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In sports, if you have ever tried to learn something new, you know it can be a frustrating process. For example, if you have ever learned to play golf, you know it can be challenging to learn how to drive a golf ball off the tee. There you are, hitting ball after ball on the driving range. Along comes a golf pro who gives you a few pointers and you try them. You decide that no matter what you are going to learn how to hit a tee shot. Remembering that you have that company golf tournament next week and you don’t want to be embarrassed. But you only have a few days to learn it. Ball after ball, trying to change your grip, change your stance, change your swing. Testing and trying and slowly it is starting to take shape. Then, to your amazement, all of a sudden, you drive one effortlessly like never before. Wow, you say to yourself, was that easy? I wish I knew how easy it is. You lean over and reach for another ball and put it on a tee. Stance ready, grip ready, head down, and then whack. Wow, another beautiful shot. Now your excitement comes over your body and a grin from ear to ear automatically appears. You discovered the secret. You hit another, then another, smashing them straight down the driving range. You look around to see who's watching. You notice a young man struggling to hit the ball as he turns to watch you whack yet another ball straight down the fairway. You decide to go over and offer a few simple tips, and then resume your booming drives. You have mastered it.

Learn marketing by doing marketing

Learning how to hit the ball like a master is learned by doing. You cannot pick up a book and then hit a golf ball like a golf pro. You cannot go to a golf seminar and then join the pro golf tour. You learn by doing. So true is marketing. I learned by trying this, trying that, testing this, and implementing that. Then all of a sudden, I discovered my booming drive in marketing. It is called the five-touch philosophy. The only way to learn how it works is by doing. I will explain the philosophy first, and then show you step-by-step how to implement it and learn by doing. Once you see yourself actually implementing and” doing “ your five-touch philosophy, you will discover the secrets of marketing and why the five-touch philosophy works so well, compared to most marketing methods I have learned and tested while reading hundreds of books on marketing. I learned to attract people to our business (total strangers who called me), tell us everything about themselves, and worked with our firm. I discovered the “Five Touch” philosophy while testing and implementing different marketing ideas into my business while I was co-writing and researching information for my marketing books “ Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors “ series 1 and 2 with Jay Conrad
Levinson, Trafford Publishing, and Morgan James Publishing 

So what is the five-touch system anyway?

If I asked you for the name of a great marketing idea, you could probably name a few. However, if I asked you for the name of a great marketing system for small businesses, could you name any? The five-touch system is exactly what the name implies, a system to develop five touches or contacts with new customers or prospects. For example, if I asked you the name of a great financial advisor and you said a name I have never heard of, I might not feel comfortable going to see them. But If I had heard of them before, seen their ads or marketing, and received possibly a mailing, seminar invitation, and a phone call, I would feel more comfortable seeing them. Use the law of familiarity in your favor. Successful marketers know that through their constant marketing programs, people want to know about your business before they will do business with you. How do they get to know your business?

I discovered that I was 80% more successful after the fifth contact. People knew us and were comfortable choosing us. For example, I developed a system that I will share with you to develop five touches or contacts. The reason why is in the numbers:

5-10% chance of having a person become a client after one contact
10-20% chance of having a person become a client after two contacts
20-30% chance of having a person become a client after three contacts
I also discovered that most marketing programs stop or marketers give up after three tries

30-40% chance of having a person become a client after four contacts
50-70% chance of having a person become a client after five touches or contacts
It amazingly jumps up after five touches
70-80% chance of having a person become a client after six or seven contacts
50-80% of all new business developed after the fifth, sixth, and seventh touch or contact

I also spoke to several financial advisors who were doing different marketing strategies and discovered some interesting information.

40-50% of advisors will call once and never call again
25-40% will contact a prospect the second time and follow up
10-20% will contact them three times
5-10% will contact or touch people five times or more before doing business with them and become very successful in opening new accounts 70-80% of the time and earning in the top 5-10% of advisors.

