Will you marry me?

 by Tony Vidler.

I have no idea what the actual statistics would be, but I am willing to wager that the success rate of popping the question "will you marry me?" onto a prospective partner who you have not yet dated is probably pretty low.  

If you've dated for a bit, the odds get a bit better, though only marginally so.  If you've been engaged for a while and everyone knows what the end game is, then the odds are pretty good that you will get a "yes" to "will you marry me?".

How does this apply to financial advice?  Well...the biggest problem with financial adviser marketing is the tendency to pop the "will you marry me" question to people who haven't decided yet whether they want to spend a Saturday night with you. 

This lies at the heart of dealing with a common adviser question: "How can I make my marketing more effective?"

Before answering this question though it is important to understand a more fundamental question: What is the difference between marketing and selling?

Many advisers seem to think that these are one and the same thing.  Or, if pressed a little further, "marketing" is often confused with "advertising".   Marketing does include advertising... as it also includes having a clear value proposition, understanding the target market, the branding of the individual and the branding of the business entity, and a number of other things.

Thinking bigger picture though; marketing is really about creating opportunities to gain a client or some new business.  Selling is the process of converting that opportunity into an actual piece of business that your accountant can see.

To answer the question posed at the outset then, one has to understand that while there may be many components that go into creating really effective marketing, the underlying question that the adviser is really asking is "how can I create more opportunities to engage with people who would be willing to take the actions I would recommend"?

The part that really matters in this underlying question is "opportunities to engage with people".  THAT is the piece that you must concentrate upon to create "more effective" marketing.  This revelation is the point where advisers often say "aha, I get it" and their marketing efforts lift as they begin to focus upon creating new opportunities to generate future new business.  It makes sense to them that if they are able to attract attention, and engage with people, then they begin to establish a relationship of trust. Surely having done this the prospective client will take my advice and work with me?

It is at this point though that the bulk of such marketing efforts fall down in a heap.

The reason?  Lack of patience and understanding of the engagement process.  It's akin to having a couple of Saturday night dates and then wondering why the dream date doesn't want to marry you yet.  A lot of adviser businesses at this point are creating a lot of Saturday night dates....but there's no follow through.  It's just lifting the initial activity level really.

Engagement (in this business sense) is really about inter-acting with people on a regular basis in a way that they feel comfortable with until they decide they want to be with you.  Your marketing purpose is to get, and then hold, their attention and build their level of interest in what you have to offer in the way of valuable advice and solutions.  At some point in the engagement process you - or more likely some other event unrelated to your marketing and positioning - will trigger "desire" on their part to act.

That is when the marketing process is finished, and selling begins.  Although, if your marketing and engagement process is done well, the reality is that there is very little selling involved. 

The necessary level of trust and credibility in you as the right adviser has already been established.  The rest is process and technical competency being applied to the clients' need.  

The reality for a financial adviser business though is that engagement is forever.  The actual marriage part - your client buying you or your solution at some point - is actually just a moment in time.  It is a purchase. A transaction.  A fait accompli....if the engagement was a fulfilling one.

Engagement with clients, for the successful advice business, is long term.  Once you have them as clients, then the engagement and ongoing interaction becomes even more important, as they can add significant value to your business if you can move them from supporting you to the point where they are advocates for your business.

To make your marketing more effective - to get better results for your business - stop asking the marriage question.  It's not about the big moment and the big "sale".  Build systems and processes to engage people in a way they feel comfortable with, and share information and insights, and help them help themselves.....and they will want to take it further!

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Hustle while you wait!

by Tony Vidler.

One of the constant themes that comes up in coaching advisers to greater business performance, is the little matter of "hustling".

I'm not referring to getting out and pulling fast cons and sharp card tricks on unsuspecting folk of course...but the really simple and somewhat unpalatable fact that a seriously large part of any business persons success can simply be attributed to their ability to hustle while they wait.

It's about a work ethic.

As a general rule, very few advisers can afford to simply wait for the right, well qualified, potential customer to come walking through the office door announcing "I am ready to engage in a comprehensive financial review process - who wants to serve me?"

The unpalatable fact is that in the financial services business, advisers are usually as busy as they want to be.  There is a definite correlation between getting stuck in with a strong work ethic, and getting good business results.

As the diagram above shows, you have to be willing to make a good effort on the basic activities that generate results in your business, AND you do have to get stuck into it as quickly as possible IF you want to put the odds of success in your favor.

Make a little bit of an effort....eventually....and you cannot really expect great results can you?   You will probably get some results if you make a massive effort eventually....or perhaps put in just enough effort right now to get by.

Fantastic results come from getting into doing what you have to do as soon as possible, and putting maximum effort into it at that point.  

Not every week in business goes according to the grand plan...in fact, usually no week actually works out the way we imagined it would (or should).  That elusive customer who is going to walk in demanding your services at a premium price may well be coming, but in the meantime you have to get busy if you want to prosper.

Good things come to those who hustle while they wait.


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It's not about you...it's about the value.

by Tony Vidler.

Financial advisers often struggle to create a value proposition that accurately expresses how they work differently, or what makes them special compared to others.

It isn't that they don't have points of difference, or that they struggle to put ideas into words...generally they are very good at both. Each adviser has a unique way of interacting with customers, and maintains relationships a little differently, and has slightly different views of how and where product solutions fit in, and what the relative strengths and weaknesses of different strategies are.

