Integrity Marketing

Two Strategies to Recession-Proof Your Practice

Whatever else may be said about the economy, the environment, and the uncertain estate tax, this is certainly an interesting time for estate planning professionals! You can convert these interesting times into profitable ones by employing the two most powerful marketing and practice development strategies for this decade: Collaboration Between Financial and Legal Professionals and Marketing to Business Owners.

In fact, combine these two strategies for a one-two punch that will recession-proof your practice now and ensure profitability long into the future.

Join us for the Estate Planning at Work(tm) workshop in Kansas City on April 24 & 25 -- and learn how to reach the lucrative, growing business-owner market. And, we will give you a jump-start on building those profitable collaborative relationships by waiving the registration fee for your referral source. That's right, we believe in the old saying of "put your money where your mouth is." So, when we say you need to be building collaborative relationships, we back it with our own money. Bring a key referral source with you to this workshop for free ... or choose to split the registration fee between you and each pay half.

The Large & Growing Market of Business Owners

When defining your ideal clients and targeting your niche markets, do not overlook family business owners. Did you know that 90 percent of all businesses are family-owned or family-controlled? And, family businesses come in all shapes and sizes. From agriculture, to services, to technology and manufacturing, family businesses generate 50 percent of the US Gross National Product and pay half of all wages! And don’t assume these are all small, "mom and pop" shops. To the contrary, one-third of the Fortune 500 are family businesses!

The business-owner market is not only large, but it is growing. The changing global economy has created a groundswell as displaced workers become successful entrepreneurs.  Further, members of this large and growing demographic face a variety of unique estate planning challenges.

What Are the Opportunities?

At any given time, 40 percent of these businesses are in the process of transferring ownership because the founder is retiring, disabled, or has deceased. Sadly, two-thirds of these transfers fail, and the businesses with them. Of the one-third that survive this initial transfer, only half will survive to the next generation.

You, and your advisory team, could change that outcome with comprehensive estate planning that resolves conflicts between family members, ensures liquidity to keep the business afloat, provides income to a surviving spouse, and outlines an organized (and adequately funded) business succession plan.

Reaching Business Owners

Prime candidates for the "Millionaire Next Door" title, business owners clearly represent a highly lucrative marketing opportunity ... but reaching them requires a creative strategy. Typical consumer strategies will never attract the busy, bottom-line-oriented, success-driven business owner. However, with corporate dollars often available to solve their unique challenges, cracking the code is well worth your effort.

Build Collaborative Teams

Additionally, during this intense two-day workshop we give you powerful tools and strategies to build collaborative alliances with key financial advisors. Together, you can capitalize on established business relationships. Remember that most financial advisors currently handle only a portion of the business owners’ financial needs. Estate planning opens the door to all of their many & varied financial needs. Invite a key advisor to come with you, and you both will leave with profit-building strategies, and a solid alliance forged that will ensure your mutual success.

Register online now:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/netcart.asp?MerchantID=68963&ProductID=4038675

But hurry, as space is limited. IMS practice development workshops are conducted in an intimate setting with plenty of one-on-one time to really work on YOUR success strategies and challenges. This is a team-building opportunity unlike any other, so don't hesitate. Register today!

For more information, call James at 1-877-352-2021, ext. 0
Or download the conference brochure: http://www.estateplanningpartners.com/estate_planning_at_work.htm

Collaboration Survey -- Please Give Us Your Thoughts

Managing Collaboration Between Estate Planning Attorneys & Financial Professionals

We are conducting another online survey research project. Our goal is to facilitate effective and enjoyable working relationships between estate planning attorneys and financial planners, to identify and effectively manage obstacles that are common to the collaborative process. Your answers will help us help others with honest discussion, communication and education. Everyone who participates will receive a free copy of the final survey report.

To participate, please register online at: http://www.estateplanningpartners.com/Referral_Survey.html

We will not sell, distribute or share your contact information with anyone outside of Integrity Marketing Solutions, and ask for it only for our own purposes to ensure accuracy of the data and to send you the final survey report when it is compiled.

PS -- You may recall that in 2005 we presented the results of our Practice Strategies survey at the Southern California Tax & Estate Planning Forum. Articles with the survey results also appeared in a number of industry publications. By participating, you may have the opportunity to also participate in any possible articles for publication in the financial or legal press. Sharing this survey article with your current and potential referral sources can be a great marketing tool, and a terrific educational opportunity as well.

