Too often, advisors cannot successfully separate themselves from the pack. It results in fewer leads, fewer conversions of the leads they do get, and ultimately slow growth. Those that can effectively differentiate themselves will be much better at generating new business.

C. Richard Weylman, chairman of Weylman Consulting Group, presented at the 2014 Financial Advisor Retirement Symposium, which had more than 500 attendees, on the topic of clarifying the value you deliver.

Key Questions To Ask

Weylman started out by making it clear advisors have lots of competition for not just prospects, but also each advisor’s existing client base. Clients are at a greater risk of leaving if the value delivered to them is not clear. If the information provided is ubiquitous, it does not do much good.

Advisors need to be able to answer the question, “Why should I buy from you?” Weylman drove this home by stating that there has been a power shift. He added, “The power has gone from the buyer to the seller.”

He had the attendees write down their answer to the above question and then challenged them to ask themselves:

  • Does it capture attention?
  • Does it clarify your value?
  • Does it clarify the value prospects will receive from you?
  • It is possible that someone just like you wrote down the same thing?
  • Does it position you distinctly from all others?

Clients will say, “We look for a promise of outcome,” shared Weylman. He went on to say, “A features or attributes orientation does not connect with the mind or emotions of the prospect or client.”

Why Do Clients Buy From You?

Weylman guessed that advisors wrote down their value as things like, “We deliver excellent service,” and “We take a conservative approach of investing.” Although those are good things, they might not differentiate a business, since many competitors are saying the exact same thing.

It can also be an issue that advisors go into too much detail about what they do. Weylman (and Deena Katz, chairman of Evensky & Katz and at associate professor at Texas Tech, in an earlier session) gave an example of a watch. Do most people want to know about how a watch works? No. They just want to know what time it is and that the watch works.

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