<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://dc.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=529113&amp;fmt=gif">
LOG IN Contact Us

Financial Advisor Marketing: The Courage to say “No!”

By ClientWise | October 2, 2012


I’m reading a first-rate new book, Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business, by Harvard Business Professor Frances Frei and global thought leader and consultant Anne Morriss. This is a book with vital insights for the elite financial advisor, especially with respect to their financial advisor marketing.

For me, the money quote in this book is: “Great companies are not great at everything. They excel at the things their customers value most, and they are often worst in class on the things their customers value least.”

Furthermore, “The #1 obstacle to great service is not having the courage to be bad at anything.”

Here’s a great example in the corporate world of what authors Frei and Morriss are talking about.

Southwest Airlines has built its reputation as a value brand. Southwest appeals to customers who are willing to make trade-offs in exchange for a cheap plane ticket, e.g. go without a flight meal, forgo an assigned seat, etc. Southwest’s success has been due to their brilliance in identifying what’s important to their customers…and aligning their performance with these preferences. For the typical Southwest customer, low prices, frequent departures, and friendly service are most important. On the other hand, on-board amenities and an extensive route network are least important.

[Note: Many of you may know that Southwest is in the midst of an experiment. In 2008, they added the “Business Select” category that gives passengers first-boarding privileges, a complimentary beverage, and access to faster security checkpoint lines. Will this risk their “all-in-this-together” brand reputation? Time will tell.]

A Quick Test for Financial Advisors

So how does this same thinking apply to top-performing financial advisors?

Step I: Imagine that you have a few of your best clients in front of you in the same room. Ask them this question, “Which parts of the service experience that I/we provide are most important to you?”

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  • (No need to stop at five! Feel free to list as many as your clients come up with…)

Step II: Now, ask your clients to rank these service attributes in order of importance---from most important to least important.

  1.  
  2.  
  3.  
  4.   
  5.  

Step III: Analyze the data. What do you see? How close is this snapshot to your idea of the “current reality”? After some careful thought and analysis, you may have some very important questions to address from a marketing and client engagement perspective.

Are you great at the attributes that your clients care most about?

Conversely, have you focused on attributes and services that your clients rank as “less important”?

If so, how might you redeploy your resources, energy, and capital towards areas that matter more to your clients?

Some Final Thoughts

Many financial advisors try to be all things to all people. Ask a financial advisor their Value Proposition, and the word “comprehensive” is often heard. This is not surprising. Most financial advisors, especially the great ones, have a universal impulse to serve. They are almost hard-wired to serve their clients. Consequently, it is very, very difficult for a financial advisor to say “No!” to a client, or prospective client, with respect to a service that the client might like, regardless if this service is something that the financial advisor can deliver well.

For many of us, we have the tendency to improve our weaknesses. Frei and Morriss argue that, regarding client service, the opposite response is better. Pick what you are brilliant at…and become “brilliant-er”.

This might be really interesting learning for financial advisors who aspire to be "best-in-class", as well as having critical implications for their financial advisor marketing.

Appendix: See Frances Frei and Anne Morriss discuss “Uncommon Service” at a recent appearance at Google Headquarters.

 

For additional insights on financial advisor marketing, please download the ClientWise Learning Tool below:

 

Click me

Topics: Leadership Marketing & Communication

Leave a Comment