Client Acquisition & Customer Retention Strategies with Mark Little

All right welcome back to another episode of Nemo radio super excited to have this guest on because this is
something I get asked about at least three to four times a day and I finally can just say talk to Mark little
everyone coming my way talk to Mark little so I want to introduce Mark quick
um and give you a little bit of backstory Mark has actually become a client of mine on the done for you LinkedIn lead generation and what’s so
unique about Mark and the reason I tried to send all these different individuals to Mark is he specializes in client
acquisition and lead generation strategy for financial advisors and he’s been doing it for over 40 years and Mark is a
financial advisor and Mark has this incredible story which I don’t want to spoil but spoiler alert if you listen to
this even if you’re not in financial advising you can tell your financial advisor to do what Mark’s telling
telling you um tell them to to listen to Mark stuff and also I think there’s a lot of lessons in here as well just for
anyone in a client based of service so without further Ado Mark little welcome to the show hey John glad to be here my
pleasure all right we got a lot to unpack because what I love about Mark and what I love about your story is you
Early days
know you uh and we’re going to go back to the beginning but over 40 years you’ve really developed this style where
you were able to kind of the highlights here for people and why should I listen to Mark little he was able to kind of
generate this endless stream of client referrals for his financial you know advisory Consulting space 5x’s yearly
Revenue reduces workload just a crazy amount um and it’s all using you know
approaches that 99% of sales trainers and gurus would never advise so so
there’s a lot to unpack here Mark and I guess I’d like to start with kind of going back to the beginning like take me
through the early days when you started here in the financial you know advising space and kind of what you ran into as
far as obstacles and where this unique approach kind of developed for you well um it it wasn’t easy at at
about three stages in my career I was told uh by people more successful than
me that I didn’t have what it takes and that uh you know what did what was I
even thinking getting into this business because I’m least like I’m voted least likely to succeed but when I the the way
I got into being financial advisor and was um starts when I was a kid I was the
one I was the nerdy kid sitting at the dining room table reading the Wall Street Journal and baronss and tracking
Investments and at 12 years old I was already managing our family’s
Investments and so I knew what I enjoyed doing and and I knew I wanted to do this
as a career um I just didn’t really understand how the industry worked so
when I got out of college College I got hired uh by a Wall Street based firm and
you know foolishly thought well you know that they’re hiring me uh to to do
wealth management whatever that means and so they’re going to teach me how to manage wealth you know made sense to 23y
Old mark and it didn’t end up being that at all so when you’re hired for with a
Wall Street based investment firm and they tell you that we’re going to put you on the front line
providing wealth management to individuals and families what they should be saying but didn’t say was it’s
a sales job you need to go out there you need to acquire clients and when I said
what what about the managing the wealth part what about the wealth management part and they said oh don’t worry about that just when a family comes in just
kick it up to New York we’ve got the team in place and so literally it was
sales now the the reason it was a problem for me John was the part that I
didn’t mention is I’m an introvert and I had call reluctance now this was April 28th of
1981 and things are not done this way as much today but in
1981 what this meant was when you show up on your first day of work at the Wall
Street base firm um they they just throw you on the phone they hand you a piece of paper and said he here’s your script
I want you to call all I want you to call this wealthy neighborhood and interrupt everyone’s dinner and you know
go find clients go and and so I realized in the first week that I had made a
grave error in career choice that um you
know I thought I was going to be managing wealth for affluent families when in actuality I had to go out and
find clients um and that was pretty much the entire job so there I was in a
position where you know my branch manager in the office that uh that I I
built my business in in South Texas you know he would bring me in every week it was like a a kind of like going to
church every week I’d have the weekly meeting with my branch manager and every week he’d say you’re not acquiring
clients at the minimum standard that this firm requires so we’re going to
have to let you go and I’m like no no no no no I will figure this out you know I
I just give me time and literally every week I had to beg for another week and this was for about a year until I
cracked the code and I figured out how to acquire clients but anyway least
likely to succeed I that that’s basically me wow well I love this story
Dealing with introverts
because I know so many people can relate you know whether you’re a financial adviser like Mark you’re a coach you’re a consultant small business business
owner there are a lot of people that are introverts and don’t have that desire to
go out and sell because you think you hear the word sell and you feel like oh sleazy pushy I don’t like that and you
know it is an industry where I see financial advisers door- knocking in my neighborhood you can tell these poor
guys are just so uncomfortable it’s like cold calling and like just all these tactics so obviously you you know you
realized early on like you love managing the money you love the clients you’re really good at it it’s a passion you
hate sales you hate traditional sales you hate all the training they’re putting you through and the cold calling and spammy whatever so what cracks the
code what changes things for you how do you develop kind of this approach that has worked out so well yeah it was a
little bit of a mental process but you know I knew one thing you know the thing
that if if you’re listening to this and you’re an extrovert a lot of extroverts think
introverts don’t like people uh that’s not true introver s love people
