My new initiative is called “Meet me on Monday” and as the name suggests, the goal is to meet with at least one new person every Monday.
Today, I sat down with a financial advisor. We originally met at a networking event and agreed to sit down for coffee. Main reason I said I’d meet with him was that he didn’t have the typical financial advisor pitch that makes me cringe, which goes something like this: “I help my clients sleep at night.” Ugh. Unless you are a doctor prescribing me Trazodone or Ambien, I’m not interested in you helping me sleep at night. Sorry.
My new Monday contact asked me about my business and was friendly and not pushy at all. I told him “I’m not in the market” for a new advisor right now, but I’d be willing to hear his pitch. He had a very down to earth approach and here’s what I REALLY liked. He’ll work with people that have a minimum of $3K per year to invest. I’ve met many financial advisors who wouldn’t work with anyone who had less than $50K to invest. That’s cool by the way, if $50K is your minimum. I had a friend who was a very successful financial advisor and she only worked with women in the media who had over $1M to invest. GOOD NICHE.
I’ll give ANYONE with a halfway decent pitch and niche the benefit of the doubt. I have an equal amount of skepticism for anyone who says: “I can help ANYONE.” I’m sure you COULD, but are you WILLING to do the work for someone who has just $3K to invest in the hopes that they will stay with you long term? My new contact is still NEW, so I’ll keep you posted on whether or not he “stays the course” for the long haul. If so, I’ll have some good referrals for him.
P.S. I gave him a vintage ET trading card, that was sold during the 1980s when the movie was so popular. It comes from my private collection of “stuff my Dad keeps unearthing from my childhood room.” I told my new friend I was giving him this card, which is titled: “Bicycle Chase!” because we’re all chasing clients in one way or another, but networking doesn’t have to suck. In fact, sometimes it can be kind of fun. And today it was.