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I love clients, but I hate client acquisition: Financial Advisor who’s…
Mark, a seasoned financial advisor with over 40 years of experience, particularly resonates with “frustrated veterans” in the industry. He discusses his disdain for traditional client acquisition methods, especially as an introvert, and shares his unique approach that focuses on building genuine relationships and utilizing storytelling to convey his expertise, ultimately leading to successful client engagement without traditional sales tactics.
Video Transcription
I’m going to say something and you tell
me if this resonates with
you uh I’m a financial adviser I’ve been
advising individuals and families for
more than 40 years uh and while we help
a lot of financial advisors and have for
many many years um I tend to work best
with what I call frustrated veterans so
what’s a frustrated veteran well
it’s somebody who’s successful in this
business no
question and they say things like this
they say you know uh I’m I’m very
successful in the business but I you
know I thought by this point in my
career I’d be dot dot dot and they fill
in the blank with something that’s
dissatisfying to them you know I thought
I’d be working fewer hours I thought I’d
be making a bigger difference for my
clients or whatever whatever but the one
I want to see if it resonates with you
if any of if any of you feel the way I
felt okay so at a certain point I was
really burned out in the business and
what I kept saying over and over was you
know I love my clients I just hate
client
acquisition and what I meant by that was
I love the idea of serving clients and I
loved what we were doing for them
but I did not enjoy the client
acquisition part of the job does that
resonate with you
so what did I do all right so I want to
walk through this what I did because I
am living proof that you can fix this
and that um even if you’re like me which
is an introvert with call reluctance you
can still be a
worldclass producer uh when I say
producer I’m talking just that’s that’s
industry lingo for acquiring
clients and generating new Revenue so I
prefer those two terms because why I
hate client acquisition and by that what
what do I mean I hate sales I don’t hate
people people PE people often
misunderstand they think introverts hate
people no introverts typically love
people
but the there’s aspects of interacting
with people they don’t know meaning
let’s call them strangers um that that’s
uncomfortable or awkward or you know and
the idea of coming in with a sales
training or sales approach or closing
techniques or appointment set setting
techniques and all these things that the
financial advisor uh the financial
services industry was trying to train me
to do I don’t know about you but none of
that work worked for me I was never
going to do it I’m an introvert I have
call
reluctance uh so how do I then
acquire
clients well uh in case you’re wondering
I did come up with a way I’m gonna kind
of walk through it with you right now I
not only acquired clients I acquired
clients faster than any other financial
advisor you know at any firm that I
worked at or in any coaching program
that I was in okay so um the method that
I’m going to lay out for you that worked
for me uh not only works but it works so
well um you you can build a
multi-million dollar production business
doing exactly what I’m talking about so
let me back up I’m an introvert I’m a
call reluctance I I I went through sales
training and hated every minute of
it but I read a book this is back in the
1980s when I was going through all of
this emotion uh a book by Tony alisandra
called non-manipulative selling and I
fell in love with the concept and and
the basic gist of it is this what we
don’t realize is that if we’re good at
what we do if we have above average
technical competence and we try at all
to meet or exceed the client’s
expectations in other words the client
service end matches up with the
technical competence end that the point
of the book was that there are people
out there already in the world who are
seeking what you’re what you’re
providing so uh so so the question is
where are they and how do I let them
know I’m
here me and my above average technical
competence and my commitment to exceed
client sex expectations is right here
I’m over here so how do you do that
well I if you’re wondering how I ended
up managing as an introvert uh having an
unbroken record of being the number one
top producer at my
firm year to date for years I mean month
after month after year after year
Forever Until My broker
dealer sold to you know to a big major
conglomerate uh and I decided not to go
with them I just stayed independent but
the point is how did I in that
environment how was I the number
one financial adviser for client
acquisition and revenue
generation uh every year Well I stopped
selling so stop the idea of uh pushing
anything onto a potential client I don’t
go into any relationship with any new
person with any ulterior motives I’m not
