Do you think it's hard to find next generation customers? You have to listen to them talk about what it takes to find you.
I have a personal story that you may find interesting.
A high-income couple sets out to find a counselor
My two friends—a millennial couple with young children—live in an affluent suburb of New York City. They are high-earning executives who don't own a house, so they have plenty of money. Amy and David (not their real names, of course) have never worked with a counselor, but thought for a while that it might be time to start. Like typical millennials, they weren't interested in referrals or working with their parents' advisors.
Defeated Quickly
Amy and David started looking at the normal way consumers shop today: online. Typing “Find an advisor near me” returned page after page of results, but they didn't know how to filter. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of hits—and overwhelmed by the quality of the information—they gave up searching for a while.
A few weeks ago, they heard I was a speaker at the 2024 Barron's Summit and thought I might know someone. They had the Barron's Top 100 list, but it doesn't include any way for a consumer to understand who might be a good fit, other than geographic location and AUM.
I want to be clear. My friends weren't coming to me for an internal referral. They wanted to get through the front door, but they didn't know how. They went online, but no one was meeting them there.
At this point, I felt that our industry had already lost the battle. But let's continue the story anyway.
A new hope
I posted a note on LinkedIn listing their needs, which were pretty basic. They are typical modern consumers and they wanted someone who looked like them – a high-earning millennial professional. Someone local who worked with a big firm, so their money would be safe, but it didn't make them feel like a charity case because they didn't have enough wealth.
What have I done?
My LinkedIn post yielded:
- 15 references directly in the comments;
- 6 referrals from direct messages; AND
- 8 direct messages from large national wealth management platforms (I guess they didn't want competitors to see them approaching).
Each platform offered 2-3 advisor names, so the 8 messages translated into another 21 advisor names that I had to look up.
First, I want to thank everyone who responded. They were so helpful and wonderful, and I got a chance to reconnect with some old friends.
But another point should be emphasized.
I don't think I'm in the right place
Even for me, all these names were overwhelming, and I work in the industry. When I looked at some of the advisors' websites, it wasn't clear to me who they wanted to work with or what their service models looked like. Most sites discussed very high net worth investors, estate planning, private client services and wealth management. Many had high minimums.
Almost none spoke to the needs of my friends.
For a moment, I was excited when a firm (I'm not using names) posted a link on the “new drivers” section of its website. However, the same page also talked about retirees, entrepreneurs and women in transition. It felt like canned copy and it didn't make me feel good.
Victory at last
Finally, another firm reached out to tell me a story about one of their advisors helping a young couple buy a home. The couple's thank-you note was still hanging on the office wall.
Yes!
This is what I was looking for—a clear picture of the type of customers they serve, which matched well with my friends' profiles.
Looking at the original LinkedIn thread, I realized that other comments had also mentioned the same firm.
In addition to LinkedIn, I also checked AdvisorFinder.com. The firm also appeared there, referred by more than one person.
As I looked deeper, it became clear that the firm was doing digital right. They were active on social media, had a podcast, published content, told stories and used social proof on AdvisorFinder.
We are missing so many opportunities
The problem is, my friends would never have known to go to AdvisorFinder. They wouldn't even know about “Find a CFP Professional,” how to use LinkedIn to find an advisor, or which national platforms to contact.
We need to do better to engage people – show up, humanize ourselves and talk to people who want to know us. The industry is trying, but its efforts so far are like broken dots. Individual firms are doing well in digital, but there is no network that unites them.
If this exercise taught me anything, it's that digital marketing matters. Building relationships and influencing online issues. There are so many opportunities that are overlooked.
- Large wealth platforms need to create matching tools that go deeper than zip codes. A tool like this doesn't feel very personalized to a prospect.
- Counselors need to move beyond impersonal, generic headshots and biographies that sound the same and start speaking with extreme humanity and specificity.
This is your chance: Become a star. Build your fans.
Doing more with digital doesn't mean putting up a post and waiting for questions.
It means building relationships and influencing the internet with hyper-relevant content for a hyper-specific audience. It's about building a follow list, not a list of prospects. You're trying to create a community of people who look like your ideal customers, so when they raise their hand to ask for help, you'll be right there, ready to provide it.
Today, the conversation isn't driven by you saying, “Let me tell you about our firm.” It's driven by people like my friends saying, “Hey, I've been following your content and now I want to meet up.”
My friends are, after all, the future of the industry. They are looking for you online. Shouldn't you be where they can find you?
Megan Carpenter is the founder and CEO of FiComm Partners.