Who Can I Trust in the Financial Services Industry

 For well over a decade, my unrelenting focus has been understanding financial risk and developing practical strategies for managing the risk created by job loss, illness or disability, bear markets and funding thirty years of retirement. Since 1997, I have watched the job of managing those risks become increasingly complex.

One reason understanding and managing financial risk is more difficult is the world, in general, changes at such an incredible pace. Fellow speaker, Vince Poscente, calls it the more-faster-now culture. The other more sinister reason the job is more difficult is it seems so difficult to know who to trust. Over the last ten years or so, in the financial services industry in particular, so many have proven themselves so untrustworthy.

I am not just talking about the Enrons and Bernie Madoffs of the world. I am talking about the countless number of brokerage firms, insurance companies, mutual fund complexes, brokers and investment managers who continue to sell you products - like mutual funds or annuities - and lies - like market timing or stock picking - when all the evidence clearly says those products are only good for the people selling them. So let me give you some guidelines to help you sort out the snakes from the good guys.

Transparency

The first criteria is transparency. Transparency means everything is up front and out in the open. It is the financial services equivalent of an open kitchen in a restaurant. Ask yourself these questions:

- Do you know exactly how the advisor is getting paid, how much and by whom?

- Can you see where the conflict of interests might be so you can evaluate whether they are coloring the advice you are receiving?

Requiring transparency will eliminate the vast majority of advisors working for banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms and almost anyone selling commissioned financial products. Why is transparency important? It is quite simple. If someone else is paying the bill, their interests will likely come before yours.

Truthfulness

The second thing on your checklist is do they promise the impossible? Ask yourself these questions:

- Do they promise unrealistic returns?

- Do they claim they can predict which way the market will go or pick the stocks that will do better than average?

- Do they tell you that an investment is no risk, or change the subject when you ask about risk?

All of these should set off alarm bells in your head. The first is most pervasive among unregulated entities promoting active trading strategies. The second will disqualify a lot of advisors - including an advisor that promotes an actively managed mutual fund. The third seems to be most common in the variable annuity and life settlement markets but it also occurs elsewhere. In February, 2008, the Auction Rate Securities market failed. $200 billion worth of ARSs that had been sold as a cash equivalent became illiquid.

Remember, there is no such thing as a risk-free investment. Risk takes many forms. Just because something doesn't have market risk or credit risk does not mean it doesn't have other forms of risk.

Expertise

The third criteria is expertise. And you have to be careful here. We often infer expertise from things that are meaningless. Being a celebrity doesn't make you an expert. Having a newspaper column, TV show, radio show or having written a book doesn't make you an expert. Having hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of assets under management doesn't make you an expert. Ask yourself these questions:

- Is the advisor recommending the same thing a hundred other advisors would or could?

- Is there any original thinking going into how to solve your specific financial challenges?

- Can the advisor back up their recommendations, with empirical data, from unbiased researchers, supporting their recommendations?

My favorite definition of expertise comes from Mark Sanborn. Expertise is the ability to synthesize existing ideas and think creatively - to add new knowledge and contribute new ideas to your domain of expertise. If your advisor spends most of his time reading about sales skills or practice management rather than the latest academic research, that should be a red flag.

Behavioral Finance

And finally, knowing, as we do, that investors rarely act in a completely rational manner as traditional economic theory would suggest, and knowing that when it comes to investing, our emotions are our worst enemy, if your advisor doesn't have some sort of emphasis on the behavioral component of investing, I would be concerned. Ask yourself these questions:

- Does the advisor address the behavioral component of investing in their presentation or materials?

- What safeguards or mechanisms are in place to keep me from sabotaging my portfolio in a fit of fear or greed?

- What safeguards or mechanisms are in place to keep the advisor from sabotaging my portfolio in a fit of fear or greed?

The Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, done each year by Dalbar, tells us that over the twenty year period ending in 2005, the stock market averaged roughly 12%. Over that same period, the average stock mutual fund averaged roughly 9%. The average stock mutual fund investor? Only 4%!

The difference between 4% and 9% is the result of buying and selling at the exact wrong time and what causes that is fear and greed. That's the low hanging fruit! If an advisor doesn't emphasize the behavioral aspects of investing, they are pretty limited in what they can do for you. Those are my four, although there could certainly be more. I am curious what you think - about these and about what you would add to the list.

How to Find the Right Financial Services Firm

 The global financial crisis has created one of the worst recessions since 1982 and this has caused millions of investors to have many sleepless nights as they struggle to find a strategy that will protect them during the bad times yet allow them to participate in the growth during times of expansion. While there is nothing wrong with this many financial services firms have promised the world yet undelivered on the promises that they made to their clients, causing them to lose money. The current economic situation underscores this lack of follow through which has taken place with in the financial services industry. In response to these different challenges many investors are now searching for those financial services firms that will protect them while providing consistent growth. To find the right firm for your situation requires that you consider a number of different factors.

Do they have a wide variety of different strategies that they can use? Whenever you are dealing with any financial services firm you want to make sure that they have many different strategies that you can use in both bull as well as bear markets to make money. What happens to most people work only with those firms which sound good, when it comes to strategy they have the one standard that they use on virtually all clients, buy and hold. This lack of ideas means that when the bear markets do come you could see sizable losses in your account as prices are cut dramatically.

What will be done to protect you against risk? Whenever you are investing in anything there will always be a certain degree of risk involved. To protect yourself from holding the  Enron's of the world requires that you work with a financial services firm that will show you how you can protect yourself against the different forms of risk such as hedging, using sell stops or diversification.

Clearly choosing the right financial services firm can be challenging. However, by making sure that they offer a wide variety of strategies and knowing that that they have different ways to protect you against risk will help you to be able to avoid some of the severe declines which are known to occur during bear market and to participate in the growth associate with bull markets, helping you to have consistent profits.

How Benchmarking Applications Can Benefit Financial Services Marketing Initiatives

 It originated with land surveyors who made distinctive marks-called "benchmarks"-on rocks, walls or buildings to use as reference points for their topographical surveys. Today, as adapted for business usage, the term "benchmarking" refers to the baseline used for evaluation and measurement.

Corporate benchmarking formally started less than 25 years ago. In 1979, Canon introduced a midsize copier for less than $10,000. Xerox, who could not even manufacture, let alone retail, a similar machine for that price, initially assumed that Canon was deliberately under-pricing to buy market share. Over time, however, as Canon's copier sales continued without a price increase, Xerox engineers determined that Canon's more efficient production methods enabled them to sell profitably at these prices. As a result, Xerox decided to benchmark Canon's processes with the objective of reducing its own costs.

From 1980 to 1985, Xerox adapted Japanese techniques which enabled the company to cut unit production costs by half and reduce inventory costs more than 60 percent. This remarkable turnaround by Xerox launched benchmarking as a popular new management movement in the United States. Intrigued by the idea of generating corporate, organizational and marketing improvement by collecting and adapting the best practices of others, many of the nation's leading corporations soon adopted and refined benchmarking techniques. The power and universal applicability of these techniques were formally recognized when the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award mandated benchmarking for all entrants.

While benchmarking had its start in manufacturing and heavy industry, a properly implemented benchmarking program can provide significant benefits to financial services organizations. Benchmarking adherents believe that being "good enough" is never good enough.

Benchmarking has two basic elements: 1) the evaluation of a company's own processes and procedures to identify strengths and weaknesses; and 2) the identification, analysis and adaptation of the processes and procedures of successful companies.

Listening To The Marketplace
Successful benchmarking studies begin with clear objectives that relate directly to fulfilling the needs and wants of customers and prospects. Clearly stated goals provide a "litmus test" for corporate decision-making and ensure that the process results in the creation of products and services that resonate in the targeted marketplace.

Internal Benchmarking
With objectives established and a reasonable understanding of customers' preferences, the company's next task is the systematic examination and evaluation of: internal processes and procedures within and between business units; marketing approaches for financial products and services; and the effectiveness of distribution channels. A company must know its own operations thoroughly before using them as the baseline for future endeavors. One of the greatest benefits of benchmarking is that, if a company learns nothing else, it has a much greater understanding of how it does business.

Competitive Benchmarking
With the internal baseline established, the process moves on to the systematic identification of competitor and industry best practices. A major virtue of benchmarking is that it keeps organizations attuned to industry changes. Incremental improvements of, say, 10% or 15% may be more than acceptable until competitors take a radically new approach. An example of such a competitive onslaught in the financial services arena is Merrill Lynch's creation of the CMA Account, which enabled it to quickly amass more demand deposits than any banking institution. The banks ceded their historical dominance in an area of significant profitability by continuing to routinely strive for greater efficiencies and incremental improvements.

This example also points to what is probably the most artful part of the benchmarking process-determining what and where to benchmark beyond the obvious direct competitors. The challenge is to identify firms that will be worthy of the resources required to obtain the needed intelligence. An early story of benchmarking illustrates the value of looking outside your industry or market sector. Early in the twentieth century, circuses traveled from town to town on schedules that often left very little time between performances. The German General Staff sent several of their finest to America to "shadow" the circuses. From their observations, they learned much about the complicated logistics of coordinating the process of striking tents, packing gear, handling equipment and people, and then efficiently setting up at the next location. Although this benchmarking was not done in a military context, the lessons learned were readily adaptable to improve troop deployment in World War I. This story also reminds us that it is important to emphasize that you don't adopt, but rather adapt, desirable practices to your own situation.

