Joe The Financial Advisor

No relation to;

• Joe the plumber
• Joe six pack
• Joe The Financial Survivor

In 1988, Joe began his financial advisor career in the agency system and specialized in insurance. He received his financial advisor business through his family, friends, business contacts and community service contacts.

In 1998, Joe went out on his own and worked as an independent financial advisor.

1998 was when the banks started getting into life insurance and Joe got drawn into believing that he had to be a full service financial advisor offering both insurance and money products to complete with the banks.

Joe soon began to realize how much easier life insurance was in comparison to money products and the extra administration really weighed on him.

None the less, his financial advisor business went along smoothly for the next few years except that he had no time for financial advisor marketing for new business because he was serving anyone and everyone.

Then 911 hit along with a downturn in the market.

While Joe has been hearing about hiring an assistant, client segmentation, scheduling regular reviews and financial advisor e-newsletters, he had never gotten around to it and the excitement of the financial advisor business was wearing off as the business was running him.

Post 911 had all his clients in a panic and Joe was spending most of his time on the phone and face to face with his clients, many of them requiring an extraordinary amount of time and energy. The clients were reacting to the same negative news and Joe was telling them the same thing over and over every time there was a dip in the market. 

There just wasn’t any peace … even when he was at his doctors office … his doctor was such a conversationalist when it came time for the finger pointing of the dreaded prostate test … as his doctor said, “I hear the dot.com industry is going under”!

There was just no getting away from it, something had to change.

Joe and I met up in 2003 and he explained his situation.

Together we implemented; a 5 year financial advisor vision and business plan, new time management system, an assistant, improved his delegation, client segmentation and a financial advisor e-newsletter.

Not so much a financial e-newsletter, a personal e-newsletter, one that was of personal interest to his clients.

Part of the client segmentation process included an examination of the kinds of clients that Joe had.

His clients included;

·       * Seniors 

·       * 55 – 65 year olds that were thinking of retirement

·       * 40 – 55 year olds that were entrepreneurs and professionals that had aging parents

I asked Joe to identify his top clients in each category and ask them, aside from financial information, what were their areas of interest / biggest challenges;

* Dealing with aging parents 

* Reinventing themselves with a new career as they hated the jobs that they were in / had been in and they were thinking about taking an early retirement to start something new

* Creating a five year business vision and business plan, time management, delegation and hiring … the things that Joe had experienced

I asked Joe to go to Chapters and look at magazines to research articles that could help his clients solve the problems that they were facing.

Joe’s next step was to create a cut and paste financial advisor e-newsletter that he could send to his clients and prospects.

Joe took the initiative and became an Elder Planner Counselor and added some of the course material to his financial advisor e-newsletter.

By 2005 Joe was writing his own financial advisor e-newsletter with a financial commentary at the beginning of the financial advisor e-newsletter.

His financial advisor marekting strategy was now more to do with writing his financial advisor e-newsletter and inviting his clients, friends and prospects to spread the word.

Joe had created a financial advisor attraction based marketing strategy that had very deep roots.

The subprime mortage rumors started in the summer of 2007 and he used his financial advisor e-newsletter to keep his clients and prospects informed.

As 2008 progressed into what some call the financial meltdown, Joe continued with his financial advisor e-newsletter strategy.

Sure there were a few calls in September of 2008, but not very many as his clients felt fully informed.

This foundation gave Joe the opportunity to continue to look after his clients with his financial advisor e-newsletter and invite new subscribers.

Becuase he had invested his time over the past few years in building readerships he now had enough deposits in his reader’s emotional bank accounts to contact the readers who were not yet clients.

Joe understood that it was more about fans, not numbers, more about adding value versus needing a client.

Writing his financial advisor e-newsletter allowed Joe to diversify his message and become a well rounded financial advisor and he was seen as a leader in his field.

Joe’s financial advisor e-newsletter lead to client appreciation nights and seminars.

Joe’s financial advisor e-newsletter went from advisor to client, from client to friend, from friend to friend, to friend to friend back to Joe as the advisor.

Joe’s virtual assistant now researches the internet for information about the new green business trends that he can add to his financial advisor e-newsletter.

Joe has become interesting, his financial advisor e-newsletter and web site have become a place where is clients and prospects go for cutting edge information.