Your Questions
Your Questions Lead To Your Value
Your Engagement… Really Important
Meaningful Engagement
How Will You Do It?
What Will It Take?
The Advisor in the Future will create demand for her/his services in the digital age of transparency by crafting a strategic foundation that showcases the relevance of her/his value. Remaining relevant has been the number one challenge for the entrepreneurial financial Advisor during the past three decades and will continue to be a genuine concern for the Advisor in the Future.
Setting and maintaining client expectations while creating the measurement of value over which the Advisor has the greatest control is of paramount importance. To fall into the trap of being measured by industry standards is a real danger for “the Advisor in the Future” and s/he will take special care to not fall prey to the status quo industry pitfalls that lie in waiting for all Advisors.
Build On Purpose
The strategic foundation of the Advisor in the future will be built with a cornerstone that is a client-centered purpose. This will work to the advantage of the client as well as the entrepreneurial Advisor moving forward in the digital age of transparency. The Advisor in the future will survive and thrive by creating a business that empowers her/him to do well by doing good…
In order to simply survive, the Advisor in the future will have to demonstrate in a tangible fashion that they have the best interests of their clients at stake ahead of their own… (this goes beyond fiduciary) or the Advisor will be replaced.
In order to thrive, the Advisor in the future must have a system in place that is a progression which leverages their client-centered purpose within their business development model. Tangible Alpha is the model that empowers Advisors with that highly coveted progression.
In the digital age of transparency the Advisor in the future acknowledges that they are replaceable until they can prove in a tangible fashion that they are not.
Serious Advisors also realize that if they continue to measure themselves by the industry standards that have been handed down for decades that they will become dinosaurs… Recognizing the opportunity disguised as a threat is critical when taking advantage of transparency by delivering a consistent message of authentic relevant value throughout multiple (but not all) digital mediums.
Promise What You Can Control
The Advisor in the Future will zealously demonstrate their expected behavior (what clients and prospects should expect from them) which amplifies exactly what their client-centered purpose is… throughout multiple mediums. The promise of expected behavior will become the contract that forms a bond of trust for the serious Advisor and the serious investor. That bond will be quantified tangibly throughout multiple mediums in a 24 hour a day society in which expectations can be set and maintained rather than exceeded in quarterly meetings.
To step into the next dimension of business development that will make you relevant and irreplaceable the strategic foundation of Tangible Alpha has been constructed to not only create your digital voice but to create a proactive filter which aligns your solutions with ideal prospects (while constantly reminding your clients of your value). Your Tangible Alpha foundation and progression create a platform to exude your authentic relevant value while filtering in ideal trusted partners.
It is critical to make tangible… not what the client and prospect want to hear… but what you can deliver and promise (your behavior, not returns).
Learn about yourself before you try to implement any digital solutions… not doing so could be a costly mistake.
Introspection is the key to successful technology integration.
The life of the Advisor in the future must be simplified by technology and not over complicated by too much information. The Advisor in the Future will take advantage of different modern tools made available throughout the industry by first going through the Infinite Alpha Progression to discover and design her/his unique Tangible Advisor Alpha.
Keep It Tangible,
Grant
Advisor Conversations that Matter
3 reasons to nail down your topics for meaningful engagement.
1 Content leads to your unique value.
2 Questions lead to your value to filter.
3 Conversations are competent and add to your confidence.
Your virtual value must be aligned with the human experience.
Topics are derived from your purpose, principles, values, beliefs, opinions, experiences, expertise, promised behavior, behavior you expect from clients, your philosophy, and your processes…
Those disciplines of your alpha must be defined (by you) before you can create categories for content topics for engagement and questions that lead to your value.
Topics Tie It Together
The medium is the message. Your digital experience must flow seamlessly with your daily behavior if you want to survive in a robo world.
This is how to do exactly that… quickly.
If you are thinking about outsourcing your content to a third party, think differently.
You don’t need leads for a sales funnel.
You need to filter in prospects and keep clients with personalized topics.
Cookie cutter content will get you washed away.
No more silos.
Your value must become tangible for clients and prospects to see and hear.
