Find out what your rivals are doing

When it comes to developing a marketing strategy, financial advisers should focus on the needs and wants of clients and prospects, as well as their own strengths and weaknesses. But analyzing the competition is important, too.

Being aware of the messages that your competitors are sending to your clients and prospects is critical marketing intelligence.

This message was driven home to me recently when, after speaking about “positioning,” I was asked by an adviser to read his brochure to see how he had positioned his practice.

According to the brochure, the quality that set him apart from other advisers was that his business was fee-based, rather than commission-based. I explained that an adviser’s method of compensation once may have been a major point of differentiation, but is not any longer as most financial services firms offer clients a fee-based option.

Had the adviser been more attuned to the competition, he might have known this.

Ask yourself the following three questions (and do some work to determine the answers, of course) and you will be on your way to a better understanding of your competitive landscape.

Who are your competitors? Consider the advisory firms operating in your geographic area. These may include national banks (and their brokerage arms), regional and community banks, wirehouses, national brokerage firms such as Edward Jones and The Charles Schwab Corp., adviser-owned firms working through independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisory firms of all sizes.

Looking at the full complement of competition can be overwhelming, but it also gives you an idea of what your prospective clients face when they seek an adviser. Group the competition by type — bank, brokerage firm, RIA — and compare how your firm stacks up (both positively and negatively) in terms of products and services.

Next, take a closer look at the five or six firms that your typical prospect most likely would consider.

This set is likely to include firms that are similar to yours in size and approach, but not exclusively. The bank in your town may have a trust officer who is an expert in working with your niche market, or there may be an accountant who has successfully wooed the small businesses that you have been targeting.

One way to get a broader sense of your competition is to ask members of your professional network or local business for the names of the companies they see as your primary competitors. Their answers may surprise you — and shed light on how they view your firm.

Also, don’t forget to ask new clients about the firms they considered before selecting yours, and ask prospects to whom they spoke.

What is their positioning? Thanks to the Internet, it isn’t difficult to learn how your competitors position themselves, as well as who they are targeting. That information is usually right on the company’s website.

You also may find information on competitors’ target market under a section with a title such as “Who We Serve.” Alternatively, you may need to draw some conclusions based on the products mentioned or the tone and style of the site.

Also on a competitor’s website, you are likely to find information about the brochures, newsletters and other marketing materials they use, as well as the special skills and qualifications of their key personnel.

What products and services do they offer? Firms often list their products and services on their website or in marketing materials, but not always. To learn more, you may want to consider having a friend or someone from your firm “shop” the competition.

Without asking for or accepting anything as time-consuming to prepare as a financial plan, the shopper poses as a prospective customer. Arm the shopper with a list of questions about the firm’s products and services (and the reasons for asking the questions) and have the shopper take notes, which is what a prospective customer would do.

In addition to learning about your competitors’ products and services, the shopping process reveals their sales processes and follow-up, which should be valuable intelligence in evaluating your own methods.

Understanding who your competitors are, how they position themselves and what they offer should give you a leg up in the battle for clients.

Libby Dubick is president of Dubick & Associates Ltd., a marketing consulting firm for advisers and financial services firms. She can be reached at [email protected].

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Related Topics: Marketing Strategies