Mary Salisbury, CPC, QPA • Wilmington, NC
INVEST Financial Corporation
My challenge was in trying to establish my practice with very little in the way of a built-in network of friends and associates. One of the first things I did was consult with a business coach and two critical points emerged from that: (1) We decided it was imperative to target a certain demographic of relatively affluent clients who were within either side of 10 years of retirement. (2) We talked about the benefit of trying a variety of marketing approaches, casting a wide net but spending little on actual marketing costs.
Regarding the target demographic, I am looking to work with a specific type of client who can come from many different backgrounds: working business executives, professionals such as a lawyer or physician, small-business owners, transplanted retirees, or a spouse who is recently divorced or widowed. I have refined that further, placing special emphasis on working with women who may be responsible for their financial planning for the first time in their lives.
A big part of my strategy for the first two years was to create that network of local relationships from scratch. I decided to join as many organizations as made sense and I could handle from a time perspective. These include the local city and county chambers of commerce, other civic and business groups, and a few social organizations. I also am very passionate about tennis and play often. I am naturally very outgoing and love meeting new people so this all works out very well.
For specific marketing outreach, I have adopted a low- or no-cost approach to hosting seminars. I have several presentations that are fairly general but cover a variety of topics important to people approaching or in retirement. I also have a highly targeted presentation for women who might be recently divorced or widowed.
My background in the benefits and retirement fields is a terrific introduction to these talks and provides a certain level of credibility. I use flyers and send out invitations through direct email and in bulk email through a number of specific organizations that match the demographics I am interested in. This has proven very beneficial in expanding my network and in delivering some direct new client prospects and first meetings.
Disclosure: Mary Salisbury is a registered representative of INVEST Financial Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC. INVEST and its affiliated insurance agencies offer securities, advisory services, and certain insurance products and are not affiliated with other entities named.
Photography by Mark Steelman
