Kalli
Hi, welcome to AUM Live Stream! I’m your host Kalli Fedusenko of Kalli Collective, a digital marketing agency serving financial advisors. We all know that the market had its fair share of volatility last year, and while many advisors felt the squeeze of a Down Market, our guest today, Tommy Doerfler of Lighthouse Wealth Group, met his net new asset goal and grew his business by 10 percent!
We’re sure you’ve got lots of questions for him. I know I do. Please submit your questions via the comments on the platform that you’re watching, and we’ll be able to see those comments on our side and can answer them as we get them. So let’s go ahead and get started!
First, thank you, Tommy, so much for being our guest of honor today, uh, and as I wait for some of these questions to come in, I have a few for you.
So you met your net new asset goal last year in 2022. What would you consider the biggest factor as to why?
Tommy
Yeah, good question. And let me just say thank you for having me on here. It's a pleasure and honor, and so, um, I'm grateful that you asked me to be a part of this, and so this is really neat, and I know we'll have a lot of fun during the show. So first off, just thank you for that. So yeah, um, so our net new asset goal, yeah, we met that last year, and we beat our high goal. You know, anytime there's a down market, you kind of look back and say, okay, how did this happen, you know. I think, um, the biggest contribution to that was just uh communication consistently be communicating uh with your clients. I mean, when the market's good and when things are good, it's easy, you know, it's easier. I should say, um, but when the Market's down, it's really hard, and people need reassurance. People need to hear from you. They need to see that you're on top of things. Communication in itself was a big contributor to last year's what we do with our clients.
Kalli
Uh, what are your typical ways of communicating? Uh, would you say emails or phone calls, um, maybe showing up at someone’s house? Uh, how do you reach out to your clients?
Tommy
Yeah, I think if we showed up to somebody’s house in a down year, that would be very alarming. Uh, possibly to them, so if we try to maybe not do that, but I think you know we look at phone calls as the number one way to communicate right you’re picking up the phone you’re giving a call they hear you, they hear your voice um you know obviously scheduling meetings the best ways to be face to face with people um. Still, I think communication entails uh phone calls, meetings, and entails um emails, social media. Hence, we have so many platforms nowadays to be able to communicate with people. You know, there’s a guessing game with this on hey who wants to be communicated in what way, and so I think the goal for our team is to be able to say, hey, we try to be everywhere right that we can. In that way, we’re reaching out to social media or reaching out by way of email or making phone calls, or meeting with people. Still, we really try to expand as much as we can just because people simply like different forms of communication, and so we try to meet those needs the best we can.
Kalli
Yeah, I think that’s a great strategy. Um, calls did you get from clients who were kind of panicky about reaching out to you?
Tommy
Yeah, you're always going to have the Nervous Nellie's, right, the people that probably need a little bit more TLC, um, but our really, we try to reach out to them first, um, so how many calls we get, you to know, I don't know the exact number um but I will say the goal for our team is to come together when there's you know big downturn in the market and our goal is to try to reach out to them before they reach out to us and so if we do that it really kind of mends that relationship sees that we're being proactive and that we're um trying to make sure we're in anticipation of what their fears are. We call them before they call us.
Kalli
That’s a great strategy, um, so net new assets; uh, Google, would you say that most of those were from new clients or existing clients?
Tommy
Yeah, yeah, I think you know, when we look back, um, at the past year. I think, you know, a lot of the net assets did come from existing clients, and that could just be simply you’re always going to have life events, people that retire, you’re going to have certain payouts from a company, um there are unfortunate circumstances where you’re going to have life insurance policies paid out, you’re going to have inheritance situations um happen as well that’s always kind of natural, but I think you know. I really do believe that there’s great opportunity for advisors when the markets, even though the market is, you know, cooperating right now, there’s a great opportunity because you know you you’re if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing you’re giving your clients a reason to talk about you to their friends and family, and so it’s when we looked at you know what came in outside of our existing clients it was referrals. So if we can try to wow them as much as possible and talk to them and educate them and to tell them what’s going on and do a good job, we try as best as possible to really give them a reason to go talk to their friends and family about us because it’s just you know when things are good, everybody’s happy. Still, when things aren’t that good it, it makes people second guess. So we really try to be there, um, for their friends and family.