typically and I’m just describing myself but I I like people I know so if if you
were to say Mark do you like interacting with your friends and you know people that you care about like go grab lunch
or go go grab coffee with someone that you know or like I love that and I can hang out all
day with friends what I don’t like is being put in situations with people that
I don’t know where I’ve got to do like idle chit chat or you know I’ve got to tap dance and carry on some conversation
with a person that I don’t know about what I don’t know it’s it the whole thing was contrived so what I figured
out very early on was it was a series of limiting beliefs that I had to knock
down so I declared war on the fact that you know I know I need to get out there
and meet people uh but how will an introvert who doesn’t like idle chitchat
with strangers meet people and what I figured out was that the PE the people
that I know could introduce me to the people that they know and so I just got
really really good I mastered the technique of getting the people I know
to introduce me to the people that I don’t know now it’s kind of like a
series of dominoes that are you know because then then you you crack that code and now you know a lot of people
but they don’t meet the ideal client profile so in my case back in the 80s
you know I was a just recently graduated broke college kid now working at a Wall
Street based firm but I thought okay I’ve met I’ve cracked the code I’m getting people I know to introduce me to
people that I don’t know I’m starting to develop relationships with them I enjoy meeting with them these new friends and
everything the problem is they’re all broke college kids just like me like no
clients here and then I figured this is a key and this is true in almost every
industry that when I sat down and I contemplated the ideal client profile or
the profile of the client that I was actually seeking yes the people that I know my
friends you know they were like me just young professionals upwardly mobile but
they they they couldn’t invest with me at the level that I needed my job but
here’s the thing I figured out everyone’s a referral source everyone’s a referral source in this way they may
not know a lot of people who meet my client profile but EV but once I figured
out that everybody that I know knows at least one person who meets my profile
well that’s all I needed to know because then I set about with the people that I
know to make sure that literally everyone in my Orbit knows what I do and
what makes me different and better than everyone else who does what I do so I
got I I mastered I got really good at subliminally
training uh all my friends and acquaintances uh on understanding what I
do and what what makes me different now I did not do that in a salesy way I kind of waited until like let’s say you and I
go out and grab coffee and and as an introvert I’m I’m quiet I go John how are you doing and you say oh I’m doing
fine I go what’s been going on with you you say oh the well the family and I are planning a trip and blah blah you know
start telling stories and as an introvert I’m quiet I’m just enjoying
the story I’m you listening intently and I might ask a an open-ended question
like uh really how how what kind of trip where are youall going but just designed to keep you talking and what happens
John is at some point and I’m going to say pretty quick like within five minutes it will occur to you I’m doing
all the talking here you know and it’s subliminal and you’ll say okay enough
about me what what’s going on with you Mark and in that moment I’m prepared with about a minute and a half or TW
minute little story with a beginning a middle and an end of a client that I
have helped some that came in with a significant financial issue and you know
they they were losing sleep over this problem and I kind of explained you know
we sat down we sorted it out and they took my advice and now they live happily ever after so imagine if I’m meeting
with you John and you know you and I meet every three or four months we go grab coffee
to catch up or something but every single time we meet at the point where
you look at me and say Mark what’s going on with you Mark I tell a little one and a half to two and a half minute client
story that really serves only one purpose it’s that when when you’re out
in the wild John and you’re talking with your friends when I’m not around if somebody in their life has a significant
financial issue I I have scripted them because the mind is wired to remember
stories so I tell stories and uh and and it’s amazing how when when the time
comes everyone literally everyone in my Orbit all my friends are skilled at
being able to describe me what I do and what makes me different and better that is just brilliant like wow
How to ask for referrals
okay like pause right there bookmark the conversation because there’s so much to unpack even in that simple approach and
this is why I love Mark uh you have way those like tip the iceberg with Mark by the way but um there’s so much good
stuff in here one is the whole idea of knowing how to handle people and the social reciprocity and everyone’s
favorite topic on Earth is themselves so if you get me talking about myself Mark that you’re the greatest friend this is
the best conversation ever why because I’m talking about myself which I love but then of course the rest of process
is why I should ask you how you’re doing and I love the fact I was going to ask you before you started this like well
how do you go about asking for referrals without feeling pushy sleazy weird and
being like well actually I need some client you know anybody like you got anybody that wants to invest or you know
and I love the fact that you’re able to in a kind of humble way just be like
yeah you know a really fun thing that happened with me recently was I was able to help this dentist uh get this
situation figured out with his taxes you know blah blah blah and like but the fact that you know you can explain what
you do and how you help someone and a specific story and the keyword is story because then they encode it and remember
it and then when they run into somebody who has a similar problem it’s related to taxes oh you should talk to my buddy
Mark he was just telling me a story about how we helped a dentist and so I can see how the dominoes kind of turn um
I love this what I want to ask next is like why don’t more I mean I was say you