Few financial services organizations have adopted benchmarking programs. This is not surprising since benchmarking, a relatively new management and marketing tool, grew up in an industrial setting. However, we believe that an effective benchmarking program can help a company create constant improvement. Benchmarking also provides a measurement system that facilitates valuable introspection. Further, it sensitizes the organization to change and to staying alert to opportunities to make quantum rather than incremental improvements. These benefits are too important to be missed by any financial services organization.

Financial/Banking Services in Bangladesh

Financial/Banking Services in Bangladesh

GIS is now-a-days a very useful tool for decision making. Whenever it requires making a decision related to "location", it comes to the word 'GIS'. GIS makes these location related decisions and analysis very easy. It makes the analysis simple and precise if the inputs are correct. Thus one can have the benefits of analyzing spatial data as well as socio-economic data in GIS platform.

GIS in developed countries

Developed countries like USA, UK, Japan are using this technology enormously in different business sectors beside development activities like real state business, banking, information sharing and so on. They use it to leverage their functionality and also increase output. With GIS, the productivity is increased and also the decision making jobs are very easy and accurate.

GIS in Bangladesh

In recent days, GIS technology is used in different sectors of Bangladesh. But the matter is it is only used to prepare a resource map or risk map of an area. The analyzing power of this tool is merely used in those areas. The organizations working in development sector are preparing maps and reports. But the funny matter is maps are prepared in one cell. The person working in this cell is well skilled in GIS technologies but he has very limited access or time to see the reports. The reports are prepared by another person who has very limited knowledge about the technology. As a result, the prospect of this vast technology is overlooked. Again, the scope of using GIS technology is very vast. As mentioned earlier, location and GIS is related to each other. Thus any organizations working with location data can use this vast technology to enhance their activities. For example, the banking sector has to work extensively with location. They have to locate their account holders or locate a plot or property if anyone wants to take loans. Again any business organizations can use GIS tools to increase their business in different areas. They can use this tool to take decisions about establishing their advertising boards or choose their routes to supply goods. The GIS technology can also be used to identify future growth of the city and establish new areas to business. In the following discussion, prospects of using GIS technology in banking sector are highlighted. It is not a full study report. There may be many other sides where GIS can be useful for Banks to increase their performance and customer services.

1. Decision regarding sanction of loan- spatial analysis of the plot.

One of the tedious jobs in banking system is to provide loan service for the clients. Banks do so as to enhance their accessibility to the customers. It's been being a competition among the banks that how a bank is providing these service. In doing so, Banks need some security like some visible property or established business etc. Now where comes the visible property, the GIS also comes there. Banks take mortgage to sanction and specify the amount of loan. In doing such decision, banks have to analyze the property or plot like distance from the main road or size of the plot, verify the actual owner of the plot, current land valuation etc. They are doing these things manually by going to the sites or contact with third party for doing these jobs. This takes at least 30 days to do the jobs and also have to spend a lot of money. It also need a lot of time to make the decision. Yet there is another chance to use the same plots to different banks for loans.

But if they have a GIS database, they could do the followings easily:

o Do the spatial analysis easily with just one click on the computer.

o Calculate the area or distance from main road without going to the site/plot.

o Calculate the land value of the area by analyzing the surrounding area.

o Creating a central database system to prevent the double loan takers utilize same plots.

o Can reduce the investment time by 30 days.

This is a big factor for any banks to reduce their investment time. If they can save 30 days they can have a profit of BDT30-40 lacs (US$42857.14-US$57142.85) per year.

Bank just need the following information for this analysis:

o Plot/property location (address).

o Owner name.

o Plot size (area).

o Distance from the main road.

o Adjacent road width.

o Present land use (specific).

o Land value.

o Information of the plot i.e. past owner, case, previous loan taking condition etc.

o Crime rate of the area.

Many of the data like plot size, distance from the main road, adjacent road width, present land use etc. can be derived from the digitize map of an area. Others are to be collected from the field level survey.

2. Decision regarding establishment of ATM booth.

Now a day's banking service is increasing rapidly. Every bank is trying to take the services to the customer's home or offices. ATM is one of them. But to provide an ATM machine to an area, Bank has to think different spatial issues like concentration of commercial land use, concentration of debit/credit card holders of an area, route for taking money to the ATM booth etc. These all can be done easily with a GIS tool.

Decision derived from the map regarding ATM booth:

o Area an ATM serves.

o Factors to establish an ATM.