trying to schedule an initial meeting
with them I’m not trying to twist their
arm to do anything uh I just literally
started making friends with everyone I
went and it was actually in working with
an older advisor at our firm that I
managed to come up with this brilliant
breakthrough but I was convinced as a
young advisor by an older Mentor that
you know sto thinking of people like
sales objects just be a nice person uh
just start making friends with everyone
and and I used to push back and say well
for one thing all my friends are broke
recently graduated college graduates
like me who will never be an ideal
client for me but I was trying to push
back
saying look I don’t know many people
that meet my profile for a client to
which he said forget about that just go
out there build a reputation that you’re
there to serve you’re a super nice guy
and make sure they know what you do and
what makes you better than what you do
okay and and I just proceeded to do that
I went out and I made friends uh he he
was telling me look everybody’s a
referral source even if they don’t meet
your profile to do business with you
everybody knows at least one person that
does meet your client profile so just
forget about it just loosen up make
friends with everyone add value to the
relationship when you meet with friends
to catch up try to figure out what’s
going on in their life and figure out
ways to help them and um just in between
times when you meet with each other just
do nice things for them try to figure
out how you can help them grow in
stature and I remember talking to my
mentor saying you know the people that I
want as clients are vice presidents and
presidents of
companies how am I going to ever help
them grow in stature well because there
are other areas of their life that are
more important than money their family
are they a parent do they have kids do
they have
grandkids these are things they care
tend to care about more than
money uh their Fitness you know do do
they take care of their health and
fitness are they interested in their
health and fitness
uh you know what are they passionate
about is it their friends that they have
in life is it their faith try to plug
into what their life is all about and in
between times when you actually meet
with them to catch up just send them
nice things to help them increase their
stature in these other areas of life
that they’re trying to improve so I did
that uh I think the key to this whole
thing is figuring out how do you make
sure everyone you
know and I mean literally everyone that
you know knows what you do and knows
what makes you better at it okay that
was the thing that kept me up at night
so yeah I could become a servant leader
I could go out there and figure out what
my friends lives were all about and I
could go out and you know uh I remember
uh a friend of mine he was uh had his
grandson was doing a science project and
I I went back through my files and I
found a science project that I did when
I was in the eth grade and I just sent
it to him I said here maybe you could do
this with your grandson and he
appreciated it so much I took him up a
notch or two in his stature as a grandpa
so I can do that I can be a servant
leader and do things like that with my
friends uh and you know I was the one
always initiating hey let’s go grab
coffee and catch up so I was the friend
that always seemed to remember to call
us back together to catch up but then
how on Earth do do I ever make sure they
understand what I do and what makes me
better than what I do and I finally
figured that out and I’m we have a lot
of training on this and I’m happy to
share it all with you if you want to
come work with us but I’ll just say that
I started telling stories I started
telling
vignettes with every friend at some
point for a minute or two uh they would
ask me so what’s going on in your life
Mark and I would say well busy at work
let me give you an example of something
uh that that the type of clients I deal
with and then I would tell a tiny little
story I call it a vignette where a
client came in with a big problem
significant financial issue and because
we’re so good at what we do we asked the
right questions got the client engaged
put a plan together not knocked out the
problem they lived happily ever after so
I tell these little two-minute stories
with a beginning a middle and an end
where the hero who is my client not me
had this problem and together we sorted
it out and they went on and lived
happily ever after so uh I I basically
came up with a method to guarantee that
everyone I know after they’ve heard me
tell about four of these little
vignettes every friend of mine could
explain me to someone else if they
wanted to refer me so if everybody’s a
referral source the question is have you
properly trained everyone in your
orbit what you do and what makes you
better at what you do so that’s how an
introvert becomes the number one top
producer at a nationwide firm I just
made friends with everyone I added value
to the
relationship uh there was a guy in one