Discount on Jump Start Marketing thru Aug. 15

Beating the Summer Doldrums

The summer months can pose a true marketing challenge to your trusts & estates practice. Because people are so busy with their active summer lifestyles, it may be difficult to get them to attend workshops, schedule appointments, or refer clients.

Here are some quick tips to help cope with the summer doldrums.

1. Prioritize Your Work
   During the summer months you should have two main goals: the first being to maintain cash flow, and the second to lay the groundwork for a successful fall. Focusing exclusively on one or the other would be a mistake. Unfortunately, too often we find that when the work load at the office gets a little lighter, we are very tempted to take some time off, switch into "casual" dress, and -- in general -- break all the rules of good business. This type of behavior can be very hazardous to the health of your practice! You've heard the adage, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." Well, it was never more applicable than during the summer doldrums!
2. Shake Some Money Loose
   If your cash flow is starting to waver, here are some proven ways to shake some money loose rather quickly: (listed in priority order)
   
   Review your "Pending Sales" reports from the last three to six months. Evaluate which of these cases would be most likely to move forward if you took some affirmative action ... such as a phone call to their referral source, a reminder letter, or perhaps you just need to complete a proposal or some other detail that would close the case and result in payment. Develop an action plan to close any pending business.
   
   Review your top referral sources from the past three to six months and make a point to contact each of them. A quick phone call to "touch base" on a current or past client, or schedule a business lunch is often the catalyst necessary to spark a referral.
   
   Review your least active referral sources, and make a prioritized list for follow-up. Has something gone wrong to sour the relationship? This would be a good time to find out, and do whatever may be necessary to rebuild it. You may discover that there is nothing really wrong, and that a phone call from you is just the spark to rekindle the referral fires.
   
   Send annual review or check-up letters to past clients. Some of our clients report their best revenue months were sparked by an annual review letter sent to all of their clients. These letters often result in significant revenue from the reviews; the resulting updates, restatements, and/or funding required; and from additional client referrals. 
   
   Schedule a workshop for senior adults. Work with a bank, professional advisor, or other group to host a workshop targeted for seniors. A "customer appreciation" program could be an excellent opportunity. Why seniors? Their schedules are often least-affected by summer vacations, school schedules, or other seasonal activities. While these types of workshops seldom result in top-dollar fees for sophisticated planning, they can boost your cash flow during an otherwise "slow" season.
3. Plant Seeds for a Fall Harvest
   The next most important aspect to focus your efforts on this summer is developing, and nurturing referral relationships that will bear fruit in the fall. Instead of taking time off from the office, re-double your efforts to make personal contacts with each of the professional advisors in your "referral base."
   
   Here are a few ideas to get you started:
   
   Send notes, make personal phone calls, and visit their offices. This is a good time to thank your best referral sources for their ongoing business, and start building new relationships.
   
   Get personal. I know of one attorney who hosts barbecues at his home for the various agencies with which he works. He says it is the best marketing investment he has ever made. If you are working with several agents from, say, PaineWebber, consider inviting them all to your home (if appropriate) for an outdoor barbecue or pool party. If this is not possible for you, think of some other creative method to nurture personal relationships.
   
   Teach. Offer to teach a short course at your office, or theirs. Focus on their needs -- for instance, most agents have difficulty introducing the topic of estate planning to their clients. Focus on overcoming objections, recognizing needs, and communicating benefits. This will distinguish you from the "pack" of attorneys who offer to explain the intricacies of generation skipping transfers.
4. Stretch Your Marketing Dollars
   To help you get things hopping again, we've bundled three of our best foundational marketing tools into one great "Jump Start Package" with a terrific budget-stretching price! The "Jump Start Package" gives you the tools you need to initiate, build and grow professional referral relationships ... and convert those opportunities into new clients:

• The online course, Building Profitable Referral Relationships a five-session study group campaign for professional advisors;
• Five Days to Profitable Referrals; and
• The workshop on CD: Top Ten Fatal Estate Planning Mistakes

Regularly Priced at $1,169,
buy now through August 15 and get all three campaigns for only $895!
That's a savings of $274!

SELECT newsletter subscribers save even more -- $574!
Now you can have your presentations branded with your SELECT logo and banner! Experience the power of a strong brand image enhanced by all of your marketing communications, including your presentations! If you already have a SELECT logo and banner, choose the SELECT Jump Start Package at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE! That's an additional savings of $300! (If you don't have a SELECT logo and banner, call James at 1-877-352-2021 and ask how you can start building the power of branding in your practice!) Your total savings: $574!

