Summary:
Financial advisors often ask a familiar question when planning their marketing strategy, which is what the best client event to host might be. In this episode, Mark Mersman challenges that question entirely and encourages advisors to shift their thinking away from simply hosting events toward intentionally creating memorable experiences. The distinction between the two is significant, and it has a direct impact on how clients perceive, remember, and talk about your firm.
Drawing inspiration from the concept of the Experience Economy, Mark explains that the most successful businesses are no longer just delivering services. They are designing moments that people remember and share. This shift has already taken place across industries. Companies like Disney, Apple, and Harley‑Davidson do not simply offer products or services. They create stories that customers carry with them and tell others. Advisors have the same opportunity within their own client relationships, especially through the events they host.
Traditional client events such as dinners, ballgames, or shred days are not inherently ineffective, but they are often forgettable. While clients may enjoy them in the moment, they rarely leave with a story worth retelling. The goal should not simply be to entertain, but to create an experience that stands out in a way that clients feel compelled to share with others.
A key concept Mark introduces is the idea of having a “draw” or a compelling reason for clients to attend and bring others. He compares this to using a creative hook that attracts attention and builds excitement. The example of incorporating something unexpected, such as a themed experience or special attraction, illustrates how a simple idea can elevate an event from ordinary to memorable. The experience itself becomes the centerpiece, while the advisor’s role becomes more natural and less sales oriented.
Another powerful idea is the concept of borrowing trust. Many people are open to trying new or unfamiliar activities, but they often hesitate to take the first step on their own. When a trusted advisor organizes the opportunity, it lowers that barrier and makes participation feel safe and appealing. Events that encourage clients to try something new, whether educational, hands‑on, or slightly outside their comfort zone, can create stronger emotional connections and lasting memories.
Mark also challenges advisors to rethink the purpose behind their events by asking a more meaningful question. Instead of asking what kind of event to host, advisors should consider who their clients aspire to become. This perspective shifts the focus toward identity and personal growth. Experiences tied to identity tend to have a deeper impact because they align with how clients see themselves or who they want to be. Whether it is confidence, creativity, adventure, or connection, designing events around these themes can create far more meaningful engagement.
He provides a wide range of practical examples that reflect this thinking. Interactive and participatory experiences, such as cooking competitions with a professional chef, flight simulators, or hands‑on craftsmanship activities, transform clients from passive attendees into active participants. Exclusive access opportunities, such as behind‑the‑scenes tours or private experiences, add an element of uniqueness that clients cannot easily recreate on their own. Even simple concepts can become powerful when creativity is applied, especially when the experience results in something tangible or memorable that clients can revisit later.
Importantly, these types of experiences do not require large budgets or massive attendance. In many cases, smaller, more intimate gatherings with carefully selected clients can be more impactful. These settings foster stronger connections and create an environment where introductions happen more naturally. The emphasis shifts from scale to quality and memorability.
One of the most valuable frameworks shared in the episode is a simple test. Instead of asking whether clients enjoyed the event, advisors should ask whether someone would tell a friend about it the next day. This question reframes success in terms of shareability and story creation. Experiences that pass this test naturally generate word of mouth, which is one of the most effective forms of marketing available.
Mark reinforces that memorable experiences market themselves. When clients have a story to tell, they become advocates for the firm without being prompted. This is far more powerful than relying solely on formal referral requests or standard appreciation gestures.
The episode concludes with an important reminder that while financial advisors are responsible for managing wealth, they also have the opportunity to create moments that strengthen relationships in a deeper way. Memories often have a more lasting impact than presentations or reports. Advisors who embrace this mindset can differentiate themselves in a crowded industry by becoming not just providers of financial guidance, but creators of meaningful client experiences.
Transcript:
Mark Mersman, Chief Marketing Officer at USA Financial - Welcome to this episode of the playbook. You know, I often will get the question, what's the best client event to host? And you know, whether it's an appreciation event or you're you're trying to structure it as a referral event, the the truth of the matter is you should be thinking about that question a little differently. you know, most advisors, if they do host events, they're just hosting your traditional events, whether it's going to a ballgame, whether it's a shred day, and there's nothing wrong with those things, but I want to challenge you to start thinking about staging experiences with your client events.