Kalli
It sounds like communication is big not only in reassuring your clients but also your meeting with them regularly, which brings up the opportunity if something happened. There are new assets, you get to talk about it, and you know it’s back to the communication. I think that’s really vital.
Um, as things that worked, um, so from the referrals, uh, I guess you wouldn’t really know, but it wasn’t what you were saying like, oh, it was on the market, and so people were sharing like, hey, check out um, our advisor because they’ve been so helpful.
Tommy
Yeah, I mean, you know it, they always say four to the five years mark is going to do well, right, and the one out of the five years the market’s not going to do well. I think for the advisor business, really what that translates to is, you know, um, things are easier when the market does well, right? Still, it’s really when the market does it well it’s it’s really how good of a job did you do. So a lot of times, people just get advisors to get complacent. So if you do that, even if you have had a client for 20 plus years, you know, in a good relationship with them, it’s really easy for an advisor to be complacent with them. Just say, ah, don’t worry about it. Just hang in there, you know, and not really reach out home and be proactive so you know for that one year it’s it’s people if they get that they want a second opinion if they’re not hearing from their advisor they want a second opinion, hey I haven’t heard from my person you know maybe I haven’t talked to somebody else because I’m a little concerned here. You know, oh, okay, great, our friends over here just said they talked to the advisor, man. Maybe we should get a second opinion on this. So in these down years, you know, I think there’s still a great opportunity for advisors to do a really, really good job. If they do that, they, they certainly are rewarded, uh, by their referrals.
Kalli
Yeah, um, all right, here’s a good question for you how do you find the time? You’re running a business. You’re meeting with clients, you got to make these phone calls, when you’ve got a family?
Tommy
That’s always the trick, you know, I find that even this is, uh, going on my 16th year in the business, and I look back, and I remember the times of my first year in the business, you know, and the first year you had all the time in the world you know because you’re trying to build a business and you know like you don’t have that many clients and so on and so I kind of have to take a step back and say hey if I if it’s hard finding time one that’s a blessing you know yeah and uh I always tell people you know when a person moved from Nashville I didn’t have dreams become an advisor I was actually a musician, and that’s what brought me here, and there’s a saying that a working musician is a happy musician, and so the the same thing I’d say in our business with advising and wealth management is, you know, a busy advisor it’s a happy advisor, so, but you know, I think the trick is just to prioritize, um, and especially in down markets, it’s like wait a minute hold on we got to go back to the drawing board you know when the markets just go drops about 18%. You kind of have to clear the table and say, okay, what’s the most pressing need right this moment, you know, and then you just kind of prioritize, and you kind of have to reshuffle things around and say, okay, what’s the most important thing and then really go after that.
Kalli
So, what is the most important thing in a down market?
Tommy
Uh phone, calls phone calls and meetings, um, and I think communication going back to the communication, I mean, you’ve probably heard from me many many, many times hey, we need you know, hey we need me over to put some literature out hey, we need to be educating our clients hey, we need to make sure people aren’t overreacting or having a knee-jerk reaction in the moment when these things happen, and so being face to face um a lot of times that’s giving reassurance hey it’s okay these things happen we plan for this ahead of time we didn’t know when it was going to happen but we knew it was going to happen but it’s here and we plan for this though it’s okay um you know, and I wish every day could be rosa like that but sometimes it’s it’s pulling an audible with clients to say hey here’s what we have to do um this is not really what we planned on specifically this year you know for people that wanted to retire in 2022 it was really hard for them right did you go you retired yeah you tell you know your boss I’m done, and it’s like okay well let’s talk about some strategies to you know we don’t necessarily have to undo that but maybe we take a step back and revisit the budget or you know maybe we spend a little bit out of our emergency fund first see what the market does to come back and refill that so we talked through these different strategies, um, to be able to say, hey, you know let’s pull an audible let’s look at some different ways to help out here and there’s everything in between so again I think it’s just going back to that theme of communication communication communication.
