Invitation from a broker Reprinted from the Minneapolis Star Tribune An invitation arrives in the mail, personally addressed to you. What could it be? A wedding? A graduation? A house-warming party? You tear open the envelope, flip open the card, and…lucky you—it’s an investment seminar by a local financial advisor.  Depending on where you live and how much you earn, invitations to investment seminars and free dinners seem to arrive in the mail on a non-stop basis. But does the rubber chicken seminar circuit really work? If you’re on the market for a new advisor, a seminar may be a good way to size up the broker and get a free meal in the process. But for brokers in search of clients, the seminar circuit is not nearly as effective as it was a decade or two ago. “The traditional direct mail seminar events don’t have the same draw that they once did,” says Paula Carlson, president of Minneapolis-based POP Wealth Marketing. Seminar dinners can cost a broker thousands of dollars—including targeted mailing lists, invitations, postage, and dinner—and the payback can be abysmal. “You’re likely to get less than a 1 percent response from your mailing, and many of the people who do show up are regulars on the free-dinner circuit. A broker can easily spend $10,000 on these events and still end up with no new clients.” The most common way for investors to find a new broker is through a referral from their accountant, their attorney or a close friend. That’s why Carlson suggests that instead of relying on mass mailings, a more effective approach for advisors is to host a special event for their clients and ask them to invite some of their friends.  “Special events are a fabulous way to get to know my clients and to make an introduction to a new prospect,” says Michael Matheson, an advisor with the Financial Dimensions Group in Minneapolis. Matheson invites his clients and their friends to Guthrie events, Twins and Vikings games, and boat cruises on the St. Croix and Lake Minnetonka. He has also done chef’s table events at exclusive restaurants, such as Ristorante Luci in St. Paul. “These types of events really help me solidify my relationship with my clients and it gives their friends an opportunity to get acquainted with me outside of the business environment. It’s great for client retention as well as for meeting new prospects.”  “I try to tailor my events specifically to my clients’ interests,” explains Valerie Manley, an Ameriprise Financial advisor based in Lake Elmo. “It gives me a chance to strengthen my relationship with my clients.” It also gives her a chance to meet some of her clients’ best friends. Manley recently invited some of her clients and their friends to the world premier of the Grapes of Wrath opera at the Ordway. Before the opera, she entertained them at a special dinner at the James J. Hill Library where her group had a chance to dine with one of the creative people from the opera. Manley has also hosted cooking classes at the Galleria and holiday events at art galleries. She even took one of her clients in France to a ballet in Paris. Once in the dead of winter, she hosted a special luncheon in a greenhouse full of roses and brought in a horticulturist to speak to the group. “I always try to do events for my clients that they wouldn’t have the ability or the resources to do on their own.”  “From an investor’s perspective,” adds Carlson, “special events are a great way to meet a new advisor because you get an opportunity to get to know them without divulging any of your personal financial information.” Carlson, whose company helps advisors acquire clients through special events, once reserved Nordstrom at the Mall of America for an entire evening for 50 advisors and their guests. With a jazz band playing in the background, guests had a chance to enjoy wine, beer and chocolate tasting, do some personal shopping with a Nordstrom consultant, have their golf swing analyzed by a PGA professional, and learn some trick shots from a billiards wizard. “It’s important for advisors to give their clients and prospects an experience that will have a lasting impression,” says Carlson. “But the final test for the investor is whether or not the advisor follows up with a thank-you and an invitation for a personal consultation. If there’s no follow-up, no matter how grand the event, you should write off that advisor. In the end, it’s not the hoopla that really matters—it’s the service.”