If You Want More Quality Appointments, Develop A Remarkable Marketing Story

If you are an Advisor you undoubtedly have a group of best clients. Clients who are friendly, appreciative and cooperative. And they generate great revenue.

Wouldn’t business be easier, more profitable and more fun if these clients regularly and personally introduced you to their qualified friends and colleagues?

Advisors come to us wondering why these best clients will sometimes give a referral name but are not making quality personal introductions. When we ask how many first appointments they’ve had with quality friends of their best clients over the last year or two, the answer generally is “very few”.

The very first thing we look at is their story. Because for starters, if their story isn’t “remarkable”, it really isn’t worth talking about.

A remarkable story is about who you are, not what you do. It’s not about your facts and figures. That’s just the same old talk and it doesn’t stick.

We’ve spoken with countless Financial Advisors whose stories are basically all the same; how their firm is different, where they went to school, the degrees they’ve earned, how great their numbers are, their charitable work, their families. There is nothing about their story that clients feel in their gut.

When you have the right Remarkable Marketing Story, your clients will respond to you far differently. We have found that as soon as an Advisor moves away from their old (read: tedious) marketing story to an effective client centric story – one that has meaning to the listener – everything begins to shift. Their qualified activity goes way up, their confidence goes up, and their revenue upticks.

Developing an effective Remarkable Marketing Story is a deliberate process that shows you understand your market and how to address their predominant worldview… a well documented general distrust of the entire industry, including advisors. (See Darth Vader Post) That’s why puffery works against you.

If your story is not authentic (and you don’t live it every day), your clients and prospects will not be fooled. But when it’s done well, it’s what will make your clients dedicated advocates who want to tell everyone about you. Because they see you as remarkable.

So, ask yourself this question. Do you have a lot of quality warm prospect meetings and first appointments warmly introduced to you by your best clients? If not, take a good, hard look at your story.

Client Centric Business Consulting
Great Marketing Stories

The Bad News – Your Marketing Story May Suck!

Wondering why your quality best clients are not personally introducing you to their quality best friends and colleagues? Wondering why you have so few brand new, warm quality first appointments?

It’s probably because your “Marketing Story” is not worth talking about.

It’s not remarkable!

However, we’ve talked with countless Financial Advisors and for the most part, their marketing stories are basically the same. Their focus is on how their firm is different, where they went to school, the degrees they’ve earned, how great their numbers are, their charitable work, family, et al.  

Quality best clients and prospects don’t see this kind of story as remarkable.

As soon as you move away from your old marketing story to a new more Remarkable Marketing Story, everything changes… because your story is perceived as remarkable. Not only will your clients respond to you, they will also talk about you to their friends and colleagues. You have become more remarkable and quality activity goes way up… consistently.

Developing an effective, more Remarkable Marketing Story is a simple and effective process that shows you understand your market and their predominant Worldview…  distrust of Advisors and the Industry (See Darth Vader Post). Any form of puffery or selling will literally and figuratively slam the door.

Think about it.  If you don’t have a schedule that’s consistently filled with quality prospect meetings and first appointments that are warm and personally introduced to you by your best quality clients, your story probably sucks.

Financial Advisors need an authentic story....

A Great Marketing Story – It’s About Them, Not You

Most people don’t fully trust the Financial Industry or Financial Advisors. (See our “People Don’t Trust You”  post)  This is their Worldview, a bias that focuses on bad experiences, bad news. It makes it extremely difficult for Financial Advisors to get quality prospects and clients to listen and open up.  And yet, most Financial Advisors have received little training to recognize and effectively address this bias.

Successfully addressing this Worldview begins when you craft a Remarkable Marketing Story.  A Remarkable Marketing Story is very different from a garden variety Marketing Story. It is told in a way that focuses on and addresses what’s important to your prospects and your clients – not you. It effectively addresses biases and puts you in sync with your quality best clients and quality prospects.A Great Marketing Story – It’s About Them, Not You

It’s not about your numbers, facts and figures. And it’s not telling them what you think they want to hear. That will just shut them down, they won’t listen.                   

When it’s right you are a standout. When it isn’t, you’re invisible.