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Why Should I Hire YOU?
September 14, 2021 12:23 am Leave your thoughtsFour Ways
To Develop
Your Unique Selling Points
© Copyright 2023 Max Bolka
Reproduction In Any Form By Written Permission Only
“Why should I do business with YOU?” That’s just one of the questions every potential Client is thinking during the initial interview, and existing Clients need to be reminded of as well if they’re going to stay. The challenge is that many clients won’t come right out and ask you directly.
At some point during the decision making process, their thinking goes something like this: “I like you, I trust you, I need what you offer, and I believe you can deliver it. But I’m being bombarded daily from all kinds of Financial Advisors. So with all due respect, what makes you different? What makes you unique? Why should I hire YOU?” Your job is to create a killer answer and drop it into the conversation. It’s called your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP for short.
Avoid Poor Positioning
I keep trying to tell everyone what a busy, important person I am, but nobody really cares. Similarly, most clients usually don’t place that much importance on how busy and important you appear, how rich you are, where you went to school, who you know, how many clients you have, or the fact that you limit the number of clients you do have (which, if not 100% true, works to your detriment).
What they really want to know is how can you help them, can they trust you, and why should they hire you to be their Financial Advisor, as opposed to the Advisor down the street, who’s pretty much promising the same thing?
Develop A Strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Your value proposition answers the question, “What’s in it for me?” It provides the major benefit of what you offer to clients. It is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition. You must still distinguish yourself.
Many Advisors rely on some form of, “We care. We really care. We really, really care… Really!” ad nauseum. You cannot just say you’re different, you must demonstrate it. Make a specific, written promise of what you do that makes you unique. Then make sure to follow through with your actions. That’s integrity.
Four Ways To Distinguish Yourself
There are four major ways you can distinguish yourself and reduce or eliminate the competition altogether. You can combine any of these to form your own Unique Selling Proposition (USP). You may end up with several smaller selling points which, when put together, end up being relatively unique.
1. Your Technical Expertise
If you have a special technical expertise, it qualifies as a Unique Selling Point:
We Help Clients Create Zero Tax Estate Plans
We Help Protect Clients Assets Against A Steep Market Decline
We Help Clients Create A Stream Of Steady, Secure (Guaranteed?) Income They’ll Never Outlive
2. Your Target Market
You can have as many target markets as you like, as long as you stay specific. Some Advisors resist this strategy, not wanting to be pigeonholed, because they’re afraid of giving up potential business. However, in today’s world, chances are if you don’t target market, you’ll probably end of appealing to no one instead of everyone.
Think of the satellite and streaming services. They offer 900 channels for almost every conceivable interest any viewer might have. Then they drop the price to a couple of hundred dollars per month and market it across the entire country to millions of people.
Conversely, for most financial advisors, 2-3 target markets are more than enough to build your business, because you’re not going to drop the price to $200 a month and you don’t need millions of clients. 100 clients paying you $5,000 per year is enough to improve most Advisors’ bottom lines.
When you combine your technical specialty and target market, you have a cohesive Mission Statement of what you do and who you do it for. Use it when someone asks, “What do you do for a living?”
We Help Business Owners Create Zero Tax Estate Plans
We Help Protect Doctors Against A Steep Market Decline
We Help Retirees Create A Stream Of Steady, Secure (Guaranteed?) Income They’ll Never Outlive
We Help Small Business Owners Reduce, Defer Or Eliminate Their Taxes Altogether
3. Your Financial Offering
Perhaps you provide a financial service that goes above and beyond the norm:
We Provide A Monthly Portfolio That Includes Your Cost Basis – Because we specialize in serving business owners, we have found that most of our clients measure their own performance monthly, not quarterly. Therefore, we provide each client with a monthly portfolio that includes your cost basis. This way you can see not only what you own, but also how well you’re doing. We even have someone on staff whose sole job it is to create these portfolios monthly for each client.
4. Your Delivery Method
Your uniqueness may lie in the way you deliver your solutions:
We Still Make House Calls – Because we specialize in serving retirees, many of them have difficulty leaving the house. They don’t want to get dressed up and drive across town for meetings. For these clients, we still make house calls. When you become a client of ours, twice a year come to your house, make your coffee and rub your feet 😁 …all while we review your portfolio!
We’ll Pick You Up – Because we specialize in serving retirees, many of our clients enjoy getting dressed up and coming into town. In these cases, we make your appointment at 11:00 AM here at the office, and then go to lunch together afterwards. If you can’t or don’t like to drive, we’ll send a driver for you. It’s our pleasure! We appreciate your business, trust and confidence.
Tag, You’re It
Once you’ve developed a client-oriented, benefits laced Mission Statement of what you do and who you do it for, place it front and center in the banner or at the top of the Home Page of your website. You can even shorten it up further, turning it into a Tag Line.
Here are some Tag Lines that emphasize the Advisor’s Unique Selling Point:
Organize, Simplify, Plan
Pursue & Enjoy Your Passion In Retirement
Everyone Has A Risk Number, What’s Yours?
Crystalize Your Financial Objectives And Concerns
Achieve Clarity, Confidence & Control Over Your Wealth
Don’t Just Leave An Inheritance…Leave A Lasting Legacy!
Your Mission Statement and Tag Line should make prospects sit up and say, “Really?…That’s fascinating, tell me more!” You have too much competition to either not know, or not be able to succinctly express exactly what you can do for potential Clients. Creating your Unique Selling Point, Mission Statement and Tag Line distinguishes you from the competition and positions you as someone who can help clients achieve their financial goals.
Max Bolka is a 30+year veteran of the financial services industry who built a nationwide financial planning and investment clientele. Today he “Builds First-Class Financial Advisors” of all kinds through his professional speaking, writing and individual Mentoring Program, Guaranteed Marketing Programs, Elite Advisor Program and Financial Advisor Exit/Succession Planning & Implementation. He also partners with other Financial Advisors around the country to provide Comprehensive Legacy Planning, Master Planning For Business Owners, and Income & Capital Gains Tax Reduction Plans to Financial Advisors and their clients. You can visit his web site at www.maxbolka.com or contact him directly at (828) 713-4116.
