To complete the exercise, answer the following question: What I know to be true is… Your response could be a combination of business truths and life truths. Then at the end of the question, add the word “because” and then type in your response.
For example, “What I know to be true is all clients can benefit from having an updated financial plan because I’ve seen example after example of how having a financial plan can improve people’s financial outcomes.”
Now, answer that question 15 times.
Your 15 truths form the spine of your belief system and you can infuse your marketing messages, how your run your business, and how you live your life with them. It’s a simple yet powerful exercise.
To download this exercise in a Word doc, click here.
2. Clearly define who your ideal client is. It doesn’t matter whether you have $50 million or $50 billion in AUM, you’ll get farther faster by dialing in on who your ideal client is. And no, simply targeting people who have $1 million or more in investible assets is not what I’m talking about here. According to Lisa:
“One of the most important things you can do for your business is to really have a crystal clear picture of who your ideal client is and who you’re building your business for. And the more I dig into our benchmarking results and work with the advisors, having this clear client persona seems to be the magic bullet. It’s about really knowing who your ideal client is, knowing what’s important to them and what their interests are. For example, are they raising children or do they have grandchildren? Are they taking care of elderly parents? Are they charitably inclined? What types of events are they interested in? Do they go to the symphony? Do they hang out at the golf course?
“We actually work with clients and try to get them to name that person in their persona. So that they’re saying, okay, well, what would John want? Or what would Sally want as they’re making strategic decisions? When we look at the results of firms that have great marketing outcomes, almost double the other firms, they tend to have an ideal client persona, a very clear image of what their client value proposition is. They generate 26% more new clients per year and 41% more new client assets per year by having those two things.”
Bill has done one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen in dialing in on a specific client persona. Most of his clients are the “millionaire next door” seniors who are navigating the retirement transition. However, Bill goes much deeper and works with a specific subset of that group. Here’s Bill:
“We have developed a real niche and a specialty in working with employees of engineering firms and engineers. A lot of firms steer clear of the engineering type. They think they’re too picky or too detailed. And what we found was that working with the engineering community has really been refreshing. Engineers are planners by nature. They also are consultants by nature. So they respect the consulting relationship. They’re not afraid to find somebody to delegate things to, much like their clients did to them during their careers. And they’re not afraid to pay a fair fee for that service.”