Nobody wants to be placed in your sales funnel. Transparency lets prospective clients know exactly what you are up to.
Think Differently.
Own the words. Design your topics. Get and keep ideal clients. In perpetuity.
Conversations that matter don’t happen “off-the-cuff.”
Most advisors have never been afforded the opportunity to discover and define their authentic relevant value… they were hired to sell products. To remain relevant and become irreplaceable advisors are going to have to think differently about their job description. You are going to have to think differently about sales… you are going to have to think differently about service… you are going to have to think differently about your unique value.
-
You can’t have a conversation about the solutions you provide without the courage of your conviction.
-
The courage of your conviction comes from well defined value…
The conversations of most advisors, up until recently, have been centered around either products or the trustworthiness of their firm. But now, the greatest opportunity in the history of financial services awaits you…
Owning The Words That Define Your Value
By owning your value you are creating opportunities to have conversations that matter 24/7
In order to engage in conversations that matter you must have a formalized process in place in which the client experience is never left to question. Your business must become designed to exude your value and leverage all of your resources to consistently improve your client experience while simultaneously engaging in (and improving) the conversations that matter. Essentially, the client experience and the conversations that matter dovetail to enhance the overall development of your business. Owning your Advisor Alpha creates this opportunity.
Once you define your value… you own your Advisor Alpha
Owning your Advisor Alpha and making it tangible nullifies the element of desperation inherent in a business where you can’t exude your value.
Lacking the courage of your conviction to have conversations of your value is the number one killer of all advisor client relationships… If you can’t put into words why your clients should be paying you, you will neglect them… and neglecting your clients is still the reigning champ of client defection.
They need to feel it… and you need to know how it makes them feel… Tangible Alpha.
If you don’t own the words that define your value you will be destined to attempt to become a version of “all things to all people.” This version of you fails eventually… and this version of you fails more rapidly in a robo-world.
Not owning your value will be the number one reason behind your failure… hourly, daily, monthly failures will ensue… and eventually, not owning your value will be the end of your advisory business.
You must first own your value before you can engage in conversations that matter.
Owning the words that define your value enable you to create a business in which your conversations fuel the client experience and the client experience fuels the conversations that matter. Owning your Advisor Alpha and making it tangible will drive the success of your business in the future… by design.
Ponder This…
How can you escape the trap of client defection due to advisor neglect? How can you empower all trusted partners to have conversations with the courage of their conviction? How will you remain relevant and become irreplaceable?
Topics Must Be Defined
My TopicsOmni Channel
Omni-Channel The Next Big Thing…
I find it refreshing when technology supports our branding message and our marketing solutions.
Vendors aren’t necessarily evil…
This is why you may have to kill the messenger… if technology vendors don’t bring you opportunities to gather the metrics that matter to you rather than the data they want to collect for themselves (they call it critical feedback) disguised as ROI… You may want to kill the messenger and hide from technology. Before you run and hide or piss away your tech budget understand this, the endeavor of gathering quality ROI (Return on Investment) through omni-channels is entirely up to you… not the vendors.
The Medium is the Message
To remain relevant you must have a consistent message of value across multiple mediums. This is now known as an omni-channel opportunity. (I wish I’d thought of that because it sounds cool.) To remain relevant and become irreplaceable your “omni-channel” message must be working for you in a tangible fashion to gather the feedback required for the sustainability of your business. It is up to you to have a designed system in place to gather the metrics that matter to you before you implement the tactical offerings of technology vendors. (Simplified: you need your metrics not their metrics) If you don’t have a defined strategic foundation in place (Tangible Alpha) you are likely to fall into the trappings of tactical rhetoric disguised as strategic solutions. These tactics bring with them vendor measurements of your ROI which are not consistent with measurements required by you for your success.
Consistency of Message versus Technology…
The advisor in the future will craft a message of value that resonates tangibly throughout multiple mediums. By doing so, the advisor places herself in position to leverage technology.