Kalli
Yep, I agree with that. Um, would you say that marketing had a play in that new assets?
Tommy
Oh yeah, yeah, and you know the thing it’s it’s funny because the thing about marketing is I’ve always felt that it’s kind of like a college degree nobody really cares too much that you have it it’s only weird if you don’t have it right so but I think specifically you know a big thing that you’ve really helped us out is we’ve gotten to be a little bit more niche over the years and get make sure refine what that message is and using the different ways to communicate again whether it’s in review meetings or uh phone calls or social media or emails or whatever it may be our goal really has been saying hey marketing will really get out the message of who we serve who we serve well right and different strategies different ways of looking at things and so it’d be easier if we’re just at all places all at once right but it’s just not possible so I think marketing has really helped us as we’re meeting with folks or as we’re trying to find the time to do all these different things it gets that message out there for a lot of people to say hey here’s who we are here’s our personality in the business here’s who we serve really well. Um, and then hopefully through that, people really say, okay great, either that’s for us, or maybe that’s not for us, but either way that that marketing really helps get that message out there as well as just educating people, you know what I mean.
Kalli
Yeah, this is what we do. This is how we can help you, and then, of course, just the financial education. Um, okay, so when the market goes down, obviously that affects advisors, um, um, I don’t know the equivalent word, but profit. I think I have another name for you guys, um so how does that come into play, uh, with your marketing strategy because then, on the other hand, as we’ve talked about is like communication is such a big deal you have to stay, you know communicating with your clients from the market is down so how do you find that balance between well I don’t have as much cash flow because the market is down, but on the other hand I need to be talking more and how’s it affected your strategy.
Tommy
Yeah, I mean, I think, as you know, any kind of, um, executive in a business or owner or whatever it may be, you know, anytime you have a down year, you always have to be smart with your expenses and reevaluate and go back and say okay does that make sense to still have these expenses maybe some maybe not but with the marketing. I think I’m a little bit more, um, nippy with that of what makes sense and what doesn’t. Still, I think, you know, sometimes it’s a good time to double down, yeah, um, and I just think in social media and things like that, I mean, that’s so widespread. I mean, nobody knows what a newspaper is anymore. Still, they know what social media is. You always have to know another thing you always have to reinvest in your business, right? So if you’re making smart business decisions and saying, hey, I’m not removing all the profit off the table each and every year, hey, I need to hold some back for some things. I need to make sure that when you know things aren’t working out, I still have a little bit of cash on the sideline. I think that communication is more important, especially in marketing, um, when there’s a down market because, like I said, you try to be everywhere all at once, and it’s just not possible so.
Kalli
And just like you were saying, if uh, you know, down market is when clients and Prospects are concerned, so that’s when if you’re getting your message out there and they see it like it’s a very opportunistic time.
Um, would you say that there were any specific areas of your marketing strategy that led to your business growth, you know?
Tommy
That’s always the question, I mean, you know. I’ve had conversations where it’s like, how do you? How do you see what your return on investment is right, and so um, I don’t know, I really do have blind faith that yes, it works, so my goal is to say, hey, if we have somebody let’s say we have a referral from our existing client, hey you know and they’re talking with your friend their friends who’s a client of ours. They say, hey, who do you use? I may have concerns, you know, whatever it may be. Well, they may say, hey, Tommy Doerfler, Lighthouse Wealth Group. They’ve been great, you know, and so on. They’ll say, okay, that’s great, that’s meaningful. They might go up online and say, well, let me look at this Tommy Doerfler, Lighthouse Wealth Group. Well, oh yeah, the more we have, um, that presence online in the internet, the more legitimizes what we do right, so if you just had a web page and it just, you know, it doesn’t look very pristine, it doesn’t have a clear message it doesn’t you don’t know who the people on the team maybe just have one person you may say well I’m not sure this just doesn’t look very um, polished it doesn’t look very clean doesn’t look like this is a formal you know wealth management team so if you go online and then all of a sudden you see that you know we’re on uh all the social media uh, places you see that were on YouTube you go and see we have a great website you see that uh we constantly are sharing things then that legitimizes our business a lot more, to say okay these people yes I can see that they’re online I can see their personality, I can see their message. I can see their marketing. Yes, you know that that gives us a kind of a leg up, um, for them to say, you know what this is confirming? Let’s go ahead and go talk to them; let’s make an appointment.
