Have A Goal
Whatโs your 2024 target? If you donโt have one, write one out right now.ย ย Itโs kind of obvious that you need something to aim at to know if youโre heading in the right direction or not. Without a goal, youโre lost. With a goal, youโre motivated and everything you do has a meaning and purpose to it. So, whatโs your goal?
Make the Goal Worthy Of You
Donโt ask if youโre worthy enough to achieve the goal. Ask if the goal is worthy enough of you. Based on my experience, I believe every holistic advisor has to set a target of a minimum 30 million a year in new assets (15M FIA + 15M AUM) because itโs possible! If youโre busy with the right activities this should be your minimum standard.ย
If you havenโt achieved that before itโs likely because you are not spending enough hours talking to the right prospects during the year. Itโs just a numbers game and you need to talk to enough people who have high enough assets to reach your numbers.
Follow The 1% Rule to Reverse Engineer Your Marketing Budget
Weโve noticed that for every $10,000 our holistic advisors put into ad spend, they close about $1M of FIA business (and $1M of AUM at the same time).
So, if you want to bring in $25 Million this year in FIA premiumโฆ you need to spend $250,000 in ad spend.
If you want to bring in $100 Million this year in FIA premiumโฆ you need to spend $1M in ad spend.
If you want to bring in $500 Million this year in FIA premiumโฆ you need to spend $5M in ad spend.
Itโs that simple.ย Under-investing on marketing is the #1 reason why you donโt reach your targets of new assets as a financial advisor.
Invest $15,000/month in Ad Spend for Every Advisor
Weโve found that $15-18k/mo. in ad spend is the sweet spot to make an advisor as busy as possible. This generates about 50-60 booked appointments a month, which is plenty to keep the advisor busy. This also positions the advisor to be able to bring in $1.5M-2M a month in FIA premium based on the 1% rule.ย
So, if you have a team of 10 advisors, your ad spend should be about $150k-180k/month to be able to bring in $3 Million Per Month Per Advisor In New Assets (Half AUM and half FIA).
There is Safety In Overspending on Marketing
One of our advisors has this great mindset that allows him to hit record months. He believes there is safety in overspending on marketing. He justifies it like this. If he spends $18k in a month and gets 60 booked appointments and meets with 40 of themโฆ there might be 3-4 million-dollar FIA opportunities there. He knows that he only needs to close 2 of them to bring in $2M that month and have a good month. His argument is if he underspends on marketing, he might not run into those 3-4 big opportunities that make the whole month worth it. Which means if he underspends his ROI might be super low for that month.ย
So, because of the law of large numbers, you need to meet with enough people to come across these larger opportunities which make the marketing investment worth it so you can continue re-investing in marketing. If your marketing efforts are not paying off, odds are you are not investing enough in them.
The Number One Predictor of Salespeoplesโ Success
Bryan Tracy says the number one predictor of salespeopleโs success is the number of people they talk to. Thatโs really it. It is truly a numbers game. If you talk to more people, you will bring in more business. So, to maximize your odds of success, you need to put yourself in front of as many qualified opportunities as possible.
Plan for Seasonality
Summer & holiday season are known to be slow seasons for financial advisors. So, if you want to bring in 24 million this year, an average of 2 million per monthโฆ itโs not going to be 2 million every single month. Some months would be 1 million, other months could bring you 4 million of assets. Look at your production in 2023 and the years before and map out the seasonality you notice unto this year.
Include Your Sales Cycle In Your Plan
How long is your average sales cycle? If we take an average 6-week sales cycle (from 1st meeting to asset transfer) โฆ Then a lead that was created in January, wonโt close until mid-February.ย ย You want to think about this when creating your 2024 marketing plan.
Focus on Revenue Generating Activities
Revenue generating activities for a financial advisor are talking to new prospects and closing qualified deals. Thatโs a $2,000/hour activity. What other activities can pay you $2,000/hour? Not that many. Thatโs why you need to delegate everything on your plate that is worth under $2,000/hourโฆ including marketing.ย
Spending your time creating marketing campaigns and running seminars (which is considered a marketing activity) is not worth your time. Had you spent all your time with prospects, and had the marketing done for you, youโd grow your production to much higher levels.
Go Virtual
When youโre able to work with people virtually from anywhere in the USA, youโve instantly expanded your market from your town to 331 million people in the US. This opens you to meet with bigger clients no matter where they are. For example, one of our clients recently met with a prospect that has $30 Million with JP Morgan and $7 Million in an IRA account. I bet you didnโt think those people existed on Facebook. Well, they do.ย
If you put the right message in front of them and you position yourself as a thought-leader and expert (like we do for our clients through our marketing campaigns) then they will listen to you more than their JP Morgan guy and potentially move some (if not all) of their assets to you. Because high net worth clients want to work with the best advisor no matter where they are.
Grow through Recruiting
Once youโre bringing in 25-30M a year and every one of your advisors are hitting this production levelโฆ it may be time to bring on more advisors to grow your production through more advisors that can create more availability on your 1st meeting booking calendar. Every new advisor should bring 30 million of new assets to your company.
These are the 11 steps you need to consider to grow your production and reach your target in 2024. Which of these steps are you going to start with? Which one gave you an aha-moment? Reply to this email with your thoughts.
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