Despite that, a room full of advisers when working through the process of trying to articulate their value proposition, almost always come up with the same line of thought (and often use the exact same words) to try and describe themselves and their businesses.  

It ends up sounding something like this:

"you should do business with me because I am honest, trustworthy and a nice person. I care about people and am very good at my job. I am clever and have qualifications and you will have peace of mind if you work with me"

This is the very simple summary of the typical statement advisers first come up with - as a customer might hear it.

So what's wrong with it? Well, pretty much everything....So let's pull it apart.

1. Honest, trustworthy, etc...these personal attributes are simply expected. There is no value-add here - customers expect this as a minimum standard of integrity.

2. Nice person...of course you are. If you weren't you would have no customers, in fact, you'd have no business if you had no ability to relate well to others and be a decent human.

3. I care....well, once again, you are expected to aren't you? If you did not actually care about others you would not be in a profession of trust where an essential component is the ability to think of the other persons objectives and be willing to work with them to get them the results they want.

4. I'm clever & have qualifications, etc....of course you do. Otherwise you shouldn't be in the business of advising people about money.

5. You will have peace of mind. NOW....the big problem with this is no customer actually believes it, and not very many advisers can actually deliver it.

So let's recap....5 parts to the typical value proposition statement designed by most advisers and 4 of them are "hygiene factors", and one is frankly unbelievable in the minds of the customers.  By "hygiene factor" I mean it is a given in the customers mind...as in any hospital will be hygenic.  It is not in itself a point of difference for hospitals.

In a previous post I outlined the formula, or the questions that must be addressed, to come up with a genuine point of difference that really means something to a customer.  

( http://tonyvidler.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/3-questions-you-must-answer-to-define.html )

Basically when trying to create an articulate value proposition it falls down in 2 key parts:

• The adviser doesn't think of how different they are to other advisers. They think of how different they are to the customers. So the proposition ends up sounding the same as all other advisers' value propositions...hardly a unique point of difference...and simply highlights the distance between the customer and the adviser. 
• Secondly, the value proposition doesn't really capture what benefits the adviser actually delivers to the customer.

And that is the core objective of it:  articulate the benefit to the client that cannot be obtained from someone else.

Here are some general areas where you might be exceptional and doing unique things, and are able to do what customers value:

• Customisation:  using the masses of data and information in a highly personalised manner, or perhaps providing service or advice that is tailored to highly specific customers.
• Risk Handling:  taking away risks for customers; transferring responsibilities; removing the need to consider specific risks - making their world less risky than it was.
• Convenience:  being able to combine things in a way others can't; getting access to what customers need and value faster, easier, and so on; being there - instead of them having to initiate action, etc.

This is just a short collection of concepts to highlight that creating a value proposition is not about you.  It is about the end result for the customer - the thing they value.  When you get that, and are able to express it succinctly, then they will get you and the value you bring.


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Why merge? Is buying to grow worth it?

 by Tony Vidler.

Last week I wrote about things to think about in valuing an agency business if you wanted to "buy to grow", and also listed 5 main reasons that advisers suggest as their reasons for acquisition of another business.  They were:

1.  Get new clients

2.  Increase business turnover

3.  Increased cost efficiency

4.  Diversify business lines

5.  Enhance market position

(http://tonyvidler.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/you-need-to-know-if-youre-going-to-buy.html)

Now let's consider some of the common thinking around the rationale for buying another practice to fuel your own business growth.  

Before you read any further though, allow me to say that ALL of these reasons offered CAN be perfectly valid and logical moves for a smart business owner....

BUT....there are many occasions where some simple questions can head of a purchasing (and financing!) disaster too as growing through acquisition will compound problems, rather than lead to a better business.

So here's a little list of testing questions around each reason offered:

Get New Clients

The one question that I ask immediately when encountering this idea for acquisition is "what's wrong with the business you have?"

It may be that there's nothing actually wrong with your existing client base, maybe you just don't have enough of them to have a viable business.  If that is the case, then perhaps your business model needs reviewing, rather than simply throwing more damp wood on the smouldering "fire".  

Even if the business is fundamentally fine though, generally the desire to simply add more warm bodies highlights that there are some likely problem areas already within your business:

1.  Poor or inadequate marketing (which may be a wide range of things such as branding, positioning, value proposition, etc)

2.  Poor engagement (you're generating leads and business opportunities, but not engaging or converting enough of them)

3.  Inadequate sales skills (people in your business are blowing the good work done by your marketing perhaps)

4.  Poor business systems (inadequate information and data management; poor advice processes; etc)

5.  Providing the wrong thing (amazing but true!  often advisers with a business problem are simply not giving their natural - or target - market what it is they actually want and are willing to pay for)

Often there is a belief amongst advisers that simply having more people to see, or "fresh" clients to wheel out a tired old story to, will somehow transform their business.  What was that line about "doing the same thing but expecting different results...."?

Increase Business Turnover

No doubt, adding more paying clients will increase turnover, or gross revenue. 

As if that really matters.

Two simple starting questions here:

1. How much extra turnover, or gross revenue, will the new clients bring in?

2. How much of that gets to your bottom line?

The financial focus must be on profitability for the business, rather than turnover.  This is business 101 really, and is a simple (but often ignored) point.  This piece of rationale quite often highlights an existing business that has little internal financial knowledge or systems...in other words, a business where just adding bulk may well compound any existing problems.

