Advisor branding
[Cache #261]Fifteen years ago, when I started helping advisors differentiate their brands, one of them warned me. “You’re going to hit a brick wall, he said. “Because we all do the same thing.”
At the time, I did not know whether he was right or wrong. Turns out, it was the latter.
I have learned that advisors do not do the same thing. It’s true that they do similar things, but they all think differently of what, how and why they do them, and therefore deliver them in a unique way.
The problem is that the great majority of advisors are doing a lacklustre job of communicating their differences. They rely on the same shortlist of language seen in this bingo card. Therefore they:
• do not stand out to the degree possible
• do not give potential new clients the strongest possible reasons to do business with them instead of someone else.
• do not give their audiences the strongest possible reasons to refer them
That said, there is a small minority of champions whose brands really stand out. Coincidentally, many of them have worked with me. Here are just two of them.
Timothy Simpson of BMO
Many advisors talk about excellence. But Tim and team – Team Simpson – have gone the many additional steps of embedding it in every aspect of their business. They have fêted their advisor clients with an annual awards gala, The Evening of Excellence, for 15 consecutive years. They have an ongoing campaign, Portraits in Excellence, in which they shine a spotlight on the excellence of others. They had their brand promise – Let’s make Excellence happen! – before they hired me, and upon interviewing their clients, I realized that it perfectly described their business and should not be touched.
Elke Rubach of Rubach Wealth
I interviewed Elke’s clients to find out what they thought of her, and did not prompt them in any way. Unaided, they were overwhelming in their view that she provides holistic wealth management, something many advisors say, but do not back up. No advisor I have worked with, before or since, has been cited on this dimension with such enthusiasm. And so the brand descriptor we developed for her and her team – Holistic Family Advisors™ – is spot-on.
Want to play a different game, and get more referrals?
In my online course, Attract for Advisors™, I personally show you, step by step, how to define your one-of-a-kind brand in a Brand Foundation and communicate it to the world — so you can solve the Four Advisor Problems and attract more of the referrals, clients, employees, strategic partners and other opportunities you seek.
All in as little as 5 hours.
👉Learn more about the course, including by taking my free Masterclass, by clicking here.
P.S. More Brand Champions:
Ocean 6 Wealth Advisory: A New World Of Wealth®
Bull Financial: Be Strong at Every Stage®
The Mah Investment Group: Build more with Mah™
Integrated Financial Strategies: Let’s find your future®
Curate Wealth: Family is why®
George Dube: Do wonderful things® and Saving the world from tax, one bowtie at a time®
Andrew Sipes: People not product
Barrington Grey: Relationships are the new wealth
Outfitter Financial: Guiding Anglers and Hunters to Wealth and Beyond®
Flourish Family Wealth: Know Thy Wealth, Know Thyself™
—
I, not AI, wrote this.
Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com
