to learn the language of the Proctor and Gamble people, understand their benefits, know their stock option plan, know their stock purchase plan, know their 401k and know it as well as the HR director. You can’t do this for 15 different markets. What we suggest is to take your natural niche and exploit that to the fullest. Then select a focused niche. How? It should be where the money is. You want to fish where the big fish are. In this case, you want to first make sure the niche you are choosing if successful would generate the kind of clients that meet your minimum. If it does and you would enjoy it, then that is your focus. If you happen to grow up in a union family, then possibly prospecting unions would make sense. If you don’t enjoy those people, then don’t do it. I had one gentleman who focused on 401ks for small business. He was very successful with the practice, but he put himself out of business with all the work he had to do. The 401ks were just not worth it. He picked the wrong niche. We had 19 people who picked Eli Lily and all made a very good income. That’s the idea of focusing your niche.
In our Phase Two training we always have everyone write down their top 25 clients and ask where they came from. Were they referred to you by a center of influence? Did they come from a natural niche or a focused niche? Then we make a list of where they came from and that helps make their success a little more concrete in their own eyes. I often ask this question, What is your niche? I’m told “I don’t have one” and then we do that exercise and they do have one. There is always something people have in common unless they’ve inherited the book. Here is what we suggest doing. For example, you have 3 or 4 cardiologists in that list. Find out how many there are totally so you know your capacity and what you are looking for. Do they meet your minimums? After doing your homework and they meet your minimums, you go to your client who is a senior cardiologist and use the smart marketing technique. Dr. Smith, I’m thinking about expanding our practice with cardiologists from IU Health. Do you think that’s a good idea? He’ll spend some time explaining why it is or is not a good idea. Once you get his advice and you determine you do want to go forward, you ask a 2nd advice question. If you were me, how would you proceed to expand your practice with cardiologists? Then listen and he will tell you exactly how to do it. He knows the culture. Asking for advice is one of the most powerful things you can do. Psychologically, asking for advice is greatly appreciated as human beings and we want to help. We first ask if expanding the practice with cardiologists makes sense. It will save you a lot of time if you are in the wrong area because they will tell you. He may suggest you go to a meeting on Tues morning with him. Make sure you do your homework first. Learn the language of the cardiologist. Be the student so you can be effective when you meet with them. That is how you develop a niche.
A mastermind group is a terrific opportunity for you to build long term relationships with leaders in your community. During this audio presentation listen to Rob Knapp and Rob Brown expand on the topic.
Creating your mastermind group
Here is a brief overview of the main points we cover in this recording:
A Mastermind group is a tool you can use to help you with client acquisition. As you know from following SN our acquisition formula is 90/6/4/2/2. That 4 represents the number of folks we want you to add to a group to create a mastermind group. In my experience in coaching advisors through SN, I have found this is probably the most difficult topic to handle, but when it’s done well, it produces terrific results with some of the biggest referrals received from other members of the group.
Mastermind groups can be confused with Centers of Influence. Centers of influence can be anyone, the mayor, a teacher, your father-in-law, someone retired, anyone in your community who refers business to you. In a mastermind group you want to have people who are professionals in your community – CPAs, attorneys, commercial realtors, property and casualty insurance agent; anyone you can refer to and they can refer back to you.
The idea is to meet once a month, preferably over dinner, for a couple hours. You talk about your practice and they talk about their business. Each person gets an evening to present what is going on in their practice and maybe present an idea. You start by picking someone very close to you. You may have gone to school with them, they trust you; you trust them, they like you; you like them, you are seriously committed to helping them; they are seriously committed to helping you in growing your practices. This is the kind of person you would get together with for a Sunday barbeque. The two of you get together and you pick the 3rd person for your group. Then the 3 of you pick the 4th person. You want to keep the group small enough to meet regularly so if someone is not there, they are missed. You want to make it intimate enough that people are willing to share everything with the group. This can be incredibly powerful.
There was a case in Indianapolis where a mastermind group was created and this FA would simply go to the meetings and say, I need to meet so and so. Who knows him? There is a new company coming to town and I need to meet the owner. Who knows a person who could introduce me? They would make those introductions.
We were recently coaching a very successful FA who has a team. They have been in a mastermind group for 20 years. They are closest friends who meet once a month and they do it exactly as we described. The success is amazing. She describes herself as simply a person good at building relationships. That is a strength. If you are a person good at building relationships a mastermind group is something you should definitely do.
The Mastermind group comes together easier if you come up with one person and then the two of you pick the third and the three of you pick the fourth. You have to keep an open mind when picking the other people. You might also want to consider having a different Mastermind group for different groups of people.
