I’ve been talking to lots of advisors eager to communicate their value to clients. It’s hard to create a successful brand. Even harder, the good old days are gone and what worked in the old days is gone too. Here’s the financial world of before:
- Limited – Access was limited to professionals
- Controlled – Activity centered in a few channels
- Elite – Financial services was a luxury
- Elevated – Clients were privileged to be served
- Exclusive – Only professionals held the knowledge
Take a moment to look at the list above. It’s largely irrelevant. Financial services is no longer an elite luxury. It’s a commodity. Wow! It was so much easier to brand a luxury than a commodity. Luxury is by definition unique. Now that it’s a commodity, here’s financial world of today:
- Commonplace – Anyone can access financial products
- Open – Services are sold in multiple channels geographically and digitally
- Cheap – Even those with little money can participate
- Demoted – Clients don’t need a professional to buy
- Everywhere – Information is streamed 24/7 from multiple sources
We all know how much things have changed, but old habits die hard. Marketing a unique, exclusive, luxury brand is completely different than branding your value in a sea of commodities.
What’s your value? It used to be access to a limited, elite and exclusive service. Not anymore.
What’s your value now?
You have a lot of value, it’s just different than it used to be.
Tip of the Day:
Look at the top list. Consider what part of your branding and value proposition might be old world. If that’s still working for you, Bravo! You’ve successfully branded yourself in a commoditized market. If, it’s not working for you anymore. Think again. Brand your value in the new world.
Story of the Day:
I was talking this week to a fabulous client. We’ve been working on a model for building client advocates. Even though she’d been taught the “proven method” by high profile “industry experts” she intuitively resisted it. Despite the experts command to: “Do it exactly as we say – we know what we’re talking about!”, my client hesitated. It just didn’t match her common sense understanding of the marketplace today.
When I affirmed her intuition, it was such a relief. The “proven-method” was straight out of the old playbook. She was exactly right to resist it! We went on to create a “new world” method of building client advocacy.
Guess what? She rolled this out and her clients LOVE IT! She has gotten great response and it will be a smashing success!
Resource of the Day
If your good common sense is telling you that something needs to change – LISTEN to IT! Even more, if your are being sold “proven-methods” that just don’t seem to fit – You’re probably completely RIGHT! Remember, you know more about your practice and your clients than anyone. Create a new world value proposition.
PS Feel free to reach out to me anytime – My goal is is to promote your success!
