102

P R O C E E D I N G S
MP3: MP1029 CD: C1029
T
hank you all for your participation in this work-
shop to learn a process that will help you, as an
advisor, overcome many of the challenges that
you may face on a day-to-day basis. As a consultant na-
tionally on business development, I hear consistent chal-
lenges from nancial advisors. Te most common chal-
lenges that I hear advisors face are:
1. Getting referrals from top clients and professional
relationships
2. Rolling out new products or strategies to prospects
3. Getting a high conversion rate out of workshops or
seminars
4. Getting face time with more prospects
Today, we are going to discuss how one process can
help with all of these challenges. I will talk to you about
a process that, when done consistently, can be one of the
most professional, ethical, straightforward things you can
do to overcome the challenges you face as both an advisor
and a business owner.
Before we talk about what the process is, how to use
it, and what steps to take to implement it, I want to begin
by explaining a little bit about my background. It was my
journey from the mental health eld to the nancial ser-
vices eld that led me to become desperate enough to try
this method myself.
I do not come from an insurance or investment back-
ground. All of my formal education and career experience
was in the mental health industry. Specically, I focused
on behavioral psychology. I was very lucky to be involved
at a young age with a mental health company that a
partner and I started from scratch. Over the course of a
three-year period, we had expanded to more than 70 loca-
tions and over 300 employees. It was at that time that we
were approached by the largest mental health company in
America. Tey made us an oer we couldnt refuse, and
we decided to sell the company. In addition to all of the
intricacies of the purchase agreement was a clause that said
that we could not be in the mental health eld for a period
of ve years after the sale.
Dan Allison is the founder and president of
the Feedback Marketing Group, a consulting
rm helping large organizations and individual
professionals implement a system to duplicate their
top clients and attract more quality prospects. An
accomplished author in both the mental health eld
and the nancial services industry, Allison shows
advisors a step-by-step process to engage their top
clients in the referral process without compromising
their relationships. Tis process is also very eective
for getting quality face time with qualied prospects.
Feedback Marketing Group
7417 S. 168th Ave.
Omaha, NE 68136
Phone: 402.350.2532
E-mail: dan@feedbackmarketinggroup.com
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career
Dan Allison
103
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
Tis led me to pursue other ventures. I ended up buy-
ing into a xed life insurance brokerage rm. My job was
to play an active role in business development concepts for
both the advisors and the company. Essentially, I was to
help advisors get more business from the kind of custom-
ers that they wanted to work with and help the company
get more business from the kinds of advisors that they
wanted to work with.
Initially, I assumed this industry was easy. I assumed
that advisors show up to work at 8:00 a.m. with a parking
lot full of customers waiting to come in and get their prob-
lems solved. I had never heard the word prospect before
in my life. I was completely unaware of the diculties that
advisors actually faced in getting new clients. I was equal-
ly unaware of how dicult it was on the brokerage level
to get new advisors to work with our company. Both the
advisors and our company thought we had value proposi-
tions that made us dierent from our competitors. Why,
then, were new customers not lined up outside our door?
I realized that to understand the answer to this ques-
tion, I would need to understand the customers that we
wanted to attract better. I realized very quickly that this
was a dierent industry than I thought it was.
Te rst thing I decided to do was to conduct small
focus groups with the kinds of advisors that our brokerage
rm wanted to attract. I would simply call them and say,
I own a brokerage rm in town. We are doing a few small
focus groups of six to eight advisors that we specically
selected as advisors that we would like to learn from. We
want to get the small groups together over lunch to get
their feedback on our program and what we are trying to
accomplish. You are one of the advisors we would appreci-
ate getting some expertise and feedback from. Would you
consider being part of one of our small groups?
What I found was that our prospective advisors were
happy to help us out. Tey liked the idea that they were
selected and that we respected them enough to ask for
their help. We held little groups of six to eight advisors and
began the focus groups by presenting what we perceived as
our value proposition. After a brief presentation, we asked
the questions that we struggled with. What do you see
as the primary value that we are oering advisors? What
areas are we missing that you feel would be valuable to
advisors? What can a company like ours do to bring value
to the kind of advisors who are in this room?