figured this out but why don’t more advisers do this like why haven’t the ones that haven’t talked to you anyway
don’t know about this so like why why do you not see more advisers take because you hear a lot of people talking about
referrals referrals and I think it’s key because obviously it’s really hard to approach a stranger and say hey trust me
with all your money so referrals work great but why don’t more do kind of your approach do you
think I don’t know um one actually for about 20 years I thought every financial
How to acquire clients
advisor eventually cracked the code figured this out and did it this way and
it was actually one of my business coaches about 25 years ago where I was
telling him well you know any adviser that’s been in the business 10 years they figure all this out and and that
that this is how they acquire clients and my business coach looked at me like
I was crazy he goes no they don’t no they don’t they they they do other
things they do seminars or they they have client dinners they they have some
Shortcut you know that they think’s going to acquire clients and it’s not working well or it is working well but
it’s salesy and um so I don’t know the answer to your question um I all I know
is for for someone that is like me who’s rejected sales tactics sales training
appointment closing any kind of closing techniques like I just rejected that in
the first six months of being in this job and I told my firm you know I am not
doing any manipulative sales tactics and so so uh then then what do
you do and so frankly it was out of panic attacks that I F I settled figured out you know everyone’s a referral
source and I just got to get out there and have enough momentum I should be meeting with 20 people a week just to
catch up with them and you know if I do that I just am praying that that
somebody will come to me with a significant financial issue and there there is more to the process and and
that’s the other thing is once once you have told everyone in your orbit like
every time you meet with them you tell a little story of someone that where the client is the hero so when I in my
little stories you know I’m not the hero the client’s the hero you know they had
this problem and it’s like we started noodling this together and we put together a plan and they fixed it and
live happily ever after so the client’s the hero and then I I can’t tell you how many advisers listen to me talking like
this and they say yeah I have a lot of friends I meet with them regularly none
of them turn into clients like where where’s the magic there and and that that’s part of the process that I teach
is uh you can’t miss any opportunities so when you’re talking with a friend and
they’ve heard you say 20 times over the years you know I I I help people with a
significant financial issue and I’m better than others in town at this I’m better than everyone in town at
that then they’ll come they’ll either have a s situation themselves or they’ll
know someone they care about why aren’t advisers noticing this
in their routine meetings with friends and it’s because they miss opportunities
all the time um somebody could say something as subtle and oblique as uh
like I’m I might ask um in my little story I might wrap up the story for this time we are catching up and I I might
say you know and and the whole thing boiled down to um these two married
people just were not not on the same page financially like they they were
they did not have an agreement between them as a married couple about the money
and then I would I would say have you ever known a couple that’s that’s not seeing eye to eye with their spouse on
money and they’d go oh oh yeah me you know and then then and then they’ll go
ha and then change the subject nice weather we’re having so the question is does the adviser have the
skill to go back to stop the conversation go back and say well well
you said that that you and you are dealing with this yourself that sounds like a significant financial issue is it
you know and they say yes it is I well you know I have a process for for couples in that situation if and be
happy to sit down with you all if that’s something you’d like to do so that’s not a close that’s more of a question like
tell me more about this situation and and what the advisers don’t do I it it’s
not even how to handle that it’s that they don’t the opportunity where
somebody is actually sending out a Lifeline like yes I I need help it goes
over it goes over the head of the adviser they just miss it completely and they just laugh oh yeah what’s what
spouse doesn’t argue with their their spouse over money and it’s and then they talk about you know
the football game this weekend last weekend and and so you cannot miss any
opportunities and when you listen carefully to your friends and acquaintances just when you’re catching
up with them they give reference to significant
financial issues more than you realize and if you get skilled it never missing that opportunity they may be asking you
for help they may not be asking you for help but do you have the skill to slow things down and find out oh man that’s
just brilliant you’re you’re channeling my innerdale Carnegie right now I’m hearing his quotes in my head as you’re talking one is like your ability to
handle people makes you rich and uh the other one that I think about too is Carnegie says you know no one’s
interested in buying anything from you what we are eternally interested in is solving our problems and markx
Illustrated is actually a great technique for you know client acquisition which is almost like a
therapist will kind of say well tell me more about that well wait wait wait don’t so what’s going on there like what
are you you know can I can I offer some advice or can I be helpful there and and just helping people start talking about
their problems and if they start seeing you as this trusted guide who can actually solve it that’s that’s just
brilliant so I want to move ahead in your story a little bit because knowing your story you kind of almost then
become a victim of your success because all of a sudden now you got more clients than you can handle I think you got up
to like a thousand clients or some crazy huge number and you’re working like 80 90 hours a week and everyone wants to
work with you and now all these endless referrals are coming in and you kind of have this moment I want you to take me
through of like I’ve got so many clients of so many different areas and I’m working insane hours uh how did you kind
