Editor’s Note: This article is based on Steve Sanduski’s podcast interview with Steve Woodruff, the “King of Clarity.” To access more than 100 interviews with industry leaders, subscribe for free to Steve’s podcast, Between Now and Success by clicking here.
Many advisors don’t do a thorough enough job defining themselves to an ever-more-crowded marketplace. “We help you achieve your financial goals” might fit well on your website’s masthead, but does a phrase like that really say anything meaningful about who you are as an advisor, what kind of value you bring to the planning process and who your ideal clients are?
I didn’t think so.
5 Questions
Steve Woodruff, the “King of Clarity” and author of “Clarity Wins: Get Heard, Get Referred,” joined my podcast and we discussed the five questions he believes all business owners need to ask themselves about their branding and messaging so people will have a clear reason to hire you.
1. What?
“What exactly is the thing that you do? The product that you have, the service that you have, the knowledge that you're imparting, what's the thing? It's got to be in very practical terms that any human being can understand,” said Steve.
We only have a few seconds to grab a prospect’s attention before their brain gets bored and they click over to the next search result. That’s why a bland jumble of what Steve calls “commodity language” on your website can be such a mistake. There are probably dozens of financial advisors in your town who can help clients “plan for the future” or “achieve their goals.”
“That's what I call a factual statement,” said Steve. “It's factually correct, but anybody could say it. It has zero differentiation, and it's boring. So what we have to do is take things like factual statements and turn them into something that has more personal emotional content.”