of my training classes who said Mark
You’re such you know you’re not selling
these people do do you remember Mark
what it used to be like when you were
just a nice person I mean before you got
into the financial services industry so
I laughed and I said yeah you mean just
be a friend to people so I nailed that
and for me it’s just being a nice person
but being prepared prior to every time I
sit down with anyone just to catch up to
tell a little vignette so
once I’ve got all that nailed down what
are the pieces to pull all this together
into a system that will acquire clients
well number one you have to have ample
people so you need to gain the skill of
getting the people you know to introduce
you to the people that you don’t know
all right so that’s number one you have
to have plenty of people that you can
talk to or else you you don’t have
enough people in your network to to
actually make a business out of of of
client acquis position the way I’m
describing it so you have to have ample
people that means being very skilled at
getting people to introduce you to
others number two you have to have
momentum so for me I always sat down and
grab coffee to catch up with at least 10
friends per week and and the the real
goal was 20 so if if you have a coffee
in the morning and coffee in the
afternoon every day Monday through
Friday five days a week that’s 10 people
well my goal was 20 but always have
between 10 and 20 of these little
meetings with friends just to catch up
with no ulterior motive just to develop
the relationship with them so you have
ample people and you have what I’m
calling momentum you need to be meeting
with at least 10 people a week to have
ample momentum number three you have to
be able to have a plan to get your
reputation out there to your potential
ideal client client community so that’s
what I’m describing as having these
little vignettes and I make sure I come
prepared to every meeting with every
friend with a with some sort of a
vignette of a client that I have helped
with a significant financial issue go on
to resolve the problem and live a
wonderful life after that so uh ample
people momentum a reputation plan and
then never miss an opportunity
once you’ve got the all these three
pieces in place what you’ll notice is
after they’ve heard you tell your little
vignette enough times of different
stories of how you’ve helped
clients would you believe the biggest
obstacle is that you’ll miss the
opportunities that many people give you
to try to schedule a time to sit down
and talk business with you so you’re
talking with a friend and sometimes they
say things just very oblique that’s
actually a cry for
help like um I’ll tell a vignette about
a couple that don’t agree on financial
issues and at the and the and at the end
of my little vignette they they they got
on the same page and now they coordinate
you know the two spouses you know are
are fully aware of what each other is
trying to accomplish financially and
they are perfectly aligned when it comes
to money and then I’ll I’ll ask a
question have you ever known a couple
that’s
doesn’t see eye to eye on
money and I had a friend say yeah
me oh yeah my wife and I we bicker about
money all the time and and and then
they’ll say oh nice weather we’re having
and they’ll change the subject now the
question is in the moment when somebody
says something as vague as
that and they J laugh about it do you
have the skill to stop the conversation
back it up and just see what they’re
doing say so you mentioned you and your
your your wife uh argue about money
sometimes did I get that right and they
say yeah and I’ll say well that sounds
like a significant financial issue is it
and and let them talk oh yeah it ends up
being a big issue sometimes and then you
say well you know this is what we do I’m
happy to sit down and resolve that for
you all if that’s something you’d like
me to do and so do you have the skill
when somebody buzzes by you and a
conversation with just dropping some
little hint of a significant financial
issue do you have the skill to recognize
it stop the conversation and just check
and see is it or is it not a an
opportunity where they’re actually can’t
find the words to use to ask you to help
them in which case you can offer and
what have you done you’ve not betrayed
the Friendship you’re not you didn’t
come into the meeting with any ulterior
motive they brought brought it up you
just backed up the conversation to
clarify what they meant and lo and
behold I ended up booking enough initial
client interviews that I became number
one in the company and I nobody beat me
in that record the question is do you
have the skill to deploy those
four projects ample people momentum
reputation plan so everybody knows what
you do and then you never miss an
opportunity if you can pull those four
together you you you’ll you’ll achieve
every Financial goal you ever set for
yourself uh at any year so whatever your
goals are this year uh I encourage you
to think it through and think about what
I’ve said if you want to work with us