Improve Cost Efficiency

Potentially a really good reason for acquisition, particularly in businesses that have relatively high proportions of fixed overheads and relatively low service delivery costs per client.

Two simple Questions:

1.  How does it improve your cost efficiency?

2.  So, how much do the anticipated cost savings add to the bottom line?

The first is a really big question that reveals very rapidly the level of understanding that the existing business owner has of their own business fundamentals.  Asking them to think through the areas where costs may be saved, and then identify the details of those theoretical cost savings, is illuminating.   It is also usually seriously over-estimated.

Most financial advisers (despite their personal financial literacy!) do not appear to have a clear picture of their own client profitability with their firm - how the different types of costs are allocated across different types of clients within the firm; what the marginal cost of each additional client will be in servicing or efficiency within their business; how the fixed costs will be affected by additional capacity requirements and so forth.

Diversify business lines

This is a particularly interesting piece of thinking...Generally this means "I will have access to new products or advice lines".   

When this is provided as a reason for acquisition it is a clear sign that there is a complete lack of strategic clarity and planning ability - or (at the opposite extreme) there is very good strategic thinking at work.  Business owners looking to acquire for this reason are either thinking "I need more stuff to sell", or, they have a clear idea of where their business wants to be positioned in the future and have decided logically that it is cheaper to purchase the next piece that moves them closer to the goal, rather than to spend the time and money in development themselves.

It is just a matter of working out which of those two conditions are prevailing....and once again a fairly simple question gets to the heart of it:

"how do the new business lines lead you more quickly to achieving your vision?"

You'll know soon enough from the answer to this question which end of the spectrum they are at.  However....it still has to make commercial sense, which takes us back to the points above.  Some further questioning is often required - even if the strategic thinking is good it may be that this particular purchase is not the optimal choice financially.

Enhance market position

Ah...the "bigger willie" syndrome.

Or is it?

It may be an egotistical drive or need of course, however it may be a very calculating and logical move that is fundamentally sound.  Bigger can certainly be more valuable sometimes.  

One of the best examples I have heard of was a financial adviser whose business had grown fairly large organically over many years, and after some sound strategic thinking they decided that "get big quickly" was the right way forward.  The reason?  To sell the business at a premium price and retire.  A series of rapid fire small acquisitions, a re-branding exercise across all new purchases, implementation of some standardized systems...and 6 months after all of that sell the lot at a vastly higher price then they could otherwise have done.

As an exit strategy it can be risky - but very worthwhile.  Whether it is worthwhile really does come down to that clarity of vision once again though.

In conclusion...

Buying another business to grow your own can be a great move without doubt.  But, one should really question the motivation, the rationale and understand thoroughly and logically what the benefits from acquisition are.  

If you do so, then there is a very good chance that the pieces will fit together well for you.


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How to spot a Dinosaur.

by Tony Vidler.

I have wondered if, with all the changes in financial services over recent years, any of the dinosaurs survived our own dramatic financial ice age.  "Surely not", I thought.
But they ARE still out there!

Over a period of some 6 months I have observed a dinosaur up close as I attempted to change its DNA to ensure its survival after the big thaw of the current Ice Age.  Despite (logically) knowing that it was a virtually impossible task, as scientific intervention doesn't change the DNA of the living creature and nor is the creature able to change its own essential nature in its own lifetime, you fool yourself into thinking it just might be possible.  I was plain silly, what can I say?  Mea Culpa!

I did however learn a lot about the topic though from close observation, and there are some lessons here for everyone who ever has anything at all to do with financial services.  We shall begin by identifying the stock standard carnivorous dinosaur (and bear in mind everything I know about dinosaurs has been learned from watching all the Jurassic Park movies - twice.  I am therefore something of an authority on this topic!)  The dinosaur I refer to has the following characteristics:

• it is programmed internally to hunt for every meal.  That is its base instinct.
• it simply eats whatever it kills.  It is not a particularly discerning diner, as long as it gets meat.
• if it cannot catch and kill new prey, it will resort to cannibalism and attack its own kind
• it cannot be tamed or domesticated.  It will always be a wild creature that will turn on any other.
• it has a poorly developed mind.  Logic, rational thought, understanding of consequences are non-existent.
• it has very basic emotional development.  The entire set of emotions consist of "happy" ("have just killed and eaten something"), & "angry" ("have not killed and eaten something").
• it is noisy and attempts to impose its presence with sheer volume.  Of the roaring kind.
• it stomps about crushing things underfoot willy-nilly. It's environment exists solely for its own benefit in its mind.

Comparing this to the small and dying breed of Financial Adviser Dinosaurs (FAD's) - of the sort I inspected closely for a little while - you find distinct parallels.  I provide this list of identifying traits as a matter of public service.