Te discussion was amazing. We were able to sit with
six to eight ideal prospects and present our company in
an honest and open setting. We had great discussions
with the group and learned a tremendous amount from
them. To add to the learning experience, many of the
advisors wanted to talk further about their business and
their needs. We were able to move forward having learned
what we needed to and with new relationships with pros-
pects who were now relationships and clients. It was an
extremely protable and valuable venture.
After having the experience with advisors, I wanted to
see if we could duplicate that approach with the advisors
themselves and the clients they wanted to serve. I began
working with advisors to learn whom they wanted to
talk to and what they wanted to learn. Some advisors did
workshops and wondered why more people didnt sign up
for workshops. Other advisors wondered what they could
do to become more referable to their top clients. Some ad-
visors wanted to focus specically on business owners with
their services.
We began contacting these people to nd the answers
to our questions through focus groups. For the workshop
attendees, we simply explained that we wanted feedback
on how to improve our workshops. With current clients,
we simply told them that we wanted to learn what our cli-
ents value and how we can improve so that our company
expands the way that we want it to. Finally, with business
owners, we told them we wanted to learn what business
owners value in a nancial professional and how our rm
can be more valuable to that population.
Simply put, we found that focus groups were a great
way to approach clients and prospects to bring them into
very comfortable settings and have a candid conversation.
We were able to present whatever we wanted to them and
then get their feedback. Just as they had in the past, these
104
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
focus groups turned out to be open, honest, professional,
and incredibly protable. Trough the face time they gave
us, we learned a great deal, and the doors opened to new
clients through our conversations with participants. We
found that focus groups are the perfect complement to any
advisors business as long as the business had a few simple
components.
Advisors Have To Be Able To Dene Whom
Tey Want More Business From
Te rst step to conducting a focus group is being able
to clearly dene whom you want to do business with.
Many advisors have databases full of potential clients that
they currently market to, but the consumers dont re-
spond to the marketing. Wouldnt it be valuable to know
what they would respond to? If you can identify whom
you want to do business with, you will be able to ask them
those questions. We will get into this in greater detail in
a moment.
Advisors Have To Give Participants Something
of Value in Exchange for Teir Time
While most people want to be helpful, it is also impor-
tant to show them that you respect their time. Tis can be
done by conducting the focus groups at a private luncheon
or dinner setting or can be as simple as oering a gift card
in exchange for their time. A small token of appreciation
is typically something like a $50 gift card. It is important
for compliance that it is a gift card and not cash and that
it is simply compensation in exchange for their time, not
an incentive to do business.
Advisors Have To Focus on Serving People
Better, Not Selling People
Focus groups cannot be a clever platform to sell
people. You have to retain the integrity of the group and
truly care enough about your business to see the feedback
as valuable. Most advisors understand that more business
simply comes as the result of meeting new people and
learning their concerns. Focus groups are no dierent.
While business inevitably occurs from doing the groups,
it cannot be the primary reason for doing them. Tis
will turn o the participants, and it will be a short-lived
success.
So, if you are an advisor who has a specic target mar-
ket, is willing to spend a little money, and who truly cares
about the opinions of the people you want to serve, there
are four or ve key areas in which advisors can successfully
conduct focus groups.
How Can Advisors Use Focus Groups?
Increase Client Retention and Referrals
One of the most eective ways that advisors can use
focus groups is to bring in small groups of selected clients
to get feedback. I know that many advisors are initially
hesitant and they fear that maybe they dont want to get
honest feedback from clients. I am here to tell you that this
is the only way to ensure that your clients stay with you
and refer you to others. You have got to learn what they
value, how you can improve their experience, and how
they want to be approached about referrals. Focus groups
are a great way to accomplish this goal.
