Filtering potential clients by industry
This helps bring out only the relevant prospective clients.
Expanding the referral network
Helps connect both potentially responsive and unresponsive clients through lead generation.
Identification of prospective triggers
Triggers are used to educate and create a reason for a subsequent need.
Advantages of Specialization
Promoting yourself as someone with a highly specialized skill, service, or product gives your existing clients, other financial advisors, and influencers explicit reasons to introduce you. By becoming known for something unique, you enable your referral partners to tell others why and how connecting with you will benefit them! The sale becomes more or less a formality. The question no longer is “if”, but “how”, “what”, or “when” a particular product or service is bought.
Existing Access to an Industry or Profession
Do you have ready access to a specific industry or profession? Do you have a family member, close friend, mentor, coach, or former teacher who can help you gain your footing in their profession? Would they be willing to introduce you to other members of their tribe? Would they help you join their local association, perhaps as an associate member? You might be accepted to the association's membership committee. Your task would be to build favorable relationships with existing members and recruit new ones. Perfect!
Education Based Specialization
Do you have a unique educational degree or experience? If rep has a degree in agricultural finance, they should prominently display that unique educational background on the first two lines of his LinkedIn profile, to give it maximum visibility. They can then use LinkedIn messages to reach out to farmers, with their communication offering customized advice to even out the uneven cash flows commonly experience by farmers.
Cultural or Linguistic Ties
Do you speak a foreign language? Are you in-tune with another culture? Example: An advisor who is the son of an Albanian immigrant family in the Midwest. He speaks Albanian and is very much in tune with Albanian culture. There are several thousand Albanian business owners in the state where he is licensed. What will his career look like if he chooses to specialize in serving the needs of the Albanian business owner community? Would he face any credible competitive threats?
Hobbies
Hobbies can easily be turned into specialty for financial advisors. Let's say you are a private pilot. You'd know that life insurance companies may assesses an extra premium for pilots. You also know that our industry has wide-ranging interpretations of what extra premium, if any, a private pilot should be assessed. Pricing varies by type of pilot's license and aircraft, experience, and anticipated flying going forward, etc. You would be exceptionally well positioned to advertise your unique knowledge and experience to the private pilot community. How many thousands are there in state(s) in which you are licensed? Is anyone pursing them already by offering customized solutions that address their specific needs?
Career Changers - Professionals
Career changers entering financial services can quickly and easily identify optimized financial solutions, based on their insider knowledge of their prior industry or profession. If you are a career changer and former business owner in an industry or profession, it will be very easy for you to attract ideal prospects, based on your personal prior experience.
Career Changers - Large Employers
Advisors who enter financial services after leaving a large local employer could decide to focus on serving the needs of their former colleagues. They could advise existing (and incoming) employees on the best way to maximize the benefits offered by the employer - and supplement in areas where the employer's benefits package falls short. As employees retire, the advisor is well positioned to offer insights into repositioning 401(k) balances into well-diversified IRAs. What a wonderful opportunity for the financial advisor to start a conversation about insurance and retirement savings options for new business owners!
Examples of Target Markets
Endless Possibilities
As you can imagine, the possibilities for specialization are nearly endless.
Think about your unique background and experiences. What differentiates you from everyone else? You can probably come up with a very unique combination of attributes. They define who you are. They also define the key characteristics of your most accessible target market. You will be able to capture their attention, because you can communicate with them at their exact frequency. As an insider, you can quickly build trust, based on common experiences, expectations, and values.
Once you've developed your unique brand, you can easily leverage the newest technology, including increasingly effective artificial intelligence, to access and cultivate your target market.
Take 'Building Your Awareness of Target Markets' Course
Learn to identify opportunities and overcome barriers to entering various target markets. Advisors can access classroom materials, including pre-work, resources and the participant guide.
Complete Who is Your Target Audience? Reflection Worksheet
Using the guidelines and instructions
outlined on this page, consider the target markets that may interest you, complete this form and upload your worksheet before next week's session.
Continue to Grow your LinkedIn Network
Using the skills and training resources available to you, continue inviting 10 new people to connect on a daily basis, 4 times a week and upload your results.