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There’s always been a belief in the advisory industry that to separate yourself from other advisors, there must be something “special” about what you do.
For decades, marketing gurus have lauded the idea that having a unique value proposition will motivate prospects to choose you over anyone else.
The irony is, in the current commoditized economy, your prospects are shopping you using an “apples to apples” comparison model.
Turns out, they aren’t qualified to judge and assess your uniqueness, as they aren’t advisors!
From the lens of your potential clients, everyone appears the same (a financial advisor is a financial advisor, etc.) and it’s already assumed that you can perform your duties because you’re a professional with credentials.
It’s no secret that you belong to an industry that solves a particular problem, and slight changes in how you solve it no longer move the needle – especially when you have the same marketing approach as everyone else.
While convincing prospects you have a unique solution sounds good in theory, putting it into practice in today’s market, leads to the very result you’re trying to avoid – being viewed as indistinguishable from your competition.
When you try to use your unique value as the catalyst to drive the sale, you create a disconnect between you and your prospect.
They’ve heard the same “song and dance” before (telling them how your different), that in itself, is the “sameness” they expect.
This creates a vicious cycle, in which you try harder and harder to prove that you’re special, only to be tuned out for sounding like most other advisors claiming they are “different”.
The truth is, if at any point your prospect feels they’re part of a commoditized sales process, you’ve lost them before you’ve had a chance to tell your story.
The million-dollar question is: How do you differentiate yourself in your market without a “unique” solution?
What you need to understand is this – their decision to hire you was not based on your offer in the first place, it’s based upon your sales approach.
The question they’re asking in the back of the mind is: “Do I trust him?”
Pre-sale, they can only judge how you make them feel based on how you treat them -- since they can’t judge your competence until after they hire you and you solve their problem.
That means, their decision to choose you is emotional (trust-based), not logical (solution-based).
They need to feel you understand them better than anyone else, and to know instinctively you’re the one for them (that’s what deep trust is).
Your goal is to master a unique sales approach that instantly differentiates you for them to say: “I’m in, let’s do this.”
To do this, you need to break away from the industry’s traditional sales norms of free consulting, relationship-building and free financial planning.
When you focus your approach pre-sale on building trust only, you make an immediate impression that you’re not the run-of-the-mill advisor they’re used to, but a trusted authority they can rely on to solve their deepest issues.
To learn more about how to be a trusted authority in your market, get your complimentary book and consultation below.
Get your Free copy of Ari’s best-selling book "Trust In A Split Second!" here and you’ll also receive a Complimentary Sales and Lead Generation Consultation (value $995.00). Ari Galper is the world’s number one authority on trust-based selling and is the most sought-after high-net-worth new client acquisition expert for financial advisors. His latest book, “Trust In A Split Second!” has become an instant best-seller among financial advisors worldwide.