Click Here to visit our website and purchase online.

July Quill & Column Newsletter Online

The July issue of Quill & Column Marketing Newsletter is available online now.

Click Here to read online.

Another High-End Branding Solution with SELECT® Newsletters! When Peter Casey contacted us about his marketing, he wanted to differentiate himself and his (estate planning & elder law) practice in the marketplace. Peter is a member of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and the Georgia Elder Care Network. These are all things you can learn about him from his website.  But there is something very special about Peter that you might have missed, before we created his SELECT newsletter: When he is not practicing law, you can find Peter in the NorthGeorgia Mountains fly-fishing for trout!  READ MORE ONLINE

Marketing Workshop Sept. 17 & 18, Kansas City
MARKETING WITH INTEGRITY - How to Profit without Losing IT! We know you have many opportunities to learn more about legal strategies, and sometimes you can “piggy-back” some marketing education before or after those workshops. But what good will it do for you to learn the latest and greatest legal strategy for serving say, mid-tier clients, if you do not have a reasonably steady stream of mid-tier clients scheduling appointments with you? The answer is it will do you no good at all. The world’s greatest document system, or the world’s most comprehensive legal education – neither of them will do you any good at all unless you have a system in place to acquire new clients. This workshop is unlike any other you may be considering for your practice development. READ MORE ONLINE

Are You Missing Half the market? Traditional marketing for estate attorneys focuses on building strong alliances with allied professionals to build a stream of referrals. This is a time-proven strategy. Learning to do this exceptionally well -- better than your peers -- is key to practice development success. However, there is another aspect of marketing that should be catching your attention. If not, you are effectively cutting yourself out of approximately half of the estate planning market. Consider the single largest, fastest-growing sector of the financial market: The Mass Affluent, defined as those with investable assets between $100,000 and $1 million. Investable assets include savings, checking, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, mutual funds and real estate other than a primary dwelling; excludes primary home and qualified retirement accounts. This large, and rapidly growing market sector is important to your estate planning practice for a number of reasons, including the fact that they have significant estate planning needs, are sophisticated consumers who demand integrity in their advisors, and they have liquid assets with which to pay for your services (remember, we are talking about up to $1 million in investable assets, exclusive of retirement plans and primary residences). READ MORE ONLINE

SAVVY MARKETERS PRACTICE NICHE CRAFT Differentiating yourself in the marketplace is a challenge every estate attorney faces. One that is becoming increasingly vital to your future financial health. And estate attorneys are not the only ones facing this challenge. Recently, Advertising Age, the leading journal for marketers & advertising professionals, addressed the growing necessity of carefully targeted messages in an article entitled, Today's Niche Marketing is All About Narrow, Not Small.

They say the market is mandating messages that appeal to consumers' self-interests:

"The evolution of our mature marketplace, along with the technology that allows consumers to be in control, has created a seismic shift from one-size-fits-all mass markets to millions of markets of self-interest." (June 4, 2007)

The key concept for us to take from that statement is the idea of Markets of Self-Interest. READ MORE ONLINE

Join Us at The Southern California Tax & Estate Planning Forum Join us Thursday through Saturday at the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel in sunny San Diego for the 27th Annual Southern California Tax & Estate Planning Forum. James and Jennifer will be manning the Integrity Marketing Solutions booth with samples of all of marketing materials, including those you see highlighted in this newsletter. We look forward to seeing you there! READ MORE ONLINE

Save Up To $1,000 on Brochure Library TODAY

Dear Friends,

Just a reminder that our deep-discount promotion on our complete library of brochures will end today, June 25th. Through close of business today, you can save $500 on the standard library or $1,000 on the SELECT library, which incorporates your firm's logo, color scheme and branding into the brochure design to make them truly your own. (Both libraries include personalization with your name, contact information, and up to 150-word personal message.)

We are offering this deep discount on the entire library because we want to get you to start thinking about targeting your marketing messages to MEET CLIENT NEEDS. The power of this library of titles is not in printing 15,000 of one topic and mailing them to a list. The power is in your ability to key on specific issues of importance to your clients, prospects and referral sources. When you are asked to speak to a group, or to an individual, and you can easily and affordably tailor your message to meet specific needs, then your marketing is powerfully effective. When you purchase the library, you ensure that you will be ready to take advantage of opportunities at a moment's notice. And because your "inventory" resides on a CD or in a sub-folder on your hard drive, you are not wasting office space for storage, you don't have to worry about brochures getting dusty, dog-eared or out-of-date, and you won't pay exorbitant shipping fees. This marketing approach just makes sense, and through Monday, it makes really good dollars, too!