3. Location of the loan takers.

Bank is now spending a lot of money to locate the account holders or loan takers. They are communicating with their client at regular interval to locate them. This job can be made very easy with GIS as here a loan taker or client can be easily identified in the map. But for this, the database has to be regular updated as this is presently done.

o Present address of the loan takers.

o Change address.

o Distance from the branch and route to the address.

4. Best route of the van to deliver money to the ATM booth/branches.

This advantage is discussed slightly earlier. A bank has to analyze thoroughly to select the delivery route of the van to take money to the ATM booths. They have to think about the security. In GIS, they can do this with creating simple network topology of the existing road and select the best routes to take money.

5. Decision regarding establishment of new branches.

As banking sector is a fast growing field in Bangladesh, many new banks and branches of existing banks are establishing now. They have to take into account different spatial issues to establish a new bank or branch. For example, they have to do the followings things:

o Have a general idea of the area like land value, socio-economic condition etc.

o Locate the commercial land use of the area.

o Locate the bazaar or market area.

o Locate the residential area and business area.

o Locate the existing road network.

All these things can be easily done with a GIS tool by analyzing and querying to extract the data.

6. Decision regarding selection of new investment sites for Banks or clients

Banks can also take decisions to locate or identify new potential sites for new investments through GIS. They can analyze an area with potentiality for economic growth, existing pattern of development and come to a decision whether they invest in that area.

With the GIS database, a bank can do the following:

o Regional analysis to identify profitable location to invest.

o Identify different attraction points of the area.

o Identify the present land use and industry of an area.

Advantages the Bank can get:

o Improve the customer services dynamically.

o Considerable Reduction of the maintenance and processing cost of the Bank.

o Select the best location to establish a new bank or branches.

o Choose the best route for money delivery van.

o Secure the loan process by maintaining the data in central database and share it by online data management process.

o Reduce the head count.

o Database maintenance is very easy and cost is very low.

o Banks can save their investment related inquiry by one months.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it can be said that banks can have lot of advantages by introducing GIS in their daily activities. It can save money, time and manpower which are the target of any business organizations. It is very important to manage the data as there will be a vast amount of data they have to handle. But by establishing a cell or by giving third party the duties to manage and share data, the procedure can be a very profitable for banks or other business organizations.

Effectively Marketing Your Financial Services Firm

You've likely heard it before - either from your manager or if you're the boss after looking hard in the mirror: "you need a plan".

When the tire hits the pavement, the excuse most bring up regarding a financial advisor-marketing plan is that it's time consuming, requires consistency and can often be frustrating. We think of cold calling, uncomfortable networking events, or dreaded public speaking. It doesn't have to be that way.

The key really is to follow some simple steps and try hard not to go too far out of your comfort zone. What do I mean? In reality we all have unique talents and your business should be built around the areas you feel most comfortable with and bring out your best. A colleague once told me after decade of trying to wake with the birds... "I've come to realize I'm just not a morning person, simple as that", so he runs meetings starting later in the day.

How does this relate to marketing your financial services practice? There exists means of marketing today that was never thought of prior to just a few years ago. However, does that mean all of them are going to work for you? Should you run out there and tap into all means of marketing and expect instant success?

The answer in short is NO. Some of us like to sit behind a desk and write rather than talk to anyone. Should this individual be out there creating videos or conducting financial seminars? A better solution likely for this personality type may be to write blogs, spend time with online social networking sites or even [gasp!] make the dreaded cold calls. The individual that loves to get up in front of crowds, see himself on you-tube...it builds confidence and makes him or her feel like everyone sees a celebrity in the field of finance. Without a doubt this person should feel comfortable conducting financial seminars or putting together video blogs or pod casts.

First things first

The steps needed in a solid marketing plan is to begin by avoiding the destructive path of making too many mistakes, such as mentioned in the aforementioned comments regarding your strengths. A successful plan begins by identifying a target market. Who is your defined audience? If you think you can just market to anyone that will talk, you've just made your first big mistake. Does the dentist that sells dentures market to teenagers? Define who you wish to become your "A" client first. The financial services practice can be honed down to a narrow market. Could your background be more accustomed to dealing with the blue collar type worker because your family owned a plumbing business? If you want to achieve the maximum results possible, market to who or what you know best.

If you were starting a business from scratch, needed capital in order to get things off the ground, one of the very first items of interest to a lending institution would be a business plan. Should the recipe for success be any different for financial advisor? A marketing plan is also imperative for the advisor to be successful. Saying you're going to do two seminars in the spring and one in the fall is not a marketing plan. What is the granddaddy of all marketing that attracts more viewers in one day than many sitcoms in a year? The super bowl without a doubt gathers more views and more advertising dollars than most. Do you think they sit on their hands until the playoffs are over? They start likely the day after the previous super bowl game is in the books. A solid marketing plan, one that is consistent, should plan things out at least a year in advance. Get a large wall calendar and begin planning right away. What will make up your best marketing plan?

