I’ve got a great financial advisor marketing idea for you! I say it’s a great idea because you can find out so much information by simply talking to your clients. I want to talk about dinner with your best clients.

What if you were to take 7- 10 of your best – I mean your absolute best clients – out to dinner?

During the course of the dinner, you might talk about your practice/business, your services, your products or whatever it is that you do or sell. After dinner, right as dessert is being served, you take the opportunity to stand up, and maybe in front of a white dry erase board or an easel with paper on it, you ask some very leading and provocative questions.

You’ll ask questions such as, "Are our hours of operation convenient for all of you? Then, you go around the table and everyone has a chance to say yes or no and why. Is my staff friendly, courteous and attentive to your needs? Then you get feedback from your dinner guests about that. What would you like to see different? What would you like to add to our business/practice in terms of services or products? And so on. Basically, you’ll ask your clients about what you always wanted to know but could never ask. That may be different for everyone, but I bet there are similarities in the types of questions you would ask.

So what I would ask you to do is to sit down with your staff and think about the types of things you’d really like to know. Then, throw a dinner party quarterly, or twice a year, and ask some very special, VIP clients for their honest opinions concerning the questions you really want answers to.

I can’t begin to tell you how much information you’ll receive from these people, and how it will help you and your practice, office or business to flourish.