In my last post Part 1 of this topic I talked about the challenges of providing value via social media or otherwise to attract prospective clients or referral sources. In this post I am going to continue with that same line of thought and give you an example of how someone else found a unique way to “provide value”.
Michelle Priest is a financial planner based out of Calgary. You can find her on Twitter @minrvagroup. I met Michelle via Twitter and was impressed by her approach and her passion for the medium.
Michelle had identified Mortgage Brokers as a potential referral source that she wanted to tap into for gaining new clients. Now you can think of a number of traditional ways a financial planner might provide value:
- Unbiased advice
- Financial expertise
- Tax planning
- Estate planning
- Insurance planning
The list goes on and on. Well as mortgage brokers we are often approached by financial planners wanting to “provide value” to our clients (and yes I know we do the same thing back to you).
So when I have a financial planner that wants to come and do a presentation to our company I am always reluctant as our guys usually have their own relationships in this area. Well, Michelle was smarter than that. She called me up and said that she had had some decent success prospecting and building her client base on Twitter. She went on to explain that she had put together a presentation for mortgage brokers on how to use Twitter. She then asked if I would be interested in having her come give this presentation at one of our sales meetings.
My immediate thought was “heck ya”. I can have some real life experience with social media related to our sales people and it wouldn’t cost me a dime?!?! Sounds good to me. So we made arrangements to have Michelle come do her presentation in front of the group. She did a fabulous job and has likely made some new relationships out of that presentation.
How do you think that conversation might have gone had Michelle called me up and asked to schedule an opportunity to talk to our group about the “value” of her financial planning services? I can tell you exactly how it would have gone. It would have gone the same way as it has for dozens of other planners that wanted to come ‘provide value’ to our group.
Well done Michelle!
