Men and women invest differently, I know you are shocked by that statement right?  Probably not!  The following is from an article in the Chicago Tribune. 

In the financial services industry, the default language is male-speak. Women do not feel served. You look at the advertisements, lingo, acronyms. Even the client-engagement and retention process (sales) is a male model.

According to LearnVest.com, 87 percent of women would like to work with a financial adviser, but only 17 percent do. A big part of the reason is … women don’t meet the asset threshold to work with the advisers, so they get disenfranchised.

Several of the big companies have raised their thresholds recently, alienating even more women while they are spending their marketing dollars on the male market.

So, I went to my friend, TJ Couzens, of BrandX,  a market research firm who  researches the female market, to ask his opinion.  TJ wrote the following post in which he discusses the importance of  financial companies going after the female market more effectively.

Women control ALL of the purse strings. Women make over 68% of investment decisions. In the next decade, they will control over 2/3 of the total wealth in the U.S.

Consider this fact of high-end investing. All male investment clubs get an annual rate of return of 8% while all female investment clubs get an annual rate of return of 22%. (Source: Brand X Research, Investment Survey Analysis). Men are in it for the game while women are in it for the long haul. For men, it’s all about “me”. For women, it’s all about “we”. They invest not for their own wealth, but for the sole purpose of taking care of loved ones and friends.

In the area of retention, men change brokers about every 3 years, while women, if treated well, stay with their brokers for 10+ years (Source: Brand X Research). One of the reasons for this is men like bragging rights for great stock performance, so they will jump around if their portfolio is lagging behind their buddies. This leads to high client turnover for brokers. Women, on the other hand, invest based on her relationship with her broker. If they earn her trust and confidence, she will seek their advice and stay loyal because the relationship is valued more than bragging rights.

Another reason why all financial institutions should woo women is in the area of referrals. Men will refer their financial institution to 2.6 people on average. Women, if treated well, will refer you to 21 of her friends. This is huge and is worth billions of dollars over the long term. Right now the investment industry is doing a poor job of retaining women. According to a recent research study by Brand X Research, women only stay with their current broker 5-6 years. The cause of this is too many brokers cater to the husband and pay almost no attention to the wife.

What does this all mean? In essence, it means most financial institutions and brokers are spending marketing dollars on the wrong audience. They are sending out the wrong message. They still believe men make up most of the investment community and their marketing approach confirms this. It is male, ego driven themes based on competition and winning. Instead, they need to try to win over the women market through communicating, relationship building and mutual respect.

Companies need to realize they are losing by spending marketing dollars trying to win over male investors because it’s cheaper to do so. Men are easily persuaded, but are not loyal. You will always have a hole in your sales bucket. By marketing to women, you will spend more marketing dollars because she is harder to convince, but, once convinced, she is extremely loyal and will invest more money with you over the long-term. Remember 2.6 vs. 21 and 3 years vs. 10+ years. Who would you rather have?

If Financial Planners want more referrals they need to have a better understanding of the female market.  Changing your marketing message is not enough.

I encourage my clients to network in a variety of places based upon their target market. One suggestion I often give them is to sponsor an event then network with both the attendees and the other sponsors. My friend Jill Bode, with Designed Write PR, is my guest blogger this month. The following article is excellent information if you are looking to create quality visiblity for yourself and your company. Next time someone ask you to sponsor an event take a look at this article and decide if it is a good fit for you and your company.

The typical business is offered opportunities to sponsor various events and organizations. It can be difficult to decide if the proffered sponsorship is good investment and even harder to say “no” to a good cause, but as a businessperson, those types of decisions are paramount if you want to keep the doors open.

Here are seven ways you can identify if a sponsorship is a good fit for your company:

1) Does it put you in front of your key demographic? A sponsorship that puts you in front of a large group of potential prospects, is usually going to be the very best investment of your marketing dollars and will help you achieve that all-important visibility with your market.

2) What does your return on investment have to be in order to make the sponsorship profitable for you? If you need to set appointments with 50 people and the event only has 75 attendees, it may not be a good fit. Unless…

3) Is the event organizer willing to highly recommend your product or services to the attendees? If they are AND they have good credibility, they may help you get to your target and then some.

4) Will you be able to interact and talk to attendees during the event? On-site access is paramount if you are going to be able to create those initial impressions and start the sales process.

5) How many staff/fans/friends will you be able to bring along to the event with you as part of your sponsorship? These folks can be crucial to your success because they can say the great things about you that you could never say about yourself. The more people you can bring as part of your sponsorship, the more valuable it becomes.

