If there's one goal I hear advisors talk about more than anyother, it's the desire to double their business, and understandablyso.

Doubling your business is certainly a worthy goal, and in ourexperience, one that almost every advisor has the potential toachieve. 

Still, most advisors struggle to understand how to bridge thegap from knowing that they should be able to double theirbusiness, and knowing which specific strategies to implement to getthem there.

There's a prevailing myth that if you want to double yourbusiness, you have to double your marketing spend. Whetheror not you've been told this directly, most of us act as if this istrue. But it's not. In fact, in almost all of the cases we've seen,doubling the amount of money you spend on marketing produces onlyincremental growth.

Related: Match you marketing goals with the correcttechnology

To make matters worse, those who've tried “doubling down” ontheir marketing budgets usually end up feeling that the goal ofdoubling their business is always eluding them, or worse yet, whilethey may increase production, their overhead and costs increasejust as quickly. They will never actually get there.

The truth is, you can double (or more) your business if youfocus on the following nine business development leveragepoints:

More traffic means more prospects. (Photo: iStock)

1. Double your traffic

In marketing, traffic usually refers to the number of prospectswho visit your website. But we're talking about something muchbroader. Doubling your traffic could mean getting twice as manyprospects to visit a seminar registration page, download a whitepaper, click to watch a short video or even simply to read a blog on your website. Simply stated,doubling your traffic means doubling the number of prospects whotake the first action in your sales process, typically once they've becomeaware that they have a need.

The fastest way to double your traffic is first to getcrystal-clear about whom you want to attract, then tomaking sure you're speaking to that market specifically. In otherwords, you have to stop talking to all prospects the same. Thereality here is that only a small portion of a really broad messageis going to resonate with any one prospect. It's a case ofone-size-fits-none.

But, if instead you focus on making one big, bold promise to asmaller segment of the market, you'll see a dramatic increase inthe total amount of traffic you generate.

Give prospects something they want to turn them into leads.(Photo: iStock)

2. Double your leads

Once you've increased traffic, it's time to create a game-planfor converting that traffic into leads. One way is to pair ahigh-value offer with an extremely low-commitment call toaction.

For example, if you mail thousands of direct mail pieces askingpeople to attend a live seminar, you're asking for a very highcommitment from a very cold audience. If, however, you offeredprospects something of value, something they want — say, avaluable case study or free report — in exchange for somethingthat's easy for them to give — their name and email— you can dramatically increase the total numberof leads you generate from each marketing campaign.

Related: 5 ways personal relationships can grow yourinsurance business in 2016

An automatic system to set appointments can help turn leadsinto clients. (Photo: iStock)

3. Double your number of appointments

Once you're generating lots of leads, the next step is toconvert them into appointments. This is where a lot of advisorsbecome quickly overwhelmed, because the only way they know to dothis is to pick up the phone and start dialing.

If you dread making calls the way I do, or you don't have thetime to spend on it, your leads are going to end up wasted. Sure,they'll sit on your desk for a week or two, while you tell yourselfyou're going to call them, but after enough time has passed they'lleventually end up in the proverbial “trash can” (if notliterally).

There's got to be a better way, right? Right. 

To make this stage of appointment conversion easier, you canleverage automated campaigns using a combination of emails andvideo, sent to each lead you generate, offering them the option tosimply click and schedule their own appointment on yourcalendar.

Regardless of how you handle it, set up a system thatcan automate this process for you so that every lead generatedreceives follow-up contact, multiple times, and is given the timethey need to warm up to you and schedule an appointment.

Sometimes appointments don't show up. Don't lose momentum.(Photo: iStock)

4. Double your number of keptappointments  

Let's say your marketing is working pretty well, and you'regenerating leads predictably and consistently converting them intoappointments. But you begin to notice a large number of theseappointments are not showing up. Not to worry. It happens. Butrather than letting it suck the wind out of your sails, recognizeit as just another challenge to solve on your way to doubling yourbusiness.

Related: What makes your agency different from thecompetition?

The best way to solve this is to eliminate any momentum killers,which happen when time lapses from when the appointment isscheduled to when it occurs. You can eliminate these momentumkillers with a pre-first-appointment engagement campaign. 

Let's face it, sometimes prospects can get cold feet andsecond-guess their decision to consult with someone they've nevermet. Sometimes they even simply get distracted and forget theyscheduled the appointment. An appointment nurture campaignaddresses this head on by building anticipation leading up to theappointment with a steady stream of value-added content andresources nurturing the initial interest and reason for coming into see you.

Follow up with hesitant clients. (Photo: iStock)

5. Double your closingratio

If you're already a pretty good closer, you might think there'slittle room for improvement here. But if you were to add up all thefirst appointments you have in a year, then look at the number ofnew clients you close annually, I'd guess that you're closing threeor four prospects for every 10 first appointments youschedule. 

