Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

Often advisors are quick to want to tell prospects about the wide variety of services they offer – from retirement planning, to insurance, to stock picking, to annuities, to mutual funds and on and on, thinking that breadth of their activities communicates expertise. But the range can be so broad that prospects can’t really get their heads around what the advisor does, much less understand how the advisor can specifically help them.

 Just like an athlete who specializes in one key event is always going to perform much better in that particular event than a decathlete, who is a generalist in many events, to be most successful, advisors need to focus on the primary benefit they offer their clients .

Financial planning is a holistic activity in our industry. But, ultimately if you are a financial planner, financial planning (and likely managing investments related to implementing plans) is your focus. Do you perhaps help your clients with insurance, annuities, mortgages, tax planning, wealth succession, and stock selection? Yes, very likely. But the primary benefit you promote is developing and implementing plans to enable your clients to be financially able to live the lives they desire.

Where is your focus? What is the main problem you solve for your clients? Can you communicate it in one, or at most two, sentences?  

• Be Specific:  Last week I had an introductory call with a coaching prospect. He impressed me with the specificity of his focus: he directed his time and energy to delivering one very specific service in his target market. There were other facets to his business, but all had been developed off and related directly to that primary service. It was a case of “all roads leading back to Rome.” Obviously you don’t do only one thing in your business, but you should have  one thing you specialize in, with all your other activities supporting that primary activity.

• Stay Focused: When you maintain your focus, you can more easily recognize distractions that pull you off the track toward your long-term goals. By refusing to entertain distractions (as good and appealing as they may look on the surface), you will work more efficiently and increase your market share sooner. Instead of emphasizing many services and leaving prospects confused, you will develop deeper conviction for your area of specialty and succeed more quickly.

• Be Relentless : Know who you help and pursue them. You offer something they NEED; you have a solution to their problem. Develop a plan to keep yourself in front of these people and so stay top-of-mind. Your message about the primary service you offer needs to be focused so that prospects can walk away from meeting with you able to state what it is you do and equipped to make a fairly quick decision whether what you specialize in is a fit for their needs or not. (This, by the way, actually ends up saving you a lot of time!)  

Be THE expert in a specific area so that clients and prospects know they wouldn’t want to go to anyone else to solve their problem. 

To your laser-like focus,
Paul