The Marketing Funnel Is Dead – Now What?

That funnel has been the primary mode for lead-generation for years, and it’s the only way advisors have been taught to approach and invest in their lead-generation efforts.

Funnel marketing worked reasonably well until two to three years ago, but it’s been failing ever since.

Here’s why:

1. Everyone is using it (principle #1, in marketing, do the opposite of the majority)

2. It requires you to generate a huge number of leads at the top of the funnel (most are unqualified); then you have to waste your time in dead-end meetings with unqualified prospects who “need to think about it.”

3. You’re in a low-volume/high-margin business, not in a high-volume/low-margin business (see #2).

4. It forces you to “fish” in the wide-open seas of social media, hoping a “whale” will swim by and you’ll catch it (principle #2, hopeium is not a successful strategy)

5. It locks you into a middle-man lead-generation provider who is serving other advisors at the same time as you, giving you similar leads (you relinquish control of your ability to generate your own leads, a dangerous and risky position to be in)

What’s the answer?

Fish out of your own pre-made “ponds” that already contain your high-networth/high-quality potential clients – by becoming a trusted authority.

Trusted authorities:

1. Know they should not be visible to everyone, only to their ideal clients

2. Know their time is extremely valuable, even 30 minutes with an unqualified lead is a massive waste of time (time is a non-renewable resource).

3. Don’t follow the majority, they create their own inbound systematic, high-quality lead flows that only bring in their ideal client.

4. Consider a sales conversion rate of less than 50% a failure. They expect 100%, because they’re only talking with high-net worth prospects.

5. Swap the funnel model with their own “cylinder” model, bringing in only pre-targeted opportunities that fit their ideal profile.