To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise.
Mitchell Caplan, CEO, E*Trade Group
Aligning your proposition, your systems and processes and your people, are critical to building a successful and profitable advisory business. Assuming that you have already developed genuine clarity around whom you work with (your target market) and who you don’t, your proposition simply has to address the known needs, concerns, worries and frustrations that your target market are facing.
Once you’ve achieved that you can focus on putting in place the right systems and processes (including the right technology) that will allow you to keep the promises you have made to your clients in your proposition, in a consistent and profitable way. Herein lies the reason that many adviser businesses find it difficult to develop consistent systems and processes… they are trying to be “all things to all men” rather than focusing on a specific type of client. Focusing on a particular niche will enable you to develop specific front and back office processes designed specifically to meet the needs of your target market rather than having to develop multiple processes to meet the varying needs of diverse groups with diverse needs.
Following the specific processes you’ve developed relies on what is probably your most important resource… your people. Getting the best from your people in terms of “discretionary effort” requires you to create a compelling vision of the type of business you are trying to create, that staff can understand and buy in to. You also need to be crystal clear about the standards of performance you expect (accountability), have in place an appropriate performance management framework and develop a range of effective reward and recognition strategies.
As Jim Collins says in “Good to Great” the best performing businesses are those who ensure that they have the right people on the bus and that each person is sitting in the right seat.
Here are a few questions to get you thinking about whether your team is really firing on all cylinders and what you might be able to do to start to increase their level of engagement and performance.
I have come across many advisory business owners who are frustrated that their people don’t share their passion for excellence and customer service. Providing clarity of vision, clear objectives and expectations of performance and incentives linked to individual contribution and team performance are just some of the keys required to unlock the potential of your people.
Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.
Winston Churchill.
Many advisers typically focus their energy, effort and marketing messages on the physical process or technical aspects of their proposition. In other words they focus on the what and the how of what they do, but seldom the why. They also tend to write much of their marketing materials in adviser speak (which I like to refer to as “techno-babble”), rather than in language clients can understand and relate to. In other words there is little engagement on an emotional level.
A recent study, commissioned by the Financial planning Standards Council in Canada highlighted the difference that comprehensive, integrated financial planning has on the way that individuals feel about their finances and their level of optimism and confidence about the future. This study provides some useful insights into the compelling value that comprehensive, integrated financial planning delivers. It also highlights the differences in the way that people who have taken advantage of a financial planning service feel compared with those who have only received limited/occasional or no financial advice. Here are some of the headlines.
For those who had received what the report describes as comprehensive, integrated financial planning (I guess we might call it holistic)…
In other words, the outcomes delivered by what you do are principally emotional. It’s about the way it makes your clients feel, not about whether you’ve outperformed an index.
Interestingly, the results also indicated that advisers who provide comprehensive integrated financial planning enjoy stronger and longer-standing client relationships, characterised by higher levels of engagement, more frequent meetings and more time spent reviewing and making changes to their plan.
Has there ever been any better empirical evidence to confirm what a powerful, compelling and valuable proposition, financial planning can be, when done with the client’s needs centre stage?
I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Perceived self-efficacy is concerned not with the skills one has but with judgements of what one can do with whatever skills one possesses.
Albert Bandura, “Social Foundations of Thought and Action.”
In this webinar I provide practical, pragmatic ideas and insights into how you can get free PR coverage for you and your business to help you grow your reputation and credibility with your target market. Feedback from the live event was excellent and you can listen to a recording of the session, including the Q & A below.
Much has been written in the financial services media and elsewhere about professionalism, qualifications and codes of ethics. This is to be expected from an industry that is (in the main) moving towards standards of professionalism and qualification designations that are more closely aligned with those of Solicitors and Accountants.
I personally prefer the phrase “Professional Excellence” to “professionalism” on the basis that it is absolutely possible to be totally professional without necessarily being particularly good. Professional Excellence is often a mindset rather than a specific standard.
It is always helpful to take some time out for reflection and renewal; a chance to contemplate the future and re-energise. I offer the following questions for you to consider, and to provide an indicator of your own professional excellence mindset. How many can you answer yes to?
Many professionals strive for excellence, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every professional really thinks through what excellence means for them personally. Have you?
Results that are recognised get repeated.