How will you market?

The avenues of marketing today as mentioned previously are beyond ones imagination and the likely continuation of ideas via the internet remain endless. Don't forget your personality when choosing these methods and be careful not to fall victim to organizations that promote the "one shoe fits all" -"best thing since power steering" methods. If you choose one of the methods listed below, try to partner it with one or two additional for testing and diversity. Remember, all marketing takes time so don't give up in just a week or two, give it time to work and you'll likely be happy with the results...

Seminars

While they've been around for many decades - an aging population and high commission products seemed to be the two ingredients necessary to blow up the seminar circuit in the 90's. Senior lunch or dinner seminars began to emerge as a way to sell these products and generate large commissions, which virtually every annuity marketing organization has exploited to this day. About the only frontier that hasn't been completely saturated from a seminar standpoint - is seminars from fee only advisors.

Seminars are a great way to market and build a financial services practice if done correctly and with no hidden agenda. To gather assets under management for instance, it would be unproductive to discuss insurance type products. When conducting seminars for you financial services practice, have specific topics in mind to benefit the audience as if you were instructing them with no potential monetary benefit in mind. If you plan on doing a seminar for the first time, keep in mind that you don't want to throw it together last minute. There are many details involved in conducting seminars for the optimum result. Important items of interest include the location, the list of who to invite, the topic and just how to convert the attendees to potential clients.

Blogs

Posting a blog can drive clients and potential clients to your website easier than almost any other form of marketing. Consistency and fluency are main components to a successful blog campaign. The Internet is full of material to use in the financial services industry, however be sure the content on your blog is original and not just copy and paste content. That could not only be illegal, but also a sure way to turn off search engines and potential readers. Blogging tools that enable you to write such as Wordpress make it easy to a add custom look as well as useful advisor related features, such as a stock ticker or automatically updating financial news headlines. Keep your compliance in mind and remember a lot of folks could see your writing - so try to be at least a halfway decent writer and get a proofreader for grammar, syntax, etc.

Podcasts and Webinars

Like the blogs this method of marketing does not require the advisor to be confident in front of a crowd. If you're the type that finds it difficult to find the right words or you break the flow of speaking with a lot of word whiskers than this might be the perfect avenue for you. Gather the notes you will use for the presentation, find the right website and away you go. The really nice part of this form of marketing is once you schedule them on your calendar you're able to do them at any time that's convenient for you, rather than having to worry about getting to a specific location for an event.

In addition to podcasts and webinars, for the slightly more ambitious advisors - give a radio show a try. I've know several advisors that used this form of marketing, and while time consuming it can pay off huge over time while making you an instant star.

Social Networking

Social media has exploded on the internet in recent years. Sites that are devoted to this such as FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter have all shown significant ability to build a social network marketing campaign. Once again though, the target market or niche should be carefully thought out to ensure the greatest possibility of success. These sites allow an advisor to join a group or create his or her personal group.

Should you decide to create a group remember to allocate enough time to make your group worth the time and effort for others to want to visit. What's interesting about some of the networking sites is once you've established yourself in a group, emailing the group and inviting them to your group is easy.

Centers of Influence

There are few referrals better than those that come from a CPA or Attorney. These centers of influence carry a lot of weight, especially for high net worth individuals. Most advisors know it can be difficult to develop and nurture a COI marketing strategy, but when it pay off - it pays off big.

Keep in mind there is a time to contact these professionals and a time to let them do their work. Would you contact a CPA from February to April? One such strategy can be nurtured as an example is the 2010 changes to the ROTH IRA. Would it be a possible strategy to do a client appreciation seminar and partnering with a CPA concerning the new tax law change? Always keeping in mind any compliance regulations, the opportunity exists for each of you to invite your top clients and speak briefly about the changes in tax law and the economy. The same could be true of the COI Attorney relationship.

Client Appreciation Events

The only referral that likely trumps a center of influence referral - is a direct referral from a satisfied client. Rather than conducting your client review meeting one on one in person, why not invite your clients to a client appreciation event? If you schedule an event once every 6 months, you've not only touched base in person with your clients twice per year, but you've allowed free time during the rest of the year for other marketing.

In addition, allow let them know that if they have a friend that qualifies for your services they are welcome to bring them along as a guest. If you've ever put on a client seminar than it's easy to talk in front of a group about the economy, changes in the industry, taxes, income and what the future may look like for the financial markets.

In Conclusion

Remember, marketing yourself as a trusted financial advisor is a process that involves time, effort, and consistency. Take the necessary time to do research on your method and begin with a budget that you can afford. In time your efforts should reap a good return on your investment.

