5 Key Tips for Your Marketing Staff
(Attorney: Have Your Staff Person Read This Too!)
If you’re doing marketing for an estate planning practice (whether it presents seminars or not), you may quickly discover that there’s a lot more to the job than sending emails or texts, making phone calls, or getting people to register for a seminar or set an appointment.
The real job is to help move people through a marketing process or system—from the first contact, to seminar registration (or appointment for a triage call), to attendance, to the attorney meeting, and ultimately following up the meeting to becoming a client.
That can feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started.
But you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.
Here are some of the most important lessons I would give anyone who is taking on responsibility for marketing an estate planning practice.
1. Learn the System Before You Try to Change It
One of the biggest mistakes a marketing employee can make is assuming that everything needs to be changed.
Before you start changing calling times and scripts, follow-up procedures, or seminar processes, learn how the system currently works.
What happens when someone registers or sets an appointment?
When are they contacted to confirm?
How are they confirmed? (Text, email, phone call?)
What happens if they cancel?
How are appointments scheduled or rescheduled on the calendar? (Are there times blocked for appointments within 10 days?)
What happens after the appointment is made? (Do they get a questionnaire, driving directions, instructions on what to bring?)
After the attorney meeting do they receive a contact or materials if they engaged the firm? (And what follow up do they receive if they didn’t engage?)
You need to understand the entire process before you can identify where the real problems may be.
And don’t overlook the resources that may already exist within the practice to help you with the details.
In my recent coaching discussion with a marketing coordinator, I pointed her toward her firm’s A to Z Seminar Marketing Guide (acquired from Ultimate Estate Planner), which was developed as my firm’s internal manual for people orchestrating seminars (but also works well without seminars). Your firm may have some sort of similar “Marketing Manual”. Much of what a marketing employee needs to know may already be documented there.
Don’t reinvent the wheel when the firm has already built or brought one.
2. Use Scripts—Especially When You’re New
If you’re uncomfortable making marketing calls, don’t try to “wing it.”
Use a script.
A good script gives you a framework for what to say, what information to provide, and how to respond when someone raises an objection.
That doesn’t mean you should sound like you’re reading a script.
Quite the opposite.
The goal is to practice the script until you understand the conversation so well that you can eventually put it into your own words.
The script is your training wheels.
Use them until you don’t need them anymore.
(FYI: Scripts are included in our A to Z Guide to Seminar Marketing for Estate Planners.)
3. Remember That You’re Selling the Value of the Next Step
When you’re making a nurturing or confirmation call, don’t think of yourself as simply getting a quick yes or no answer, hanging up and checking a box.
You’re not just calling to ask:
“Are you still coming?”
You’re reinforcing why they should come.
The appointment should be positioned as beneficial and worth their time. Remind prospects of the value of the meeting, that it is free (or if there is a charge, that it’s value more than outweighs its cost and, if applicable, is credited toward any work). Always maintain an upbeat attitude during these conversations, and help people feel confident they’re taking the right next step.
That’s a very different mindset from simply confirming a date and time.
4. Don’t Be Afraid of Objections
Sometimes marketing staff get nervous when someone says:
“I can’t afford it.”
Or:
“I’m not sure I want to do this anymore.”
Or:
“I just want to cancel.”
But an objection isn’t necessarily the end of the conversation.
It may actually be a signal that you haven’t sufficiently emphasized the benefits, reassured than it’s worthwhile, or uncovered the real concern.
For example, a prospect may say that money is the problem when the real issue is that a spouse wasn’t involved in the seminar or simply doesn’t understand why they’re coming or what will be proposed. You can explain and set their mind at ease. Or there’s just a scheduling conflict you can resolve.
So don’t immediately assume a price objection, or another objection, is a definite no.
Find out what’s really going on.
And you should have scripts for handling objections too. (Also in our UEP The A to Z Guide to Seminar Marketing for Estate Planners)
5. Learn the Numbers
As a marketing staff person you need to keep track of more than how many people were called (or texted and emailed).
You can’t evaluate and improve what you don’t measure.
You should know what happened as a result of those calls. (Or backup texts or emails).
How many people were spoken to live?
How many people registered/made an appointment?
How many attended the seminar (or triage call)?
How many from the seminar (or triage call) made an attorney meeting appointment?
How many actually showed up for the attorney meeting?
How many became clients?
And “the boss” should get all these numbers every month.
And if you’re the boss, find out how much revenue was generated?
And what did the marketing cost (including all staff time in marketing, attending a seminar, or handling triage calls)?
These numbers tell you whether your system is working optimally and, if not, where you can tweek it.
The Bottom Line
If you’re new to marketing, don’t put pressure on yourself to know everything immediately.
Learn the system.
Use the scripts.
Understand the purpose behind every call or other prospect contact.
Learn how to handle objections.
Track the numbers.
And most importantly, learn from the system that’s already been built by your firm before you start changing it. (Or, you can check out our already tested and proven system The A to Z Guide to Seminar Marketing for Estate Planners).
A good marketing employee isn’t simply someone who makes a lot of calls.
It’s someone who understands why those calls (and all other prospect contacts) are being made—and what should happen as a result.
Then you’ll see results!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Attorney Philip J. Kavesh is the principal of one of the largest estate planning and administration firms in California—Kavesh, Minor and Otis—which has been in business since 1981. He is also the President of The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc., which provides a variety of training, marketing, and practice-building products and services for estate planning professionals.