For Minnesota financial advisor Joe Yard, his most powerful marketing tool is a charming brick rambler house alongside a lake. He bought the property, a neighborhood landmark, to serve as his office; it's turned into the site for the client gatherings that have become one of the main engines behind his growing business.
"I had an outing for my clients on the lake, and it was hot as a pistol," Yard says. "But I had my son captaining my boat and taking everyone for rides, and we went through burgers, hot dogs, brats, and about eight bottles of my homemade wine. It was a huge success."
That's the kind of relationship building that has put Yard's business on a high-octane growth track. Having received his Certified Senior Advisor designation, he's remade his practice to specialize in working with affluent seniors - people who want to be sure their money will last the rest of their lives. By all accounts, that strategy is working: After producing revenues of $250,000 last year, Yard is on target to grow by about 50% this year, coming in at more than $360,000.
Personal Connections Make the Difference
The secret to Yard's success seems to be his ability to bring people together, laying the groundwork for them to make personal connections. He currently holds seminars every other month, puts on networking events for his centers of influence - primarily attorneys and accountants - and even sends out "birthdays in a box" to seniors, which are invitations to a birthday party thrown in their honor that he says have been an enormous hit.
Along with public seminars, private seminars he's organizing for local service organizations, lakeside gatherings and networking events, Yard plans to do both drip and Six-Week Blitz direct-mail campaigns to prospects and seminar attendees when his Brochure is completed. He also sends out a regular newsletter.
Yard says beyond any marketing materials, the key to his success has really been a genuine, relaxed personality and way of doing business to which seniors can really relate. "If they're looking for a financial planner who wears a $1,000 Armani suit and works in a 10-story office building, I'm not their guy," he says. "I don't talk over their head; I keep it simple. My clients love that approach. That's the kind of advisor with whom they want to work."
Business by His Own Rules
Yard, who attended Peter Montoya seminar in September 2003, says the greatest benefit to his practice has been the feedback of his brand strategist, Sue Rasmussen. "Having to be accountable to someone other than myself has been huge for me," he says. "I picked up a lot of ideas at PBU. Some things we've put into place; some things I haven't had time to implement yet. But when we get these brochures going, I expect things to snowball."
But perhaps the greatest reward, beyond the increase in income, has been Yard's ability to work according to his own rules. He recently bought the lakeside home next to his office, so his commute can now be measured in a short walk. Last year he took five vacations, and he takes Mondays and Fridays off during the summers. Best of all, he no longer works evenings, cutting his work hours to about 30 per week.
"I made a decision that I wasn't going to work at night," he says. "Clients have to take a day off to see me, just like a doctor or dentist. Plus, once people find out where my office is, they all want to see that house on the lake."
A 50% increase in business, working fewer hours, and traveling less distance to the office, all while spending only about 15% of his total revenue on marketing…now that's a business model we should all try to emulate. |
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