Kalli
Right absolutely um, what advice would you give to other advisors who didn’t achieve their goals?
Tommy
Yeah, I think the advice I’d give is don’t let you know, don’t let a year that you don’t hit your goals. Define you, right,? Yeah, I mean, I’ve talked to some of the very best advisors in the country. They have years they don’t hit their goals, you know, and I think the worst thing you can do is let that Define your entire career. So everybody’s going to have a year where they don’t hit the mark. It’s just a reality, you know, and if they did, then I’d say they’re not sitting in rules High Enough. Still, you know, for any advisor that says, hey, I didn’t hit my net asset goal, it’s like, hey, that’s okay. You got to get back in there. You know, you gotta maybe reevaluate things, prioritize things. You may have to make some shifts from a business perspective but don’t let that stop you from keep going and trying the next year again and trying again because nobody again. If you consistently hit your high goal each and every year, you’re probably not setting your goals high enough.
Kalli
I have some stats here. It’s really interesting. Um, the cost of acquiring clients is rising for financial advisors. The average amount spent, um, has increased to $743 per prospect, and last year, it was $720. according to a survey by Broadridge, um, and then out of that, only 43 percent of advisors saw their inbound prospect increase during 2022, which was now it gets kind of confusing, but that’s down 16% from 2021. um, so I think I probably should have started with this information because I think that kind of really brings in, um, hey, but like, numbers are down across the board for people, um, but you’ve found a strategy that’s working, uh I mean, after talking sounds like communication is really what it comes down to communicating with your clients letting them know hey here’s where we’re at um however I do find the average amount spent per prospect uh Illuminating I don’t know if you have like costs analysis but would you do you think that is uh aligns with what you’ve experienced?
Tommy
You know, it’s interesting because I was just thinking about as you read that statistic, I’m thinking, okay, why would that be in my first thought that came to my mind was because this is a relational business, right people have to know who you are it’s a service business it’s relational you know. It’s not where you just make a widget. You take a widget home. It works, or it doesn’t, right? People are relying on your expertise. There’s a little bit of character that they’re looking at Integrity that they’re looking at as well, and so the only way to build on that relationship is really to spend time with people, yeah, so you know you have to spend time with your people.
Kalli
Oh, you know for sure people aren’t just picking an advisor because their numbers will go up. That’s definitely part of it, but it’s also, hey, do I like this person to get along? Do I feel like they get me? Um, and I think that’s also important for people to remember is that, um, just because that someone doesn’t become a client doesn’t mean that you have that there’s something wrong with you like it’s just not a good fit sometimes because there are so many aspects to it very relational.
Tommy
Exactly and so when you go back to the cost factor, you know spending time sometimes costs money with people, right? I mean, yeah, you’re part of this, but we try to do a lot of events we want people. We want to see people in one of our events or actually more than one um event we do is non-market related non-financial related. Still, one is a family event we do, uh, during October, Fall Family Fun Day, and it’s just a chance for us to be able to sit, you know, and, um, say hi to our clients, and they get to go through the corn maze and go pick out a pumpkin. But it’s just time that’s hey, we don’t need to talk about financial stuff, let’s just, you know, let’s see the kids and let’s take your photograph family picture. You know, I think those things in of themselves cost money to do that, but you’re building that relationship, you have events. Then on the other side, you could also say, hey, we want to do some market events, but we want to educate you. We want you to understand why the market behaves these ways, and hey, let’s go to dinner. You know, you can enjoy yourself and maybe get some education at the uh the end of the day too, and so you know those were kind of coming to my mind as you kind of gave that statistic based on what they, you know what is this were these dollars going to be able to attain new prospects. You know, it’s like sometimes just being around people and to your point, they get to know you, they get to see if it’s the right fit, they get to see your personality, your character, your integrity, all these different things and the only way they can figure that out is just to spend more time with you.