Technology should be empowering you but often times it is tying you down and holding you back… Building a strategic foundation through intentional value design (Tangible Alpha) allows you to implement tactical technology solutions that help you gather the metrics required by you to create a sustainable business. By owning the words that define your value and building your Advisor Alpha through the Tangible Alpha progr
ession you will be building a client-centered message of value that resonates throughout the omni-channels of our world. Build your strategic foundation first, then you can more securely introduce “technology as a solution” in such areas as “omni-channel” marketing. (I’m doing air quotes for those last two… try it it feels good.)
Drop the “value prop”
The catch phrase vs. Tangible Alpha (branding for financial advisors)
You can’t afford to be associated with a company catchphrase in the digital age of transparency… In the 7 seconds your clients and prospects are giving you to impress them, the catchphrase (Value Proposition) is an automatic bounce. The catchphrase is a client experience killer and a nail in your coffin when prospecting potential clients.
Consistency of the message of the advisor’s client-centered value throughout omni-channels (multiple mediums) is a priority ove
r the types of technology the advisor will use to create her/his digital portfolio (footprint)… all of the technology in the world will not fix your clusterf%ck of a message when it has no consistency throughout multiple mediums (omni-channel). Advisors in the future understand that omni-channel branding isn’t just for prospecting… it is also for the 24 hour client experience (to the pocket), which is why your message is the medium “the medium is the message” and you must be able to extract as much quality data from your medium (channel) as the amount and quality of information the medium is extracting from you (information you are putting in the medium). Otherwise… it’s simply a waste of your resources. “Get your shit together” and drop the catchphrases (total contradiction). But seriously, get your shit together. Because tech is only going to get faster and more exponential as time marches on.
The ROI on omni-channel marketing begins and ends with a consistent message of your value and that value begins and ends with a client-centered purpose.
~I said that
Your Strategic Foundation
Without crafting a strategic foundation to implement tactical technology solutions that take you to the “next level” of omni-channel marketing, you will become hamstrung by the same vendors who are claiming to empower your business.
Without discovering defining and designing your Tangible Alpha, your ROI is no more than a wish… in which the metrics of success can only be measured by the vendor who sold you the pipe-dream. Build your own foundation… gather your own metrics of success… own your Tangible Alpha before you enter into any technological solution that claims to be a strategy. (Because technology is not a strategy… it’s simply a tactical concept keenly disguised as a strategic solution generally sold to advisors who have no idea what to expect in return.)
You must be able to walk the digital talk across all mediums and become more than a catchphrase… In the digital age of transparency you can and must do this by design.
~ I said that too
What are omni-channel tech vendors selling?
Vendors are going to try to sell you a Maserati with no engine… the engine (your Tangible Alpha) is an afterthought to the vendors of omni-channel tactical solutions… it’s not necessarily a bad thing… it’s just the way it is… there is a hot new buzzword that vendors will be selling you… they really have no clue how to make it work for you… and if you don’t get in now, you will miss this opportunity… but you are smart… you know fear of missing out is an unnecessary risk. There must be a solidified reason behind implementing technology for the purposes of omni-channel marketing in the digital age of transparency.
I find it off-putting when technology vendors want to sell us something for the sake of technology.
The reason is this, there has never been a greater opportunity in the history of the world to become a successful financial advisor. Omni-channel marketing and the technology that comes with it shouldn’t scare you away from the greatest opportunity available in the greatest business in the world.
Transparency is the friend of the advisor in the future… by empowering your business with Tangible Alpha you will be creating a business development foundation that allows you to develop sustainable growth by leveraging transparency. You will become an Advisor in the future by collecting the metrics that matter to you.
Quick Recap…
Omni-channel is the new buzzword for marketing and branding… don’t fear technology… you may want to kill the messenger but you don’t have to… make your advisor alpha tangible to build a strategic foundation in which you can leverage technology to gather the metrics that matter to you. Tangible Alpha isn’t the only way to accomplish success… it is the simplest, most effective, proven (40 years in the making) way for advisors to gather invaluable data for the sustainability of their businesses.
(If you are unfamiliar with the man in the picture you are missing out Marshall McLuhan)
Keep it Tangible,
Grant