Let me share with you
my first marketing epiphany…
When I was in my mid 30’s working for a financial wholesaler, I was always on the lookout for how I could help my financial advisor get more clients. I was watching TV and this commercial came on set at Arnaud’s, a 5 star restaurant in New Orleans. Guests at the restaurant were secretly being served Folger’s instant coffee.
They kept saying things like…
I was stunned because Folger’s instant definitely tastes like cat pee.
I sat there wondering how that happened. What was going on that these people tasted “great coffee.”
It sent me on a journey, studying the great masters of first advertising, then marketing, selling, communication, motivation and ethical persuasion.
I had my first marketing epiphany. I call it the Folger’s Principle. People see what they expect to see. And prospects are people.
I had more marketing epiphanies – 10 in all. The second epiphany was that if prospects see what they expect to see, you can set the stage.
I used the epiphanies to help the advisors I worked with and one after another they experienced growth – more prospects, more sales and more income.
The more I shared them with advisors, the more their results grew.
It was great, except for one thing: I wasn’t living my dream of having my own practice. I took the job because I had failed as an advisor in my twenties. My wife, Beth, wanted to quit her job to raise a family full-time, and I couldn’t make enough money to bring her home. So I took the job as a wholesaler.
All of a sudden, I knew why I had failed. I had been taught “by the industry” to set the stage just like every other financial advisor. Prospects see financial salespeople.
Then I had a very frightening call to action from one of my best advisors. He said, “How come you don’t do this yourself. These marketing systems you’ve built for us work so well, why don’t you use them.”
It was a challenging and terrifying thought. Beth was at home with our first child, Josh. I had a six-figure income. It was scary to think about walking away and risking it all.
I didn’t want to tell him I was afraid. Afraid to fail. Afraid to let Beth down. Afraid to let myself down… again.
You ever felt like that?
But, we prayed about it and made the leap.
Beth helped out part-time and we ruthlessly applied the marketing systems that I had created for others.
And, it worked.
We were able to build an affluent-only practice from scratch, attracting cold prospects.
As my journey and success were highlighted in industry publications, I was asked to speak at industry events. Advisors began urging me to share my systems, so in 2009, we began sharing our marketing and sales systems with other advisors.
Our advisor training and coaching business grew so fast that we had to close our planning business in 2014 to devote our full time to training advisors.
Now we are on a mission to equip 5,000 financial advisors with our marketing, sales and business systems so that they can enjoy the Profit Trifecta – more money, more time and more energy so that they can have a Big Impact on the family, friends, clients and causes they care about deeply.
Then, When Everything Was Going Great,
The Bottom Fell Out Of My Business...
Watch below as I share my business epiphany
Scott Keffer is an international Business and Marketing Coach, Best Selling Author and Keynote Speaker, who you may have seen in or on NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CNBC, Worth, Huffington Post, Wall Street Select, Research, Money Show, Small Business Trendsetters, among others.
Keffer’s six books include the #1 Amazon Best Seller Double Your Affluent Clients® and Money-Making Seminars.
As an authority on business, marketing and positioning, Keffer has been interviewed on radio and TV and spoken at most industry conferences, including The Forum 400, AALU, National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, United Way of America, among others, as well as a Visiting Scholar at High Point University.
He has been hailed as an “industry transformer” as the Creator of many innovative processes, including the Double Your Affluent Clients® Boot Camp, The Seminar Money Machine™, The Donor Motivation Program®™, The Affluent Engagement System®, and The 7X Advisor Model®™, The Arc Of Distinction®…
As a top-rated speaker, he has conducted over 502 presentations to over one hundred thousand. Through his speaking and coaching, Scott has trained hundreds of financial planners, investment advisors, and wealth managers from across the U.S., Canada and Australia.
As a Continuing Education Instructor, Scott has instructed thousands of attorneys, accountants and other financial advisors at universities, tax conferences, national accounting firms, Estate Planning Councils, and Bar Associations. His 30- plus professional articles have appeared in National Underwriter, Physician’s News Digest, Resort Living, and Dynamic Business.
Scott shows financial planners, investment advisors, and wealth managers how to have a lifestyle-friendly business that attracts a steady stream of Right Fit millionaire clients, so that they can take home more income, take off more time and have a bigger impact on their family, friends, clients and causes they care about deeply. He believes that every single person has been put on this earth to live a life of BIG Impact.
Scott is a warm communicator with a passion for helping people transform their futures. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife, Beth, and their chocolate Lab, Max, and they enjoy walking, biking, reading, and spending time with their two grown children, Josh and Anni.