of Whittle that down to what you call kind of your dream 100 Client List and
take me through that process because I know that was scary to basically be like I’m going to essentially in a poite way
fire 90% of my clients and kind of start with the small few but but I think
there’s a genius in there so T take us through that that part of your story that this is definitely uh be careful
Three skills to master
what you wish for because you might get it situation uh what what what I train
financial advisors is that there are three skills that you have to master and
for people listening out there that are in any kind of a service business this is going to apply no matter what your
businesses but you need to master client
acquisition client conversion and client service okay so what’s client
acquisition you need to get really good at generating leads to people who want to sit down and decide you know discuss
whether or not it’s a good idea to do business with you or not I call that lead generation or client acquisition
then there’s client conversion so let’s say you’re sitting across the table from someone who frankly meets your ideal
client profile client conversion is the skill of can are do you have the the
skill to take someone who’s a perfect for what you do and they’re already looking for what you’re do can can you
convert an uh an ideal client a potential client into an actual paying
client so you have to master client conversion and then you have to master client service and I Define that in our
industry as um you know you’ve got to know how to consistently exceed your
client’s expectations so those are the three things so if you’re wondering in your head what happens when you’ve
figured out client acquisition and lead generation but not client conversion and
not client service well what happens is what you just described I was I was I
was bringing in new clients every week uh I was number one Nationwide in my
firm you know I went literally from last place to first place and I was never knocked off that I was for years and
years and years uh I was always the number one top producer uh so what
happens when you’re good at lead generation but nothing else you end up what like me with 1242 non-ideal clients
and you’re making a lot of money don’t get me wrong but you’re right I was working 880 hours a week and you know we
we we this was back in the mid 90s and you know we were all of a sudden gonna
have a baby and and I was like wow I I guess I’ll meet them when they graduate college or something so I was seriously
Getting good at client conversion
considering leaving the business and um and so I sat down and I I kind of mapped
all this out in my head okay so I I’ve mastered lead generation and what comes next well I need to get really good
at very streamlined way getting potential clients to see
that I am what you have always dreamed of you know I am the adviser you was you
were hoping was out there and and that’s client conversion so for that I actually
H hired a business coach and really streamlined that to to the point where
Creating a compelling experience
in one hour I could create a compelling experience for a potential client and at
the end of that hour it was obvious to both of us if this was something that that we should be working together it
was obvious to both of us at the end of the hour if this was going to be a a a
situation after an hour where we’re not going we shouldn’t be working together
that’s obvious to both of us at the end of the hour so it’s a in or out situation but it was such a valuable
meeting for the potential client that I realized I could actually charge for
that meeting so so I started charging $500 for my initial client interview I
just made sure that it knocked their socks off and and it was valuable to them whether or not we did business
together so that’s client conversion and when I mastered that now I’ve got to
figure out what do you do with 1242 clients again my business coach back at
at the time and I think you reading between the lines there is a message
here you know successful people have coaches you know they they they they have someone in their life that tells
them the truth and helps them figure these these dilemmas out solve the problem as you’re saying you know so my
problem was okay now now I’m really good at acquiring client lead generation and
and persuading them to raise their hand and say Mark I want to fire my adviser and hire you so I got real good at that
now I I the the final piece of the puzzle is how do I consistently eat um
exceed their expectations and for me what I did was I just asked
Surveying affluent clients
clients I asked I started surveying affluent clients and what I what I was
pretty sure was not true because of my experience on Wall Street was I don’t
think the financial industry knows what clients want I think I think it’s just a big sales operation you know so so I I
sat down with lots of affluent people and I said what what is it like if you
could create the the dream financial advisor and the relationship with a
financial advisor and it would be whatever you want it to be what is that
like explain it to me and and I was also asking and what would you pay the most for so I was kind of curious what is it
that clients want and I discovered John that it it went far deeper than I
thought that what what I found when I started looking at the data and the researches most people actually don’t
What drives clients to knock their socks off
like their financial advisor they they might like them personally but uh but
but they’re not pleased or they’re not impressed how about that and so I
immediately started dealing with you know what does it need to look like if rather than someone not being impressed
about their financial advisor what would drive them to just knock their socks off
in such a way that they they would Shout at the rooftops you know if if you don’t
if you have a significant financial issue and you don’t call Mark little you’re an idiot and uh and that was the
goal and so uh it’s just it’s a long journey I I I I started hearing clients
saying comprehensive financial services this this was back in the late 90s and I
was like what does that even mean mean and it turns out there is no industry definition for that it means
different things to different people and and I found out that it means really
different things to the client than it does when an advisor says they offer comence and financial services so long
