A 58-year-old in your town just left a job with a $400,000 401(k) sitting in it. He does not search your name. He searches whether he should roll it over, what an advisor charges, and whether he can retire at 62. Whoever answers those questions is the person he calls.
You know your planning is better than the outfit two exits down that runs a steak dinner seminar every quarter. That is the part that grates. They are not winning on advice. They are winning on being the name that shows up when someone finally decides to deal with it.
So you buy leads instead. Forty, sixty, eighty dollars a name, shared with three other advisors, half of them people who wanted a free plan and no relationship. The month you stop paying, the pipeline stops with it, and you are back to referrals and hoping.
Meanwhile the client who was going to be your biggest relationship this year is sitting on the sofa on a Sunday evening reading someone else's page about how advisors get paid.