NASHVILLE – Of the time you dedicate toward marketing, what percentage of that is focused on cold calling? On centers of influence? On referrals?

Panelists at a NAPA 401(k) Summit workshop on “selling without selling” polled the audience. Attendees responded in real time by sending text messages with their answer.

Of the more than 200 people in the workshop, 77 percent answered that they spent up to 10 percent of their time on cold calling.
A quarter of the attendees in the room said they spent 50 percent to 75 percent of their marketing time focusing on centers of influence.
And a quarter of the room said they spent about a quarter of their marketing time focusing on getting a client referral.

Which option resulted in the most new business? Over half of attendees said focusing on the centers of influence did.

For the panelists — Austin Gwilliam of GRP Financial, Grant Arends of intellicents, Kristi Baker of CSI Advisory Services, and Dori Drayton of Plante Moran Financial Advisors – it was centers of influence as well.

However cold calling in early years, Baker said, resulted in clients that are still with her years later. And Arends said his firm still does “pseudo” cold calling, using a lead generation firm and e-marketing. And all of the panelists still welcome referrals from clients, of course.

Here are some tips gleaned from their discussion on prospecting and marketing:

1. Consider CPAs and attorneys to help you keep the pipeline full.

CPAs can help you put a lot of names in your pipeline, said Dori Drayton. “Find CPAs that are considered a trusted advisor to their client.”

How can you tell a CPA is a trusted advisor? “If you're sitting across from a CPA at lunch, ask them what they've done for their clients recently. If you hear more things beyond audit and tax return, compliance, that's a sign that's a trusted advisor.”

Attorneys are a good source too, said Grant Arends. To cultivate relationships with attorneys, you have to be specific about who you want to meet and how you can help them.

“You have to make it easy for them,” said Drayton. “Instead of me going to an attorney and saying 'do you know anybody I can help,' say 'I know you're connected to John Doe at X company, can you help me connect with him?'

2. Carve out time to be really intentional with marketing; otherwise you won't make the time to do it.

“Internally, we have a document that you set up so you have five clients, five referral sources, and seven companies as targets. And you work those three different buckets,” said Drayton.

“For younger consultants we have asked them to block off Tuesdays for pipeline development,” Arends said. Specifically, Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., he said. “People are more apt to talk to you on Tuesdays between 10 and 2.”

3. Track everything in a CRM.

“I can budget next year to the dollar if I am tracking the pipeline properly,” Arends said. His organization has people enter gross revenue estimated for a prospect and a probability score of achieving it.

4. Figure out your sweet spot for the number of centers of influence you can cultivate.

That number is the number of people you can have “regular, frequent, meaningful contact with. If you have someone in your list and you haven't talked to them in nine months, you might remove them,” Drayton said.

“Four has been our sweet spot,” said Baker. “We're on site with them at least a couple of times a month, there's communications going on all the time, emails, phone calls. We let them know what we're doing, how we're doing it.”

5. Use social media and the internet to research clients who might know your next target client.

Several panelists mentioned using LinkedIn to “stalk” current and future clients. Figure out what companies you want to target and look on LinkedIn to see if they're connected to any current clients. Then go in and ask the current client for a referral to the target client.

Following HR directors as they move from one employer to a new one can also be helpful, Baker said.

And Google news alerts are also useful — you can put a company name in and get an email if there's any news about them, Drayton said.

Instant Insights /

5 marketing tips to keep the client pipeline full

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