You’re not ready for a post RDR world if…
1 You don’t know exactly which client segments you work for and what they want
If your idea of defining your target market is a statement like “we work with anyone that needs our service and values what we do” then I’m sorry you don’t know your target market. And that being the case I can guess the profit margins in your business and they won’t be good.
It’s imperative that you know exactly who you work for and what their top 5 issues or concerns are.
Why do you need to know this stuff?
Well, how can you create a proposition that addresses your clients key issues if you don’t know what those issues are?
2 You don’t remind people what you’ve done for them lately
Every piece of new business that you write is now far less secure than business you have written in the past. At any point clients can turn off your ongoing remuneration. With the media likely to flog this to death week after week and year after year your clients will inevitably be faced with a choice:
Stay with you or save the cash.
And if they can’t quickly remember the benefits of what you do for them it’s easy to guess what they will do.
At every review meeting it is imperative that you remind people what you’ve done for them lately. Show them the wins that you’ve generated in cash wherever possible.
What is your contact strategy between annual review dates? Once a year isn’t enough to be touching the client so you’ll need to develop an effective communications strategy.
3 You (or your advisers) can’t run amazing first meetings
If you can’t run an amazing first meeting with new clients you will be up against it post RDR. Average first meetings mean:
- You will not be able to charge a fee for your initial analysis and recommendations – this is bad because now you are doing weeks of work for free. Quality firms can charge for their initial work after the first meeting because they create a great first impression at meeting one.
- A lower closing rate – and that means acquiring new clients is a lot more expensive for you than it is for your competitors.
- You only pick up the low hanging fruit, not the whole fruit tree – A poor first meeting usually involves you doing too much of the talking and not enough asking great questions. It is the great questions that let the client sell themselves on the need for your service.
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