we’d be happy to work with you but you
can take the you can take the essence of
what I just ran through and you can
create a process that will allow you to
not only meet but it’ll allow you to
exceed all your financial OB objectives
this year all right so I’m Mark little
and we’ll see you next time
me if this resonates with
you uh I’m a financial adviser I’ve been
advising individuals and families for
more than 40 years uh and while we help
a lot of financial advisors and have for
many many years um I tend to work best
with what I call frustrated veterans so
what’s a frustrated veteran well
it’s somebody who’s successful in this
business no
question and they say things like this
they say you know uh I’m I’m very
successful in the business but I you
know I thought by this point in my
career I’d be dot dot dot and they fill
in the blank with something that’s
dissatisfying to them you know I thought
I’d be working fewer hours I thought I’d
be making a bigger difference for my
clients or whatever whatever but the one
I want to see if it resonates with you
if any of if any of you feel the way I
felt okay so at a certain point I was
really burned out in the business and
what I kept saying over and over was you
know I love my clients I just hate
client
acquisition and what I meant by that was
I love the idea of serving clients and I
loved what we were doing for them
but I did not enjoy the client
acquisition part of the job does that
resonate with you
so what did I do all right so I want to
walk through this what I did because I
am living proof that you can fix this
and that um even if you’re like me which
is an introvert with call reluctance you
can still be a
worldclass producer uh when I say
producer I’m talking just that’s that’s
industry lingo for acquiring
clients and generating new Revenue so I
prefer those two terms because why I
hate client acquisition and by that what
what do I mean I hate sales I don’t hate
people people PE people often
misunderstand they think introverts hate
people no introverts typically love
people
but the there’s aspects of interacting
with people they don’t know meaning
let’s call them strangers um that that’s
uncomfortable or awkward or you know and
the idea of coming in with a sales
training or sales approach or closing
techniques or appointment set setting
techniques and all these things that the
financial advisor uh the financial
services industry was trying to train me
to do I don’t know about you but none of
that work worked for me I was never
going to do it I’m an introvert I have
call
reluctance uh so how do I then
acquire
clients well uh in case you’re wondering
I did come up with a way I’m gonna kind
of walk through it with you right now I
not only acquired clients I acquired
clients faster than any other financial
advisor you know at any firm that I
worked at or in any coaching program
that I was in okay so um the method that
I’m going to lay out for you that worked
for me uh not only works but it works so
well um you you can build a
multi-million dollar production business
doing exactly what I’m talking about so
let me back up I’m an introvert I’m a
call reluctance I I I went through sales
training and hated every minute of
it but I read a book this is back in the
1980s when I was going through all of
this emotion uh a book by Tony alisandra
called non-manipulative selling and I
fell in love with the concept and and
the basic gist of it is this what we
don’t realize is that if we’re good at
what we do if we have above average
technical competence and we try at all
to meet or exceed the client’s
expectations in other words the client
service end matches up with the
technical competence end that the point
of the book was that there are people
out there already in the world who are
seeking what you’re what you’re
providing so uh so so the question is
where are they and how do I let them
know I’m
here me and my above average technical
competence and my commitment to exceed
client sex expectations is right here
I’m over here so how do you do that
well I if you’re wondering how I ended
up managing as an introvert uh having an
unbroken record of being the number one
top producer at my
firm year to date for years I mean month
after month after year after year
Forever Until My broker
dealer sold to you know to a big major
conglomerate uh and I decided not to go
with them I just stayed independent but
the point is how did I in that
environment how was I the number
one financial adviser for client
acquisition and revenue
generation uh every year Well I stopped
selling so stop the idea of uh pushing
anything onto a potential client I don’t
go into any relationship with any new
person with any ulterior motives I’m not
trying to schedule an initial meeting
with them I’m not trying to twist their
arm to do anything uh I just literally
started making friends with everyone I
went and it was actually in working with
an older advisor at our firm that I
managed to come up with this brilliant
breakthrough but I was convinced as a
young advisor by an older Mentor that