Marketing Research

 Giving importance to the market research is a sure fire strategy that could bring benefits to your business. Regardless of what line of trade you have it pays to know what people are currently buying. Testing out market research methods will not be hard to do once you fully grasps its effectiveness.

Typically market analysis fall into just a few simple categories; researchers will ask potential clients and customers questions directly, or they will observe trends and buying patterns to see how they relate to various aspects of a business. Take further look into popular market research methods so you may have the idea of how this information gathering can serve your business.

Interacting to the actual customers is the best way to answer most needed questions and gauge how big is the market. Business venues often times create survey forms that clients can answer while some will even assign personnel of their company to ask people about their service or product. You must see how valuable this is in the long run.

Questions in a survey could start off with the actual product but can also bring the detail to other factors that can affect customers' choices and that can help any kind of business. It could be that a client likes your service but not the facilities in your shop.

For an online business you may get a comment about how complicated it is to browse on your page. Raw data from these surveys can turn to better ways of handling your business plus a possible chancing on a marketable product. Closely putting yourself in your customer's shoes is what market research should be to give your company long time benefits.

Sales and trending information are two of the most useful market information. If you want to pin at which product is selling hot you can always rely on their sales result. These reports can also show that even if the product gets good sales now, it may not have the strength to carry on for another year or so.

These trends can tell you which products should stop selling over time. By reading the trend one can easily see those products that is losing marketability. You may also notice that another competitor's product is selling more briskly than yours, which means you may want to consider such a product for your company. These methods of research are simple and straightforward but they do require some time and effort to recognize these patterns.

Making yourself expose to what market wants is a good step to make your company at par with the competition. A business stays alive because of profits and using effective research methods can add up in-depth value to how you gain it.

Administering Marketing Programs

 The stiff competition in the market and the economic crisis that everyone experience around the globe have made several businesses, especially the small ones to close down. Putting up a small business nowadays is like going to a battle and to be able to win you must be fully equipped with high-powered battle geared. Therefore, in the business world, you must have mastered all marketing strategy to be able to have your share in the market. One way to achieve this is to understand the need for small business marketing consultant.

It will be of great help to understand what is a marketing consultant is.Small business marketing consultant consists of people or professionals who have expertise in the business world. They have acquired such skill in their field through their experience or have finished a degree related to business administration. Whatever business you want to put up to, they are very willing to help you or guide you from the start of locating the best place where to put your business up to how to market your product. It is a simply advantage of letting the experts do their job and you can concentrate on how to manage your business.

How can a small business marketing consultant help your business gain its momentum and increase your profits?

The goal of marketing consultant is to assist and make recommendations to the business owner in every step of starting a business, or if the business already exists, their goal is to give guidelines on how to improve the business. Definitely, their main purpose is making the business more profitable and maybe a goal of expansion.

The marketing consultant can do this by assessing the standing of the business. In doing so, they can proposed a strategically viable plans, short term and long term goals, that will make the business successful. They can also recommend some changes on the current operations procedure of the store to make it more competitive. Seminars and training for the personnel are also part of their job description. In this way, every employee of the business will be equipped with the best customer service they can provide. Motivation is the key word to make everybody involved in making a name for the business.

The scope of the responsibility of the marketing consultant is dependent upon the agreement with the business owner. It may range from helping the small business in every step of its progress or some just define step in some areas of the business. In any way, small business marketing consultant will help you greatly in managing your small business.

Marketing Strategies for Financial Services

 Marketing of financial products has to be carefully planned and executed in order to avoid mistakes that can be costly and hard to recover from. With heavy competition, financial institutions have to be aware of the current market trends and must keep informing their clients about their latest service or products to make sure that their clients use them.

If marketing of financial products or services are excellent, the firm is ensured of guaranteed, quality financial planning leads as well as better referral service from affiliates. It is necessary to have a sound, carefully planned marketing strategy in order to recruit more customers, generating more revenue. This calls for extensive market research and competitive analysis and knowing how to lure customers by sending out the right message in the advertisements. It is a pity that many people do not understand the importance of marketing of financial products and, therefore, misses many opportunities to develop and expand their client base.

Marketing Tips For Financial Products:

- Referral services by affiliate service providers are very effective and a highly targeted market-oriented marketing strategy. It is necessary to have a system in place to respond to the queries of those potential clients who were referred and have follow-up services that can convert potential leads into actual customers.

- Direct mailing is another tactic that is relatively cheap and can be used to reach target markets of your choice. The job can be out-sourced, and your operating costs are well within the budget. It can also be effective in recruiting potential customers easily.

- Cold calling is another marketing strategy, but it is not used much owing to the enormous drain on time and labor as well as costs and low rate of new customer recruitment.

