Shannon Lee Simmons, CFP, CIM - The New School of Prospecting

The New School of Prospecting

Goodbye seminars and cold calling. Hello texting, videos, and social media. Kira Vermond learns how savvy advisors court the next generation of clients

A few months ago on the first day of April, New School of Finance, a Toronto-based advice only financial planning and coaching firm, published a social media post that caused more than one follower to take notice.

“Don’t forget that your 2018 tax returns are due TODAY! File by 11:59EST tonight to avoid facing any penalties,” the post read cheerfully — before letting the reader in on the ruse a few lines down with, “Just kidding! April Fool’s!”

“We got a lot of comments,” says Shannon Lee Simmons, CFP, CIM, who is the company’s 34-year-old founder. “It was an effective joke, all in good fun.”

Simmons, who started her now eightemployee company in 2014, is part of the firm’s so-called “faculty of financial awesomeness” according to the website, which uses the same cheeky tone throughout its pages. There are pleas for readers to “get your financial butt in gear!!” an admission to being “crazy PASSIONATE about financial literacy,” and a revelation that Simmons drops a dollop of red nail polish on the top corner of every calculator she has ever owned. (Why? No idea. She just does it.) Meanwhile, between posts about childproofing finances and the hidden cost of home ownership, the company’s Twitter feed waxes poetic about Oreo cookie flavors.

“That piece has absolutely nothing to do with finance, but people love it! We get the most responses to the Oreo wars than anything else,” she says.

While the fun and somewhat irreverent marketing tone may seem unexpected or even perilous in an industry bent on conveying a steadfast, conservative, and reliable air — think websites awash in greys and blues — according to Simmons, going against the longstanding grain is precisely the point. The firm’s bread and butter clients are between the ages of 27 and 47, mostly Millennials but some GenXers, too. A relaxed, conversational tone goes a long way with them.

The trick, however, is successfully following sales leads and prospecting this next generation of clients in the first place.

A GROWING NECESSITY

Turning Millennials into clients is no longer simply a savvy business move for a few forward-thinking advisors, but a growing necessity for nearly everyone. Today, there are more than 7.3 million Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, living in Canada, making them the largest demographic group since the Boomers. And while they might be years away from becoming coveted high-net-worth clients — they’ve been labelled the “brokest generation” after all — if advisors like Simmons stick with them long enough, offering insight and support along the way, many will get there eventually.

Even advisors and planners who are well into their careers and with a healthy client base are wise to continually prospect as a way to deal with attrition as current clients die, divorce, or move on for other reasons. Adding younger people to the roster means developing client relationships that will last for years longer.

But older prospecting methods that worked in the past — think cold calling, direct mail, or seminars — aren’t necessarily effective now. According to many advisors who are actively courting Millennials, these in-your-face approaches are often a turn-off for the younger set. Prospecting the next generation of clients is so subtle, despite being just as reliant on a good systematic method of developing and qualifying sales leads, it hardly looks like prospecting at all.