Omnipresent Alpha
In the modern era of financial services advisor value must be available 24/7. This means that your value must be tangible for your ideal audience to feel a certain way about you and the peace-of-mind you bring into the lives of your clients. Whether they be clients or prospects it does not matter… what matters is that your value is omnipresent 24/7.
Build On Purpose (3/3)
Building Your Business On Purpose Empowers You
In this three part blog post I am attempting to simplify what I have known to be fundamentally true about advisor value design for the past three decades… It can be tricky sometimes to simplify the complex.
This is part three of three. We pick up where we left off in part two…
A big part of what I do is trying to simplify what I have learned over the past 30 years in the financial services industry. The models and slides that I share freely can be the biggest piece of the puzzle for some advisors looking to break out of the opacity of the industry designed “black box” that defines advisor value. Building on purpose is a metaphor for doing the right thing all the time but it also can be physically modeled to demonstrate how a progression of value design can justify value while empowering advisors to take complete control over how their unique value is perceived. The big picture for advisors in the new digital age is control over perception… if you are an advisor you must become responsible for the definition and perception of your advisor alpha (advisor value). If you are counting on the industry to do this for you, you will be replaced by the industry.
Previously in parts one and two we touched on the purpose driven model to demonstrate exactly how advisors can ultimately promise their behavior.
Your relevance hinges on your ability to promise your behavior. By promising your behavior you are able to get and keep ideal clients with your digital filter. By promising your behavior you’re able to control the perception of your relevance. By promising your behavior you’re able to demand reciprocal actions from your trusted clients. By promising your behavior you’re able to gather feedback that matters. Your promises tied to behavior leads to the value that you control the most which allows you to take complete control over the perception of your value.
Earning trust controlling perception and creating collaborative relationships are the three main elements that are required for survival in a robo world.You must be able to promise your behavior to create that culture by design.
The progression of infinite advisor alpha empowers advisers to promise their behavior so they may remain relevant in a robo world.
We are now shifting from the slides that model how to earn trust by promising behavior to the infinite progression of advisor value development which empowers advisors to get and stay exactly where the want to be… a state of perpetual relevance.
Amplify the value that you can control. Take complete control over how that value is perceived. And maximize your relevance to get and keep ideal clients in a robo world.
This is what it means to build on purpose.
Earn trust, promise your behavior, demand reciprocal behavior, create trusted partners as clients, make your value tangible, gather feedback, continue to amplify your value and your business, and live your preferred life.
In order for your business to have a positive change 30 days from right now, you must start making incremental changes daily. And those incremental changes must add up in a way that makes sense. Your focus must be appropriate the system you choose to maximize your relevance must make complete sense and you must carry the discipline that it takes to make incremental improvements daily.
Organized
Efficient
Simplified
Driven
Realistic
Interesting
Fun
Adaptive
On-point
Relevant
Healthy
It’s all about you.
This is where you want to be.
Ultimately you are earning trust by becoming accountable because you’re able to promise the behavior that leads to the value that you can control the most. Which is exactly why your ideal audience should be paying you.
Build your business on purpose.
Make Your Advisor Alpha Tangible
Making your value tangible is no longer simply an option…
The Greatest Opportunity for Advisors
The Greatest Opportunity for Advisors
The Advisor in the future understands that the position of “Financial Advisor” is completely replaceable by the industry. Institutions have proven this to be true year-over-year by paying a price for all assets acquired. For every asset that comes in the door there is a percentage paid… This is a net interest margin industry and the net interest margin is partially controlled by dropping the laggard advisor or restructuring of payout packages and compensation grids. That is the way the game has always been played. It’s all about net interest margin. If the institution can increase NIM by replacing you with a robot they absolutely will not hesitate to do so. Your position in this industry is not a job in which your employer wants to help you by giving you a salary for a job well done so you can live comfortably and provide for your family. The industry is concerned first with shareholder value (or enterprise value) and getting higher valuations as well as increasing net interest margin. It’s just business. Capitalism in it’s purest form. When you come to terms with this concept you are afforded the clarity necessary to see your business from a perspective that crystallizes your unique opportunity in the financial services industry.
This industry offers the greatest opportunity in the history of the world for the serious steward of wealth because you can create your own business from any vantage point by which you see fit. As long as you can gather assets you can play in the game. You can gather assets in an unlimited amount of ways… ways which are innumerable… uncountable… the opportunity is only limited by your creativity. Which is why it is so critical to look at your business from a fresh perspective from time to time. Think about this statement for a moment… transparency is not solely for the good of the client. We will come back to this statement.
To be offered the opportunity to create your own business after you pick up your licenses is one of the rarest opportunities in this world. It’s beyond special. You are in an elite category of individuals that have ever been charged with the stewardship of the well being of your fellow man. Big shoes to fill… great responsibility… Let’s look at your business from a fresh perspective again… Think about this… If you are not willing to invest in your business what does that say about the quality of your commitment? We will come back to this.
You owe it to your clients to remain relevant but you owe it to your clients and yourself to become irreplaceable. If you are not able to focus on how you will remain relevant and become irreplaceable in this industry you will become lost… you will become commoditized… and you will be squeezed out. Capitalism in it’s purest form. So often advisors are focused on the daily mechanics of doing business that they become lost… unable to focus on the activities that create demand for their services advisors can easily get caught in a deadly trap which creates stagnation due to a myopic perspective they have about their business. Think about this question… Are you willing to let your clients be led astray by a self-serving advisor who simply sells products in a vacuum?
The opportunity to see and feel your authentic relevant value and create a sustainable business model designed around the well being of your clients is available. You can become the master of your destiny if you are willing to take a step back from your business and see it from another dimension. If you agree that being a serious steward of wealth is the greatest opportunity… in the greatest business in the world… in the greatest time to be a financial advisor that has ever existed… then you can and should become irreplaceable. If you are willing to see transparency in the digital age as resource and not a liability… then you can and should become irreplaceable. If you are inclined to invest in your business and you agree that you must invest your time before you invest your money… then you can and will become irreplaceable by becoming a serious steward of wealth. You will be enabling yourself to give the care and the commitment your clients rightfully deserve. To become a serious steward of wealth, by design, you must own the words that define your authentic relevant value. Take a minute to become irreplaceable for the good of your clients and for the sustainability of your business by taking full advantage of the complementary Tangible Alpha minute modules and notebook available here.
Keep it Tangible,
Grant Barger
Price & Value – Justify Your Fee
Your value does not decrease but your compensation will. The perception of your value is directly correlated to how you get paid.
The first time I heard this statement was in the 80’s and it holds true to this day… the only caveat I would add is this… an updated version for the advisor in the future… 
When your value goes unnoticed it is reflected in the price people will pay for your services. If you neglect to make your advisor alpha (your authentic relevant value) tangible, the sustainability of your business is at risk.
In the digital age of transparency you can’t afford the risk associated with not making your value tangible.
GB