• The FAD has no concept of investing in future food sources
• The FAD lives sale to sale.  Often it spends its commission twice - the day a sale is "made", and then again the day they actually get paid for the sale they made.
• The FAD has no target market (preferred prey?).  If it is still breathing it is prey.
• The FAD will cannibalize its own business for another sale.
• The FAD cannot be improved through regulation and rules.  Like a leash, they are effective only when directly applied to the beast in question and under the watchful eye of a handler.  The leash in itself does not change the animals behavior.
• The FAD has no technical qualifications at all.  Nor does it really want any.
• The FAD operates at the barest minimum legal standard, hovering just on the barely legal side of business. Mostly.
• The FAD has no aspirations for self-improvement, professional development or for achieving any of the higher purposes in life.  The mindset is consistently narcissistic - focused only on what makes them feel good in the moment.
• The FAD has limited emotional development.  Whilst they cover the stock standards set of human emotions, they have not quite evolved to the point of having innate sense of fairness or justice, and the emotional set does not include "guilt".
• The FAD is consistently upbeat and positive and talking enthusiastically - about themselves - to any audience.  A mirror is of course an audience to a FAD.
• The FAD is not interested in creating legacies or thinking of tomorrow.  Bulldozing is a method of movement for the FAD.

Now I really should stress that these FAD's are increasingly difficult to find, there are less and less by the week.  Speaking personally, as a person who has watched Jurassic park movies from under the blankets the first time around, it is not a good thing having dinosaurs roaming freely amongst humans and their pets.  Fortunately for us, there is little doubt that the dinosaurs are totally hopeless at breeding and raising the young - in a purely commercial sense that is.  

They simply cannot build successful businesses with their inherent characteristics, and nor can they congregate successfully for commercial gain with other dinosaurs - or even other non-dinosaur-creatures.  That base instinct of killing to eat, combined with nonchalant cannibalism whenever hunger demands it, puts paid to their commercial prospects.

Regardless of your place in the financial services life - be it a consumer, potential business partner or ally, consultant or coach, or just someone with a spare seat at a conference - it is worth being able to identify a FAD as quickly as possible.

Should you hear one coming (and you usually do hear them first), then spot the predatory look as they size you up as a potential meal while they bulldoze their way into your conversation/life/spare seat, then run.  Quickly.  It is the only safe course of action.

The good news though is that these dinosaurs are dying out.  And if you can stay out of their kill-zone, they will die out even quicker.


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3 questions you must answer to define your Uniqueness

by Tony Vidler.

The difference between a good (but not spectacular) salesperson, and a truly magnificent salesperson is the ability to succinctly articulate what makes them special. 

This is often referred to as having a "Unique Selling Proposition", or USP.
 
A good USP is the thing that in a moment makes a potential customer think: "Aha! - I am interested in talking to YOU".

That moment can be the difference between merely making a living, or making a mint.

So how does one go about defining their USP?

Well, it's hard work. You have to think honestly about what makes you different, and how you deliver value, and then be able to capture that in a simple statement that people can get, or get intrigued by, in moments....it is not a 5 minute job to work out for most people.  In fact it is something that you might be constantly thinking about and working on for many many months.  

To get on track with defining your own USP there are just a few questions that you need to be able to answer.  So here are the questions you have to answer in order to distill the essence of what makes you special, and why somebody should deal with you.

1. What do I really do?

(Note:  not what are the mechanics or functions of my job, but what things do I achieve for others)

2. What am I genuinely passionate about? 

(Note: "passionate" is an over-used word, but think about what you would do for no financial reward (if you could), because you genuinely love doing it)

3. How does what I do, and what I am passionate about, combine to make a fantastic difference to another person?

(Note:  This is the toughest one to work out - and is the essence of a great USP)

Some good (but not GREAT) examples:

"what makes me unique is my ability to grasp complex technical information REALLY quickly, and provide practical simple solutions straight away that clients can benefit from."

"what makes me unique is my ability to positively influence people to change their thinking on how their financial future can be, and then help them make it happen the way they want it to."

"I am great at being able to to stay focused on the end goal for my clients, and to be able to adapt their plan for them as the world changes so they are always on track to achieve their big goals."

There is a common structure here in articulating the USP.   Identifying immediately that you are able to describe something different about you in comparison to others, focusing then  on the key function that you perform better than others, and then translating that into the core benefit for the client.

Simplistically, the formula for a great USP could be described as:

My brilliance + my passion = Your gain

a final example....

"I am the best in the business at taking complex financial problems onboard, and delivering simple solutions that work for my clients.  I make their financial issues easy for them to fix."

It can be very hard work distilling all that you know, and all that you can do, into a simple sound-bite that people can grab, and understand, in moments.  If you are able to though, you will find that more prospective clients engage you.


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3 ways to get the low-hanging fruit

 by Tony Vidler.

Everyone wants business to be as easy as possible, yet we so often make it harder than it has to be. What's wrong with living on some low hanging fruit if there is more of it than you can eat?

Nothing is wrong with it - it's smart business.  It's not always simple to recognise where the easy business is, but some very interesting and provocative numbers have caught my attention recently, and provided the answers to where the "easiest" business is to be had.

• 81% of New Zealand consumers get their primary financial information from somewhere other than an adviser
• 60% of advisers describe themselves differently to what they actually do.
• 79% of marketing generated leads never convert to sales/customers

If you think about it, you know instinctively that the more time you spend with people giving them good practical help without pressure, then the more likely they are to turn into good long term customers that trust you and follow your advice. The statistics above merely provide evidence that this is so.

There is strong international evidence showing "nurtured" leads make 47% larger purchases than newly qualified people who are being "sold to" immediately. Those nurtured leads also have higher conversion rates - 50% more result in sales. From a cost per client perspective the research says nurtured leads actually cost about 33% less to acquire in marketing costs, than quick one-off sales.

