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How financial advisers and mortgage brokers get clients: a 90-day plan

How your buyer buys: Nobody is searching for you. You go and find them.

Almost nobody searches for a financial adviser cold. They are sent. An accountant mentions a name at year end, a solicitor drafting a will asks whether they have spoken to anyone about the pension, an estate agent hands a first-time buyer a broker's card. The person then checks the name on VouchedFor and Unbiased, looks for the firm on the register, and emails or rings.

Then they wait, and waiting is where the work is lost. A mortgage enquiry goes to whichever broker replied first, and a planning enquiry that sits for three days while you are with clients goes quiet. The holding reply that says who will answer and by when, and a first-meeting booking link, keep the introduction alive without you leaving the meeting.

That sets the order. Fast replies, the one plain paragraph on who you work with, and your firm reference number linked to the register come first. Then the messages to people you know, the Google profile and the directory profiles. Then the ten introducers, the review invited at the end of each annual review, and the town and service pages, each prepared for your firm's or network's sign-off.

Step zero

The free checklist, before the plan.

The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.

The Financial Adviser's DIY Growth Checklist

The free checklist for financial advisers and mortgage brokers: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.

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Where they look

Where your customers actually look.

  • Unbiased(opens in a new tab)

    The directory people are pointed to when they ask where to find an adviser. A complete profile with a named adviser, qualifications written out, your town and who you work with, identical to your website.

  • VouchedFor(opens in a new tab)

    Where a referred name is checked against client reviews. Invite each client to review you at the end of the annual review or when their case completes, and reply to every review by name.

  • FCA register(opens in a new tab)

    The public check that you are authorised. Put the firm reference number in the footer and on the About page, linked straight to your entry, so the check ends on your site rather than on a search.

  • MoneyHelper retirement adviser directory

    The government-backed service lists regulated advisers for people approaching retirement, who are told to look there by their pension provider. A current entry reaches them at the moment they are choosing.

  • Google Business Profile(opens in a new tab)

    Financial adviser or mortgage broker with your town ends here. Category Financial planner or Mortgage broker, a phone that is answered, the first-meeting booking link and each named adviser's photo.

  • Accountants, solicitors and estate agents

    The introducers, with no website between you and the client. One named person at ten local firms, an agreed way to make an introduction, and a report back after every meeting so they keep sending.

Your year

When the phone rings, and when to start.

The tax year end drives planning enquiries and the spring housing market drives mortgages.

  1. Jan
  2. Feb: peak
  3. Mar: peak
  4. Apr: peak
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug: quiet
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov, start the visibility work
  12. Dec: quiet

Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.

  • February to April peak: start by November, because local search takes about three months to move.

Two things move the year. The tax year end on 5 April drives pension and ISA enquiries through February, March and April, and the spring housing market brings the mortgage enquiries at the same time. Search and the directory profiles take a quarter to work, so the visible work for that peak starts in November. August and December are the quiet months, when clients and introducers are away. Use them for the introducer list, the report-back templates and the pages waiting for your firm's sign-off. The annual review invitations run on each client's own anniversary rather than the calendar, and the quarterly email goes out after sign-off in the first month of each quarter.

The 90-day plan

Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.

Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.

Week 0

  1. Reply inside five minutes

    Reply to mortgage enquiries inside the hour and planning enquiries the same working day, with a holding reply when you are with a client

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result within a week
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Sharpen the offer

    Say in one plain paragraph who you work with, and lead the homepage with it after your firm's sign-off

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks
    In the bundle

  3. Credentials a buyer can check

    Put your firm reference number in the footer, linked to the public register, with each adviser's qualifications written out

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

Month 1

  1. Tell everyone you already know

    Write one at a time to former colleagues, friends and clients: who you work with, and that the first step is a short meeting they can book

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

  2. Google Business Profile, complete

    Choose Financial planner or Mortgage broker, then add an answered phone number, a first-meeting booking link and each adviser's photo

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

  3. Trade and sector directories

    Complete your VouchedFor and Unbiased profiles in full, matching your website and Google profile