story short I made it my goal to become the only game in town that I realized
Marks goal to become the only game in town
not every client’s looking for comprehensive financial services but I
did know this the ones who are are very frustrated because they cannot seem to
find what they want and and and I i’ I bowled it down to four client expectations which is what we train but
that was my goal I wanted to streamline what I do in essence do a whole lot more
for a whole lot fewer clients so first step for me John was kind of doing an
8020 uh exercise so I had 1242 clients I thought well wonder what the 8020 is
here like if I if I looked at 80% of the revenue how many clients would that be and it was under a 100 so so less than a
Truly comprehensive financial services
100 clients drove 80% of my Revenue wow so so I rolled out this what I
trademarked the term truly comprehensive financial services and I I described it
I just described what clients had been telling me for six months that they wanted you know we’re going to you know
and and it was these four four client expectations and so I had and this is the scary part so of the 1242 clients
when I when I rolled this out and I said I’m going to be doing a whole lot more and our fee is going to be a whole lot
more but we’re going to deliver on this and we’re GNA we’re going to deliver at a level no other firm is currently
The scary part
delivering and ended up there were 17 clients that said help me in so I was
going from 1,42 clients down to 17 and that was the that was the scary part
but but but that that’s the situation and and and and that worked because it
turned out that if you if you actually knock the socks off those 17 well what I
learned in my case was those 17 will introduce you to in my case 83 more over
the next 34 months so I went from uh 17 clients up to 100 clients in 34 months
and my Revenue at the firm went from 342,000 up to 1.6 million just by
redesigning our services to do a ton for a smaller community of clients so less
clients more money you’re you’re preaching the the good stuff now and what did your
workload go from 80 90 hours a week to what
Working 3 days a week
well it it it changed dramatically because you know we had a baby and I wanted to be home a little bit more so I
shifted for to to implement this model I decided I was going to work three days a
week Tuesday Wednesday Thursday so I always had Monday and Friday off I could help with the baby and this and that and
so I accomplished everything that I just described I created this uh client
service model and implemented it and built a team to deliver it and acquired
clients to uh to to enjoy it in 34
months working three days a week so that’s phenomenal yeah I mean I think it
there’s so many good lessons in here for anyone um not just financial advisors that Mark is sharing and one of the
biggest ones you just shared was asking people what do you want like what are
Comprehensive Financial Services
you unhappy with what and most importantly what is the most valuable thing what would you pay the most for
and then I know knowing you and you’re being very humble like you built this incredible intricate kind of system
under the hood where you have you know different subject matter experts and team members and you deliver what you
call the comprehensive Services through kind of a a team of of people which is
so smart and enables you to still be the front-facing you know the main you know
head honcho of it all but you’ve got experts helping you um man this is just
this is such valuable stuff for anyone but especially financial advisers I guess I want to ask before run out of
time is there anything we haven’t covered that you see going on right now the way you described it is is exactly
right you know what do you want so when I’m acquiring clients or even now when
I’m yeah talking to a financial adviser that’s deciding you know do I want to
The Drawback
make the effort to to to put together truly comprehensive Financial Services
because it’s a what I’ve described as a very easy model and and and it will make
it’ll radically differentiate you from other financial advisers so then what’s the drawback well it’s it’s an easy
simple structure but it’s not effortless you know you’re going to have to work
hard let’s say for two or three years to build the structure and acquire the
clients but then after two or after a year or two or three of nose to the
grindstone putting in the the effort required of this model then you know
you’re you’re living on Easy Street the rest of your life now you said just ask
the problem you know so I would ask a client what’s your significant financial issue that’s your problem the the
question that you can’t miss after that is is how serious are you about solving
this problem so so a client uh recently we had a guy I said I said that sounds
A Significant Financial Issue
like a significant financial issue and what he said was I’ve I had a guy come
and offer me some money to buy my company what do you think I should do
and I go well that sounds like a significant financial issue you know scale of one to 10 how how how what’s
the priority on this you’ve got a lot going on in your life how high how how important is this significant financial
issue and he said scale of one to 10 13 in this situation he’d never had he
never even thought about selling his company at this stage in his life but I said okay well I’ve we have a process
for people that are contemplating selling their company I’d be happy to sit down with you and uh and resolve
this if that’s something you’d like to do and and he said yeah and and I said
there you know I kind of explain the ground rules of this but the thing that you cannot miss is they have to want it
like if if if I’d have said SC you know how high a priority is this uh to you and if he just said ah medium low I mean
I get offers all the time on my company and it’s not that big of an issue it’s like forget about it that that’s not a
coaching client that’s not a client that a financial advisor could get in there and roll up the sleeves and say let’s
resolve this together you know you go live your life and your values and I’ll handle the money stuff you know and I’ll
handle all of the money stuff you know that has that requires I look for three
things in a client and these are the same thing I look in a financial adviser
I’m looking for head smarts humility and hunger and that that’s straight I don’t