Several conclusions stand out:

1. There HAS to be a massive opportunity for advisers to engage better with their existing clients. The stats say most of your own clients don't see you as their primary information source. Adviser check: Do you have a content strategy within your marketing to ensure that you are delivering the right sort of information consistently to be THE trusted source? If not, why not? It HAS to be where the easiest wins are - or the "low-hanging fruit" (and lots of it too it seems).

2. There HAS to be a trust-barrier between the consumer and the adviser if what the adviser says they do, is not what the consumer sees in action. That HAS to affect the advisers ability to do the business. Adviser check: is your marketing, information, branding and labeling actually consistent with what you really do? If you have a clever and grand-sounding title is it consistent with what the consumer sees and hears you talking about? If not, change the title. Or do what you say you are.

3. Given the choice between spending limited marketing budget on generating new leads - most of whom you will never get across the line - or spending it on existing customers, which is logically the best allocation of your limited resource? Adviser check: if you dare, work out how much you spent on marketing for new clients, and how many new clients you actually got for it. Compare it to how much you spent on "marketing" to your existing clients - and how much you got from that.
 

The conclusion is a simple one, and so simple it is almost unbelievable for most advisers. But the evidence in the form of pure sales results and client engagement that are being generated by advisers who have tried it are compelling.

Here is their formula:

• Talk to your own clients and networks. 
• Tell them what you do. 
• Try to help them and give them useful information - be there for them. 
• Be the person they trust for reliable and practical financial information. 
• Do your job well, and place their interests first. 
• Do it all constantly.

Simple and consistent content marketing of useful information to build trust and credibility, within your own network and clientele to begin with, is the most effective marketing spend. It is also the most effective way to get the low hanging fruit - and there is a lot more of it ready to be picked than most advisers realise.


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The 6 P's of sustained peak performance

 by Tony Vidler.

How to stay on top of your game, get the results that you want in business, and maintain peak performance....it all comes down to having a system, or a process.

The formula is - like all good things - a simple one. 6 P's become your process, and lead to sustained performance, instead of the frequent ups and downs of business that can be so demoralizing and stressful.

It all begins with marketing of course - and marketing is the main thing. I recall hearing from Winston Marsh once that "you have to be a better teller of what you do, than a doer of what you do". He is right - it doesn't matter how good you are if nobody knows it. And they won't necessarily come and find you just because you are great - unless you are one of the absolute elite at the top of the game with a truly international reputation and strong personal brand. But even those people are constantly marketing...

The point of this system is to stay focused on the daily activities that create value and generate business. It is a cycle that doesn't stop. And it all begins with marketing - every day.

Promote:
Marketing should be a daily activity, not just an annual think-tank & planning session. Apply the strategy daily, and keep sending the message out to your target market continuously. For example: if your primary marketing strategy is to establish credibility and authority in a particular market niche and dominate that niche, then they need to see and hear from you continually - you have to be the voice that is listened to. A daily routine of providing content via Twitter and Facebook (both aimed at your target market), supporting your content and positioning on LinkedIn, might be your daily "promotion".

Produce:
The next most important thing is to generate revenue. Constantly. It is the next most important focus, and you must be doing that, and working upon doing more of it, daily. No matter how nice the fee or commission for any particular piece of work, it will be gone in no time. (I've seen many spend it twice - the day they make the sale it is often spent in anticipation, and then again on the day the revenue actually arrives). You have to keep selling. Marketing isn't enough, as that just provides the opportunity to sell. Selling gets the dollars in the door - it needs constant focus. You might do this by ensuring that you are in front and presenting to "x" number of people per day.

Pitch:
You have to continually top up that sales funnel. There is no point in having a heap of well qualified prospects that you are not doing business with, and there is even less point in not doing business just because you are worried you will use up all your prospects. At a personal level - the prospecting part of any sales process - you have to be pitching daily. Pitching just means "tell your story" to people - not corner them, or try and sell them straight away. You know that the best clients come from a well established, trusted relationship, and that can only be built over time. Take the pressure out of the business by ensuring that you are talking to people each day who will be future clients - not today's sale. You might do this by ringing and talking to to "x" people per day who are at different points in the sales or relationship building process.

Process:
Look for an area to create just a little efficiency within your business each day. aim for 1% improvements daily - not giant leaps forward. Incremental process improvement is easy, and far more quickly than you would think it leads to a very efficient business machine. It is the same approach as the ant trying to eat the elephant....just one bite at a time. You might do this by standardizing one letter, or paragraph for reports, each day that you can use continuously to save time or make the job easier in the future. Keep building and refining proceses for a more efficient business.

Perfect:
Work on the business, even if it is just a little, each day. Some time with the staff, the key suppliers, the centres of influence, the financial management, analysis of marketing efforts - there are so many things to do and continually work on in building a great business. Work on it constantly in easily digestible chunks (remember the ant and the elephant? it is the same principle). The goal her is not "perfection", it is about continually perfecting and refining.

Plan:
Every day, review the activity plan. Not the business plan as such, but work the diary for the days, weeks and months ahead. schedule the work, know who you are going to call, know where you are going next.

...then get on and promote....

This simple daily routine will keep the wheels turning in your business, and ensure that all the important components in building a great business are being worked on - while keeping the revenue coming in the door.

Attaining peak performance is simply a matter of having a good process that focuses your time and effort in the right proportions on the right things. Then being able to get into the routine (habit) of applying it.


