NicheLine Newsletter

™

N e w s l e t t e r

For Financial Advisors
Volume #1, Issue #1

Dr. Lynda Falkenstein
"The Niche Doctor"

Dear Financial Service Professional,
   Congratulations for having chosen to be part of such an extraordinary and important industry Perhaps more than any other, the financial services offer opportunity for immense personal and professional reward. In an industry where mega-changes are an almost daily occurrence, however, staying on course becomes an increasing challenge. Most of all, with the vast numbers of people entering the profession, it is essential that you distinguish yourself quickly and clearly from the excellent colleague sitting next to you or residing in the office down the street. In other words, you must create a niche that you own. That no one can take away from you. A niche that ensures your prosperity in any economy.
    With that in mind, I am pleased to share the first of my free mini-newsletters, NicheLine. Each issue will include a concrete example of a powerful niche strategy in action. My hope is that you find these ideas useful in strengthening your business today and for the many tomorrows yet to come.
    You are welcome to share these tips with your colleagues. Please just forward them, with my name as author in plain view. We welcome your suggestions for others who might like to receive NicheLine.

   With best wishes from Niche World Headquarters,
   Dr. Lynda Falkenstein

A Financial Planning Firm With the Courage of Niche

The LIFEPLAN FINANCIAL GROUP story is a powerful example of how a combination of confidence in and, commitment to a clear niche allowed an already successful company to literally give away no less than 600 excellent clients. The great give-away began with the vision shared by the company's founder and CEO, Mike Crawford and his team. In essence, the Dayton-based (Ohio) financial-planning firm had, since its establishment in the early eighties, experienced steady and healthy growth. But Mike Crawford and team looked ahead. They could see that steady and healthy would not be sufficient in their future. Additionally, they noticed that the firm had a core of approximately 100 clients who generated fees vastly disproportionate to their numbers. Simply put. A small number of clients were making a lot of money for the company. It turns out these clients were people of means and considerable wealth. A second observation that Mike and his team made was pivotal in their decision-making. In looking at the core 100 group, he realized their needs were vastly different from the majority of the firm's existing clients.

In many cases, they required sophisticated highly complex planning, often involving a full team of professionals. Bottom line, doing well for them required a lot different approach than doing well for the 600 others. They were smart enough to know that their firm, LifePlan Financial, couldn't and shouldn't do it all. Out of this realization came the strategic decision to re-focus LifePlan Financial's services exclusively on people of wealth with complex financial planning needs.
But what to do with all his existing clients? Mike and his team did not want to simply jettison the people who had placed their trust in the firm over many years. What they did was approach another financial planning firm they believed would be able to serve those clients well. A firm sharing commitment to the same values of integrity and customer care that guided LifePlan Financial. If that firm's principals' jaws dropped open, I don't know. What I do know is with this action, the LifePlan Financial group became leaner in clients, deeper in niche, and an acknowledged industry leader in serving clients with deep financial resources.
Another example of less becoming more.

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