Guest Blog by Scott Keffer

Note from Bob Ritter: ?Scott Keffer is an internationally-recognized business and marketing coach, keynote speaker, and author who you may have seen on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS, or in Worth, Wall Street Select, Money Show, Small Business Trendsetters, Research, National Underwriter, Resort Living, and Dynamic Business, among others.  His latest books include Double Your Affluent Clients® 47 FAST TIPS!  You Can Have Greater Success With Affluent, High Net Worth Clients!  and Giving Transforms YOU! Scott will be hosting a Breakout at the forthcoming 2015 InsMark Symposium in Las Vegas on March 27 - 28.

In a recent survey of financial advisors, only 3 out of 100 said they were very satisfied with their income.  You aren’t getting paid what you’re worth, because you haven’t solved the #1 advisor problem. ?It’s the problem that causes you to zone out when you’re sitting with your kids or having dinner with your spouse or golfing with your buddies or walking with your friends.

It makes you worry about where your next dollar will come from... or how you’ll pay for your children’s education... or whether you will ever live the “ideal” lifestyle you are always promising to your clients.  It’s what you worry about when you wake up at 2 a.m. and can’t go back to sleep and you wonder if you’ll ever be able to stop working 60 hour weeks... or ever be able to retire.

In survey after survey with advisors across the U.S. and Canada, more than 9 out of every 10 advisors say their #1 problem is, “Getting in front of better prospects.”

It’s not just a little problem... it is THE problem.

One of the biggest advisor marketing mistakes (get a copy of our Marketing Scorecard to discover the Top 10 Mistakes) is trying to position yourself as a “solutions expert.”  Let me explain.

In 1979, Steve Jobs visited a Xerox R&D lab and watched a demonstration of a pointing device that would control icons on the computer screen.  Xerox “saw” it as a $300 accessory on a business computer.  Jobs “saw” it as a game changer.  He instructed his R&D folks to create a $15 pointer that worked on counter tops and desks.  What was the difference between what Xerox saw and what Jobs saw?  Xerox was thinking from the “solution” point of view... their solution.  Jobs was thinking from his clients’ point of view.

How are you trying to position yourself?  Expert?

I’m not asking whether you are positioned as a competent advisor. ?I am asking whether you are trying to position yourself as the “best” or “most knowledgeable” advisor, based on your technical and product knowledge.  This method is actually killing your positioning... and painting you and your practice into what I call: “commodity corner.”

Here’s why: there is no “best” advisor.  And positioning yourself based on technical skill, product knowledge and the latest planning solutions is a losing game.  Every advisor is doing the same thing.  And positioning yourself around your company’s latest product is even deadlier.  Industry designations (although helpful for your technical skills) don’t attract affluent clients.  Certifications don’t attract affluent clients.  Advanced degrees don’t attract affluent clients.

How do I know?  Look around our industry. ?It is filled with advisors who are brilliant and technically savvy... and BROKE.

The affluent want a different kind of authority. ?What I call a Client Authority. ?Discerning clients want you to be an authority on their problems, issues, challenges, fears and concerns. ?They must see you as someone who is intimately familiar with their problems.

Write this down: ?If you demonstrate to prospects that you know more about their problems, challenges and issues than they do, they will automatically assume you have the solutions. ?Your trust goes through the roof.  Your credibility skyrockets.

Most planners construct all their marketing messages, and spend all their presentation time, on their wonderful solutions. ?A waste of time, for the most part.  They should be spending most of their time outlining, agitating and empathizing with the problems of their best prospects.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” is an old sales cliché, but it’s timeless wisdom.  I’ll add, “And people don’t know how much you care until you show how much you know about them and their problems.”

So, how do you become known as the authority on their problems?

Well, you certainly don’t do it through the traditional, cookie-cutter brochures, websites, seminars, mailings, etc.  That’s all me-too, copy-cat, I’m-the-same-as-every-other-advisor marketing.

One of the advisors I coach called me one day with the “opportunity” to spend $7,500 on a full page glossy spread in a well-known national magazine. ?My response, “Don’t do it.  Save your money.  I’ll show you a better way.”

Needless to say, he didn’t listen and spent the money anyway. ?He was very proud of the picture of his team and the great words that were used to describe them and their work.

“Any response?  Any prospects contact you?”  Crickets...

He still likes to look at the ad framed on the wall of his office.

You become a different kind of authority by implementing what I call The Client Authority Model™.  At my boot camps, we spend one of the days showing advisors how to construct and execute a profitable, magnetic attraction marketing strategy using the model to consistently rise above their competition with their own Arc Of Distinction®.

If you’d like more on solving this and the other advisor marketing problems, grab a complimentary copy of my latest Special Report: ?How To Position Yourself As An Authority And Get Qualified Prospects To Contact You:  The 3 Critical Marketing Criteria: Is Your Marketing (And Your Practice) Attracting Ideal Clients... Or Unknowingly Repelling Them?  Click here: I’d Like A Copy Of The Marketing Report and Scorecard.

InsMark Symposium
We hope to see you at the 2015 InsMark Symposium scheduled for March 27 - 28, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada. ?Lots of great InsMark concepts and some terrific guest speakers as well. ?Attendees tell us it is consistently the best sales and marketing meeting they attend all year, including the MDRT, COT, TOT, and Forum 400. ?Contact Julie Nayeri at 1-888-InsMark (467-6275) or julien@insmark.com to register for the Symposium, or click here to view the Agenda and register online.

Symposium Testimonials
“The InsMark Illustration System and Wealthy and Wise software pays for itself.  Both provide so much and the InsMark Symposium helps you find all the hidden gems.  I will attend again in a heartbeat.
Carey Stansbury, InsMark Silver Power Producer®, Toledo, OH

“The best non-company presentation we go to each year.  And no best product promotion!  The Symposium is about communication, sales, and the “how to” -- no insurance company does that anymore.”
Elmo Cure, InsMark Platinum Power Producer®, Plano, TX