6) Does the subject of the event deliver information or ideas that are useful to your company? If you get an opportunity to sell to your target market AND learn something new in the process, this a real home run for you and your business. Be sure to factor the expense of comparable training when figuring out your return on investment.

7) Will you be able to follow up with the event attendees? Is the organization willing to give you access and do you have time to reach out afterwards and convert attendees into customers? The day after the event is frequently when the profitability phase of the event begins, don’t forget to plan for it. After all profitability is the reason that you can stay in business.

Applying these seven criteria to the next sponsorship that is offered to you and your company will help you make profitable choices. And, although I may be biased, I think that the sponsorship opportunity below does a great job of meeting those seven criteria for a large number of companies, especially those who sell to women (and there must be a lot of those companies because 85 percent of all brand purchases are made by women*).

Click here to find out more about this limited sponsorship opportunity.

*figure provided courtesy of She-conomy.com

Networking, one of the most popular activities in the business world.  It is written about, talked about, videos are done, trainings are held, books are written, and blogs blogs blogs all about networking.  Most of them say the same things over and over, leaving you with “Tips” and “Sure Fire Way” to network better. If you are networking as a way to grow your business, then you really want to create a strategy for developing referrals and business from you networking activities.

There are steps to creating a referral strategy for your business, and it starts with creating the foundation. Understanding why you are in business and what drives you to do what you do is key to having a business you love. When there is passion in what you do it comes through and people are attracted to you, they want to be around you and they are happy to refer business to you.

Following is an article written by my friend TJ Couzens with BrandX Research.  His company does research on the women’s market so they are pretty informed about female market and what women want.

You should know how women impact the health care field. With health care serving as the centerpiece for heated Washington debates, it is crucial for businesses to understand the health care market and just how prominent a role women serve in that market.

Through a recent research project, Brand X Research has discovered some interesting facts about women in the health care marketplace:

•   87% of women believe physician communication can be improved.
•  Women are responsible for 76% of surgical procedures.
• Women represent 81% of private pay patients in hospitals.
• Women have lower re-admissions than their male counterparts.

Not surprisingly, our research shows that women are more conscious about their health. This would lead to the conclusion that drug companies, hospitals, physicians and other health care providers should place strong primary focus on women as a target audience. The detailed findings of this research can be a valuable tool in better defining marketing efforts.

Marketing health care to women begins with communicating on a personal level. Show them that you are listening to and addressing their concerns and desires. Show them that you understand the role they play as the family health care decision-maker. Show them that your product or service fits perfectly into their goal of keeping their family safe and healthy.

Brand X Research, a research and marketing firm focused specifically on the largest consumer group in the world – women. Through in-depth research, both quantitative and qualitative, Brand X serves clients in all industries helping them refine marketing messages and reach more women more effectively.

This article comes from a friend of mine, Frank DeRaffele Jr. As host of the the top Entrepreneurial Radio Show in the country, Frank was asked the following question on his blog.  I felt it was worth sharing with each of you.  Question:  How do you get people who don’t know you very well to feel comfortable with you, trust you a little, feel some confidence in you, before they every meet you?

Answer:  Testimonials.
We seem to all know this but we don’t use this powerful marketing tool enough. When used correctly, this can be one of the most effective marketing tools today both online and offline.

Testimonials are:
1.  Free.
2. Come from various demographics.
3.  Praise the various solutions that you can provide.
4.  Honor your professional ability and your character. Your integrity…..your
personal reputation as a business professional

6 Simple, Easy and Effortless Steps To Get Started:

1. Pick 5 people whom you know and would like testimonials from.

2. Write a testimonial for each of them. Not the same one five times with different names in the testimonial. Write from your heart what you think is wonderful about this person.

3. Send the testimonial to them. Send a note with it.

Often when I am networking I hear small business owners say things like “I really want to have Eli Lilly, AT&T or GE as one of my clients.” Whenever I hear this I cringe, because I know that it is not enough to want one of these giant companies as a client, you have to have a plan. Not just a plan to land the deal, but a plan to find it and then how are you going to maintain that client.

In her book, Whale Hunting, Barbara Weaver Smith and Tom Searcy, uses the analogy of how the Inuit of Alaska hunted Whales to feed their villages to how small companies can land the Whale of their own. This is an easy analogy follow and carries with it a powerful story of perseverance, commitment, strategy and success.

Barbara and Tom layout the strategy for researching which whale you want to hunt, how to research your whale, capturing your whale, and celebrating your whale. This is a book that you must read if you are really interested in landing your own whale.