And there's a huge difference between just hosting your your run of the mill event and staging an experience. And you know, if if you've not if you're not familiar with the book, The Experience Economy, it's something I think it came out in the late 90s, written by two gentlemen, last names Pine and Gilmore And it has resonated with me. And it's there's been multiple editions now, I think, that have come out, but it's you know, it has always struck me because they really look at some of the businesses out there that are super successful. And really what it is that they have done is they have moved from selling commodities to goods to services to now the s most successful businesses are though and those that actually command loyalty, Are staging a memorable experience. You know, we've talked about this in the past with Disney and Apple, and you know, Harley doesn't sell motorcycles, they're selling a story, right?
They're creating stories that people tell. And I want you to think about as a financial advisor, how can you think about your clients' events, client events in the same way? And I was recently had a conversation with my team, and one of my team members had brought the their kids to a an RV shop, an R V store. And she said it my kids had the best time in the world. And you know, they just loved kind of going through the RVs. And in my mind, I was thinking, you know, there's a way that you could even amplify that. Because if that worked, you know, if just getting parents to get their kids there and their kids had a good time running through the RVs How could we even draw more people? And what's the way that you could do that? And the idea that I had, and I think that other companies have done something like this. I know I've seen this at a zoo, is you know, here in West Michigan, we there's a company here, and I'm sure this is the case, you know, throughout the throughout the country, that you can hire a princess for a day, so a Disney princess. And our zoo did it here not not too long ago. I think that's an annual thing for them, but you know, they'll have they'll hire a few princesses to come and the kids can do a meet and greet there. And you know, really, if you think about it, you're using that tool, the princess in this case, as kind of the lure to draw people in. And instead of advertising, you know, for this RV store, what they, you know, instead of advertising, come and look at our RVs.
They could have advertised, bring your kids to meet Disney princesses. And by the way, the kids are gonna have a magical afternoon. The parents are gonna go through all the RVs, the kids are gonna love it as well. It's gonna be an experience that those people would remember. And at the end of the day, the RV store, they just want to get foot traffic. They want to get people there. And if you target it as at your ideal target market, which oftentimes is gonna be
Families with little kids or grandparents that want to bring their little kids there that might be interested in an RV, you are creating a memorable experience. The RV piece of it almost becomes secondary. So I want to challenge you as an advisor. What's your version of the princesses? What can be a draw for your clients to want to bring their friends? And that's kind of the draw, but by the way.
This is my financial advisor. He's the one that's hosting it. And now you get the personal introduction. One of the things that you can do is to borrow trust to stretch people out of their comfort zones. It's one of my favorite concepts. And I think a lot of people, you know, they might be reluctant to do certain things unless they're with.
somebody that they trust or they know that it's a a comfortable environment. And sometimes we, you know, there are things that we've wanted to do, but we just kind of hold off on doing because it's not a priority or we don't make it, you know, make it something that we, you know, really want to go after ourselves. But if we're brought along in the opportunities presented to us, maybe there's something that I'll jump into. One example might be, you know, I've seen a number of advisors do this.
where they've invited their female clients to a pistol shooting clinic. And, you know, some clients obviously aren't going to be interested in that, but there was they had an incredible turnout simply because it's something that, you know, many women might not be comfortable going to the gun range and getting, you know, going through that process, but they've thought about it. I know, for example, my wife is in that camp. She has thought about it, she's mentioned it a number of times, but
She's never physically called and said and made an appointment to go to the, you know, to go to the go to the gun range. But if this opportunity were presented to her, it's something that she might entertain. And because it's a trusted financial advisor that is hosting a women's confidence and self-defense afternoon taught by certified instructors with people just like yourself, other women who might not have experience in this area. Now all of a sudden it becomes intriguing.
It isn't necessarily about firearms anymore. It's about confidence. It's memorable. It's something that they're going to talk about. And that's really the big thing that we're trying to accomplish here. We want them the next day to feel good about it and to talk about it and to have a story behind: hey, I just went and did this. you know, another thing to to think about, oftentimes we're so focused on.