One approach to use in your Mastermind group is instead of asking for referrals tell the group who you want to get an introduction too and see if they can make that happen. “If you were me, how would you go about meeting that person?” Because you are really sharing a lot of ideas, the other folks in that group will go out of their way to help you make those connections. It is a way to expand your networks if you think strategically about who you want to know and would consider adding to your practice as a client.
Supernova is a brand that you can market to your Centers of Influence (COIs). When they refer you to a prospect you can guarantee the level of service you will give to that referral. During this audio presentation, listen to Rob Knapp and Rob Brown expand on the steps.
Click Here to Listen to Five Steps for COI Success
Here’s a brief overview of the main points we cover in this recording:
The most exciting tool you have for client acquisition is the ability of turning Supernova into a brand that you can market to Centers of Influence (COIs). Supernova is tangible. The market goes up and down; you can’t guarantee it. But Supernova is a commitment you can keep.
For a professional COI, like a CPA, this is a great tool for them to understand and it gives you the ability to sell them on why to use you versus the other financial advisors. What you are promoting to them is a tangible level of service. You’re going to offer them multi-generational planning, full implementation of that planning process, 12 contacts a year, 4 of them are reviews and 2 reviews are in person and a rapid response team that will offer one hour response and 24 hour resolution to problems. That’s tangible and something that will happen year end and year out.
When they refer you to someone you can guarantee this is the level of service they are going to get for every single client. You should not have any clients that are not getting Supernova. That’s the whole premise – one level of service, consistently. This is where you are going to get the most exciting results in terms of marketing. The enthusiasm that your clients have for Supernova will be matched by the enthusiasm that your COIs have. It may not happen immediately, but over time as they see this happening and unfolding in front of them, their energy around referring you will get higher and higher.
You are offering is something concrete that they have never seen before. They know if they refer somebody and they do it on this basis, the client will not be disappointed, regardless of performance. That is what they are most worried about, that somehow the relationship will ‘blow up’ because they referred that client to you. You take that pretty much off the table as long as you manage the investment process in a prudent way.
Another key to building relationships with COIs is consistent contact. You do that by scheduling 12 contacts a year – all of them in-person. We call them a “20-minute Starbucks”. Once a month meet with your COI for 20 minutes. During that time you are going to talk to them about things that are important for them that you’ve thought about during the month. You are going to give them referrals and they are going to return the favor to you. That is the basic premise of the model.
Here’s our 5-step process for initiating a COI relationship:
1) ‘Fit’ meeting – This is the initial understanding or ‘fit’ meeting. You’ve typically been introduced to them through a client. They have been enthusiastically endorsed by one or a number of different clients and you ask for a favorable introduction. You set up the first meeting. If it’s a ‘fit’ you then suggest a meeting in your office.
2) Meet in your office – Their team including their assistant meets in your office and you introduce your team using the 5 Star Model. You introduce what you do in detail. You ‘look under the hood’ and show them how the whole process works from the folders to the spreadsheet. Once you’re done, you ask for the return favor of visiting with them in their office.
3) Meet in their office – Your team including your other associates meets them in their office and they put on their ‘dog and pony show’ for you. You meet their other partners and find out what they really need.
4) Establish a monthly meeting – This is an offsite meeting together with the COI. This is when you establish the monthly date; for example, the 3rd Thursday of every month at 8 a.m. You’re going to make this happen every month and try to hold it to 20 minutes. You will discuss your teams, what you are doing and the mutual benefits.
5) COI education meeting – This is the meeting where you educate the COI on how to generate referrals for you. You have been building up to this, periodically mentioning this to keep them intrigued. You teach them the question: Can you enthusiastically endorse your CPA (other professional)? You’re going to ask each of your clients that question. You will get a positive, neutral or negative response. When it’s positive, you will write down their name and that will be one of the professional s you want to meet. When it’s neutral, you ignore it. When it’s negative, that’s an opportunity to refer one of these “enthusiastically endorsed” professionals to your COIs. You would ask: Would you be open to meeting another CPA (other professional) who has been enthusiastically endorsed by our clients? Generally, they will say “yes.”
At this point, your COI might then say, “That gets me referrals but how do I get referrals for you?” You simply suggest that they do this in reverse. They ask their clients, Can you enthusiastically endorse your financial advisor? This gives them a fabulous list of people who could be referred to you.
That’s the ‘bread and butter’ of our process for generating Supernova COIs. It can work very well with many professions.
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