Imagine this scenario: it’s summer. A financial advisor is cold calling leads. A prospect mentions they plan on being on vacation for the next few weeks. As such, now isn’t the best time to talk.
Did the advisor waste their time?
Many industry professionals would say “yes, they did.”
Many industry professionals, it turns out, are missing out on some excellent prospecting opportunities because of this attitude.
We’ve put together a breakdown of some of the most common reasons financial advisors stop prospecting during the summer.
And why they’re probably wrong.
There are plenty of reasons (excuses) why advisors may choose to suspend prospecting efforts in the summer. Most of them are not actually good reasons.
It’s true: lots of people choose to go on vacation during the summer. You might even be one of them. And you should go on vacation — you deserve it.
So fine: you and some of your potential clients might be taking a week or two to recharge your batteries. That doesn’t mean your entire prospecting strategy needs to come to a grinding halt for the entire summer.
Nobody takes the whole summer off. Keeping your phone and email marketing strategies online will put you in the position to be available when opportunity knocks.
Summer falls smack dab in the middle of the fiscal year. By then, many prospective clients may already have their financial planning needs sorted out.
Because of this, there’s no reason you should reach out with offers of your own financial services, right?
Wrong.
Why assume your potential client base already has everything they need from their advisors? Giving up before you even call is just about the worst prospecting “technique” imaginable.
Sure, you may end up speaking with someone who already has an advisor. But you can still get your foot in the door.
Ask them questions about the services they’re receiving. What do they like? What are they missing?
Demonstrate your genuine interest in their wellbeing. You will build trust and relationships with someone who might one day become your ideal client.
We get it: sometimes you just need a break. And you absolutely should take one.
Slow down and take care of yourself. It’s absolutely essential if you plan on being in the financial advice game long-term. Nobody wants to be slogging through cold calling scripts all day every day of the year.
Practicing self care, however, is not mutually exclusive from reaching out to your target market. There are plenty of prospecting tools for financial advisors that will allow you to continue outreach and recharge your batteries.
Quick Plug: Planswell’s Circle Automations does just that — we automate email drip campaigns and call prospects to book appointments for you. You don’t have to lift a finger! Sound too good to be true? It’s not.
Slowing things down and giving yourself time to breathe in the summer months is all well and good. However, you should still expend some effort in attracting your target audience.
You don’t want to be the bird that missed the big worm because you were sitting by the pool.
Maybe you do most of your prospecting at networking events, most of which occur during the non-summer months.
You don’t need to do email marketing, cold calling, or social media marketing to maintain your pipeline? Congratulations, you’re winning the game.
For the rest of us, “financial advisor prospecting ideas” generally involves making phone calls and sending emails at the least.
As we’ll discuss in just a moment, you should maintain such efforts, even when it’s summer.
Many of the most common reasons advisors stop prospecting in the summer are misguided. What’s more, there are several reasons why prospecting actively in the summertime is actually an excellent idea.
Most prospecting ideas financial advisors have involve cutting back on their efforts in the summer. What does this mean for those who maintain or even increase the amount of prospecting they do? Less competition, of course.
Your name doesn’t need to be Poindexter to understand the math here. Imagine a pool in a stream where salmon are migrating upriver. When the pool is chock-a-block full, there are so many bears fighting for position. Actually catching a fish in this setting is rather difficult.
When the majority of the salmon move on, however, most of the bears leave with them. There are still salmon in that pool, however. The bears that stick around are going to have a much easier time grabbing one.
Many prospects you call during the summer may not be too jazzed about discussing their financial planning needs at that time. Whether they’re going on vacation next week or just have the beach on their mind, that’s totally fine.
When this happens, it doesn’t mean the prospect is uninterested in your services. It simply means now is not the right time for them. Ask them if it’s okay for you to reach out in the fall.
Even if you don’t book a ton of meetings during the summer months, you can still succeed in filling your pipeline and set yourself up for a busy fall.
The summer is a great time to host prospecting events that focus on fun relationship building. Rather than hard selling your services, take the opportunity to relax and enjoy an evening with people.
Host a casual happy hour at a local brewery. Buy a box at a local sporting event. Rent out a few bowling lanes for an evening. Invite people to come hang out and have a good time.
Don’t even focus on selling your services, just get to know them and let them get to know you. You’ll have a whole group of people who think you’re the coolest advisor in town. When you do end up calling them in the fall, they’ll be much more receptive.
If you’re looking to streamline your summer prospecting efforts, we have some good news.
People fill out our discovery survey to build a free financial plan for themselves just as often in the summer as any other time of the year.
If you want a steady stream of prospects, all of whom have demonstrated interest in learning when they can retire, you might just want to give Planswell a shot.