By Executive Scheduling Associates CEO Mitch Santala
One of the biggest barriers a financial advisor might face in growing their business is the question of when to scale.
No matter where you might be in your journey of growth, you're going to come to a crossroads. The question of whether to scale or not is almost unavoidable.
You might not need to hire an appointment setting service in every growth scenario. However, the time to consider partnering with an appointment setting service is probably sooner rather than later as your book of business expands.
One reason financial professionals turn to appointment setting services to help them scale up is the expense. Hiring an employee will cost you in the range of $50,000 to $75,000 per year. That's for their wages and benefits packages - not to include the time that it costs to manage that employee.
You could hire an appointment setting service for $5,000 to $10,000 per year - focused solely on that one task.
Another benefit of using an appointment setting service is customer retention. We try never to underestimate the power of retention. In fact, we treat it like our number one growth strategy. Many focus so much time on customer acquisition that they tend to neglect this business priority. The fact is, it costs less to retain a client than to acquire a new one.
One study found a 5 percent increase in customer retention can result in a 25 percent increase in profit. Before you open the front door, close the back door and minimize your attrition. Partnering with an appointment setting service can be the solution that'll help you do just that.
One more benefit of outsourcing your appointment setting is the prospecting advantages such services offer. Once the back door is closed, then we can feel more confident in opening the front door wide.
I spent some time recently with a friend of mine named Chuck, a high-wealth advisor for a large company that many of us would know. He was explaining the pressure during the Covid era of a 4 percent annual growth goal hanging over his head. We know that for the financial advisor, your job is to grow your book of business. One way to do that is to partner with an appointment setting service.
Maybe your expansion opportunities include managing those RSVPs that are sitting on your desk from the last event you held. Or, maybe the next step forward includes calling through a new list that you have with a tangible point of reference. Whatever purpose you might be serving in the financial industry, those projects can be facilitated by an appointment setting service often better than trying to delegate them to one of your team members.
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