| Financial advisors, Toyota can show you, too, how to | | | | hit logging camps, horse farms, factories, and |
| improve your marketing. | | | | construction sites - watching and asking questions. |
| These days everyone - from a Los Angeles jail to a | | | | It's not surprising that a horse farm has different |
| medical center to the parish of a small church - is | | | | uses for a pickup from a logging camp or factory. To |
| learning from Toyota. A good question to ask is: | | | | satisfy all its customers Toyota produced 31 |
| What would you do differently if you expected to | | | | variations of the Tundra. |
| be in business 100 years from now, as Toyota does? | | | | Financial Advisor Questions: How well do you know |
| Or even if you looked ahead only 10 years? | | | | your target market? Well enough to "handcraft" |
| The answer: You'd focus a whole lot less on | | | | services and programs especially for them so that |
| short-term gains. You'd take the longer view. From | | | | you become the only choice? |
| Toyota we pass along 4 marketing tips especially | | | | Tip #3 - Don't Get Stuck In Satisfaction |
| relevant for financial advisors. | | | | W. Edwards Deming took the idea of continual |
| Tip #1 - "Don't Go For The Grand Slam Home Run | | | | improvement to Japan, and the Japanese describe it |
| But For Ground Ball Singles" | | | | as "Kaizen." |
| It's not about cars, Matthew E. May, author and a | | | | It's not about perfection. It's about always getting |
| Toyota business partner, points out, but about the | | | | better. Author Matthew May describes these three |
| one million ideas Toyota acts on each year. According | | | | steps to getting better: |
| to May, these are not blockbuster innovations but | | | | - First, create a standard (a "standard" is a starting |
| tiny ideas -- "effective ones nonetheless," even if | | | | point), |
| small. | | | | - Second, follow your standard, and |
| Financial Advisor Query: To grow significantly every | | | | - Third, find a better way. |
| year, which modest marketing ideas could you put | | | | We see a fourth step: To repeat the three steps |
| into play? These could include ideas about | | | | over and over again. |
| lead-generating, differentiating your practice, | | | | Financial Advisor Query: Think about a lead generating |
| improving client service, increasing client retention, and | | | | tool that you call on. What can you do to make it |
| more. | | | | better? |
| Tip #2 - Be Consistent | | | | Tip #4 - Go For A Long-Lasting Return On Your |
| The opposite of consistent is a financial advisory | | | | Investment |
| practice that is vague, nebulous, and scattered. | | | | You are investing resources - time, money, and |
| A financial advisor we talked with wanted to "grow | | | | people - into maintaining and growing your business. |
| through a systemized plan." He wasn't able to get | | | | Suppose you decided to invest for the long term? |
| more specific. He couldn't, for example, identify a | | | | That would stamp out the tendency to go for the |
| group (or groups) of people he would like to work | | | | biggest short-term gain. |
| with or to state his vision for his practice. | | | | With this longer client-centered view, client |
| In contrast, Toyota knows its mission, "to enrich | | | | satisfaction could rise and your client retention rate |
| society through the building of cars and trucks." And | | | | go up along with increasing satisfaction. And you |
| customer satisfaction becomes a way to "enrich | | | | could be in line to gain more referrals. |
| society." In designing the Tundra, Toyota engineers | | | | |