Customer Acquisition Is Forever

Client acquisition is one of the key challenges faced by any IFA, but primarily for someone who has started his practice recently and has a smaller clientèle. It is not an easy nut to crack for many, especially when it comes to the clients that you want. With the time spent it happens that client acquisition tactics become tiring, repetitive and boring. There are chances that they might be ineffective as well. In this article, we try to introduce you to an overview of what client acquisition is all about and what we can do to make it much more effective...

Client Acquisition Sources:
Broadly speaking we can classify all of our primary sources of clients acquisition into the five categories. Depending on your focus areas and your size of business, the actual mix of new clients from these sources will vary.

1. Personal Contacts & Networking: This list will include your neighbours, friends and family members who are your primary contacts. This can be extended to your social circles/networks formed through your primary contacts. At the beginning of your practice, this is the primary source of your new clients.
2. Existing Client Referrals: The client referrals is a valuable source provided your clients are impressed and satisfied with your services. Some may give your referrals even without being asked and some will be willing to share their contacts once you have their trust.
3. Marketing Activities: There are number of marketing activities that can be carried out by IFAs. These activities can be related to branding, product promotions, lead generation, customer awareness and assistance. The activities range from say flyer distribution to email campaigns and from stalls to client meets and training programs.
4. Professional Tie-ups: This is an interesting source whereby you can tie-up with professionals who do not offer a product or service that you have in your basket on reciprocal or commercial basis. Thus, you may tie up with accountants, tax consultants, insurance advisors, doctors, vehicle dealers, stock brokers and so on for investment and/or insurance products in your basket.
5. Social Media Presence: Increasingly, social media is fast getting recognised as a key provider of leads and inquiry for many businesses. It can be also effectively used as a tool to share, interact and engage with clients and prospects on topics you want them to. The social media stretches from social networks like Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter on one end and your own website or blog on the other end.

The Client Acquisition Process:
A quick Google search can throw many models from client acquisition process which is almost similar to a lead management process. Your client acquisition process will differ depending of the method or activity that you have planned. However, as IFAs, the following generic 'detailed' process can be effectively practiced to get the right prospects on board. You may skip some or most of the steps given below to suit your activity and scale.

Stage One: Planning The Pitch

• Defining your product offering /solution
• Identifying your preferred client
• Selecting the most accessible medium of finding right prospects
• Gathering data of audience, if needed (for eg. for mass email, SMS activities)
• Drafting the message suited to the solution + prospect + method/activity

Stage Two: Delivering the Message

• Putting your brand presence in place (websites, office, social media, etc.)
• Defining the information needed in inquiry forms, if any (for eg., feedback form during meet, email page, etc.)
• Creating a feedback + data collection process for inquiries to be received
• Executing the activity at the 'right' time/place through the right medium and/or vendor

Stage Three: Interacting With The Prospect

• Regularly tabulating the data received from inquiries
• Reverting timely on the inquiries with the requested information + request for meeting/appointment
• Getting ready with your service /solution /product pitch + your profile
• Meeting client + delivering the pitch which is rehearsed/practiced

Stage Four: Converting Into A Client

• Understanding prospect and his needs
• Preparing + presenting the plan /solution for client needs
• Follow-up till acceptance of plan into actions
• Delivering /executing the actions for the client
• Welcoming the client
• Client on-boarding / New client process

The Five Key Elements:
While doing any client acquisition activity, there are few key elements commanding special attention. Missing any of these key pieces may result in to missed clients.

1. Audience: The audience for any activity has to be the most appropriate for your preferred set of clients. For eg., if you are planning a stall activity, the location for the activity should be such where the 'right audience' will have the highest footfalls.
2. Message: The message drafted should be attractive enough to arouse interest and more importantly action from the recipients. This may sound easy but the fact is that everything, including colour, words, text size, images, etc. should be correct – and this is some science in itself. The message should trigger a need within the audience; projecting you as the one with the solution.
3. Medium: The medium of delivery of the message should is crucial since it should be acceptable, accessible and attractive enough for the audience. It can be seen as a complete package of how and when you deliver the message. Depending on the activity concerned, things like form, mode, platform, location, time, etc. would matter a lot. For eg., it but be nothing but a waste of effort if one sends a SMS at an odd day & time when the audience most likely will be busy. Worst, he may even get irritated.
4. Follow-up: Even after checking all the boxes, chances are that you may end up not getting any new clients. Often difference between a lead and a client is the timely response that you can give. In today's fast paced world, the life of a lead is very short and every effort should be taken to respond to the lead as quickly as possible and with the right preparedness.
5. Price: An element less talked about, price is a one deciding factor for choosing one activity over another. A sound choice has to be made for an activity that has the potential to give the maximum ROI (Return On Investment) for your rupee. The number of audience you touch + the conversion factor + business expected are some of the assumptions that you need to make before arriving at the price equations for different activities. Only your personal experience and some guidance from experts can be of help here.

The ROI: Often the ROI (Return On Investment) for any activity could be hard to calculate. One short-cut method is to divide the total cost of the marketing activity with either (i) the number of leads received or (ii) the number of converted clients. To get a more appropriate measure, one may divide (i) the total business received or (ii) total revenue generated from the customer with the total marketing cost to get the ROI.

Conclusion: Client acquisition is an ongoing, never ending activity for businesses that aspire to keep growing. Even if you have adequate clients, there is always the scope for segmenting your clients and focusing only on the segments you desire to service. Most often you would end up wanting more of such clients.

There is no substitute for marketing activities in client acquisition. You have to be active and be seen in your target audience to get more clients. NJ, on its' part, understands this imperative and empowers you with many cost effective but attractive options in direct and digital marketing through NJ BizMall, not only for acquisition but also client retention.

With this article, we hope that you would now approach client acquisition with more thought, planning and structure before implementation. Doing so can only better the prospects of growth for you...

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