you know sto thinking of people like
sales objects just be a nice person uh
just start making friends with everyone
and and I used to push back and say well
for one thing all my friends are broke
recently graduated college graduates
like me who will never be an ideal
client for me but I was trying to push
back
saying look I don’t know many people
that meet my profile for a client to
which he said forget about that just go
out there build a reputation that you’re
there to serve you’re a super nice guy
and make sure they know what you do and
what makes you better than what you do
okay and and I just proceeded to do that
I went out and I made friends uh he he
was telling me look everybody’s a
referral source even if they don’t meet
your profile to do business with you
everybody knows at least one person that
does meet your client profile so just
forget about it just loosen up make
friends with everyone add value to the
relationship when you meet with friends
to catch up try to figure out what’s
going on in their life and figure out
ways to help them and um just in between
times when you meet with each other just
do nice things for them try to figure
out how you can help them grow in
stature and I remember talking to my
mentor saying you know the people that I
want as clients are vice presidents and
presidents of
companies how am I going to ever help
them grow in stature well because there
are other areas of their life that are
more important than money their family
are they a parent do they have kids do
they have
grandkids these are things they care
tend to care about more than
money uh their Fitness you know do do
they take care of their health and
fitness are they interested in their
health and fitness
uh you know what are they passionate
about is it their friends that they have
in life is it their faith try to plug
into what their life is all about and in
between times when you actually meet
with them to catch up just send them
nice things to help them increase their
stature in these other areas of life
that they’re trying to improve so I did
that uh I think the key to this whole
thing is figuring out how do you make
sure everyone you
know and I mean literally everyone that
you know knows what you do and knows
what makes you better at it okay that
was the thing that kept me up at night
so yeah I could become a servant leader
I could go out there and figure out what
my friends lives were all about and I
could go out and you know uh I remember
uh a friend of mine he was uh had his
grandson was doing a science project and
I I went back through my files and I
found a science project that I did when
I was in the eth grade and I just sent
it to him I said here maybe you could do
this with your grandson and he
appreciated it so much I took him up a
notch or two in his stature as a grandpa
so I can do that I can be a servant
leader and do things like that with my
friends uh and you know I was the one
always initiating hey let’s go grab
coffee and catch up so I was the friend
that always seemed to remember to call
us back together to catch up but then
how on Earth do do I ever make sure they
understand what I do and what makes me
better than what I do and I finally
figured that out and I’m we have a lot
of training on this and I’m happy to
share it all with you if you want to
come work with us but I’ll just say that
I started telling stories I started
telling
vignettes with every friend at some
point for a minute or two uh they would
ask me so what’s going on in your life
Mark and I would say well busy at work
let me give you an example of something
uh that that the type of clients I deal
with and then I would tell a tiny little
story I call it a vignette where a
client came in with a big problem
significant financial issue and because
we’re so good at what we do we asked the
right questions got the client engaged
put a plan together not knocked out the
problem they lived happily ever after so
I tell these little two-minute stories
with a beginning a middle and an end
where the hero who is my client not me
had this problem and together we sorted
it out and they went on and lived
happily ever after so uh I I basically
came up with a method to guarantee that
everyone I know after they’ve heard me
tell about four of these little
vignettes every friend of mine could
explain me to someone else if they
wanted to refer me so if everybody’s a
referral source the question is have you
properly trained everyone in your
orbit what you do and what makes you
better at what you do so that’s how an
introvert becomes the number one top
producer at a nationwide firm I just
made friends with everyone I added value
to the
relationship uh there was a guy in one
of my training classes who said Mark
You’re such you know you’re not selling
these people do do you remember Mark
what it used to be like when you were
just a nice person I mean before you got
into the financial services industry so
I laughed and I said yeah you mean just
be a friend to people so I nailed that
and for me it’s just being a nice person
