Things I’ve learnt recently…

SP here in 2023! I wrote this in 2019. Lots of things have changed in 4 years and…. lots haven’t!

What it is with November being conference central? Anyway, the upside of that is I’ve learnt/relearnt (!) some interesting new things recently, and some of them are most definitely relevant for financial advice businesses. Here’s the list!

1. Focus, focus, focus. Focus on building a business around your ideal client, focus on the tasks that will move your business forward. The rest is noise.

Focus on building your business around your ideal client. It’s easy to think about all the difficult clients, but instead, stop for a minute and think about your IDEAL client. Of all your clients, who is your absolute favourite? What is it about them that you like so much? How would you describe them? By getting really clear on this, everything else just gets so much easier. For instance, open your website and pretend you are your favourite client, but that they haven’t met you yet. Does your website appeal to them? Does it really talk to them, personally? Or are there lots of platitudes and stock photography and not much that is actually interesting or tailored to this person? (Don’t worry, we’ve all done this!!) By putting yourself in the shoes of your favourite client, you can tailor everything to them - your marketing materials, your packages, your processes – and that way, you are far more likely to attract more clients just like them. Sweet!

Focus on the tasks that move your business forward. How many times have you got to the end of the day, worked really hard, done lots of stuff, but… not actually improved your business. Right. Me too. It’s a funny thing, part of you (me!) feels great at being so productive. But the truth is, as business owners, our number one priority isn’t to answer email and be helpful, it’s to run a successful business! All that other stuff has to get done, so I’m not saying ignore it. Instead, spend 5 minutes each morning to decide what is the best thing you can do today that will move the dial for your business. And don’t be a smart arse and decide that you can do 2 or 3 things, because then you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Just take one ‘move the dial’ action every day. That’s about 280 actions over the year. They will build on each other, and you and your business will be better for it. PS: can’t decide what your ‘move the dial’ action should be? In that case, your action for today is to get clear on where you want your business to go. Tomorrow you can start working down the list you’ve created today.

2. Innovation = change THAT ADDS VALUE (OMG, it’s so obvious now isn’t it!).

Sometimes we really need to be reminded of the bleeding obvious. This is one of those times (for me anyway!). The next time that someone says you should use X software or implement Y process change or start doing Z marketing activity, ask yourself, will this add value or remove value from my business? There are always costs to any change, whether it’s money that you can’t spend somewhere else, or time that you can’t get back, so before you add in anything new, make sure it’s going to add (net) value to your business.

3. To build great marketing, start with empathy, and that means starting with client frustrations.

Whenever you write anything that a client is going to read (because, let’s face it, every communication is giving the other person a message about whether you value them, understand them, etc) you MUST start by putting yourself in their shoes. So before you launch into all the benefits of your service, back it up cowboy! Instead, start with the problems that they are facing, then explain your solution, and THEN get onto the benefits. Problem-Solution-Benefit. And of course, to understand what problems they have that you could solve, you need to start with empathy, and consider the situation from their perspective. What’s going on for them right now? Don’t just think about what they are saying – what are they not saying? What else is going on in their life? What might be worrying them? What might be frustrating them? Remember that most of us are really good at explaining the obvious stuff, but not so good at explaining the grey swirling mass of thoughts in our head. If you, as their financial adviser, can help clients to clear the fog and understand themselves, you will be giving them so much more than just financial advice.

4. 50% of clients don’t know what they are paying you for. Lolwut!!??

Here’s the actual stats. As you can see, of that 50%, 35% would say ‘most of the time’. At first glance, that might seem OK, but say it out loud and you’ll see that it’s not the case! And does it matter? Yes. Clients who say ‘always’ are more satisfied and less likely to leave. Makes sense really! So, what to do about it? Well, it’s all about clarity and consistency. Your website, your onboarding processes, your engagement letter, and your client discussions should all keep coming back to what you are delivering to the client and why. And as per 3 above, using the format problem-solution-benefit will help you to explain it. In my experience, lots of advisers deliver a great service but are a bit rubbish at explaining quite what it is that they do, usually because they default back to explaining the advice process rather than what problems they are solving for clients. Made worse if they haven’t determined their ideal client, because then what they are saying becomes even more generic.

5. Cost is not (always) the issue. Check out this ASIC research.

Cost is not the issue. And just to counteract the negativity above, check this out. Our good friends at ASIC have recently done some research into financial advice, and one of the things they considered was why people don’t get financial advice. Only 35% said it was because of cost. So whatever you do, don’t think that just because some clients decline to go ahead with your services means you are charging too much.

6. Unless you aren't charging enough! Get your free repricing ebook here.

I presented at the IFA Client Experience Workshops on pricing. It was lots of fun, but I only had 25 minutes and pricing is a big topic. So rather than just gloss over things, I Ieft repricing out of my speech and instead wrote an ebook on the topic.

Well done if you're read this far. I would reward you with one of my terrible jokes but you'd probably just unsubscribe in horror. Instead, I leave you with this (somewhat bastardised) quote from numerous sources "Resisting change is like trying to hold your breath – even if you're successful, it won't end well."