Financial advisers are likely to be the best advice practitioners for a certain group of people, and the worst for another group of people, and need to develop a value proposition that attracts the right group and repels the other.
This proposition must go beyond a logo, the adviser’s personality and products claims CI Investments Senior Vice-President of Strategic Business Development, Doug Towill, who stated each adviser has a value proposition but has to test it to ensure it is correct for themselves, their business and their clients.
Towill made the statements at the recent MDRT Annual Conference in Vancouver where he said that while advisers are humans and can’t be marketed as a commodity or product they were a business that occupied some space in the minds of consumers.
“As businesses we need to take specific, positive actions to build a brand and to build messages that go out to our clients, our prospects, and the world at large—messages that are declarative and tell people what we do, tell people how we are different, and help people make the right decision as to whether we are the right advisor for them,” Towill said.
He added that every adviser already has a brand that is comprised of everything they have said and done since starting as an advice practitioner but was it the right or most productive or most effective brand for that adviser?
According to Towill, many advisers mistake a brand for a logo and he said for large corporates with established brands the logo was not the totality of the brand but rather they had developed their brands and the consumer’s understanding of their brand.
“The question for us is…how do we get our clients to be so vested in us as their preferred adviser that they don’t look for anyone else? How do we make sure that they consider us their trusted partner on their financial journey,” Towill said.
“…how do we get our clients to be so vested in us as their preferred adviser that they don’t look for anyone else?”
He also stated that while an adviser may create a brand for themselves it was actually defined by the gut feeling of the individual clients of the adviser.
“It’s a gut feeling because we, as people, are emotional, intuitive, non-rational basket cases who want to rely on our overall feelings about somebody, not just on our logical feelings about them,” Towill said, adding, “This is the way I like to look at your brand: It’s not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.”
“All the clients, prospects, and just the general public out there—are the ones who will really determine what your brand is. They will hear your messages, filter them, and determine your brand in the marketplace,” he said.
“Although we need to spend time building our brand, it’s not all about us, it’s not about you, it’s not about the adviser, but it’s about the clients and their stories. And we need to be ready to listen, to really listen, to them.