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Re-kindle the (almost) forgotten art of selling!

 by Tony Vidler.

Advisers: Good advice process is not enough. Being technically competent is not enough.

You have to sell.

There, we said the dirty word out loud. "Sell". You have to sell if you are going to be effective at your job as a professional financial adviser.

Over the last couple of years there has been a shift in emphasis to providing advice that is centered upon "good process". In fact many advisers have become so focused upon the process that the advice itself to the consumer is almost hidden somewhere deep in the bowels of the process.

More importantly though, "selling" has become an ignored (or forgotten) skill....sales are deemed to almost be a bit grubby, and not worthy of professionals.

Too many advisers have erred so heavily on the side of deploying professional process that they have forgotten that one of their primary roles is to help facilitate a change in behavior, or habits, for their clients.

Think about it: if most consumers knew what was required to achieve their financial objectives, and had the ability to determine the optimal path, and had the will to create the necessary change by themselves, then there would be little need for financial advisers at all.

As an adviser you can have the strongest technical skills and knowledge base in the world, and it is almost totally useless if you never use it for the benefit of a client. You can have the ideal best practice advice process and standards of documentation - but never have the opportunity to display it.These elements are critical of course to acting professionally, and providing your services in a manner that is aimed squarely at doing the best work you can for clients.

However at some point in the relationship or engagement with the client, you have to get selling. You have to convince a client to take a particular course of action - naturally the course of action that is best for them. To do that effectively the adviser must utilize sound sales skills. On that basis I would argue that it is imperative for a professional to have strong selling skills - and to know when & where to use them.

During some recent discussions with a number of advisers it became obvious that for many who have entered the business in the last 5-10 years there has been little emphasis upon this aspect of their professional development. It truly has been treated as a "dirty word", and those advisers (and their clients) are the poorer for that lack of training and development.

For example, I have found myself explaining the very fundamental concept of the emotional buying cycle that most humans move through - and it has been a revelation to a number of very technically competent and highly ethical advisers. the oft-used acronym A.I.D.A. to describe this process that consumers move through emotionally is largely unknown to the new adviser generation.

A quick recap for readers: essentially the position you have with a consumer (who is not yet a client in the sense of having followed your advice) is that they begin from a place of blissful ignorance. They are not perhaps even aware of a particular problem or issue that you are aware of, let alone how it may impact upon them or what they can do to manage it. At the end of the process you are wanting them to act upon the logical advice to solve their problem. In between those two points though there are a series of steps that the consumer has to move through in logical sequence, if the advice is to be acted upon. It is this sequence, that is firmly in the realm of "selling skills", that many advisers seem to be oblivious to. The steps are:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

First the consumer has to become Aware of the particular issue. The adviser uses sales skills at this point to create that awareness and get their attention.

Once the issue is firmly raised and on the consumers radar screen, then you have to create Interest on their part in the issue. Again, sales skills are essential in doing so successfully. You are wanting them to engage with you and the process of problem solving, and they have to be interested to do so.

At some point that Interest has to be converted into Desire on the consumers part to do something about it. They must want the problem solved, or the proposed solution that will bring the benefits they had not previously thought of. Transforming the consumers attitude from a place of being engaged (Interest) to one where they are assuming ownership and wanting it fixed (Desire) is pure sales skill. Technical competency is merely supporting the logic of the decisions during this process.

Finally, you need to just get on and do it - put the solution in place. Action must be taken to complete the advice process. Once again, this is the domain of pure sales skill.

The critical point of course is that "sales skills" and "professional advice process" are NOT mutually exclusive. In fact they are both essential components if one is to be an effective professional adviser who is actually providing practical solutions that lead the client to better outcomes.

Selling is not a dirty word. As a professional you have an obligation to have and maintain strong sales skills - and to use those skills effectively and wisely in the interests of the client.


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5 Marketing "places to be"

 by Tony Vidler.

Free marketing always appeals, and it is often said that "any publicity is good publicity"? That's an exaggeration of course as not all publicity is actually good - some can cripple a business or brand. However, any publicity (or marketing) that is free AND where you can control the content has to be good.

Talking with advisers about the topic inevitably leads to the question:
"which social media platforms should I use?".

The answer (as it often is), is "it depends". In order to work out the right answer you need to understand the evolving trends, the broad differences between the most popular platforms, and then match that with your own skillset and target market.

Social media has progressed well beyond just being a convenient way of seeing the latest photo's of your overseas relatives, and the explosive growth of business and end-consumer users is phenomenal. Twitter grew from 6,000,000 to over 250,000,000 in just 3 years. Facebook has over 800,000,000 users now. Little old Trademe in New Zealand has over 700,000 posts per month on its message boards.

That's a lot of traffic and users engaging in the social media world. It's where you are most likely to find, and engage, likely future prospects for your business in a non-threatening and collaborative way.

The greatest benefit though for the business owner is the ability to grow your personal and professional network and reputation - which is valuable over the medium to long term. The connections you make, and the conversations you have with them, will provide good marketing opportunities. You will have an opportunity to engage with, and get to be known and trusted by, people you would not otherwise come into contact with.

Social media as a method of marketing is not totally free of cost of course - though it doesn't cost hard cash generally. It does however take some time and commitment from you. There are an array of really useful platforms and tools to help you manage multiple social media marketing efforts fairly rapidly and efficiently however - and many of them even have good free versions (e.g. Hootsuite), meaning you can manage the time commitments pretty well on a day to day basis.