If you think about it, it is similar to having an advisory
board of your top clients. Te main dierence is that you
are able to go much deeper into your client base to get in
front of many more clients. Te same process works with
referrals. You can bring small groups of clients together
and talk to them about your goals for your company and
what kind of new clients you want to serve. Tis is a good
way to have your clients see you as a company, not just
as an advisor. When they see you as a company, they un-
derstand that referrals are no dierent than adding new
customers to your business. Every business needs to add
new customers.
After talking to them in the group about your business,
you can begin to ask questions that can help you build
your business. You are able to ask things such as, What
do you feel is the most valuable area of our service? If we
could improve in one area, what area would it be? If you
were in our position and wanted to grow with a certain
105
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
population of clients, how would you approach our cur-
rent client base about it?
Tis direct approach will be appreciated by your clients
and will be very helpful to you. Tis approach to your
top clients will increase your retention, identify new op-
portunities to help existing clients with other issues, and
teach you how to approach your clients about referrals and
recommendations.
Promote New Products and Services
Have you ever learned about a new insurance product
or annuity and thought that it was one of the greatest prod-
ucts ever created? We all get excited about the potential a
new product can bring to our business. Te problem is, it
doesnt matter what we think of the product. What does
the consumer think? What do they nd valuable about it?
What would they or why wouldnt they use the product?
What are the real objections to the product?
All of these questions can be answered by conduct-
ing small focus groups full of the kind of people that the
product is designed for and by getting their feedback.
Focus groups of this type happen every day. A company
gets small groups of consumers together and presents a
product. Ten, the company asks questions about the
customers perceptions of the product. Te company uses
this information to eectively promote the product to new
customers. It doesnt hurt that some of the focus group
participants become users of the product.
Why cant you be the company that wants feedback
on the product? Just because its not a vacuum or a widget
doesnt mean it isnt valuable to learn from the people you
are targeting with the product.
Focus groups are a good way to bring small groups of
people into a room to hear your presentation of a product
and then give you the insight that you need to eectively
market the product to the target market of the product.
What are the real objections to long-term care? Does the
perception of an annuity change when the customer listens
to a presentation of what an annuity actually is? What do
business owners want to learn about succession planning?
Wouldnt the answers to these questions be valuable?
Improve Relationships with Referral Relationships
and Teir Clients
Many advisors have solid relationships with CPAs, at-
torneys, and other referral sources. Many times the chal-
lenge is that the CPA or attorney doesnt know how to
get the advisor face time with his or her clients unless the
clients ask if he or she knows anyone who could help with
a situation.
Focus groups are an excellent way to partner with CPAs
or attorneys to learn what their client base values and what
kind of information they would nd helpful. If you truly
have a trusting relationship with these professionals, focus
groups will be a good way to bring small groups of their
clients together to discuss why you and the attorney have
partnered together to serve each others clients. You are
then able to ask the client base how to add value to their
experience with an attorney or CPA through education on
nancial issues. You can learn what kind of information
the clients would nd helpful. How do they want to be ap-
proached with the information? Would they attend private
workshops if you and their CPA put them together? Tese
things will be very helpful for you to know and for the
professional to learn. It will get you in front of their clients
but in a very professional way.
Improve Workshops and Seminars
Tis is one of the biggest challenges of the nancial ser-
vices industry. Anyone who does workshops or seminars
knows how expensive and unpredictable they are. Advisors
often spend thousands of dollars to ll up a seminar and
leave the night wondering why more people dont sign up
for appointments. Focus groups are an excellent way to get
back in front of the right prospects and gain their insight
into how to improve the workshops and seminars that
they have attended.
Many times we are too close to our own presentations
and dont know what we dont know. Calling former
106
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
workshop attendees and inviting them back into a focus
group to give feedback on their experience will help you
tremendously. You will be able to learn what people are
actually thinking as you do your workshop and what areas
are valuable. You will also learn about all of the areas that
are confusing the participants, which has a signicant im-
pact on whether or not they want to come in and see you
after a workshop.
