Last Updated on July 20, 2020 by Carolyn McRae
Honey, I’m going sailing. For work.
Too good to be true? It’s not.
David Edwards, President of Heron Financial Group, found a way to leverage his sailing hobby for successful client prospecting.
According to David, “What you need to do is create opportunities for prospects to get to know you in a non-salesy environment.” And sailing is just that.
Here’s Why It Works:
1st – He’s hanging out where his target clients are.
David’s firm services “time-stressed executives, between 45 and 55 years old, with at least one million dollars in investable assets.”
It’s fair to say people hanging around sailboat races are fairly likely to fit this description.
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Read: How To Attract New Clients and Stand Out from The Crowd
2nd – He’s using relevant metaphors in his marketing.
David has collected some powerful metaphors for sailing & investing and is using them in his marketing.
…”Sailing and investing have a lot in common. You have your plan, your skills and experience, but when bad things happen you just have to deal with it.”
…”We build all-weather portfolios.”
At one point he refers to the financial crisis, saying it was “a lot like a storm that none of us had expected, and quite a few firms sank.”
And says things like: “Sailors who anticipate, rather than react, will have a better experience. And in investing, the investors who anticipate rather than react have a better experience.”
Awesome.
3rd – He’s thinking different.
David knows that average marketing will give his business average results, and he’s not interested in being average.
“It’s very hard to make more than a fleeting impression on somebody if we simply have a banner up or our logo on a t-shirt… We’re not gonna get the impressions that we’re interested in.”
4th – He’s creating lasting connections after each event.
“We bring in a video crew to record the regattas. I appear on camera before the start of the day with a producer. We talk a bit, then I got out and race. By the time I get back to the bar in the afternoon there’s already a 15-minute video running. I just stand by close to the video screen with a beer.”
David then chats with people and raffles off a case of champagne or rum while standing next to the video. Folks submit their name to his company’s raffle, with their cell phone number and email address. When they get back to the office, David’s team enters that information into the CRM and the leads will begin to receive their “monthly commentary” email. He sees that roughly 25-35% will unsubscribe immediately, but knows that’s okay. The remaining 65-75% of leads will continue to receive the emails and contact Heron when they’re ready.
So, can YOUR hobby do this, too?
Watch the entire interview with David here:
