When a potential client searches for a financial advisor, you don’t want them to select you based on some arbitrary reason, such as the location of your office. You want to attract clients based on your personality, strengths and vision. In other words, you want to harness the power of your brand.

Standing out from the crowd of financial advisors can be challenging, but if you take the time to develop your own personal brand, the results are extraordinary. Financial advisors who create and communicate their brand experience increased confidence, higher visibility and more referrals, among many other benefits.

Identify Your Strengths

The first step in building your personal brand is determining what sets you apart from other advisors. Characteristics that determine your edge include your strengths, motivations and values.

When working with financial advisors, I ask them to make a list of their strengths. They often reply with “I don’t really know” or even complete silence. They take for granted the things that they do the best because it’s second nature. Next, I tell them to ask three to five colleagues, referral sources, close friends or family members to provide a list of the financial advisor’s strengths. The result of this process is amazing! In each case, there are common characteristic between the lists. My clients are happy to know that people who they value see value in what they do.

Now you’re ready to move on to the second stage of the process.

Create Your Power Pitch

Some call it an elevator speech or a 30-second commercial, but it’s really a power pitch. A power pitch explains four critical things:

·       Who you are

·       What you do

·       How you do it

·       Why you love it

My clients who have used this process to create their power pitch have dramatically increased engagement, confidence and referrals.

If you simply introduce yourself by name and position as a financial advisor, you aren’t giving anyone anything to remember except those facts. In addition, it’s important to know that the term “financial advisor” is intimidating, similar to doctors, dentists and attorneys. You want to reduce a person’s hesitancy to engage with you so that they become a client and/or a referral source.

For example:

“Hi, my name is Amy Thomas. I am a financial advisor.”

If you stop there, you haven’t given the person or group any information regarding what you really do. So add HOW you do it.

“I meet with clients to understand their investment objectives and create a plan that helps them to achieve their financial goals.” For potential clients, this example explains your process.

Finally, who doesn’t love working with someone who LOVES what they do? Our loyalty to businesses is oftentimes based upon the people who work there. They can make us feel important and create a positive and lasting experience because of their passion.

So think about why you enjoy your career as a financial advisor. Go back to that list of your strengths, and find the words that define your competitive edge or differential advantage.

For example: “I love when my clients are able to enjoy the results of our work together.”

When you put the four elements of a power pitch together, you communicate your value, process, purpose and brand.

Create it and practice it.  Wait until you see the difference it makes in your business!

Focus On Your Target Market

When financial advisors begin their careers, they often accept any and all clients in order to build their businesses. In order to create the business that you want, it’s important to identify your target market.

This is an easy process. Look at the demographics of your top 25 clients. Are you attracting married couples, men, women, certain age groups? Are most of them from a specific geographic location? Now look at how they became clients. Are they referrals? Did you inherit them?

Replicate that same process with a list of the clients with whom you love to work but may be outside of your top 25 in terms of investible assets. These are the people whom you look forward to meeting with regardless of the profit potential.

The fusion of these two groups represents your ideal client profile. You speak the way that they listen, and your brand is exactly what they need.

With this information, you can now focus on that target market and go find more of those ideal individuals!

Strategic Networking

We tend to become more like the people we spend time with, so make your decisions and time count.

My clients often list as many as 12 organizations that they belong to, in the hope that all will help to grow their businesses. However, instead of spending countless hours hoping that your attendance will result in business, try the following strategy that works wonderfully for my clients.

Make a list of ALL of the organizations that you belong to. Include work-related, community, religious, school, fitness and social groups. Separate the lists into two columns: personal and professional.

Take time to analyze each column. Ask yourself if you are benefitting from every organization. Sometimes it’s great to belong to an organization because it simply makes you feel good. Don’t give that up, but cross the ones that are not beneficial off of the list.

Next, look at the column of professional organizations. Are you getting business from them? If not, cross it off. If you don’t know if you are benefiting from your membership, it’s time to test it out. Go to the next meeting with a goal in mind. Ask for a meeting, a referral or an opportunity to present to the group.

Strategic networking results in increased business and visibility. Be sure that your efforts are time well spent.   

Personal branding, like corporate branding, has powerful outcomes. Take the time to create or boost your brand and reap the benefits of your efforts.

Jill Slomski is president of Niche Team LLC, a company specializing in personal branding, coaching, speaking, training and online learning.