How you invite clients and prospects is the key to success

The invitation is critically important to get the right people to attend. Consider the following talking points (to be used by you, not your assistant):

“We’re hosting a wine tasting at XYZ Vineyard on May 16, and we really hope you can make it. It’s for a small group of some of our best clients. It’ll be all fun, no business. Are you and (spouse’s name) free?” (Wait for response.) If they express interest in attending: “Great, I’ll circle back with you in a week or so to confirm.

Determine who's doing what

Determine who’ll be responsible for the logistics of the happening (i.e., invitations, venue, etc.). Then begin listing the clients and potential guests who will be invited. Call each personally and invite them to the activity. Limit your list to two to four client couples and two to four of your clients’ guests. This size allows you to have time to strengthen client relationships, while also developing new relationships. Smaller gatherings encourage invitees to bring guests, especially if you’ve suggest they bring a specific person by name. In other words, “Bring Sally Smith with you” rather than simply “Bring a guest.”

Don't talk business

A fun, non-business event is safe for people to ask you questions related to their investments. However, don’t get into too much detail. If someone asks you quite a lot of these questions, set up a follow-up meeting. You might say, “It’s probably not the best time for us to dive into this topic tonight, but I’d love to connect with you sometime next week. Are you free?”

How to follow up

Follow-up with every guest. If business was discussed, suggest scheduling a follow-up meeting to continue that conversation. If conversations were purely social, propose a secondary social point of contact, like a lunch meeting.

Many elite financial professionals hold occasions like this on a monthly to bi-monthly basis. When you do these consistently, you might even start getting invited to events clients and their guests hold.