Why stop marketing two, three, or four times when you are halfway there? Your chances of success can be greatly increased if you continued or developed a strategy to do five touches or contacts. When was the last time a prospect gave you a big account or bought a big ticket item on the first meeting? The system is to have as many touches as possible. Here is an example. First, you need to get the prospect's attention. Whether you do a targeted mail drop, social media post, blog, email, or ad to your target audience, you are trying to generate a response to having them take another step in getting to know you or
your business that has a strong call to action in it The call to action was to give FREE information that solved a problem for my prospects in an emotional way.

What are your emotionally compelling offers? 

In this example, it was how to avoid costly retirement planning mistakes. In the ad, there is my website address and my business address. I ask them to call for the free information, and we would send it out by email autoresponder. If anyone read the ad and is interested, then they could also learn more at my website. The same ad is on the website, so if they are interested, now they have the option of emailing me to receive the free information. They are now online reading and learning more about us. The natural tendency of people doing business with you is they want to learn more about you. Give them that opportunity. That is one of the main reasons why every business on the planet should have a website with video. It allows people to connect with you and your business in a comfortable way. At this point, they have not contacted you. I would always back up an ad with an article or advertorial, which is a paid article. The article would talk about all of the mistakes retirees make with their finances and the problems it can cause. I see people making simple mistakes with their retirement plans every day, so I developed a few articles to address and identify problems I have seen with my experience, making it realistic and setting true-life examples of what people may relate to. At this point, hopefully, they have seen one of my ads, seen articles or my blog, and gone to the website to learn more. Then they possibly may ask a few people if they have heard of us or our firm. At this point, they have not contacted us, and I do not know who they are. However, they know who we are, what we do, and how we specialize in our business with retirees. They have three or four touches. An ad, an article, possibly the website, and possibly asking a friend or colleague about us. The program is repeated every few weeks. In the financial business, I know that people have major money or tax issue at least two times per year. I know that they may have a money issue coming up in a few months, so they choose to ignore the ads for now, but I have planted a seed.

Get our guide or offer 

Eventually, the money issue comes up, they have a financial problem and my booklet or guide of information that they can get for free may help solve their problem. They decide to pick up the phone or email us for free information. They can call or email us anytime, even set up an online appointment. (every advisor and firm should have an online calendar set up, it is 2024) We gather their contact information and send it out to them. We now have permission to contact them. We know they are interested, motivated, and somewhat qualified because the information is targeted at people who are retired with wealth.
At this point, you can see that the system is designed for more than five touches, but it takes a combination of five touches to get the system going.

What are your five touches? 

Once you have people contact you with their contact information, you can develop a drip system to capture these people over time. What we did was to send
them a monthly email, if they have an email to keep in touch. They would also receive future seminar or webinar invitations that were designed to be exclusive invitations, not just a mass seminar mailing since we wanted more personal contact at the workshops, not just a big seminar. We would restrict attendance to 20 people. It is the touches that give familiarity, comfort, and trust to your business. Once you develop your system, you will find as I did they will call you, and want to meet you.

How about your goals for your practice in 2024?

Comprehensive Practice Management checklist

https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/ 

Sample: Comprehensive Financial Advisor Practice Management Benchmarking Report

Key data and KPI's Key Performance indicators. Do want a sample benchmarking report to help you understand how to get the edge on your practice and your competition? 

https://benchmark.getresponsepages.com/

Updated 2024 Technology Checklist for Financial Advisors 

This checklist is five years' worth of research on the best processes elite financial advisors and their teams implement to acquire and service ideal clients, while running an efficient practice. 

https://technology-checklist.getresponsepages.com/ 

We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation by contacting
Grant at grant@ghicks.com or click on the link to set up a no-obligation 20-minute discussion https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

Grant Hicks, CIM, is President of Advisor Practice Management and co-author of “Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors” 1st and 2nd editions. www.advisorpracticemanagement.com for speaking,
workshops, or coaching, contact Grant at grant@ghicks.com Grants combined financial advisor clients manage over 5 billion AUM, and earn over $50 million dollars combined! 

Enthusiastically yours,
Grant Hicks, CIM, President
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com 

PO Box 382 Lantzville BC V0R 2H0
Cell 403 970 8895
Email grant@ghicks.com 

To book a meeting click here https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ 

PS Where do you want your financial practice to be at the end of 2025? AUM, Revenue, and time off? 

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