You can train your staff using a book club, suggests Kirk Hulett of Securities America Inc. in "Move Over Oprah," published in Practice Management Solutions (Nov./Dec. 2008).
Hulett got me thinking. How about running a financial book club for your clients or prospects? It could deepen your relationship with them as you learn more about what makes them tick.
_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this to your reader's attention. As Kirk Hulett (http://www.securitiesamerica.com) says in his "Move Over Oprah" article, book clubs are a wonderful way to build rapport with clients, engage staff members and partners in meaningful conversation, and create buzz about your company in circles of prospective clients.
A couple examples:
- When Lee Eisenberg, best-selling author of THE NUMBER (http://www.thenumberbook.com) asked Impact Communications to do PR within the financial services industry for him, one of the suggestions that could help advisors build business was to start a book club - or at least a book discussion group - and to use THE NUMBER as a first choice book. A number of other suggestions for using THE NUMBER as a conversation starter are shown here:
http://www.impactcommunications.org/index.asp?initpage=Free%20Ideas
- Whenever Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network (http://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com), comes out with a new book, all of the 300 members in her network are encouraged to use the book for (1) book club discussions (2) community events - basically using the book as the basis for the talk (3) a local PR campaign that includes outreach to clients, prospects, COIs, print, broadcast and online media.
For instance, imagine how effective it would be for a financial planner to use Sheryl's "Personal Finance Workbook For Dummies(r)" as the basis for a series of workshops. The planner could talk the attendees through the chapters and help them complete the worksheets in a step-by-step fashion.
Thanks again for pointing out Kirk's well-written and insightful article to your readers!
Marie Swift
Marie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment including specific suggestions.
It makes sense that someone already thought of running book clubs for clients or prospects.