Investing in your future clients

Among the many things I chose to do is sit on a marketing advisory board for a local financial planner. This planner is working on a 10 year plan to grow and sell her business, and she is getting input from some of the top professionals in various fields. We had one of our quarterly meeting today and among the topics discussed was, "Who is the target client?"

Initially, the age span was 40 to 75 years old. But I pointed out that the age span was too broad. I know from research and observation that it is certain life events that get people to think about financial planning and retirement. And most of those events occur after the age of 50.

However, there is value in investing in your future clients, even if it is a couple years, or five years or ten years down the road that they will become clients that you earn money from.

Life events that can change someone from not needing a financial planner to needing a trusted expert in handling financial matters include:

1. Receiving an inheritance.
   
2. Job change resulting in receiving a lump sum payment or 401k or pension that needs to be taken care of.
   
3. Hitting a milestone birthday.

So you need a combination of current clients and future clients to ensure both current and future success. Know your timeline.

Do what you can today

No, change that. Do what you can in the next 45 minutes. I bet there is something on your to-do list that has stayed there for days, weeks, months, or longer.

Is it follow up with a disgruntled customer? Is it send a hand written thank you note to a happy customer? Is it a follow up email? A phone call?

If you wait until you have the time to do IT, it may be too late. And as someone said, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

A friend of mine keeps a small notebook with him everywhere he goes and writes down stuff he needs to remember, or do. He has 10 years of these spiral bound notebooks. A former CEO of mine does the same thing, except hers is leather bound.

Commit to doing this once a day, and watch your life transform.