Many advisors nd that the people who attend their
workshops indeed oer a big opportunity for their busi-
ness. Tey typically learn that the attendees came to learn
something specic that was not covered or that was cov-
ered in too much detail. By not delivering what they want-
ed to learn about, the advisor misses the opportunity with
the clients. Tis feedback is very helpful for future work-
shops but also opens up the opportunity again with the
people who attended the workshop. Advisors who failed
to provide the information on the topic that the workshop
attendee wanted to learn about now have the opening to
get them information on something they will value. Tis
has proven to be a very high payo activity for advisors
who do workshops and seminars in all dierent markets.
Work More Closely With Niche Populations
Many advisors reach a point in their career where they
feel like their services and products are really most bene-
cial for a specic population or niche. Rather than helping
anyone who will talk to the advisor, they decide that they
really want to spend more time focusing their marketing
eorts specically on a niche. Tese niches may be pre-
retirees, retirees, business owners, female professionals, or
any group of people who have something in common.
If you are planning to spend a lot of your time and
resources marketing to a niche population, focus groups
should be a staple in that eort. If you want to be valuable
to a certain population, it is critical to know what value
means to them and what their greatest challenges are. By
doing this, you are able to be the expert in your niche
because you will understand their needs better than your
competition will. In addition, you will have a predictable
way to spend time with your niche through focus groups
while others will continue to market material that is not
getting a response from the niche.
Conducting focus groups every couple of months with
your niche will ensure that you are always on top of their
needs, their values, and what primary concerns they need
someone to solve. Tis will be some of the most eective
marketing money that you will ever spend.
While there are many uses for focus groups, these are
the ve primary uses for advisors throughout the country.
In a nutshell, if you know whom you want to talk to, if you
value their time and opinions and are willing to listen to
them, focus groups can be the method that will help you
solve the challenges that you face in your marketing.
Te Steps to Conducting Focus Groups
At this point, hopefully you are identifying with one or
more of the uses that I have talked about. Next, I want to
walk you through the ve key steps to conducting focus
groups regardless of why you want to do them. While your
reasons and target population may change, the process for
conducting focus groups doesnt. You are able to follow
the same steps for all populations.
Identify Your Participants
Te rst step to conducting a focus group is to compile
a list of the specic people that you want to approach to
attend. With current clients, it is obviously quite simple.
You should take a look at which clients have signicant
inuence over others and are the kinds of clients that you
would like to work with, and put them on your list. With
prospective clients, it is not as easy. Te most common
ways to locate the people for the invitation process are:
Current Marketing Lists Most advisors have some
form of current marketing that they do to a list that
they have compiled over the years in business. Many
times, the future participants of your focus group are
within that list. Obviously, they are not clients because
they are not responding to your current marketing ef-
forts. Tis might be a good group to get feedback from
107
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
and learn what information they will respond to. Look
within your current business and think about the dif-
ferent people you currently send information to. Com-
pile a list based on your criteria for participating in
your focus group.
Former Workshop Participants If you have done
workshops throughout your career, you probably have
a huge database of people who have attended work-
shops in the past but have not become clients. Dont
make the mistake that many advisors make and write
them o as plate lickers or people who only came for
a free meal. It is natural for us to assume that they have
the problem, not us. Many times, you will see this is
not the case. Look within that database and compile
a list of these people that meet your criteria and invite
them to your focus group.
Social Marketing A lot of us regularly attend events
for networking and frequently meet the kind of people
that we want to market to. Many times, we just dont
have an approach that will take them from the event to
our oce. Tese are the people that I approach about
attending a focus group. When I meet them, I will say
something like, Hey John, my rm does focus groups
every couple of months with small groups of select
business owners. Do you have a minute for me to ex-
plain what we do with the focus groups to see if you
would consider participating in one? Tanks. Basically,
we are making a focused eort in the coming year to
understand the common challenges that business own-
ers face and get feedback on the process that we employ
for business owners. Tis feedback is obviously very
helpful for us in developing our marketing plans and
our approach to serving business owners. You would be
a really good t for one of our groups. Would you con-
sider bringing your experience to one of the sessions?