For New Zealand businesses the 5 social media channels well worth considering are:

1. LinkedIn. For business to business connectivity this platform is without peer. If you want to be talking to business owners or executives/management then you need to be here. It is professional in its approach, there are interest groups for any market niche it seems, and there is a wealth of intelligence to gather. Linkedin appears to have the highest success rate of the social media platforms for generating new business.

2. Facebook. More than 2,000,000 users in NZ alone, it is without doubt the largest and best known social media channel. Particularly useful for engaging with consumers (as opposed to other businesses), and with an ability to provide quite a variety of content (images, links, video's, blog's). There is an abundance of evidence that consumers who engage with your business (or "like" you) on Facebook are far more likely to purchase from you.

3. Twitter. Still a little "wild west" in social media terms, as there is very little content control, and everything is short and sharp. It is essentially the internet in 140 characters or less...that is, there is an abundance of useful and interesting content on virtually any topic you can think of. It is extremely useful as a resource - communications, content sourcing, becoming a thought leader - or following thought leaders. An often under-estimated element is that it is often humorous and a little light-hearted, which is in itself excellent for a social channel.

4. TradeMe. Often under-estimated by NZ businesses as a marketing platform, beyond the obvious use as a place to sell the old office furniture. It truly is the social channel that Kiwi's flock to, and apart from the core auction-focus, there are advertisements, message/bulletin boards & market intelligence in abundance. Distinctly useful for any business aiming at retail consumers - they are here in their thousands by the minute.

5. You Tube. This ones surprises business owners when you talk about it, but it is the second most popular search engine in the world (after Google). This is a place where consumers go looking for things, so if you are looking for consumers.....here they are. Interestingly there is strong evidence indicating that businesses that use video in their marketing (via website, YouTube, etc) have far greater consumer engagement and dramatically increase the chances of obtaining new business. Most consumers seem to prefer watching a video rather than reading a detailed article.

Whatever social media platform appeals to you in your marketing, it is important to look at it as an element of the overall marketing strategy for your business. The more marketing tactics that are interwoven, the more effective the overall marketing strategy will be. It is smart business to create content for your own website, and then share it via social media channels (plural!) and extend the reach of your message. The social media platforms can extend the reach and knowledge of your brand beyond the passive "billboard" that many business websites are.

So; 2 big tips for being effective in your use of social media:

* Be Relevant. It is social - so remember to engage with people, communicate, inject fresh ideas into the mix, and above all - be interesting.

* Don't blatantly (and boringly) self-promote. Nobody wants to be bombarded with advertising, and people will switch off to your brand entirely if their only experience is being directly marketed to constantly. By all means let people know what you do - but no more than a third of the time in your communications. Make the rest interesting, engaging, entertaining, informative and so on. It has to be worth their while to continue following you.

Final thought: don't expect overnight dividends. It may take many months of actively engaging with the market before you have established the credibility and authority for your target market to decide you are worth hiring. But hang in there, with relevant and useful content being delivered to your target market via multiple mediums, you will become a trusted expert, and logical person to turn to for their business needs.


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Why you shouldn't be a social media peeping tom

by Tony Vidler.

For quite a while I have been talking to financial advisers about how the marketing world has changed in recent years - and how their own marketing methods have not (generally speaking). 

In short, I have been beating the drum for the advisers to consider social media and digital marketing platforms as a core part of their communications with consumers and customers alike.

Driving this belief that advisers are missing the most fantastic and low-cost marketing strategy available today is the fundamental concept of "that is where the customers are". 

 Basically it makes good sense to use the platforms and methods of engagement that the consumers themselves use. It's not rocket science is it? Go where the customers are if you want to find more customers.

Recently I saw a wonderful article from Strategi - "Social Media - an advisers double-edged sword". It was fabulous, and just what the doctor ordered. You see, I have been "missing in action" for a few weeks, distracted by & dealing with some family illnesses and the like. Not a pleasant time for anyone concerned, and what I really needed was a jolly good laugh....and I got it courtesy of this excellently idiotic article.

The essence of the joke was the (I presume) serious suggestion that financial advisers can benefit most from using social media as a listening outpost only. They are urged not to comment or participate, but merely tag along as a listener to what everyone else is doing - particularly their competitors (other advisers). The advice therefore was listen, but don't talk. That is clearly advice from someone who doesn't understand a thing about social networking.

The 2 primary purposes of social networking are:
1. be social
2. network

Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious, but it obviously wasn't bleeding obvious to everyone commenting on the subject.

How does one be social (in any sense) by not conversing or engaging with others? You'd be the total life and soul of the party and dozens of folk would want to invite you into their lives if you spent your entire time eavesdropping on conversations and not contributing anything. That's just the sort of person I'd like to do business with. Yeah, right.

How do you network, or engage with other people for mutual benefit, if you are intending that it be a one way street? That is someone to trust with your wallet isn't it?

It was the most ludicrous piece of marketing advice I have seen for some time - and there have been some seriously bad contenders. This was a doozy though.

The point has been fairly made for some time in a number of jurisdictions that there is risk for any business when using social media as part of their marketing - and perhaps moreso for financial advisers. Clearly there are compliance issues that every adviser must be mindful of - with ANY of their marketing. There are standards expected of an adviser to be truthful and honest in ANY of their advertising. Should an adviser provide personalised advice to any consumer with a megaphone in a public place, they are a goose (at the very least). Advisers are smart enough to know that by the way, and probably don't need to be told that any further.

