It is that time of year again when we start jotting down a list of ways to help us start the new year right: Join a gym, lose 10 pounds, donate more, spend less, etc.
The list is the same each year, and by February or March, most of these goals have fallen by the wayside.
But how about business resolutions?
When setting out to develop an annual plan, add an additional goal to the list. Beyond the new accounts and assets under management, financial advisers should make 2014 the year to set themselves apart, and allow clients and prospects to discover what makes them unique.
I help advisers and teams of advisers build their businesses and develop strategies that allow them to stand out in their markets. Typically, when I meet advisers for the first time, they tell me that they are different from others, yet their websites, social-media sites and descriptions of their work don't bear this out.
Advisers need to stand out and stop being like everyone else.
Here is how to get started using social media to sell uniqueness:
Advisers should know their own value and how they are different. Advisers should write down a description of the value they bring to clients. How do they serve them? What problems do they help them solve? What sets the advisers apart? Advisers should then compare their descriptions with those of their biggest competitors. My guess is, everyone is saying the exact same thing: to create financial security, help secure clients' future and help them address their financial goals. Although that description may be accurate, to a prospect, all advisers begin to sound the same.
Forget the industry jargon we all learned in training class. Go deeper and get real. Quit selling product, return or process. Clients aren't buying that; they are buying the adviser. Determine what it is about the adviser, the team or the firm's approach that is different from the rest, and capitalize on that. Not sure where to start? Ask top clients why they chose to work with the firm, and they will provide an answer.
Lead with this unique value proposition, discuss it in the “About” section of the firm's website and make it a key part of the summary sections on social-media profiles. This should be a simple, repeatable statement that the adviser and clients can easily articulate to others.
Advisers should let people get to know them. When I speak with people not in the industry but who would make excellent prospects, I often ask them what they look for when researching an adviser. Most tell me they are looking to catch a glimpse of who the adviser is as a person. Never before has this been easier to do. Advisers should make a resolution to start the new year by allowing others to see them as more than just an adviser.
Make a commitment to update the firm's website before January if it is a cookie-cutter template that offers only a brief biography, list of credentials, menu of services and a mound of disclosure language. Key things to include are a biography written in the adviser's own language, allowing people to know that the adviser has a life outside the office; pictures that go beyond a headshot, such as candid shots and pictures of the adviser's family and photos from recent charitable outings or client events; and a brief introductory video that allows visitors to the site to get to know the adviser.
Connect and engage. Pure and simple, the financial services industry is about relationships. Although face-to-face interactions are key, there are also opportunities to develop and to deepen relationships online. The first step is simply connecting with clients and prospects via social media. That is the piece that many advisers seem to have mastered. Yet the real opportunity lies in furthering those relationships. Make time in 2014 to identify opportunities to deepen existing relationships or develop new ones. The best ways to do this are to take time each day to quickly read the posts of connections and find out who needs congratulating and who needs some support. Pay attention to the goals that clients have outside their portfolios. Who in an adviser's network might be a resource?
These aren't difficult tasks, nor do they have to be too time-consuming. But following these simple steps will put advisers on the path to standing out in a sea of sameness.
Kristin Andree (kristin@andree media.com) is president of Andree Media & Consulting.
