As a financial advisor, one of the key factors for success is sustainably growing your book of business. Outside of acquisitions, there are two main categories for this kind of growth: expanding your client base organically (building a brand and leveraging your existing network for referrals) and buying leads (via in-house marketing or external partnerships). We’ll focus on how to be successful buying leads from external partners.
Financial advisor lead generation services are often known as lead aggregators. Since many financial firms are looking to buy leads, aggregators find consumers who need a financial advisor and then sell that contact information to multiple businesses. Aggregators take care of the work in finding qualified prospects, and financial advisors decide which of those leads they’re interested in buying.
While the general process remains the same, lead aggregators can vary on pricing, approach, customer service, and many other factors. A quick search for “financial advisor lead generation” will populate dozens of results, which is why you will need to spend some time getting clear on your goals before starting to vet potential lead generation partners.
You likely already have an idea of what kinds of leads you’re looking for, and you’ll need to be able to communicate this clearly to potential partners. Relevant criteria can include:
You and the partner(s) you’re considering both need to know how success is defined and how that will impact the lead-buying relationship moving forward. If these KPIs change over time or results fall short, communicate promptly so that both sides can either work towards a solution or go their separate ways.
If you’ve bought financial advisor leads in the past or you have a developed marketing program internally, you may already have metrics around customer acquisition cost (CAC) and payback periods. If these aren’t as relevant for your business or you don’t have those numbers on hand, you likely have data around schedule rates or close rates and can use these metrics to assess lead quality. Regardless of the KPIs you choose, you’ll need to clearly define what these are and share them with your lead aggregator so that you can both work towards these metrics together.
It’s a good idea to shop around and see what different aggregators sell their leads for and how they get paid. Keep in mind that those charging a premium may offer additional lead vetting services or have a more hands-on approach, while you may not have as much room for customization at a lower price point. On the other hand, lower price points might offer lead volume that the higher ranges can’t match, so this is another opportunity to consider what you value most to help determine a range you feel comfortable paying.
Many lead aggregators get paid a flat rate per lead that they send, but there are other payment models out there. Some work on a revenue-sharing basis and others charge different amounts based on the volume of leads sent.
Once you have some ballpark numbers of what you’re willing to pay for your leads and what payment model you’re comfortable with, you can start getting even more specific about which lead aggregators you work with.
As an independent fiduciary financial advisor or a representative of your firm, it’s your money on the line. You want to ensure that you’re not only getting the quality of leads that you expect, but also that the quality of service from the lead generators themselves aligns with what your business needs. You will also need to verify that you both have the technical capacity for a partnership to function effectively.
When it comes to buying leads, the level of human interaction can be reduced to almost zero or you can have a high-touch and customized relationship. At minimum the aggregator of your choice should have a demo and onboarding process that sets you up for success. Some things you could consider asking:
Lead-buying is a two-way relationship and aggregators will typically require that lead buyers have the technical capacity to purchase their leads, since neither of you can be successful without having the proper setup first. Specs vary, but usually include:
Some of these details may sound like nice-to-have items rather than things that would prohibit getting started. However, if you’re judging success based on something like schedule rate, it’s in your best interest to be able to promptly send that information back to the lead aggregator so that they can monitor and adjust in as close to real time as possible.
If your business does not meet the baseline specs, you may choose to find a different lead generator or return to the conversation with your first choice once you have the technical capacities.
In addition, there are some technical best practices that may not be required by the lead aggregator but will help you get the most out of the leads you’re buying. Things like having a calendar that can be integrated into the partner’s website or having an automated email sequence that immediately sends to your new leads can go a long way in boosting schedule rates and keeping your financial advising business top-of-mind with your new leads. This will be discussed in more detail in the Converting Your Leads section.
Once your KPIs, pricing, and data processes are aligned; you’re ready to get started. Some of the most successful financial advisor and lead aggregator relationships are those where the two parties view themselves as partners who are working towards the same goal. Set the expectation early to test and learn, rather than immediately expect that results will be exactly where you want them to be.
Speak with the lead aggregator about what they think would be a reasonable initial investment and timeframe for seeing results, given the kinds of leads you’re buying and your overall goals. Once you start buying leads, they should also be able to provide guidance on how you both could modify your approach to get closer to or exceed your goals based on the performance so far.
