Before developing market segments, you'll need to decide if it's feasible to do so. Your marketing plan should eventually include enough detail about market segments to create an understanding of who and where your on-profile customers are, why they need your products and services, what their expectations are, and how they prefer being approached by service providers.

People judge the quality of their relationships with financial services professionals by the quality of the communication between themselves and their agent or adviser. "I cannot stress the importance of communication strongly enough," says Louis Harvey, President of Dalbar and Associates. "The number one reason an investor will leave a broker is that the client's expectations were not met or communicated clearly."

You'll need to do some leg-work at this point, since this information won't fall from the nearest tree. Because of the extra effort required, it's likely that 80 percent of the advisers and managers reading this will not complete the formal market planning we're recommending.

You need to be in the other 20 percent!