Now, some of those prospects that don't close may not bequalified, while others may not be a good fit. But more likely thannot, there is probably a percentage of those who don't close thatsimply thank you for the information and promise they'll get backto you, but of course never do. The challenge with these prospectsis to continue to follow up and advance the conversation,understanding that they may not make a decision for manymonths.

Here, we recommend a long-term nurture campaign; one that willcontinue to nurture the specific interest the prospect indicatedwhen they chose to meet with you. And the best part is, because thecampaign can be automated, you can rest assured it's running in thebackground without worrying that anyone is falling through thecracks.

Don't settle for only selling one asset. (Photo:iStock)

6. Double your average revenue per client

As advisors, we're usually pretty good at identifying aprospect's primary interest or “hot button” in the first meeting.Afterward, though, we tend to quickly forget that there may beother “hot buttons” or issues they need helpaddressing. 

Rather than continue to work with the client on these additionalareas, we often retreat back into prospecting mode, sifting throughstacks of cold leads looking for yet another new client.

What a missed opportunity. Think about it, how many times havewe been told that we rarely, if ever, get all of theassets the first time around? 

Related: Take an 'inside' look at your salesprocess

More often than not, clients typically have more than one needwhen it comes to financial planning, and many of us have a numberof products and services that we can offer to solve these differentneeds. The problem is, we don't always know how to re-engageexisting clients after we've closed the initial sale.

One of the fastest ways to solve for this is to set up apre-determined track of automated educational content focused oneach area of planning that you specialize in. A few weeks after yousolidify a new client relationship, introduce your client to a new“funnel” designed to educate them on additional areas of planning.  

When done correctly, they will have the ability to “self-select”and schedule another appointment to discuss this additional area ofplanning. At worst, they get some great additional education, andat best you've just opened up another opportunity with a clientthat already trusts you, and it cost you nothing. Either way,you'll be offering multiple products and services to all of yourclients, increasing the total lifetime value of each new clientrelationship.

Make the referral process easy. (Photo: iStock)

7. Double the number of referrals youreceive

We all know referrals make the best leads, yet many of ushesitate to ask for them consistently. We have our reasons ofcourse: We don't want to put our clients on the spot, we feelawkward asking and we feel awkward cold-calling our clients'friends and colleagues.

The good news is, if you're willing to get strategic abouthow you ask for referrals, you can remove thepain of the referral process for everyone and position yourself toreceive many more referrals in the process.

One way to do this, is to send clients an email linking to aform they can populate with their referral's name and email as wellas a personal introduction inviting them to opt in to receive oneof your helpful resources.  

This gives your client some space to think of whom they may wantto share your content with, and it also allows the individual theyrefer the chance to decide whether or not to opt in without theheadache of being hounded by a salesperson calling themunexpectedly. 

And the best part is, you get to ask all of yourclients for referrals, multiple times a year, all withjust the click of a button!

Don't forget about existingclients. (Photo: iStock)

8. Double your client retention

Retention is important to all of us, but especially forfee-based advisors. Every year a client stays with your firm, youreap the reward of residual revenue. And yet, less than 10 percentof advisors have any strategy at all for clientretention. 

Finding a new advisor is a painful process for clients, and ifwe will simply stay in touch, keep them informed, and continue todeliver value, they are likely to stick around for years to come,regardless of the market's performance.

Related: Here are 4 ways you lose potential insurancecustomers

One example of automated client retention is to develop a12-month track of ongoing educational content that you can deliver(in stealth mode of course) via online video. Your clients willlove it because you'll be following up and delivering more valuethan any other advisor they've ever worked with, and you'll love itbecause you'll see an increase in retention without a lot of manualongoing effort, leaving you freed up to focus on otherrevenue-producing activities.

Focus on quality rather than quantity of marketing. (Photo:iStock)

9. Cut your marketing budget

That's right: Not increase your marketing budget— but decrease it. The goal here is to focus onmarketing effectiveness, and profitability, not just growth ofgross revenue. Take a look at what you're spending, measure itagainst the return, and ask yourself if you could be doing a betterjob and generating a higher response with what you're alreadyspending.

By marketing more strategically, it's extremely likely that youcould double the number of leads you're generating for the sameamount of money, or, if you prefer, maintain the same number ofleads but cut your marketing spend in half!

Remember, it's not just about doubling growth, it'sabout doubling profit.

Related: 3 pillars of insurance agencygrowth

In summary, while we've talked about these nine strategies asleverage points for doubling your business, the reality is, thetotal growth potential of your practice is much higher.If, for example, you were to double all nine leverage points, thatwould represent an 18X potential increase in your business!

Now, obviously you're not going to be able to doubleall nine, but if you commit to focusing on all nine,imagine if you doubled even two or three. All of a sudden, theprospect of doubling your business becomes not only doable, it'salmost certain.

Now that we've looked at the nine leverage points above, take ahard look at your business and ask yourself this question: If youcould only focus on doubling one of these leverage points,which would give you the biggest reward in the shortest amount oftime? Once you have the answer to that question, it's time to getto work!