Networking is great, but you cannot ask for a referral to a whale if you do not have a plan for landing and managing that whale.  There have been several occasions when I knew I could get a person in the door of their whale but I also knew once caught they would not be able to keep the whale.

I cannot recommend this book enough, it is an easy read, and not only will you learn how to land your own whale there is a lot of very interesting history in this book that holds your attention as you read in amazement what the Alaskan Inuit could do with a row boat and harpoon. The planning, the implementing and the celebration are inspiring.

As a bonus, Barbara will be doing a whale hunting women workshop here in Indianapolis. It is a program that you want to take advantage of, not only for the educational aspect but for the ability to network with other women whale hunters. See you there!

Referrals, leads, word of mouth, buzz marketing, viral marketing, networking, seven second introductions, elevator speeches, referral groups, business networking and social networking.  It all blends, causing confusion, misunderstanding and a muddied mess in the business world. 

You see it everyday, one networking event after another, business cards being passed, people shaking hands, and those ever so famous seven-second introductions being pitched.  It’s the same people at every event, giving out the same cards, same pitch hoping for a different outcome. 

We hear about networking as a way to grow our businesses, and everyone calls themselves networking experts. If you put the words “business networking” into Google, you will get 186,000,000 hits  So called experts teach classes and workshops on how to do better seven second pitches, how to hand out their cards, what to do after the event, how to give more, and do more. 

Recently I ask a young man how he got most of his business, “90% by Referral” he stated.  When I ask what kind of system he had to generate and track that level of referrals his answer was; “I have a great yellow page ad that generates a lot of referrals for us.”  While having a Yellow Page ad will create a lot of visibility for you it is not generating referrals.  

What’s missing here?  What is the plan?  Where is the system?  People who are networking have no idea where their business is coming from, who their referral sources are, what target market they are connecting with, or even if they are networking in the right place.  When asked what their ROI is on all of their networking activities they will say things like, “Great” or “I have made a lot of business contacts and friends while networking”.  Rarely if ever do they really know the ROI.   

If business professionals are going to build their business by referral, there has to be a plan that goes beyond, what most networking gurus are teaching. Word of mouth does not mean business by referral, and Networking does not mean you will get referrals. 

If you really want to build your business by referral, you have to develop a plan, a system.  Much the same way as you developed a Marketing Plan.   

Who are your customers, where do they live, what do they do, are they other businesses or are they consumers? Companies spend thousands of dollars every year identifying their target market, their customers.  How much time have you spent, is your customer anybody who needs or wants your product or services:?  What do you offer to your customers, and why do they come to you?  Have you asked them? Who are your Referral Sources and what system do you have for motivating and training them? 

Networking is very valuable, but learning how to develop a system is more important.  Once the system is in place, and you know whom you want to connect with and whom your referral sources are you will then be able to choose the right places to network.   

If you’re going to build a house you need to take some time and do your preparation, lay out the design, build the foundation, then build the building.  Every step must be followed in the proper order.  The same holds true when you are building your business by referral.  Where is your plan, how is the foundation, or did you forget all of that and just start networking, hoping for best.  

Here are 5 Tips for building a foundation before you start networking. 

1.  Narrow your focus, having a clear Target Market is one of the most important aspects to building a business by referral.  Anybody, everybody, and small business does not constitute a target market.  

2.  Who are your potential referral sources?    If your target market is “Any small business that needs health insurance”, you will find that all you are able to generate will be random unpredictable leads from the people that you network with. 

On the other hand, if your target market is; “Family owned businesses, with 3-50 employees, in the manufacturing industry.” You will have a better chance of building strategic referral partnerships with others working in the same target market.  

3.  Know where you want to spend your time and efforts.  Building a business by referral takes time.  You only have time and money to spend, you can make more money but you cannot make more time, spend it wisely.  When you are networking look for those people who would make great referral partners and begin the relationship process with them.  You do not need 2500 people in your database if you have 10-trained referral partners helping you connect with their clients and contacts. 

4.  Clean up your database.  Are there people in there you don’t even know?  When was the last time you contacted them?  Are clients, contacts, prospects, clearly identified?  Do you have other ways of sorting, like support, information, and referrals?   

5. Create a system for tracking your networking activities.  How many calls did you make? How many notes did you send?  How many hours did you spend out networking?  What events did you participate in?  Who did you give referrals or leads to?  What gets measured gets done, tracking is one of the most important things you can do, but often the most neglected. 

Don’t get caught up in the Networking madness until you have a plan.  Do some work first, build your foundation, identify who you want to network with and where you want to network, then get started. 

Hazel M Walker

Referral Strategist