“If you’re not prospecting, you’re dying.”

While a bit bold, that one liner mentioned in a recent Fountainhead sponsored webinar on best practices related to marketing, resonates in today’s specialist driven world. In the NBA you have defensive wing specialists and three-point shooters, in Major League Baseball, teams pay a premium to keep a star lefty pitcher on the roster. Our competitive world is regularly telling us to pick a lane, pick a specialty…or become a commodity.

At the same time, financial lives are becoming more complex, especially as life expectancy continues to point to very long retirement periods. We always say that clients do best by leveraging an Advisor. But how is that Advisor leveraging his or her practice?

Prospect or die. That is inclusive of properly supporting your existing client base – after all, they are your best source of referral. And it feels good to help your clients, many of whom become long-term friends.

So now, on top of scheduled prospecting activities, you need to fully service and support your existing client base. The only real way to scale and give your clients due attention and service is to leverage other specialists.

Advisors regularly use full-service specialists for trusts & estate work, legal matters, accounting, digital platform (e.g., website, etc.), and even business coaching, but many times decide to take on the art of investing on behalf of their clients themselves or via an external model/ strategist with minimal support.

And just like financial lives, financial markets have become materially more complex over the recent decades. Derivative products in both equity and fixed income are now common within strategies. Market structure is more complex than ever. Regulatory requirements are expected to increase.

Full-service asset management is another area of specialty to leverage in both freeing one’s time to prospect as well as to provide that complete support, institutional quality solution the client expects and deserves.