know if you know Pat lenion he’s the five dysfunctions of a team guy if you’ve ever read that book but he talks
about this and that is exactly what I’m looking for in a client or in a
Realistic
financial adviser we’re going to be looking for so headsmart what does that mean it means that they are very
realistic they understand that that they they they are not on track like they’re
not arrogant about it they’re not self-righteous and and they they are smart enough to know this is not working
it’s a problem and and they let the truth descend they realize that part of
it is they’re the problem they their mindsets wrong about all of this they’re limiting beliefs and everything and then
as far as humility they’re they’re not making excuses they’re not they they’re taking the blame they’re saying it’s me
it’s me and I’m Tak I know that the reason that I’m not on track with my
business is because of something that I’m doing or not doing and then third Hunger that’s the piece that’s almost
always missing because it ends up are you willing to make the effort that what you’re telling me is your objective
Effort
requires so you you want to double the revenue of your financial advisory business great so describe the effort
that’s going to require what what’s your plan and they’re and and they’re coasting they’re saying oh well I’d like
to keep keep I only work 25 hours a week I want to keep doing that and this and that it’s like the hunger is missing you
know they they do not have the adequate resolve required to fix the problem and
so that’s why uh I I don’t work with most advisers that I end up uh talking
with but that’s fine you know they have a plan and they seem to be happy if but
if they want to radically improve and get back on track to what they’re envisioning as their ideal business well
then you know I just say well let’s schedule a breakthrough strategy session what we call a business management
assessment let’s talk about it and then I make it my goal to see if they can describe their ideal business I I’m
Humility Hunger
looking for heads smarts humility and hunger like are they basically
anguishing and realize that it’s going to take a lot of effort to to get back
on track and are they willing to do it and that that that’s a minority of people John yeah well and it’s true
because I found this too in a service business you you really win or lose based on client selection so you know
the quality of your life often is dictated by the quality of your clients so you know clients like Mark little
make my life great uh there’s others that don’t make it so great no I’m just kidding I love all my clients but but
it’s so true and it’s I like to what Mark’s revealing here is an abundance mindset both as a financial advisor and
as someone that coaches and trains other financial advisers to you know acquire clien is Mark knows he doesn’t need
every single financial adviser on Earth to want to work with him as a you know a student or for a coaching program or an
online course it’s like I want to pick people that are winners that are hungry that are humble that you know have what
One parting shot
it takes and that enables you to be more successful and be more fulfilled I think that’s a great lesson for anyone um can
I leave one parting shot yeah of course um let’s say you’re listening to this
and and it’s not particularly relevant to you other than you love the idea of
truly comprehensive financial services so if you’re out there and you’re thinking you know I’ve got a financial
adviser that I like and they’re very good at something like maybe they great
at financial planning or maybe they’re great at investment management or tax accountant or estate planning lawyer or
something like that but you’re thinking but they don’t deliver at that level like like they’re not they’re not
coordinating all of my financial affairs and that would be nice well then what do
you do something interesting happened o over the covid thing is that retail
clients started coming to our website which is the markof mastery.com
The Mark of Mastery
and they would contact us and say I’m not a financial adviser so you know I’m
I’m not looking to to become one but I do have a financial advisor and I
how do I approach them diplomatically to say I wish you would elevate your level
of service to be more like this truly comprehensive Financial Services which
is what we talk about in The Mark of Mastery and just contact us we have a
little process if you’re out there and you’re thinking oh I love my advisor but I wish they did more for me then go to
the mark of mastery.com Click contact us just let us know that’s the situation we
have a very smooth process to kind of put this on your advisor’s table in a
way that that they don’t feel like you know that they’re being criticized or that you know that they’re about to be
fired or something because you know uh it it clients are the ones that really
Client Desires
properly should drive this John that if if an industry any industry is not
serving the the desires of the client well just think about the opportunity
that creates for you and me that we identify this and we are going to be the
solution we are going to be the rare service provider that actually delivers
literally everything the client wants and um and we’re probably the only game in town I love that I love the fact that
you have like the actual client saying I wish my advisor was more like you can you help them get there like that that’s
a real compliment um I I want to talk about that for a second before we finish up a couple more items one is exceeding
client expectations like obviously that’s a core Bedrock of what you do and what you train you know your uh the
financial advisers that work with you and use you as a coach and everything you train them to consistently exceed
client expectations which of course leads to happy clients lifetime clients referrals can you give me a couple
Client Expectations
examples or stories of how you’ve done that in the past for a client how you’ve exceeded an expectations just so people
can kind of get an idea of what that means sure so it it’s two tracks so the
goal first of all you’ve got to set the goals so it’s a financial advisor who says out loud I want to exceed my
client’s expectations because most advisers that never occurs to them they
think they’re offering a valuable service money management tax whatever they’re doing and they think the clients
are getting what they’re paying for and it just doesn’t occur to them to exceed client expectations but starts with make