Straightforward, honest, and simple approaches are
always the best. Just approach them and be honest. In
person invitations are highly eective, as people nor-
mally want to be helpful. If you are sincere in your invi-
tations and really do select them to participate, they
will feel special and will be more likely to participate.
Professional or Client Referrals Current relationships
may also be a good source for lling up focus groups.
Rather than troubling your professional or client rela-
tionships with whom do you know that could use my
service, you can ask them whom they know who may
be opinionated enough to attend a focus group. It is a
much softer approach and, if you explain why you are
doing focus groups, your clients and relationships will
be more compelled to help
Buying a List While I am not a big fan of buying
cold lists for anything, the reality is that many advi-
sors are at the point in their career where they dont
have the other methods that I just mentioned. While
this colder approach of calling people from a list is not
as eective as the methods I just mentioned, a focus
group will be the best approach to a cold list if you
want people to respond. We all know that calling and
expecting someone who doesnt know you to come
in and talk to you one-on-one is nearly impossible.
Calling to ask them to participate in a focus group is
much less intimidating and something that they will
be familiar with. If you are calling from a list, do your
research and ensure that the list company is a good one.
Nothing is more frustrating than having a bad list.
Fill the Room
After developing your invitation list, it is time to ll
the room with participants. You are looking for a group
of eight to ten willing participants, and you should have
great diculty getting them to participate. Te most dif-
cult part of the invitation process is getting people to
answer the phone.
I recommend personal phone calls over any other invi-
tation method. Direct mail doesnt get opened, and it isnt
a very personalized approached. I recommend that you
place a phone call and use a script that is very direct and
honest. An example from someone who has done work-
shops in the past may be:
108
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
Hello John, this is , I am
the marketing assistant with a nancial services rm here in
. How are you? Good. I was calling to
ask if you would participate in one of a few upcoming paid
focus groups that we are conducting with some select people
who have attended our workshops in the past. Do you have a
moment for me to explain what I am asking you to
participate in?
Tanks. You may remember that you attended one of the
workshops that we conducted in the last year. We want to do a
focus group with some of the former participants of our work-
shops. We are considering redesigning some of the information
to cover some of the topics and investment strategies that are
most important to our target audience. We are bringing back
some selected people who have attended our workshops in the
past to help us decide what topics we want to focus on to make
them most eective. We are doing a few small groups of eight
to ten people and are compensating each household with a
$50 gift card for their opinions. It will take just over an hour.
Would you consider being one of the participants to give us
some opinions?
Te less scripted and more honest the phone call is, the
more eective it will be. While you may want to write a
script to work from, you dont want to read the script. You
want to write it more for the structure. Once you have
received commitments from eight to ten people to partici-
pate, you need to set the right stage for the event.
Setting the Stage
Focus groups are not prime rib dinner types of events.
Tey should not occur in a restaurant environment. Focus
groups need to feel like a professional environment where
work will be accomplished. Tis is ideally done through
conducting the groups in your oce conference room.
Tis assumes, of course, that your oce has a conference
room table that comfortably sits ten people. If you dont
have that kind of an environment available, you have a lot
of options.
Many advisors will ask their professional partners or
CPA and attorney relationships for use of their facilities.
If those are not available, Chambers normally have good
facilities. Other advisors use public libraries or colleges.
Te key is that the room should feel like a business setting
and should have a private room that can hold 10-12 people
comfortably. Te room should be set up conference style
around a table so that all participants can see one another.
You should not lay out a bunch of brochures or market-
ing material. If you plan to hand out material at the group,
you should ensure that the material is relevant to the focus
group. For instance, if you are giving a presentation that
you want feedback on, the participants should have a copy
of the presentation. Remember, they will form their opin-
ions and rst impressions based on the environment and
what kind of material they are looking at. It should not
raise their red ags that you have called them in to sell
them something.
