[Disclaimer: this article includes references to actual marketing programs created by my firm. I cite them as examples that illustrate effective use of psychological communication in the financial industry.]
In both sex and marketing we find similarities. For example, do you seek to spend intimate time with people you don't like? Or, what's even better than sex? Answer – a meaningful relationship. In other words, to operate your financial practice at a higher level, you have to cultivate client-relationships that are more meaningful. The puzzle is, how to meet people you want to have that kind of relationship with.
The disclaimer. If you are happy operating a purely transactional (sell 'em and forget 'em) business, stop – read no farther. My recommendations are probably not appropriate for you.
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Let's look at a few simple rules for jumping up to a more meaningful level:
- "You got guns; we got guns." Effective marketing in this age must not focus on products. I don't understand why that continues to be such a huge obstacle in our industry. Consumers are weary of marketing that promotes a single product or a single company. In the seminar industry, that's why people to go multiple seminars; they're not looking for a product – they're looking for a person they can trust.
- "This Is Your Fluff!" Marketing today must not focus on the fluff of your life. America knows the difference between a sound bite and something meaningful. Your target market sees through the fluff of a typical branding document that focuses on how "sincere" you appear in your personal life.
- "Look at the elephant!" When people perceive you as being credible, you become an elephant. The direct route to credibility is called "Credibility Marketing." To succeed with Credibility Marketing, you must satisfy three criteria:
- First, show that you are a credible professional, with emphasis on credible. That means: expert, honest, consistent and you share the values of your target market.
- Second, show that you are relevant to the life of that person reading your brochure (or sitting in your seminar).
- Third, it must connect you to the reader's subconscious through subtle use of his or her own psychological mental filters. This one is the tough one; very few marketers even know what a mental filter is.
Quick story. In November, I got a call from a producer on the east coast. He confessed that he had one of the fluffy branding brochures. I asked him to describe it to me. The picture he painted is almost completely about his life outside of his business. It's almost completely focused on information that is meaningless and irrelevant to a prospect.
If he were running for political office, he could get away with such drivel – we don't expect a politician to focus on anything of substance. But he isn't. So, why waste the cash paying for something that can only make him look like an empty suit? The only people who want to see that stuff are people who already know you – your family members and perhaps someone you were in school with. "Hey Lori, I love the picture of you in the slide-rule club."
Mommy, where do clients come from?
Remember the game "Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon?" Your most game is called, "Three Degrees from You." Look at this chart. It shows the different degrees of your life and answers the question, "Where do clients come from":
Your Personal Network
One degree: family and friends
Two degrees: clients
Three degrees: personal referrals
Your Impersonal Network
Four degrees: people who respond to an article, book or interview
Out of Network
Five degrees: total strangers, mailing lists, lead cards
Six degrees: random meetings
1 degree. Your best and most immediate target market would seem to be people closest to you: your old high school buddies, parents, your sister, even your brother-in-law. (Remember, you're his brother-in-law, too.) Those are the people who are one degree from you. They are people who already love you and buy all the stuff you've sold over the years. How many more times can you dip into that well? As you probably know, for many years, Life insurance companies would hire almost anyone, as long as he or she held promise of selling product to family members and immediate friends.
2 degrees. Next best are your current clients. They are the richest, most fertile sources of referrals because you probably have more clients than brothers-in-law. But what you tell them or give to them that communicates your non-fluff message is vital. What are you using right now?
3 degrees. After your clients come the referrals you receive from degrees one and two. This is where wealth lives. The most successful advisors I know get their business primarily from this group, which continues to expand through referrals. Recognize that those advisors operate relationship-focused practices.
4 degrees. Quick – how to can you spot an expert? He or she has been published. It has been my own personal experience over the past twenty years that when you add this fourth degree, your network expands from a local one to a regional or national one – or as in my case, an international one. Consider "expert status" as the first big benefit of a Credibility Marketing program. A producer who hands his book to a prospect gets immediate credibility. The prospect is willing to listen and open to trusting that "expert."
This works especially well with the 80+ year-old senior market because those people were taught that in order to write a book, you had to be an expert. Thus, people with books are experts. We can thank Dr. Benjamin Spock for introducing that concept.
5 degrees. There are two effective ways to use this area.
First, get published and mail an announcement to your list. You might stage a book signing in conjunction with a seminar. At the event, set up a lot of books as a display – not a bunch of product brochures!
Second, if your business is based on employee benefits, pensions, or any other B-2-B business, this area is where you probably work most often. All of those business models cast wide nets. They buy databases and mailing lists. At five degrees from yourself, you can't hope to succeed with a one-time mail program. That's simply psychologically illogical. If you build your marketing around yourself as an author, your mass marketing will be much more successful. Hint 1 – publish a book! Hint 2 – buy the best databases! Hint 3 – think in terms of multiple contacts!
6 degrees. This is people you bump into on the sidewalk. It's strangers sitting next to you on the plane or subway. I don't know anyone who has built a business on this area.
How to capitalize on The 6 Degrees of You
It is the combination of the first four degrees that involve Credibility Marketing for advisors who focus on client relationships. The fifth degree can obviously take advantage of Credibility Marketing, too. Imagine how more important you seem when you are introduced as the author of a book.
Simple rules. Eliminate the fluff. Remove any mention of product. Build a message on what your target market wants to know. If you will do only that, you'll immediately show yourself as different and better than the vast majority of other producers out there. Do not expect Credibility Marketing to be a lead generator – that's not its purpose. If you are not an expert, that's OK – you can learn.
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