Note that you, the financial advisor buying leads from the aggregator, retain full control over how much you are willing to spend and what level of quality you will accept. That said, if you have very specific criteria or are looking at demographics where competition is high, you may find more overall success in extending the relationship testing period and considering the adjustments your aggregator recommends. It can take several months for leads to schedule and close, so evaluating success may need to have a longer timeline.
Before your new leads start rolling in and along the way, you’ll want to evaluate the state of your lead-nurturing process so that you can convert as many as possible.
Financial lead aggregators will usually have a final page that shows the consumer all of the financial advisors they matched with. Having a calendar integration with your team’s availability on that page can be a great way to get high-intent leads scheduled even before you give them a call. When your company is being displayed alongside other financial advisors, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for someone to choose your firm over everyone else’s.
If you’ve ever tried testing your own contact information in a lead aggregator’s site, you know how quickly your phone starts to ring. Especially with leads that get sold to multiple financial advisors, speedy dialing is of the essence.
Even if you only plan to buy exclusive match leads, it’s a best practice to reach out to prospective clients as close to when they provide their information as possible. Scheduling someone in the moment avoids the time-consuming back-and-forth of follow-ups. You also have a chance to qualify them faster; if the lead is fraudulent and your lead aggregator provides refunds, the sooner they know about it the sooner they can redirect your budget towards the traffic you want.
Whether or not you immediately reach your new lead with a phone call, having a sequence of additional touchpoints can help keep your business top-of-mind and make it easier for your potential client to contact you at a time that is more convenient for them. The following are some of the most common methods for nurturing prospects, but the list is not exhaustive.
Email is one of the most used marketing channels, with the vast majority of email users checking their accounts daily.
Your email strategy can be structured in a variety of ways. Some financial advisor firms have custom-designed email templates and nurture sequences that send an email with every blog post. Others have templates stripped of any imagery that are simple and concise – Hi John, saw you were interested in financial advising. Here’s my calendar to set up a call.
Regardless of the level of sophistication you choose, it’s important to quickly and consistently follow up. This also applies to prospects with whom you’ve already made contact. Email reminders before the scheduled call can help ensure that they make it there on time or have the option to reschedule if their plans change.
Text can be a standalone channel or it can work in tandem with your other communications. Your email content might confirm the date of a scheduled call while your texts ask prospects about questions they have after the call is finished. Or you can send similar information through multiple channels to have a better chance of reaching your leads through at least one.
The more automated (yet still customized) you can make this process, the better for your bandwidth and for keeping on track with your follow-ups. All else equal, this consistency and high-quality content should bring in more scheduled meetings and eventually closed leads.
Regular follow-up phone calls are useful prior to booking an intro meeting and before the lead closes. These may be more ad hoc rather than on a strict schedule, and the frequency of contact can be scaled up or down depending on the feedback you’re getting from your leads along the way.
Sending back relevant data to your lead aggregator is critical to your success in closing leads and to theirs in continuing the working relationship.
There are some data points that should be sent back as often as possible, like information around scheduled calls, fraudulent leads, closes (with AUM), and anything that relates to the KPIs for your financial advising business. This data will help your lead aggregator adjust strategies more quickly rather than waiting for an end-of-month reporting deluge to make changes.
Other data may need to be collected over a longer period of time. If you’re calling leads and consistently getting feedback that your firm isn’t offering what they expected, there might be a breakdown in marketing somewhere along the way.
For example, if you’ve provided financial advisor bios to the aggregator to use on their offer page but a particular advisor is never available, maybe that profile should be removed. Or, maybe your firm is shifting its focus away from people in retirement and more towards business owners in their 40s and 50s. Any significant shifts in your firm’s area of expertise/focus should be communicated to your lead aggregators because it might impact the kinds of filters they use to qualify your leads.
Success with lead buying depends on knowing your goals and committing to ongoing improvement. Once you know your KPIs and what you can accept, you can start to narrow down your lead aggregator options. When you’ve signed a contract and the leads start filing in, it’s also necessary to evaluate your own lead-nurturing process and make sure that you’re sending back the mission-critical information to your aggregator that can help improve the lead quality at its source.
If you’re interested in seeing the Advisor.com approach to financial advisor lead generation, review our matching process and schedule a demo with our Customer Success team.
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