The rules that apply to advisers in terms of their duty of care to clients, or restrictions upon providing personalised advice without engaging in the appropriate process, or respecting privacy issues apply to anything they do. Naturally that includes social media activity.

One of the (slightly) amusing things about this particular concern of the moment is that the doom & gloom brigade are suggesting there is an issue with advisers use of social media. It is "alarming" no less according to Strategi - who by the way are able to provide an audit and compliance sign-off for any alarmed advisers and then provide guidance on how to go about getting it right. (Free plug for Strategi there!).

I'm no expert on these things, but I am an active user of social media myself. Not necessarily a fantastic user, but with over 900 LinkedIn connections, 800 Twitter followers and about 1200 regular e-zine readers - pretty much all financial services (or associated) folk - I do tend to see enough of what people are using social media for to have an idea about whether there is an alarming problem or not in this industry.

There isn't. It's a load of cobblers (as far as NZ is concerned anyway).

I cannot recall a single example on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or in email newsletters where advisers are being misleading, deceptive or providing personalised advice to consumers. I do not see too many blogs, so perhaps there IS an alarming problem there. However the few blogs I do read present no issues that I can see, so I am willing to wager that there is not a blogging problem of epic proportions either.

As far as I can tell, the few advisers who do use social media actively are quite mindful of their role and use the networks as a means of providing useful content and interesting information of a general nature. That is excellent content marketing, and they are to be congratulated.

One of the most critical things that advisers need to do is engage with consumers, and be a reliable source of excellent and useful content. 

 A relatively recent study revealed that only 19% of New Zealanders' cite the financial adviser as their primary source of financial information. We have a long way to go - and providing quality content is the key - before we are even close to being seen as a credible information source to the majority of the market. Content marketing via social media is in my view one of the areas where the financial advisory community can easily and affordably add to the financial literacy of the nation - which is an excellent outcome.

For any advisers considering using social media as part of their marketing strategy, here are simple rules (and they are provided free!):
1. Be honest - as you would be in any other marketing
2. Be mindful of privacy issues - as you would be in any other marketing
3. Personal advice should be given to people personally, not broadcast via satellite. But you knew that.
4. Engage with people. Social networking is about being social, and conversing - that's a two-way thing. But you knew that.
5. Don't be a social media peeping tom. It's despicable and nobody likes them. But you knew that too.

And one final rule for business in general:

Don't listen to self-interested and inane advice. Your clients won't, and nor should you.


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The Adviser as an Artist.

by Tony Vidler.

There is an area of financial advice which is subject to perpetual testing - suitability of the advice given.

WHY was a particular piece of advice appropriate? What factors were considered, or even discarded, that led to a particular recommendation as being the right advice?

It is an area that holds the attention of litigators, regulators, the judiciary and disputes resolution case managers, and of course advisers themselves. This is largely because it is a subjective matter, in a field where you will often receive half a dozen opinions from half a dozen well qualified people - all using the same underlying facts.

Of course one of the major difficulties for advisers is that when the advice is provided they can only take into account known circumstances and factors - and there are always more new dangerous unknowns lurking about that nobody thought of, or which were not recognised as dangerous things at that moment in time. No advice is ever really totally circumstance-proof. Nor is advice in itself something which removes risk for clients.

Market risks & contractual interpretations play very significant parts in product performance. The performance of a financial product is generally the trigger event that raises the issue of whether the advice itself was suitable. That is, when a financial product does not perform as the consumer expected, the bulk of the suitability testing falls on the advice component, rather than the product. Not terribly fair, but that is our lot in life it seems.

As an adviser how can one go about determining "why this advice is appropriate"?

Especially knowing full well that the adviser cannot control actual product performance - and that is equally true of investment, mortgage or insurance products. Nor can the adviser remove market risks, or even necessarily begin to cover all risks for a client by transferring every conceivable negative outcome to another party.

Providing suitable advice for a particular client situation is an art form, make no mistake about that. The beauty is going to be in the eye of the client beholder, and that critical inspection may take place a very long time after the advice was given.

The real art of providing suitable advice is to form a professional recommendation as to what is "most likely" to be the optimal solution. Then very carefully conveying precisely to the client that this is "most likely" - not foolproof, not guaranteed, and not a certain outcome. It is "most likely" to work, and that message carries the weight of any future suitability testing.

In forming the recommendation it is vital that the clients needs are identified. There has to be substance to the recommendation, and that is founded upon knowing the key facts of the client situation and therefore what needs are to be addressed.

The next part is the area that many advisers do not think through, or do particularly well - prioritization.

This is THE essential step in providing advice that is most likely to be most suitable for the client's situation. The client will often have multiple (and sometimes competing) needs, and it is critical to establish a priority list - something has to be more important to get right than another thing. The something else is second in importance, and so on.

Identifying the needs, and then prioritizing them, are the canvas and the oils. The artist then goes to work with these ingredients to create something unique for the client. The artwork is not the underlying ingredients, it is the image and end result created from them.

Provided these two critical steps are undertaken AND the client understands that the recommended advice is suitable as it is most likely to produce the desired result, then it should result in advice suitability rarely being seriously challenged.


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