Te environment needs to be professional and private.
More importantly, it needs to be comfortable for partici-
pants and not feel like a sales environment.
Conducting the Session
After placing conrmation calls 48 hours prior to the
focus group, you should have everything in place. You
should know who is attending, why you are doing the
focus group, and what questions you want to ask.
Preparing for the event is what will make it go smoothly.
You need to know exactly how you plan to spend the hour
or so of time you have asked them for. Tere are typically
four components to a focus group that will consume the
hour. Te four sections are:
Introduction Te rst ve minutes should be spent
with the advisor explaining to the group why they de-
cided to conduct focus groups and what they hope to
accomplish by doing so. An example of this may be:
I want to begin the focus group by explaining to each of
you what led us to conduct some of these focus groups, what
we want to accomplish by doing so, and what we will do over
the course of the hour that we have asked of you.
Between the two of us, we have been giving investment and
nancial guidance for nearly 40 years. During that time, we
109
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
combined our knowledge to introduce a series of educational
workshops to this market place. For the last ten years, we have
conducted hundreds of dierent workshops, which continue
to evolve as the needs of consumers change. Looking at the
coming years, we are considering how to change our workshop
process to make it a better and more enjoyable experience for
people who attend it, from how consumers feel when they see
what topics will be covered in the introduction, to the content
of the workshop, to the environment we conduct it in. We are
interested in gaining feedback from a select group of former
workshop participants.
On average, we invest $3,000 to $6,000 to put on one of
the workshops that we do. We want to ensure moving forward
that we are providing an experience that people value and
covering the topics that are important to us. Tis obviously
makes it the best investment for us, and it increases the num-
ber of participants who later become clients.
We thought that focus groups may be a good way to gain
honest feedback about the process that we follow from people
who have actually attended the workshop in the recent past.
We decided that this feedback is going to be helpful and make
us more eective in our eorts, making our investment in the
workshops better for everyone.
We have three key areas that we want to focus our eorts
on. If we can improve the three areas through the feedback of
these focus groups, we know that we will improve our overall
process. Te three key areas we will focus on are:
1. We want to assess the primary reasons that people come
to the workshop in the rst place including:
What stands out on the invitation that we send
What the primary topics are that people come
to learn about
What hesitations may exist that cause people not
to attend
2. We want to gain feedback on the actual presentation
that we give and the content that we spend the time
talking about including:
Is the content covering the areas that are im-
portant to attendees in a way that is clear and
understandable?
Are there additional topics that we are not covering
that need to be addressed?
Which topic is most valuable, and which topic is
least valuable?
3. We want to gain feedback on the environment the
workshop is held in and what attendees are thinking
during the workshop including:
How comfortable do they feel the environment is
both physically and mentally?
How comfortable are participants with the
presenters and presentation style?
What barriers typically occur that stop attendees
from attending a one-on-one appointment?
We have structured some questions to help us get feedback
from a series of focus groups on these topics.
We will begin the focus group by giving a simple 15-20
minute overview of the presentation that you originally
heard. We nd it is helpful to refresh the memories of partici-
pants, as some of you havent been to the workshop for a few
months. During this presentation, please jot down any notes
that you think will be helpful as we discuss the content after
the presentation.
After that brief overview, we have prepared four discus-
sion questions for the group to give feedback on. Tis portion
will take us about 20 minutes and we will direct the discus-
sion to ensure that we stay on track.
Finally, during the last ten minutes, we have a written
questionnaire to get the remainder of the feedback. We will
give you plenty of time to answer thoroughly.
Te food comes toward the end of the focus group. We have
found the food can be a major distraction during the group
so it will be brought in during the questionnaire. We have
asked for an hour so those of you who will need to box up the
food and get going, please feel free to do so. For those of you
who have additional feedback or questions, feel free to stick
around and eat, as we will move at a pretty quick pace and
may not get to any questions.
