Mike Sciortino is founder and CEO of Gratitude Marketing™, a firm dedicated to sharing the most time-tested, proven and cost effective marketing strategies to help you grow your business through nurturing meaningful long term relationships. Mike just released the best-seller, “Gratitude Marketing™: How you can create clients for life by using 33 simple secrets from successful financial advisors” .
Pick up Mike’s book, for yourself or for your advisors: Gratitude Marketing: How You Can Create Clients For Life By Using 33 Simple Secrets From Successful Financial Advisors
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Gratitude Marketing™ is all around us!
Have you ever stopped to consider how your relationship with your clients affects your business? Not just focusing on your day to day interactions with them, but cultivating a relationship.
Gratitude shapes our relationships with others and in turn, shapes the course of our businesses. We all know that clients are the lifeblood of businesses. So, when was the last time you sought out creative ways to communicate that sense of gratitude to them?
Consistently showing your existing clients how grateful you are for their partnership will be a game changer for you, and it may open your eyes to the fact that Gratitude Marketing™ is already shaping the world we live in, in many different ways.
It’s All About “YOU”
When communicating with your clients, there is a very simple way to keep them engaged.
Incorporate the word “You.” The most important word in marketing, “You” communicates to your clients that you have them and their best interests in mind – something of extreme value in the business world.
Think about all of your business contacts, from your insurance agent to your dentist to the barista who serves you coffee every morning. You choose to engage with them, most likely, because they make you feel safe and confident and appreciated by them.
On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, I was served my cup of coffee, and, as usual, I received a Southwest napkin. On one side was a map of the United States and all the places the airline flies. But what struck me was the napkin’s headline: “We’re America’s largest domestic airline for one reason: You.”
This, indeed, is why Southwest is the largest. That airline gets it. It goes out of its way to serve you, the customer. It also focuses its marketing on you, their customer. I have flown this airline for more than 25 years, and I have witnessed countless examples of world-class service and Gratitude Marketing™. From the ticket agents to the baggage handlers, from the flight attendants to the pilots, they all realize their number-one mission is to serve you, their customer. All members of this company understand that Southwest is a customer service company that also happens to be an airline.
Gratitude Marketing is Everywhere
Talking of successful gratitude marketers, Disney is a close second to Southwest Airlines.
When you are a guest at a Disney property, each time you pass through a security gate, you are greeted with, “Welcome home.” This is a very heartwarming greeting.
Another example of a premier gratitude marketer is TOMS Shoes. In a recent interview, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, commented that people connect with his company because buying a pair of TOMS shoes is like wearing a badge that says, “I did something for someone.” Other firms are beginning to focus on Gratitude Marketing™, such as LATAM Airlines Group (“For you it’s business. For us, it’s personal.”); Fidelity (“We’ll help you build a retirement life you want.”); Hertz (“The benefits start even before you turn the key.”); and Trump Hotels, (“Live the life. Most hotels give you a room. We give you the entire city.”).
Airline frequent flyer programs, hotel frequent user programs, and credit card reward programs are all examples of Gratitude Marketing™.
These days it’s hard to find a service business that hasn’t implemented Gratitude Marketing™ in one form or another.
Gratitude Marketing™ is especially important in the financial industry. It can be what separates the first class firms from the world class firms.
When you look at just the top 10 firms of the top 100 financial advisors philosophy statements, you will find that client relationships are given emphasis just as much as their proficiency in investment strategy.
They “partner with” and “tailor make” generational wealth management solutions for their very select and targeted clients to provide the personal and genuine relationship building strategies that have worked for decades to retain their clients and their clients’ children.
Putting it into Practice
Start by outlining how you currently show your gratitude for your clients and their families.
Do you have a holiday party every year? Send out cards on their birthdays?
Now, how can you make that communication more consistent and implement it into your overarching marketing strategy? By adding value to your clients in new and engaging ways, you will change the course of your firm for generations to come. It becomes second nature and a privilege to serve your clients for life.
written by Mike Sciortino
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The Convergence of Health Care and Financial Planning with Peter Stahl