- Offering items having your brand identity serves to remind existing customers as well as those you deal with on a regular basis about your financial services as well as products. Post-it note pads, pens, coffee mugs, key chains, pen torches, etc., are items that are generally used as promotional items.

- Using the media to effectively advertise your products. The TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, cinemas, etc., are very good sources for targeting your advertisements. Keep your advertisements short and make sure they tell people how they can benefit from using your services or products.

- Getting celebrities to endorse the product or service is another effective marketing tip.

- Sponsoring events can be another great way to market your products and creating awareness of your products.

- Using permission-based email marketing, free newsletters, pop-up advertisements, and keyword-optimized search engine options are other ways that financial products can be marketed using the Internet.

These are a few marketing tips for financial products. There are firms that offer services as well as products to help run your business successfully.

Marketing Strategies-to get & keep clients

When you are implementing a marketing plan to get more clients into your service based business, it's important to review it and update it on an ongoing basis. It can be all too easy to get caught up in the daily overwhelm of simply servicing your clients. Here are five quick win areas for you to review, and adjust as necessary, to make sure that your marketing strategies are giving you the very best return for your time, energy and money invested.

1) Check that you're targeting the right prospects.

If you are targeting your marketing message to people who have no interest in what you offer, you may as well be speaking in Swahili for the amount of attention they will give you.

Target your 'orange' messages to the orange lovers, and your 'apple' messages to the apple lovers - suddenly you'll have a bunch of people queuing up because now they know it's them you're talking to. (and then you can cross sell them later to the mixed fruit salad!)

2) Check your 'sales conversions'

If you have reached the right prospects with something that will solve their problem, and your conversions are low, it could simply mean that you don't have a workable 'conversion' process in place.

Are you showing your prospects what they need to do next to become a client?

Are you clearly relating your offering to the pain or problem that they have such that they can see you have the solution?

Are you able to show the value and outcomes of your offering, rather than just focusing on price (we rarely buy on price alone)?

3) Check that you are removing the risk.

Risk reversal, guarantee - call it what you will - you must have it in place. Part of your job is to make it a complete 'no-brainer' for your ideal prospects to become your ideal clients, and one way of doing that is to make sure that you adopt the risk of doing business together rather than expecting them to.

4) Check that you retain your clients.

It takes a lot more time, money and energy to get a new client than to retain an existing client. Whilst you need to do both, client retention is a HUGELY overlooked factor in many businesses.

Check that you are setting clear expectations with your new clients so that they will get what you promised (in fact, you can always leave a bit of 'wiggle-room' so that you can over deliver!)

Check that you give your clients ALL the tools and support they need to fully utilise your offering that they have bought.

Check that you have systems in place to offer your existing clients a way of staying your client for longer.

Make sure you have a proper exit - process in place. By this I mean that when a client decides they no longer wish to work with you, you must find out what their reasons for leaving were, so that you can then take action to not lose other clients for the same reason.

5) Check that you're getting referrals.

Who do you think your biggest fans are? Your existing and past clients of course (provided you delivered what they were expecting and wowed them a bit too!)

Make sure that you have a system in place that invites them to refer you to others, and rewards them (or at the very least thanks them) for doing so.

Once you review and refresh these five areas in your overall marketing strategies you'll be well on your way to getting and keeping more clients.

Pricing

 Traditional pricing processes focus on a series of iterative steps to set a price. Beginning with the identification of the target market then moving through the choice of positioning strategy and decisions regarding the marketing mix variables. This then leads to the selection of a pricing strategy and actual determination of a price -- all done in the setting of competitive and environmental factors.

With the correct pricing method, the time and risk-adjusted returns on invested funds will exceed the opportunity cost of capital or appropriate cost of such funds. Thus we create value which is often expressed in monetary terms. In one study, "value for money" or "competitive advantage" was found to be significantly related to return on investment. And this can be transformed further to favorably influence pricing.

Sellers often charge at a premium to increase profit and capitalize on bargaining power. For highly-capitalized, national industries however, pricing depends on domestic consumers requirement and price sensitivity, as well as political conditions. Pricing can also be selected for societal welfare.

But, whatever the strategy of choice, profit maximization, as a marketing goal is self-defeating. Profit should follow after satisfying the market requirements. When profit takes the front seat in decision making, there is a danger of being misled away from the right marketing direction.

Selection of a Pricing Method

The following pricing methods were collected from various peer reviewed articles. It is accepted that there are similarities between the original methods defined by Kotler and that of the new ones. Perhaps some are simple naming problems or newer situations and technologies could have influenced the "slight" modification of the original concepts for the marketer to adapt to newer requirements.

