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.