If you are looking for one single marketing support investment that will help you close more clients, more quickly and for greater profits, this is it. And NOW is the time to purchase, while you can squeeze the greatest returns out of your marketing dollars!

Here is what one client had to say about his recent purchase:

Jennifer,
I just did a "talk" to a group of business people this morning and handed out "Business Owner Blues" and "Common Estate Blunders." It was nice to have something other than my card to leave behind and they went over well. I printed those pamphlets on my desktop color laser printer and they reproduced quite well. I did about 50 of each. One thing I did notice is that the paper one uses makes a big difference. I used a 28-lb stock which is a little heaver than the 20 or 24 lb we usually use. I think you could go even heavier and get a better looking pamphlet right from your own printer.

Here is the list of titles included in the library, and a summary of each (to view a sample online, simply click on the title).

1. BLENDED FAMILY BASICS
   If you are a blended family member, then you are in good company. Blended families now outnumber traditional nuclear families. And the number is likely to grow, based on current divorce statistics and trends.
2. BUSINESS OWNER BLUES
   Being a business owner today is both rewarding and challenging, especially if your business is a family business. For business owners facing the unique challenge of transferring ownership of the family business upon retirement, disability or death, a properly funded Buy-Sell Agreement may be the key to survival.
3. COMMON ESTATE BLUNDERS
   Proper estate planning is not just for the rich and famous. Surprisingly, however, that is a common misconception. Every adult American has an estate worth planning, regardless of their net worth. 
4. ELDER LAW 101
   Good news, bad news.
   The good news is that Americans are living longer than ever. The bad news is that we eventually wear out physically, mentally or both. It is a classic Catch-22.
5. ESTATE PLANNING 101
   Unfortunately, confusion and myth abound when it comes to "estate planning." Perhaps that is why so few people actually get around to making such plans at all.
6. PLANNING FOR MINOR CHILDREN
   It is an unfortunate fact of life: airplanes plummet, trains derail, ships sink and automobiles crash. Sometimes there are survivors, sometimes there are no survivors. What is left when a tragedy claims both parents of minor children? Orphans and assets.
7. QRP TAX TRAPS
   Qualified Retirement Plans (QRPs) present some of the most complicated tax and non-tax planning challenges of any asset in an estate, especially for married couples. The failure to make proper Life & Estate Plans for your QRP can unnecessarily enrich the IRS and disinherit loved ones.
8. SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSIONS
   Estate Planning is a Lifetime Process, not a one-time event. Though estate administration is the final stage in the process, a successful conclusion is dependent on proper completion of each of the preceding stages.
9. VOLUNTARY PHILANTHROPY
   Many taxpaying Americans are involuntary philanthropists because they fail to maximize the tax incentives available under the Internal Revenue Code to become voluntary philanthropists in support of the charities of their own choosing.
10. WOMEN & THE LAW 
    Traditionally, women have been the nurturers in our society. This is especially true in the context of family relationships. Depending on how family is defined for her, a woman may care for a husband, children, pets, parents or even in-laws. Amidst all of her caring for others, however, too many women overlook important legal and financial matters.
11. Pet Trusts 101 
    Do any of your friends have feathers, fins or fur? What would happen to them if you were no longer around? Although it cannot replace you, a Pet Trust can provide your friends with love and care for the rest of their lives.

SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL PRICING
NOW THROUGH JUNE 25, 2007 ONLY! All 11 titles for $995 total (set up fee is waived during this promotion, but after your purchase, you will be directed to an online form to submit your personalization. You can preview that form here.]

 

Click Here for complete list of titles, samples and ordering information.

This $995 special pricing applies to our standard library of personalized brochures. However, we are ALSO offering a special introductory price through June 25th on the new SELECT brochure library, which incorporates your firm branding into the design of each brochure.

Now you can customize your brochure library to reinforce your firm's Brand using your logo and color scheme. Your SELECT brochures can now coordinate with your firm's website and SELECT newsletter for a truly professional -- and powerful -- marketing statement.

Special Introductory Pricing SAVE $1,000 NOW through June 25, 2007 on the complete 11-Title Library!

Order THE COMPLETE LIBRARY, fully customized, for only $1,220!

Click Here for complete list of titles, samples and ordering information.

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