If You Design for Average, That’s All You’ll Be

All Financial Advisors look alike to affluent Clients. I’ve studied the data for more than 25 years and when a successful affluent person meets a Financial Advisor, and hears them describe what makes them different and better, it seldom if ever sounds “different or better” to them. Why is that? In my study of the financial services industry, sadly it’s because most Financial Advisors lack vision. I’ve been in this industry since 1981, and I love Financial Advisors. My experience has been that most Financial Advisors are in the business to make a positive impact on the families they serve, and truly want to help their clients achieve the financial objectives they’ve set for themselves. So, in my opinion, most Financial Advisors have their hearts in the right place. They want to be helpful by making recommendations designed to improve the family’s overall financial affairs. OK then, so what’s the problem? Why do, even skilled & experienced, Financial Advisors sound all alike to Potential Ideal Clients? Most Financial Advisors are simply following a different mental framework than clients use, and the more successful and affluent the client, the more this matters. What’s often happening is that when a Financial Advisor meets a Potential Ideal Client who asks, “so what do you do?” the advisor thinks the client wants a list of services provided. So the advisor begins describing a list of their services such as, “We provide Investment Management , Financial Planning, Estate planning as well as tax planning services,” et al. To the client’s ear, that sounds like what their current Financial Advisor is doing, or so they thought. Part of the problem is understanding that, according to the research, Ideal Clients think their current Financial Advisor has pledged to do all sorts of planning and coordinating, which is not actually happening. For example, most affluent clients think that their Financial Advisor is paying close attention to their situation day-to-day, so that whenever they drift even a little bit off-track from their stated objectives, they can expect a call proactively from their Financial Advisor with recommendations required to get back on-track. But is that true? If yes, that’s fabulous, but if no then the client is not getting the services they thought. Affluent clients also think that their Financial Advisor will work hard to disclose any hidden fees or potential conflicts that might exist. Is there actually full transparency? If so, then great, but if not the client is wrong about what’s happening. So, what’s the fix? Financial Advisors who resolve this don’t design a service for the “average client.” They design services only for Ideal Clients, and then describe client outcomes rather than listing services. So, think about what valuable client outcomes you can pledge to your best clients. If you’re drawing a blank, there’s the problem you need to resolve next. What valuable outcomes can you promise?