that the goal and then the SEC then there’s two tracks there’s one is design the services around what clients in
large numbers have said you know this is what we are frustrated and cannot find
and in our business it’s uh it’s in four areas the four client expectations are
Protection Attention
protection attention coordination transparency so what is it that millions
of multi-millionaires out there are begging and screaming for but they can’t seem to find it’s an advisor who’s not
trying to sell them something but they’re protecting them it’s that they’re identifying conflicts of interest and they have the clients back
and they protect the client from things that they should and should not be doing that’s protection attention means
I want an adviser who’s paying close enough attention that if if if my plan
drifts a little bit off track from my goals that I don’t have to call them and
and I don’t have to call my adviser and let them know no they’re paying attention and they’re proactive enough
to where they call me and let me know that it’s drifted off track because they’ve already created recommendations
to get me back on track so protection attention coordination very few advisers are
Transparency
willing to coordinate all the financial people in a client’s life the tax accountant the estate planning law the
insurance agents all these people you know so stepping up and offering to
coordinate everything under a comprehensive strategy and then finally
transparency there are so many hidden fees and expenses and Investments That
clients really get frustrated not knowing exactly what they’re paying in all their financial products and
services so if an adviser will promise all those three and guarantee those we
call that your advisor packed with your clients your advisor packed pledge
protection attention coordination transparency there is I I will just challenge you right now there is no
adviser in your community if you’re a financial adviser who is willing to
pledge all four of those things you might find advisers that’ll pledge one or maybe two of those but never all four
Checklist
and if you’ll pledge all four to the client well you’ve created a structure that will knock their side off okay and
including comprehensive Financial Services we distilled it down to a 142
Point check list that we cycle through with every client so most advisers
haven’t even really thought about it there’s 142 things on the checklist that
I should be going through with every client every year yes yes if you want to make sure nothing falls through the
cracks and so so you create a structure to to to exceed client expect ations
that you know upfront that it should and then the second is just so painfully obvious I hate to even mention it but I
have never met a financial adviser who actually does this without us training it and it is to just ask your client
just just say what if you have a new client relationship and and you’re sitting down at the beginning of the
Expectations Conversation
relationship and you’re making all these promises protection attention coordination transparency and then at the end of all
that just go quiet and say you know if if we’re sitting here a year from now and we exceeded all your expectations
wildly what did that look like and just keep asking that question and make sure
each spouse is able to speak to this like we’re sitting there a year from now
in the meeting what are we talking about that we did for you and I call it the expectations conversation and it’s it
sounds so crazy like surely every adviser does that but they don’t and and so what you do with that conversation is
first of all you have that conversation every year at least once a year and you
document it for your team so that everybody that’s delivering the service to the client you’ve got this bullet
pointed list well th this couple wants boomy boom boom here’s what they said would exceed their expectations so it’s
an awareness thing for the team and that’s pretty much it that’s what we did
and that’s what we recommend if the goal is to exceed client expectations I love that especially love the the protection
and then the proactive piece because I think oftentimes you experience that in
any industry but I love the idea of I’m looking out for you and I’m actively correcting the car before you notice
it’s in the ditch and I recommend going strong like like what I’ve always said on that piece
to a potential client is what if I were to guarantee that you’ll never have any Financial surprises and which is exactly what I
guarantee right cuz you’re monitoring everything so it’s and they’re thinking oh my gosh you mean like three years ago
when I had that $40,000 tax surprise why are you telling my
stories yeah but I’m just saying now you’re talking the language of the client that’s the other key that’s a
great one is putting it into words and phrases the client understands and that’s you get that by asking them and
Think From Their Perspective
they’ll tell and the other is just thinking everything from their perspective like you just look at every Financial thing that they do
that they that annoys them and I I just to take took them one at a time like
take take buying a car John let’s say you want to buy you need to buy a new car it’s all great except now you got to
sleap into the dealership and deal with all these sales people you know it’s the process that they hate not the car and
so we took all the we made it frictionless we we contact we figure out what car they want we have a car guy and
he rather than go into the dealership he has these dealerships deliver the car to your driveway so you drive car number
one around and then tomorrow you get a different car they deliver a different one and and you go through all these
different models and makes of car until the client says I like the one three
days ago and he say okay fine and and so we have the general manager of the dealership come to the client’s home and
Make Financial Life Easier
complete all the paperwork that the financial advisor has already reviewed and filled out for them so it’s just
what think of all the little touch points in a client’s Financial life where you could make life that
frictionless for the client and I just think when when an adviser says well
what on the earth could we do to make their financial life easier I I think we’re talking about a lack of
imagination here yeah there’s so many things that you could be doing to make
