In the absence of value price, always wins. Matt Sawyer from WealthVest summarized our conference call topic well with this statement. In this post, I will share a way to add value to your practice. By the end of it, I want you to be able to answer the question: what sets me apart from my competition? What are my clients really buying from me? You have to be clear on what you want your clients/prospects to experience when they come in contact with your organization. What is the unique client experience that you are creating?
Too many advisors fail to spend the time developing their client experience. They fall subject to the misnomer that they have a job instead of own a business. This simple distinction makes the difference between advisors who make a lot of money and those who get by. A business is a unique entity that can stand apart from its owner. The business has an identity of its own. The purpose of that business identity is to provide a unique experience to its clients which in turn, the client then remunerates the business. If the experience is not unique then the business is a commodity which therefore can only compete on price. What makes your practice special? How do you want your prospects/clients to feel when they interact with you? Yes, I said ‘feel’. To all you type “A” hard chargers who may be rolling your eyes, I want you to take a moment to think: most decisions about money are emotional. People like to think that they make rational, fact-based decisions, but they don’t. They make an emotional one first and then back it up with facts. Since money is an intangible and most of what you do is sell intangibles this emotional stuff is important. Your clients don’t carry their brand new, index annuity around to show to their friends. You can’t take it apart on the kitchen table so we can play with the moving parts. What you sell is virtually intangible. What you are really selling is a feeling: safety with upside potential.
A goal is to become a trusted advisor to high net worth individuals. This is a great goal. The next question is how do you want these high end people to “feel” when they interact with your company?
Warning: If you are not designing your client experience than who is?
For giggles, let’s make it simple. You want them to feel safe, secure and that you are dependable and conservative. Those 4 words now become the color template of all the things that you do. Everything counts because everything associated with you and your business sends a message overtly (and sometimes covertly) to your prospects and clients. Now imagine this is your designed client experience and in your parking space at the office which has your sign of MR SAFETY sits a fire engine red Ferrari. The lobby of your office has pictures of you at various racetracks and your furniture is a cutting edge European design, but you can’t figure out why your business has flat-lined? I am being a little over the top but hopefully its getting you to think. Those 4 words should also create your dress code, influence your letter head and determine the flavor of all of your client events. I promise, this will actually make your business easier to conduct because it tells you all the things you should and should not be doing. It also creates a beautiful inquiry: How can we enrich our client experience? How can we make them feel safer, more secure and that we are dependable and conservative? The client experience is the marker of your ‘brand’. It is, the ‘this is how we do it here.’ In a world that is becoming increasingly more commoditized, what will separate you from your competition. Security is a value that people are willing to buy.