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks

Months 2 to 3

  1. Gatekeeper partnerships

    List ten local accountants, solicitors and estate agents, name one person at each, and agree how an introduction is made

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Ask every client for a review

    Invite each client to review you at the end of the annual review or when their case completes

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

  3. A page per service and per town

    A plain page for each town and service, ending with the booking link, published after your firm's sign-off

    • Cost: ££
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks
    In the bundle

Month 3 onward

  1. Due-again nudges and win-backs

    Send every client an annual review invitation, with a reminder if they do not book

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 0 to 4 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Ask for the referral at the high point

    At the end of a good annual review, ask who else you should be speaking to, and give them a booking link to pass on

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks
    In the kit

  3. An email list, emailed each season

    Send clients and people who asked for it a plain-English email every quarter, after your firm's sign-off

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks

  4. Teach in public, borrow audiences

    Give a talk on how the planning process works at an accountant's client evening, describing the process only

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks
The cost of waiting

What doing nothing costs financial advisers and mortgage brokers.

The leaks below are the ones the financial advisers and mortgage brokers page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.

Industry estimates, not client results

Industry-typical ranges for a small advice firm: an initial advice or mortgage case fee in the low thousands, about four in ten enquiries instructing, and half of clients bringing a further case or review within the year.

Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.

Your numbers

Further purchases per won customer in a year

Baseline revenue on these figures: £12,250 a month, counting this month's new customers and a twelfth of their repeat business, plus a month of spend from the regulars below.

Your regular clients

Around sixty clients on ongoing advice, with roughly one in eight leaving over a year, so about one in a hundred in a typical month.

Leaking now
£60 a month
Gain from the fix
£18 a month
The fix
Nurture sequence (about £600 one-off)
Pays back in
144.4 weeks

Each regular kept counts for one month of their spend.

Where it leaks

  • Drains enquiries

    Enquiries wait days for a reply because you are in client meetings

    Leaking now
    £2,083 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £1,250 a month
    The fix
    Discreet enquiry and booking (about £450 one-off)
    Pays back in
    1.6 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    Your website is the network template, identical to fifty other firms

    Leaking now
    £1,563 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £625 a month
    The fix
    A website that niches you (about £1,750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    12.1 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    Introducers say they will send clients, then nothing arrives

    Leaking now
    £1,563 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £625 a month
    The fix
    Lightweight CRM setup (about £2,000 one-off)
    Pays back in
    13.9 weeks

  • Drains repeat purchases

    Annual reviews slip, and clients drift without saying anything

    Leaking now
    £83 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £42 a month
    The fix
    Nurture sequence (about £600 one-off)
    Pays back in
    62.4 weeks

On these figures

£5,352 a month leaking

Fixing every leak above gets back about £2,560 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline, regulars kept included.

The Steady-Introductions System (£1,995)
Pays back in 3.4 weeks
The Financial Adviser Growth Kit (£49)
Pays back in under a week

Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for financial advisers and mortgage brokers.

What matters most

The levers that carry the most weight here.

For an adviser or broker four steps carry the weight. Replying inside the hour to a mortgage enquiry and the same working day to a planning one, with a holding reply when you are with a client. The enquiry goes to whoever answered first. The directories, VouchedFor and Unbiased completed in full and matching the website and the Google profile, because that is where a referred name is checked. Gatekeeper partnerships with ten local accountants, solicitors and estate agents, one named person at each and an agreed way to introduce, which is where most of the work comes from. And the annual review invitation, with a reminder if they do not book, because a client who is reviewed stays and refers. Every page, profile and message goes through your firm's or network's financial promotions sign-off before it is published.

See every lever for financial advisers and mortgage brokers in the register

Reading for financial advisers and mortgage brokers

All insights

If you would rather we did this for you

The same plan, built and run for financial advisers and mortgage brokers: the phone, the profile, the pages and the follow-up, priced up front.

See what we build for financial advisers and mortgage brokers

Not sure which step comes first for your business?

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