Strategies for Winning All the Business You Want.
The Archives
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04.04.123 Steps to Create a Memorable StoryWhat’s Your Story? Telling a story or vignette around what your firm does is often the best way to get someone to remember you and what you do. Storytelling is the art of conveying events that paint a picture in the listeners mind. In fact, if you really want someone to remember what you are saying - follow your lists of data, statistics and facts with a story that allows people to better connect with and recall the information. And, sharing a story about someone who used your services is much more powerful than trying to sell someone on what you do ...
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03.28.12Your Best Marketing is NOT Your MarketingSometimes, your most powerful strategy for gaining new prospects and clients, increasing website visitors, and getting more calls to your office is … your service! There is no doubt that marketing is critical, but without good service, your marketing is just noise. In fact, some of your advertising and marketing will be loud noise that is avoided. Marketing will often not resonate with people because they see it as a sales effort. And, people inherently don’t want to be sold – they want to make up their own mind about the choices they ...
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03.21.12Can Prospects Find You? 4 Simple Steps to Increase Your SearchabilityToday, most people use Google or other search engines to search for people, companies and resources. Sometimes, even today, it can be difficult to find a specific person online. The big issue for professionals is that 9 out of 10 people will search for a professional before meeting with them (doctor, lawyer, financial advisor, architect, consultant, etc). If a professional can’t be found it certainly doesn’t make a good first impression. In fact, the person searching may just end up finding someone else. Here are 4 simple and quick ways to increase your online presence and searchability. 1. Update your free Google ...
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03.13.12The Number One Marketing MistakeThe number one mistake in marketing is… NOT messaging yourself and your business properly. You can set your marketing budget as high as you would like, but if your messaging fails to properly present you and your firm, it’s wasted money. Many people just assume that they need to be doing more if they want to win more business. Sometimes, it is just a matter of rewording and better defining the core of who you are and what you do as a company that makes all of the difference. Are you presenting yourself and your firm with words that attract and ...
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03.07.12Loyalty Is DeadIt’s official. Loyalty is dead. When Peyton Manning, who IS the Indianapolis Colts franchise, is no longer a Colt, we have proof that loyalty doesn’t always win out. We want to believe that our favorite players will stay because of the strong bond that has been built. At our core, it is in our nature to want loyalty to win out! Both as a fan and in business, we want to believe that relationships matter. We hope that if we treat other well and build strong bonds that somehow this matters. It really makes you think ...
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02.29.12Transform Stale Messaging with 5 Key QuestionsIs your messaging bland and forgetful? Your messaging is a critical part of your brand. It is essential that you take the time truly define and message your benefits. When you create, define and refine the exact messaging for your firm, the first goal is to make it crystal clear what you do and the second is to peak the readers interest leaving them feeling that they might be making a mistake if they don’t at least find out more. Many businesses spend weeks and months focusing on precise messaging to get the benefit ...
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02.22.12Expose Your Uniqueness to Your Target MarketNot finding a way to actively share with others what you do negates your best chance of ever being able to serve them. Here’s one way firms are sharing their best attributes with the world: Online Exposure – Social media is not going away! Most consumers, before going to an appointment with a business or another professional, will conduct a Google search. What they find will determine the decision they make to move forward or move elsewhere. Those with a strong online presence today TRULY stand apart. For financial advisors, compliance has made it difficult ...
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02.14.12Creating a Surprising ExperienceThe litmus test of whether or not you are creating an experience that people find exceedingly valuable can be quantified by the number of referrals you receive. Acquiring referrals has little to do with how often you ask, but rather reliant on how you make them feel. Even more so, making an introduction happens most frequently when the client is actually surprised by how they feel about you. The ‘surprising experience’ as defined by a multi-million dollar producing advisor - “I focus on listening more than 50% of every meeting. If I can keep this in check and not talk too ...
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02.08.12Sell Your Uniqueness to Win More BusinessStanding out from the crowd is not an easy task. For instance, in the financial services industry there are countless advisors, and those calling themselves financial advisors, trying to differentiate themselves. Most have similar offerings and compliance departments that keep descriptions of products and services fairly black and white. However, amidst that, there are simple questions a firm can ask to uncover why people work with you and how you can communicate that in a compelling way to win more business. Identify the Most Unique Aspect of Your Firm. Identifying what is unique ...
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02.01.12What is Your Simple, Repeatable Statement of Value?The biggest mistake made in marketing — and a reason that success can be so elusive— is to not clearly explain who you are and what you offer. At a business function, when someone asks what you do, how do you answer? Many advisors simply say, “I’m a financial advisor.” Oftentimes, however, when that question is asked, because of misconceived perceptions about the industry, your black and white answer actually causes people to want to talk with you less! And we know this! For the past 12 months I have asked groups of financial advisors how they answer this question and ...
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