but being prepared prior to every time I
sit down with anyone just to catch up to
tell a little vignette so
once I’ve got all that nailed down what
are the pieces to pull all this together
into a system that will acquire clients
well number one you have to have ample
people so you need to gain the skill of
getting the people you know to introduce
you to the people that you don’t know
all right so that’s number one you have
to have plenty of people that you can
talk to or else you you don’t have
enough people in your network to to
actually make a business out of of of
client acquis position the way I’m
describing it so you have to have ample
people that means being very skilled at
getting people to introduce you to
others number two you have to have
momentum so for me I always sat down and
grab coffee to catch up with at least 10
friends per week and and the the real
goal was 20 so if if you have a coffee
in the morning and coffee in the
afternoon every day Monday through
Friday five days a week that’s 10 people
well my goal was 20 but always have
between 10 and 20 of these little
meetings with friends just to catch up
with no ulterior motive just to develop
the relationship with them so you have
ample people and you have what I’m
calling momentum you need to be meeting
with at least 10 people a week to have
ample momentum number three you have to
be able to have a plan to get your
reputation out there to your potential
ideal client client community so that’s
what I’m describing as having these
little vignettes and I make sure I come
prepared to every meeting with every
friend with a with some sort of a
vignette of a client that I have helped
with a significant financial issue go on
to resolve the problem and live a
wonderful life after that so uh ample
people momentum a reputation plan and
then never miss an opportunity
once you’ve got the all these three
pieces in place what you’ll notice is
after they’ve heard you tell your little
vignette enough times of different
stories of how you’ve helped
clients would you believe the biggest
obstacle is that you’ll miss the
opportunities that many people give you
to try to schedule a time to sit down
and talk business with you so you’re
talking with a friend and sometimes they
say things just very oblique that’s
actually a cry for
help like um I’ll tell a vignette about
a couple that don’t agree on financial
issues and at the and the and at the end
of my little vignette they they they got
on the same page and now they coordinate
you know the two spouses you know are
are fully aware of what each other is
trying to accomplish financially and
they are perfectly aligned when it comes
to money and then I’ll I’ll ask a
question have you ever known a couple
that’s
doesn’t see eye to eye on
money and I had a friend say yeah
me oh yeah my wife and I we bicker about
money all the time and and and then
they’ll say oh nice weather we’re having
and they’ll change the subject now the
question is in the moment when somebody
says something as vague as
that and they J laugh about it do you
have the skill to stop the conversation
back it up and just see what they’re
doing say so you mentioned you and your
your your wife uh argue about money
sometimes did I get that right and they
say yeah and I’ll say well that sounds
like a significant financial issue is it
and and let them talk oh yeah it ends up
being a big issue sometimes and then you
say well you know this is what we do I’m
happy to sit down and resolve that for
you all if that’s something you’d like
me to do and so do you have the skill
when somebody buzzes by you and a
conversation with just dropping some
little hint of a significant financial
issue do you have the skill to recognize
it stop the conversation and just check
and see is it or is it not a an
opportunity where they’re actually can’t
find the words to use to ask you to help
them in which case you can offer and
what have you done you’ve not betrayed
the Friendship you’re not you didn’t
come into the meeting with any ulterior
motive they brought brought it up you
just backed up the conversation to
clarify what they meant and lo and
behold I ended up booking enough initial
client interviews that I became number
one in the company and I nobody beat me
in that record the question is do you
have the skill to deploy those
four projects ample people momentum
reputation plan so everybody knows what
you do and then you never miss an
opportunity if you can pull those four
together you you you’ll you’ll achieve
every Financial goal you ever set for
yourself uh at any year so whatever your
goals are this year uh I encourage you
to think it through and think about what
I’ve said if you want to work with us
we’d be happy to work with you but you
can take the you can take the essence of
what I just ran through and you can
create a process that will allow you to
not only meet but it’ll allow you to
exceed all your financial OB objectives
this year all right so I’m Mark little
and we’ll see you next time
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