Boy, it has to be entertaining. Well, you know, entertainment is passive. When you when you really start to think about it, experiences start to reinforce our identity, right? And identity events are gonna be entertainment most of the time. And so instead of asking, Well, what event should we host? I want to challenge you to ask a a totally different question, which is what kind of person
Does your client aspire to become? When you start to think about that and you really understand your clients and especially your ideal clients, when you ask that question, that changes everything. And I'll I'll share some some ideas with you. and this is one, this one's fairly common. we see this every now and again, but kind of do the private chef challenge.
You know, clients can work in in teams with a professional chef. It's not necessarily a cooking class, it's an actual timed competition. You know, it it's elevating from the traditional cooking class, which a number of advisors have done, but now we turke it turn it into a timed competition. And then everyone eats afterwards. And you know, we've seen this, you know, you've seen TV shows about this, but it's this is a unique idea that's out there. And that's the thing that I want.
You know, I want you to challenge yourself into thinking, what is it that I can do to create that really unique experience? And again, it's not always about spending tons of money or spending more money. It's about thinking outside the box and what will attract your existing clients, your ideal clients, and maybe encourage them to bring a friend. What's going to attract them from an experience standpoint? Another one might be a flight simulator.
you know, rent time at a commercial flight simulator and clients get to land an airplane with an instructor. I can guarantee you, if you do something like that, nobody will forget that event because they will talk about it with their grandkids, with their kids. That is a memorable experience. Another one to think about, and this is a little bit easier to pull off, it's probably not as intricate or maybe and this will probably be more accessible to.
To the average person, everybody loves exclusivity. So, how can we arrange behind the scenes access or a private tour that most people simply can't buy? And, you know, whether that's at a TV station or a brewery or a theater, a theater would be a great one. you know, maybe you're gonna go to a show, but you're gonna get behind the scenes access.
you know, backstage of the theater to get a sense for what all goes into that. or maybe it's maybe you have clients that are really into airplanes and air you know, you can get an airport operations back backstage access or a symphony rehearsal. another cool one could be a race team's garage. You know, if you have a number of clients that are really into to car racing, that'd be a really cool experience that elevates it up above
You know, the normal, I'm gonna take you out to to the race, elevate that experience because number one, it's gonna be memorable, and number two, people love exclusivity. So the behind-the-scenes access, you could take just about any sort of normal client event and see if there's a little twist you can put on it for some behind-the-scenes access. And the cool thing about this is.
It really plays well if they're smaller groups. So this doesn't have to be a lot of client events. Advisors think, I'm gonna invite a hundred people or fifty people. This can be done really well with eight to twelve people. You know, you had grab, you know, two or three of your best clients and have them each bring another couple, and there you go, do a behind the scenes access. I've heard this one, this one was kind of cool, a falconery exp experience where you actually have a professional falconer.
Where clients can actually handle hawks. You know, it it's Simon's really crazy and out there, but it's it's something that they will always remember. I thought about this the other day. I've got we have somebody that lives not far from me that is a blacksmith, and you know, where you can do a blacksmith for a day type of client event, and everyone forges their own bottle opener or their own knife. And
They're actually leaving with something that they made. So it takes that experience and extends it. You know, if it's a bottle opener, that's gonna, that experience is gonna be etched in their mind every time they reach for that bottle opener that they made or that knife that they made. So kind of think outside the box a little bit. We've had a few advisors do glass blowing where clients can kind of create their own ornament or their own bowl and
Years later, I mean they're still gonna have it and they'll say, you know, remember when we when we made these? Really cool idea. It's outside the box, and you know, candidly, it's it's fairly budget friendly when you really start to do the math on it. we've seen some where, you know, whether it's winemaking or the whiskey barrel experience where clients blend and kind of bottle their own bourbon, or you can you offer coffee roasting if if alcohol doesn't fit.