Our primary goal here is honesty. We want to truly under-
stand what is happening in the minds of people who attend
our workshops from the time they receive our invitation to the
110
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career(continued)
time they leave that evening. We appreciate you being part
of that. If there are no questions, we will begin by giving you
an overview of the presentation to refresh your memory of the
content.
Again, this is a very straightforward and honest expla-
nation of why you truly decide to do focus groups, what
challenges you face, and how you hope focus groups can
help. Tis time will make the participants understand
your purpose and want to help in your eort.
Presentation After a ve-minute introduction, nor-
mally you will block about 15-20 minutes to give a
presentation of what you would like feedback on.
Tis may be a process that you are promoting, a
product that you want feedback on, or a workshop
topic that you are considering promoting. Whatev-
er it is that you would like to share with the group,
the oor is yours to share it. Tis part should not
be a hard-core sales pitch. However, you can pres-
ent whatever you would like to get their insights on.
Tis presentation should not last longer than 20 min-
utes. Most advisors initially think that they cant con-
dense their value to 20 minutes, but you will be sur-
prised what you can communicate when you eliminate
the unnecessary portions of your presentations.
Discussion After presenting your content, you should
be prepared for a 20-25 discussion of the content. Have
about three to ve questions prepared to ask the group
to discuss. A common fear of advisors is that the group
wont talk. It is important to remember that they came
to a focus group. Tey are actually there to talk. Ev-
ery advisor I have ever coached tells me they had to
cut o the discussion because it was running long. I
have never heard the opposite. Your questions should
be based on what you really want to learn. Common
questions may be: What do you feel is the most valu-
able aspect of what I just presented? What are the main
objections that you think people would have to us-
ing the process or strategy that was presented? What
do you feel are the main characteristics of a nancial
services rm that are important to business owners?
You should truly ask any questions that you would love
to get honest feedback on. You want to make sure that
the questions that you ask are open-ended questions
and can never be answered with a yes or a no.
Questionnaire Te nal ten minutes should be spent
asking participants to complete questionnaires with
written responses. Here you will ask the remainder of
your questions that you did not get to ask in the discus-
sion. Questionnaires should get you the information
that you want so you dont worry about word-smithing
your questions. Just be as direct as possible. What is
the one thing regarding your nances that keeps you
up at night? If you could better understand one topic,
product, or strategy in the nancial services industry,
what would it be and why? Tese kinds of questions
will not only get you good information about how the
population thinks, but it will also let you know what
kind of information the people in the room would like.
Both will be very helpful in your future discussions
with people.
Build Your Business
At the end of conducting focus groups, you will have
accomplished several things. First of all, the environment
should be enjoyable for everyone who participates and
should teach you a great deal about the people that you
want to spend your career talking to. Tere is something
that happens in focus groups with regard to relationship
building that just cant be explained. Consumers like pro-
fessionals whom they feel they can trust. Something about
taking the time to listen to people attracts them to you.
In addition to learning what people value and think
about your process, products, or value proposition, you
will naturally have people who approach you and want to
ask questions or talk further about their own situations.
Tis secondary benet to doing the groups should never
become the primary reason for doing them.
I often ask advisors, If you had the opportunity this
year to sit with 50 people over the course of ve focus
groups and just speak honestly with them about what they
111
P R O C E E D I N G S
End Prospecting and Referral Challenges
for the Rest of Your Career
value and what they dont, do you think the opportunity
might present itself? Te answer is obvious, but advisors
have to let that happen. If none of the 50 approach you,
there are other issues with your business, and you need
to look closely at the comments on the questionnaires to
learn what is broken.
Focus groups are not a get-rich-quick-in-90-days deal.
Tey are not a silver bullet that will change your business
overnight. Ten again, nothing that will work over the
long term ever is. Conducting focus groups every few
months will have an incredible impact on your business.
Tink about it, when will it ever not be eective to care
about what people think of your service?