Kalli
Yeah, and really good job of a very reason that uh investment symposium which went over really great with the clients. I mean, honestly, I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go because I was like, this doesn’t sound very exciting, but they liked it, so um.
Tommy
Yeah, the events are fun. You know, we try to make them fun they’re not all just the nature of the content doesn’t mean they’re always going to be fun, and as you said, the Investment Symposium was very, very Investment oriented, you know, we wanted so for some of our clients that are very interested in that want that education is great for them they loved it you know, and then we have you know the cooking class that we put on. It’s like, hey, we’re not gonna. We’re just gonna have fun with the family and enjoy each other’s company, and that’s it, you know, yeah, but we gotta have fun in the meantime because it’s fall business all the time.
Kalli
Right, so we’re down about two minutes here; so what would you say you were most proud of accomplishing for your business last year?
Tommy
Last year okay, I think last year we had so recently we’ve hired new team members. I think the proudest thing is getting us all aligned quickly, uh getting us all on the same page quickly and get getting the camaraderie between the team to see the bigger vision, um rather just seeing the whole rather than some of the parts right so that is when you have a team. Everybody doesn’t mean you don’t have, you know, disagreements doesn’t mean you don’t have frustrations sometimes with each other it’s like a family. Still, when everybody can see the bigger picture and see there’s something bigger than just what’s going on, um, individually, that to me is very rewarding.
Kalli
Yeah, definitely, um last question here is, have you ever had a negative year after a positive year?
Tommy
Um yeah, so going back 2007 to 2009, um, that was pretty tough, right, but really, that was kind of so severe that I really that was when I was just getting into the business, so 2007. And, um, so I had a positive year after that, you know, kind of got better once it hit bottom. That was a great time to get in, but in 2018, the market was up all year long, and then the last quarter dipped in was negative, I think, five percent for the year, and so that was a that was kind of the first negative year right calendar year based on a year that I had had so 2007 to 2009. and obviously, 2022 was, uh, the next time that happened, yeah, so the biggest learning lesson I’ve learned through that is when times are good, you don’t get content. It’s very easy to do that right because everybody’s happy. It’s really what you do during those times that are good that’ll determine how loyal your clients are when they’re not so good, um, so work hard, do the right thing for your clients, keep the top of Mind, always serve them well. Um yeah, you know, it’s a really easy advisor because we, like, our clients, are robust, right? I tell people I don’t have a boss; I’ve got a couple of hundred bucks. Yeah, so it’s just a matter of saying, hey, when you have, um, a negative year after a positive year, really work hard during those positive years because the negative year will come, and it’ll determine how well you did during those good years along the way.
Kalli
Yeah, that’s a great ending note there. Um, it’s very encouraging to me here, you know. Thank you so much, Tommy, for sitting in our hot seat, as I have to say, because I’m just throwing questions at you; we really appreciate your willingness to share what worked for you with everybody.
Um, also, thank you to everybody who joined us, and if you haven’t already, make sure to become a Savvy advisor on our website and get access to countless resources uh countless because we’re always adding new ones you can set up at kallicollective.com/get-savvy and join us next month as we talk to Laura Garfield, Idea Decanter, about how to record and produce videos. So thank you, everyone, and again, thank you, Tommy, um, for being our guest today.
Tommy
Kalli, thank you very much. It’s a privilege and honor, and I value our continued partnership, so thank you.
Kalli
Yeah, same bye, everyone.