your clients Financial life easier I love it well here’s the last one I want to hit on um how do you build trust CU I
feel like a challenge that so many financial advisers I talk to struggle
with getting especially people even if it’s a referral you know sometimes there’s trust issues of well I’ve you
know I’m just worried about I don’t really know you well trusting someone new with my money I know even if it’s a referral my friend said Mark’s great but
I don’t know how do you make someone feel comfortable enough to kind of trust you with with their money you know how
Trust
do you do that are there certain questions or strategies you know that you take in that kind of client
acquisition call or I guess I’m curious your your thoughts on that it’s it’s
it’s really important question because um trust in the real world trust is not
something that’s just given away it’s earned over time and so but it this this
acquiring clients creates a little problem for the client they they’ve got to trust somebody either your form or if
they’re going to hire a financial adviser they kind of already know up front I’ve got to trust somebody and so
they don’t typically have a very good process for that so remember when I said you’ve got to master client acquisition
and lead generation and then client conversion it’s that skill it’s can you
create an experience where they they explain their innermost
On track or off track
objectives like what just deep you know they go deep and say Here’s what I’m trying to achieve financially in a way
that I’ve never told someone outside of our family and my spouse barely knows
how I think about this but can you create an experience where everything gets out on the table so much so that
I’m gonna say one out of every 10 times there’s tears in the meeting and so can
you create an experience where they they let the truth come out here’s what we’re trying to achieve and then you you you
in essence say is that on track or off track and they say oh off track and it’s
like okay so we have a problem how how serious are you about getting that on
track like how would you like to be on track to all the stuff you just shared with me and at that point John I don’t
know how to describe it I think that’s in essence trust training but I think
what takes over for this problem of not trusting is somebody who really gets you
and what you’re like nobody has really gotten to put their finger on the nerve to really figure out
what is it that you’re trying to achieve here and why is it Off Track you know like and and and you and they just admit
the truth and then you’re the person that shows up understanding that committing to resolve that so then it
flips back to the client how serious are you in resolving this and and that
skillful situation in the client conversion process kind of shifts it away from because you can’t trust
somebody you don’t know it becomes more about we’re arm in arm together on
solving this project this problem yeah I love that just getting real with people
not shying away from the elephant in the room which is the significant financial problem being able to you know have a
story or demonstrate empathy um that you’ve dealt with this before it’s not your first rodeo and then you know again
Empathy
being able to use those phrases like well it sounds like what I’m hearing is it seems to me that and you’re kind of
repeating back to the person in validity and that pain like you said putting your finger on the nerve they go yes exactly
that’s exactly right yeah man I can listen to you all day you need to have a conference as opposed to just just not
to interrupt but just as opposed to what do most financial advisors do they’re pitching pitching it’s like I do
investment management let me tell you how we beat beat everybody else’s returns or I do tax planning and we do
better tax planning you know it’s it’s it’s it’s way deeper than features and benefits I mean they’re trained you
should be talking benefits and I’m like forget all that you need to be like the
only person on Earth that understands their problem that’s the piece that’s
missing your ability to handle people makes you rich I mean it’s it’s understanding yeah and that’s I what I
really liked about this interview Mark is this goes Way Beyond Financial advisory I think it’s true for any
Connect with Mark
service business I mean I’ve learned so much and I’m like usually I have a a guest on it I’m like I kind of know know
stuff and I’m like man okay little I got to take more notes Little’s killed it so I I love all this stuff I want people to
be able to get more from you so where should we send people online obviously they can connect with you on LinkedIn
Mark McKenna little it’s got a great looking profile I know the guy that wrote it it looks fabulous had to pump my own tires but
where should we send people online um obviously financial advisers who want to learn from you your courses your
coaching but also even clients who want to introduce their financial adviser to you um and even anyone just looking for
more tips uh where should we send them yeah um whether you’re a financial advisor or you’re a client who wishes
your financial advisor would be more thorough and comprehensive it’s the
website is the mark of mastery.com we’ve got free courses and tools for financial
advisors uh you just contact us to become a member of the mark of Mastery
Mark of Mastery
uh a financial adviser can join at no charge it’s free but you know we put
enough on there to just lay out the principles and then it’s really up to the adviser to decide am I willing to
make the effort to to go all the way and deliver at this level but at the markof
mastery.com it ex it walks through it we have free courses and lots of resources
for advisors well Mark thank you this has just really been a master class in
client acquisition customer service sales a non-traditional sales approach
which I love and which is so helpful because I think everyone is sick and tired of the gurus and the shouting and
the spamming and I think you’ve laid out what’s really a Timeless approach to this that is just based on how to handle
people and how to talk to people and I think what I love about it you know if you’re the financial adviser or anyone
else offering the services then you can do the approach Mark outlines and you don’t have to feel sleazy or weird or
pitchy like you’re just trying to help people genuinely so fantastic work my friend thank you so much for coming on
the show my pleasure