Client Case Studies: Financial Designs, Inc.

Company: Financial Designs, Inc. (FDI)

Industry: Financial Services

Situation:

• Laurie Laner, CFP, an experienced and established financial planner and founder of FDI, was struggling with the need to focus her business and attract new clients that were aligned with her expertise in complex financial planning.
• Ms. Laner has specialized expertise in the area of consulting on complex stock option and deferred compensation plans, topics that appeal primarily to high net-worth executives.
• FDI delivers sophisticated financial consulting using a fee-based pricing structure which requires a higher than average level of trust between the client and consultant.
• Ms. Laner had actively marketed her three-person firm over past 20 years but with modest results in terms of driving new sources of revenue into the business. Laner had positioned her firm as providing pre-retirement planning to high net-worth individuals, which did little to distinguish it from hundreds of other financial planning firms.
• FDI has many existing loyal clients, but generating new business presented a challenge.
• Ms. Laner had conducted many training seminars for large corporations on the general topic of investment and retirement planning. As a seasoned and highly credible speaker in this particular field of concentration, she actively sought additional speaking opportunities.

PSM Approach:

• Upon being retained by FDI, PSM initially conducted a thorough assessment of the company's past marketing and business development activities.
• A strategic marketing plan was created which outlined business growth objectives, key messages, identification of target audiences as well as specific marketing tactics to help the firm achieve its goals.
• A cross-functional PSM team was created to support FDI in its marketing and business development efforts. The team was comprised of a marketing strategist, a marketing project manager, and a marketing assistant.
• Monthly in-person meetings between PSM and FDI were instituted to ensure seamless implementation of the strategic marketing plan.
• PSM recommended narrowing the focus of Ms. Laner's business development efforts to better reflect her unique expertise in the area of complex stock option planning for highly compensated executives in large corporations.
• PSM worked closely with Ms. Laner to refine her proposal development and pricing structure to be more client focused and streamlined.
• PSM stressed the importance of better communicating and quantifying for clients and prospective clients the value of the services that FDI delivers to its clients to support the modified fee structure.
• PSM recommended that Ms. Laner increase her involvement in targeted professional associations as a means of developing new referral sources and providing opportunities for speaking and writing on the topic of complex stock option planning.
• PSM recommended ways to focus the content of Ms. Laner's column in Women's Business Minnesota to be aligned with her new focus on complex stock option and deferred compensation planning.
• PSM worked closely with FDI's other professional resources to ensure a focused and consistent approach to marketing and business development. Specifically, PSM and Lynn Ingrid Nelson, PR consultant, collaborated to ensure a consistency in FDI's new focus on stock option planning.
• Additional support was provided by PSM with the development of other marketing communications vehicles including printed collateral and an improved FDI website.

Results:

• The overhaul by PSM of FDI's proposal development and response process has produced stellar results in terms of new client acquisition. 100% of all FDI new client proposals made have resulted in new clients for FDI.
• Modifications to FDI's previous fee structure have enabled Ms. Laner to better sell and communicate the value she delivers to clients. She credits PSM and the strategies recommended by Terrie Wheeler with a 20% increase in revenue in 2004, the year the strategic marketing plan was rolled out.
• Ms. Laner's membership in the National Association of Stock Planning Professionals (NASPP) has helped her to continue to build a strong relationship with an existing corporate client. As a result, she has been retained by this client to conduct high level stock option planning seminars across the country, resulting in the acquisition of many new individual clients within the same company.