Unknown
More and more advisers are now looking to Social Media as the next phase of their “marketing” strategy. However, many are still sceptical of the benefits or wrestling with the compliance implications or wondering where they can find the time for yet another “distraction” (and it can become one if you let it).
There is no question that Social Media can be an effective component of your overall marketing strategy. Component is the key word here. It will not result in a flood of immediate enquiries and it cannot replace more traditional marketing activity but it most certainly can supplement it.
The best explanation I ever heard of social media came from Keren Lerner of Top Left Design. (Check them out at www.topleftdesign.com). She told me that social media simply provides a way of developing a virtual relationship with potential clients to the point where you can move the relationship into the real world (face to face). For example, someone is far more likely to agree to meet up for a coffee if they have got to know, like and trust you online first.
Will it generate additional revenue for your business? Well it certainly can, but one of the reasons for some of the scepticism is the lack of hard data around Return on Investment, though I do know of advisers who have seen significant increases in website visitors and enquiries as a result of social media activity. It’s only a short step from there to put some robust MI around it by accurately recording enquiry or client source.
So what can social media do for you and your business? You can…
Key tips for using social media are to be yourself; be authentic, credible, honest and different. Seek to provide engaging and relevant content and offer value and expertise. Social media represents a fantastic way to get your message out to your target market and to move total strangers through the “know”, “like”, “trust” phases of a virtual relationship into a real world, face to face, long term, profitable client relationship… for free (financially at least).
The 3 rules of marketing communications
Finding more, better quality clients is a challenge that many advisers tell me they are looking for help with currently. The recognition that working with absolutely any client, irrespective of circumstances or revenue potential, is no longer viable means that advisers are reviewing the way they go about identifying and attracting clients to their business. Possibly for the first time, for many firms, “marketing” is becoming a much bigger priority.
It’s slightly perverse that often firms only “do marketing” when they need to increase their flow of new enquiries. In reality such sporadic forays into marketing are unlikely to be effective. Marketing activity has to be consistent and sustained to really work. And when it comes to developing compelling marketing communications copy, (whether that’s your brochure, website, email marketing campaign, direct mail letter) there are a few simple rules to follow.
In his brilliant book “Marketing your services”, Anthony Putman describes them as the Critical Steps of Marketing communications.
Rule 1: Get your target prospect to recognise that you’re talking to them.
Marketing copywriters call this “getting their attention”. Unless your headline or first paragraph helps me to see myself, or my situation, in the words, it will just become “noise”. In these days of information overwhelm, your prospects have become highly skilled at filtering what they read. Your headline has to get through what Putman describes as the “wall of indifference”. How do you do that? By asking a question to which I’ll answer… “Yes!” or by describing my “pain” (challenges, worries, frustrations) so accurately that I immediately think “that’s me you’re talking about”. As David Scarlett suggests in “Marketing Manifesto”, if you can describe my situation better than I can describe it myself, I’ll immediately assume that you understand my problem and that you also have the solution.
Rule 2: Tell me how I’ll benefit from your services
Sounds simple but in reality few marketing communication pieces (in any sector) set out the benefits clearly and precisely so that prospects can visualise it for themselves. Help them to see what the benefit is and what outcomes they can expect, how you go about making a tangible difference and why engaging your services is the best decision they could make to address their “pain”. Testimonials and case studies have a role to play here.
Rule 3: Get me to respond!
This where you have to get me to do or say something that tells you I’m interested in your services. And I’m not suggesting you offer a free iPod. By responding to such an offer I’m simply telling you that I’m interested in winning and iPod, not that I’m interested in your services. So make me an offer related to your services and make it easy for me to take advantage of it. Something like a free guide to “Top 10 tips for getting financially organised” downloadable from your website in return for my email address is all you need. By responding I have immediately moved from being a target prospect to a qualified prospect and I have, even in just a small way, accepted your invitation to start a relationship with you. The offer doesn’t have to cost you much, but it does have to build your credibility with me. If you can do that I’m likely to be more receptive when I receive your next communication (and I’m likely to need to hear from you at least 6 times on average, before I consider becoming a client).
Follow these 3 rules and you won’t go far wrong. But remember, consistent and sustained effort is required. If you can’t sustain it, you’re probably best not starting in the first place.