1.       Name your own price. This method is now being applied to a wide range of products and services using consumer market options. Another variety of this strategy is called declining-price or reverse-type auction. This is used for price discovery, inventory clearance and even to provide exposure and excitement. This is made possible by the internet and information technology.

2.       An "Art Form" with Declining Price Path. Some items have high demand and a lot have short season life. The most important questions are (1) how much to initially price the offering, (2) when to do price changes, and (3) how much will be the price change. Most U.S. department stores' base judgment on competitor prices for styles that are easily compared. Mark-ups are made to fall on "accepted price lines". Price change is usually 6 to 8 weeks after the start of the season, where the usual discounts are 25%-30% on the 1st drop, and 50% on the second - when sales fall below forecasts and at season endings. Price is a quality moderated by factors like image, consumer experience and pricing history. However, if you get the right price the first time, there is no need for discounts or other sales promotions. The buyer should readily recognize value when he/she sees one.

3.       Price Differentiation. This is achieved by exploiting different prices to different consumers for the same product by exploiting differences in consumer valuations. There are three levels to differentiation: (1) third degree price differentiation which depends on consumer information, (2) second degree where the organization sells different units of output at different prices, but every consumer who buys the same quantity also gets the same prices, and (3) first degree where the organization sells different units of output for different prices and the prices may differ from person to person.This strategy has been used prominently in the pharmaceutical industry. Prices that represent good value in different settings are formulated based on their indicative cost-effective price thresholds. However, it is said that price setting based on performance could make some types of drugs commercially unattractive, and development of new drugs for developing nations must come from special initiatives.

4.       Reference-Based Pricing. Similar to price differentiation methods, reference-based pricing in health care is founded on the assumption that medication classes with therapeutic equivalence can be identified. Prices are exploited at difference levels BUT the schedules are dependent on the efficacy of the medication.

5.       Option-Based Pricing. Option-based pricing for products or services that have a fixed availability and expiration date. The option to cut price can have positive value for a firm compared to abandoning a capital project. But this should be done when there is sufficient margin (high priced services) and there are means of informing the customers about price change. These can be hotel rooms, rent-a-cars, Airline seats, TV and radio station slots.

6.       Flexible Pricing. When differential and dynamic pricing are combined, the result is flexible pricing. It also includes non-price variables like delivered quantity, on-time delivery, reliability which can be traded off each other as negotiating points. This is common in B2B transactions where the volume of orders is negotiated on add-ons and other material or monetary considerations.

7.       Uniform Pricing. Firms may choose uniform pricing across markets as a defensive measure against gray-market imports of unauthorized intermediaries that are completely out of control. Electronic consumer items where the official dealers are spread in many countries and regions use such method to minimize unwanted competition from the other dealers or from unauthorized importers.

Price Adaptation Strategies

Adding Value

Sellers can incorporate bargaining in their "product strategies" to allow buyers to have a say in the configuration. This creates additional value which can be done by the: (1) Use of modular design of the product core; (2) Incorporation of flexibility in product design at the augmented level or in items such as service, support, installation, warranty, delivery, credit; or (3) Introduction newer products with more comprehensive set of features, options and service dimensions and allow buyers to bargain.

Price Discounts, Refunds and Other Guarantees

Assuming that demand is constant over time and that the retailers incur standard inventory costs, the manufacturer may offer price discounts to any retailer who places an order which coincides with the beginning of a manufacturer's cycle. This will lead to an improvement in the supply chain performance.

When a refund is offered, it will be perceived to have lower prices than others that do not. It is more effective when search costs are high.

The Negative Effects of Discounts and Promotions

There are so many methods and strategies that can be used to let the company meet its objectives and goals. However, every marketer must remember that frequently repeating promotions may bring a negative effect on the effort in the long run.

Periodic price reductions of prices or offering of bargains can make the pricing policies of sellers suspect in the eyes of consumers. Gain/loss thresholds are functions of market activity, income and deal proneness. It is established that deal prone (low threshold) buyers are less loyal, better educated, not likely to have full jobs, and that less sensitive shoppers are less influenced by past brand-use and reacts more to price, feature and display. Thus, price promotions can hurt loyal brand followers who are reference-price responsive.

On the other side of the equation, a supplier can also develop a "suspicion of buyer opportunism," especially in sealed bid situations. More often than not, effective negotiation establishes the value of all the "extras" beyond the basic product that comprises the complete offering.

As low-cost manufacturers are continually trying to gain market share in entry-level products through aggressive pricing promotions. Competitors then respond by introducing low-cost brands. However, when brands within a portfolio start to overlap and lose their differentiation, it can severely affect the business. Pricing power erodes and discounting increases, creating a cycle of more promotions to accelerate the decline of brand equity.

Eventually, the benefits derived by customers can also be measured by an increase or a drop in sales.