Again, these are little experiences that you can stage. And whether you're in a big town or a small town, there's a lot of these people that would love, would more than love to kind of show off and showcase who they are, what they do, what their professional experience is. And even if their company isn't doesn't normally do that sort of thing, you would be surprised that how many would open up their doors and you know let us have a small group in and
Then there's just some logistics with maybe some food or some drinks to to navigate for you on the client experience side. lots of cool stuff like that. I I want you to really think outside the box, you know, whether you have an astronomer night and you have professional astronomers with large telescopes, and you know, you bring some wine, there's constellations, there's stories that get told. That's something that is really hard to duplicate. It's completely
completely out of the norm and something that you are now in the business of engineering client stories and that's an experience that they'll never forget. you know you could do beekeeping if you if you have some you know some risk takers I guess in the group, you know, whether you have clients that that suit up and harvest honey and then they leave with a jar. or a hot air balloon festival, you know, where you you're the VIP there and
There's a private breakfast. And even if they don't fly, you get to meet the pilots and walk inside the balloons and get kind of that backstage experience. So I want you to start thinking outside the box. You know, we're we're all used to and accustomed to the the traditional, whether you go to a top golf type of a place or you go to a a minor league ballgame. And there's nothing wrong with those events, but I want to challenge you to elevate that experience a little bit more. The one of the key principles here.
We want to give somebody, we want to give them something to talk about. You know, I think one of the tests that the experience economy, you know, really tries to get you thinking about i is and it's really kind of the the central takeaway here is you know, ask would somebody tell a friend about this tomorrow? You know, don't ask, Well, did they have fun? Because of course.
Can take somebody to a ballgame, they're gonna have a good time. But chances are they're not gonna tell a friend about that tomorrow. And I think that becomes a litmus test for you: is would someone want to tell a friend about this tomorrow? Or, you know, would they consider posting it on social media? Or are they gonna tell their grandkids about something really cool that they just did, or tell their kids about something really cool? Because here's the reality: experiences.
Market themselves, and they don't need your help to necessarily continue to be told. So I want you to stop asking what's a good client appreciation event, and I want you to start asking questions like what's something my clients have always wanted to try, or you know, what experience would make them feel.
really interesting or feel like they challenge themselves. or you know, this is a good one. What could they maybe never easily arrange for themselves? Or maybe they wouldn't even think to arrange it for themselves. you know, what would their grandparents or what I'm sorry, what would their grandchildren ask about afterwards? You know, give them a reason to tell that story, to tell their friends.
That's what you want to elicit. And those are the questions you should be asking, not what's a good client appreciation event. We want to challenge them. We want them, we want really to take your clients from here into a place that maybe they've always wanted to try or they wouldn't ever book for themselves or schedule themselves. But boy, that was really, really cool. Because as as we as I wrap this up, I want you to think and realize that.
The best client event isn't the one with the biggest budget. It's really about will that client tell that story for years to come? Because they're not going to remember the chicken dinner or the great steak that you bought them. Sure, they appreciate it, but it's not memorable. They'll never forget the day that they landed a plane or that they forged their own knife or that they did the glass blowing thing and they created this bowl.
Or if they held a hawk, you know, they're never going to forget that event. They'll forget your steak. They're going to forget the chicken that you bought them. Or if you do a client barbecue, they're going to forget all of that. But if you sub if they surprise their granddaughter to meet a princess, that's not something they're going to forget. So you have to realize that yes, our day-to-day as advisors is managing a client's wealth, but you have an opportunity to do so much more for your clients than just manage their wealth.
You have the opportunity to create memories for your clients. And memories are the things that build relationships in a way that a PowerPoint presentation never will. So as you wrap up, I want you to think about being a client event engineer, a story engineer. And hopefully, this episode gave you a few ideas and maybe challenged you to think outside of the box a little bit. So
If you like this type type of content, please do me a favor, like and subscribe, whether it's on podcast or whether it's on the YouTube, YouTube channel. Appreciate you taking the time to go through this. Look forward to hearing some of the client stories that you engineer in the future. Take care.
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The Financial Advisor Marketing Playbook is a podcast/video series for high-performing financial planning professionals that are committed to improving their craft, helping their clients, and growing their business. Hosted by Mark Mersman, Chief Marketing Officer at USA Financial, this series contains a wide variety of content – from quick win ideas to long-form interviews, each episode provides actionable marketing ideas and insights that can be implemented easily into your practice. From digital marketing to traditional direct-response marketing, each episode delivers straight-forward and engaging content that any financial professional can use to improve their bottom line and grow their practice.
Financial Advisor Marketing Playbook is also a podcast! Subscribe today via Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast listening service for easier on-the-go listening.
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