Spread the word for growth

</B>Growing and mature planning businesses use one of three main ways to market their business according to industry consultant Carol Davis of Carol Davis & Associates.

Davis has recently completed the Resnik/ING Opinion Leaders survey, where nearly 20 financial planning figures divulged information about their business including sales and marketing techniques for increasing growth.

Davis says the three dominant methods of marketing for more established practices became evident in the survey and these are strategic alliances, seminars and referrals.

Several of the survey participants had set up strategic alliances with a variety of professional associations, resulting in significant growth to the business. Davis says there are a number of strong relationships with accountants amongst the survey group.

Davis found that sho the business alliance is with, is as important as the ongoing commitment to the relationship and there needs to be common business philosophies.

"The alliance works when planners work hard investing in the ongoing relationship," she says.

Davis also found different structures of strategic alliances within the survey sample such as having an in-house accounting division, a structure used by Guest McLeod and Baldry Financial Group.

Forming a partnership with an accountant either at the start of a new business or further down the road is also a proven method of enhancing growth, and the commitment can be further strengthened when equity in the business is held by both professionals.

Financial Management Services is one such example as the group has a 50 per cent shareholding with an accountancy firm, and the alliance has provided the financial services group access to 3000 accountancy clients.

Davis says the group formed its partnership by interviewing accountancy firms when the business first started up which was indicative of its intent to use a strategic relationship to target a sector of the market.

A strategy for forming strategic alliances utilised by some financial planners involves leveraging off past experience and background. Davis points out former insurance salesman Rob Pedersen, founder of Pedersen Financial Services, as a survey example.

Pedersen now runs a practice focusing on corporate super and has built up centres of influence with his previous contacts, general insurance brokers.

Seminars are another key method of sales and marketing, and Davis says the general message from financial planners in the survey is that seminars should be highly focussed at all times.

"Seminars are for a group of people with things in common and should not aim to cover a spectrum of issues. An example from the survey is Ord Minnett [South Australia] who set up a new seminar targeting people with $3 million plus," Davis says.

"These people are actively thinking of their clients, potential clients and targeting the issues that may affect very high net worth individuals."

The other dominant method for business growth clear from the survey sample is referrals. Referrals can be the lifeblood of new business, but planners must put in the hard yards and building up a business takes time, Davis says.

She found some of the groups in the survey worked with a definite referral culture of client prospecting, where their role involved making it clear to clients there were expectations of them.

Other organisations had the practice of rewarding clients if they brought in referrals, and for some groups referrals were of paramount importance in order for the business to move into the next stage of growth.