Good karma only counts for so much

Jonathan Bonnett didn’t deliberately set out to write a book on financial planning to generate leads, but he always hoped a little business would come his way.

As it happened, referrals from Money Karma, which has sold 10,000 copies since being published last year, have so far been dwarfed by the general praise it has received as an educational work for novice investors.

But that’s okay. After all, it’s all about the karma, and Bonnett, the managing director of Latitude Financial Partners, believes the rewards will flow in time.

The book’s real benefit, Bonnett says, is the increased credibility it gives him with existing clients, which in turn will lead to increased referrals down the track.

Growing credibility has also led to an increase in public speaking opportunities for Bonnett, which has always been a key source of his leads.

As a sole practitioner, Bonnett spends 30 per cent of his time on networking — recognition, he says, of the fact that he has to “go out and find every single lead I get”.

“The point about networking is the need for your services is not necessarily there when you first join an association,” he says.

“It’s rather a case of you being there until the need arises, and then people immediately think of you.”

His referrals philosophy has always been that no one source is sufficient to enable him to neglect any of his other sources.

He also assumes that any one source is going to deliver referrals at a rate less than initially expected.

“Experience has told me that if I count on two or three referrals a week from a source I’ll usually end up with two or three a month,” he says.

But Bonnett does have a secret weapon to keep the leads bubbling along — he employs a public relations consultant to maintain an editorial and advertising presence in the local media. Good karma can only get you so far.