How Do Financial Advisors Find Clients?

Erin Botsford finds her clients by being generous.

Erin Botsford founded Botsford Financial Group, a hugely successful financial services business, and is a Barron’s Top 100 Producer.

She also founded and is the CEO of The Advisor Authority, where she established The Elite Advisor Success System, a five-month training program to help financial professionals grow their businesses.

Erin is also a popular author and speaker, and has been featured in CNBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, MSNBC, and InvestmentNews Women to Watch.

So, of course you can listen to this week’s episode where Luke and Josh interview Erin, and you’d walk away with some great ideas about how to get clients as a financial advisor.

But if that’s all you walk away with, then you’ve cheated yourself.

There are greater lessons to be learned.

The gift of generosity

Finding clients by building relationships is not a new idea. What is new is how Erin thinks about the process.

Throughout her interview, Erin talks about the “gift of generosity” and how its power to literally change people’s lives, to make people feel special, and to garner rewards should not be underestimated.

Erin’s gift of generosity is to give others the time to be heard, and it’s one of the secrets to how she built her business.

Her strategy was to find people, invite them to lunch, and spend the next hour asking her guest questions about themselves. Then she would listen with genuine interest.

That’s it.

Well, maybe that’s not everything, but it was certainly the bulk of her method for how to get clients.

The people Erin would listen to expressed how much they enjoyed their conversation. (Erin would barely speak a word.) They would depart feeling good, and they always remembered Erin.

Of course, they would love to meet with her again and bring their husband since they were thinking about getting some financial advice anyway. (She purposely had lunch with women.)

And yes, they would gladly give her the name of another person she should meet. (That’s how she would grow her list.)

The take-away

Years of listening to people, of being a keen observer of behavior, and of being courageous enough to tell her own story (you need to hear it to believe it) taught Erin the valuable lessons she used to become independently wealthy. But she continues to work because, in her words, comfort will never drive people to greatness.

Now Erin teaches what she knows to other aspiring financial professionals. And she gets up every morning because she believes in thinking about something larger than herself. For Erin, that something is the Ebenezer Foundation, which is dedicated to serving Zambian orphans, and to which she donates 50 percent of all the profits from her training.

Key Points

• Don’t underestimate the power of generosity.
• When you take time to ask questions and listen, good things happen.
• Financial services is a people business.
• Being comfortable will never drive you to greatness.

Action Item

Examine your business or a presentation and ask, “What story are you telling?” Craft your story so that you engage people. Make it easy for them to identify with you.

Connect | Resources

You can connect with Erin on her website: Erin Botsford Elite Advisor Training Programs.