Client Advisory Boards: a "Strategic-Level Tool"
for Financial Advisors
Financial Advisor magazine (March 07) features CABHQ's Bruce Peters in an article written by Andrew Gluck, entitled Client Advisory Boards Turn Firms Around. Noting that many financial advisors treat CABs like diet and exercise — they know they should be doing it, but can't find the time — the article offers a similar solution: hire a professional.
For fitness, you'd hire a nutritionist or personal trainer. For your firm's health, Gluck suggests, you should consider hiring a CAB consulting firm, like CABHQ.
Here's one nugget from the article:
Peters aims to elevate CABs to a strategic-level tool. While advisors who create CABs might be inclined to aim the effort toward getting referrals, Peters says the return on your CAB investment can actually be much greater than a handful of referrals. A CAB can help you redirect your marketing campaign and even reinvent your business. While a CAB can also bring referrals, that should not be its focus.
. . .
Peters says it is not uncommon for him to come out of a session with a new marketing plan for a firm. For instance, at one CAB meeting he hosted, the firm’s owner presented a new marketing plan. His CAB—at their first session—trashed the plan. They told the advisor that his strongest suit was educating clients and they helped him in a two-hour session design an agenda for a workshop, and they told him he was targeting the wrong types of clients for his services. Each CAB member personally invited two friends to attend the new workshop. “The advisor fulfilled his target for new clients for the entire year with that one workshop,” says Peters.
The complete article, Client Advisory Boards Turn Firms Around, is available at the Financial Advisor website.
