Marketing & Sales 101 or Marketing & Sales One On One?

Marketing & Sales 101 used to be about STP – See The People and now it has become Blog, E-Newsletter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter The People.

December 1st, 2009 brings the 5th Anniversary of our Leading Advisor Web Site and E-Newsletter and February 1st, 2010 will be the 5th Anniversary of our Leading Advisor Blog.

Five years ago was when we committed 101% to the niches of financial advisor coaching and investment advisor coaching.

Five years ago, we couldn’t get our foot in the door of a financial advisor speaking or investment advisor speaking gig. We were fighting our way through the gate keepers just to get an appointment to introduce Leading Advisor and Simon Reilly because we were Leading Advisor and Simon Reilly.

So we committed to do whatever it took to create The Marketing & Sales Funnel that included the Web Site, E-Newsletter and Blog.

At the same time, we were land locked by our own comfort zone living in Vancouver and we had to spread our wings so we moved to Parksville on Vancouver Island because that was were all the financial advisor coaching and investment advisor coaching action was. 🙂

Moving to Parksville was the kick in the pants that we needed to go national with our presence which has generated 140 financial advisor speaking and investment advisor speaking opportunities over the past four years.

This Web Site, E-Newsletter and Blog journey has been long in more ways than one and with countless hours invested I am past the euphoria of believing that the Web Site, E-Newsletter and Blog were going to be the missing link in The Marketing & Sales Funnel because they are not and neither are the financial advisor speaking and investment advisor speaking opportunities.

The Web Site, E-Newsletter & Blog along with the financial advisor speaking and investment advisor speaking opportunities are just pieces of The Marketing & Sales Funnel … very big pieces.

As a result of the Web Site, E-Newsletter and Blog, we are on the first page and even number one on the first page of Google search engine rankings for financial advisor coaching, financial advisor speaking, financial advisor training, investment advisor coaching, investment advisor speaking and investment advisor training and to some that is a significant accomplishment.

The search engine rankings have no doubt added to the credibility to attract speaking opportunities from Advocis and The MDRT.

Upon reflection, and even as we have taken steps to link the Web Site, E-Newsletter and Blog to Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn, I am realizing that we are on a plateau with the reality that there is another peak to climb and that is becoming more of a road warrior in 2010.

My reflections are based upon the following concepts from Spencer Johnson’s Peaks And Valley’s;

• Valley – complaining about what could have been

• Plateaus – taking a break along the way to acknowledge where you are in your journey

• Peaks – having a vision and celebrating along the way

A key concept from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers comes to mind as well;

• Success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.

So what about my practice of coaching, speaking and writing?

• I can tell you that I have 27,000 of experience with coaching so I’m good there and I am always learning

• If you take 140 financial advisor speaking and investment advisor speaking presentations and multiply 140 times 1.5 hours per presentation times 10 hours for preparation of PowerPoints and speaking that equals 2100 hours of financial advisor speaking and investment advisor speaking … apparently not enough

• Let’s say that I blogged 90% of the working days for the past 5 years so 20 working days per month times 60 months times 30 minutes times 90% = 810 hours … seems like I am way short here and even if I fudge this by doubling it to 1620 hours for articles in publications, my book and e-newsletters … apparently not enough

So on this Monday, November 30th, this was a perfect day on the last day of the month, a Buffer Day for; Debriefing November, Planning December and finishing 2010 Planning …

It is truly a Plateau Day ( hey did I just invent something ) to realize that for 2010, with our 5 years of coaching, speaking and writing credibility, we are going to drill deeper into Western Canada and STP – See the financial advisor and investment advisor people … coming to a town and city near you.