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BLOGSThe Marketing Maven
How Advisors Can Develop a Good Positioning Statement
By Marie Swift
December 5, 2011
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Louise Cole, CWC, RLP, CFP®, managing partner of The Heritage Group of North America, introduces herself as an "affluenziologist" who helps people transfer their values as well as their valuables to future generations. It is a quick and catchy way of telling people that if family unity around financial issues is important to you, then you need to call her office to learn more.
Marge Randles, CFP®, principal of The Practical Planner, says it this way: "My friends call me the financial farmer. I help my clients plant the seeds, nurture their crops and harvest the fruits of their labors when the time is right."
"It" is the all-purpose positioning statement, known in the trade as an elevator speech, because it should be short enough to convey who you are and what you offer in the space of an elevator ride. It helps you present yourself and position your capabilities in the listener's mind. While you should be prepared to talk with passion, power and clarity about your entire range of services (known as your value proposition), your positioning statement may be your foot in the door to that conversation. It should be at most a sentence or two—generally no more than 60 words that convey what you do for whom.
Positioning—creating perceptions in the listener's mind—is an important aspect of marketing yourself. You must be perceived as "the best" at what you do for your particular marketplace. Every business grows and changes, and your pitch needs to grow and change with it. If your elevator speech is out of date, you're missing one of your most important opportunities to "brand."
Whether or not you use your prepared comments verbatim or as a foundational element from which you improvise, just going through the process of developing a positioning statement can be a useful exercise because it forces you to identify and concisely articulate your distinct value to your client. Ideally, it will distinguish you from your competitors; in today's marketplace, no business or product is deemed "good" unless it has an original pitch, brand and message.
WHAT DO YOU DO AND HOW DO YOU HELP PEOPLE?
As a marketer working with advisers for over 20 years, I venture that many financial planners have misunderstood what a positioning statement really is. It doesn't have to feel sleazy or shade the truth. In fact, a good positioning statement isn't so much a sales pitch as an answer to the question, "What do you do?" No one likes to feel that they're "being sold," but we all want to know what other people do and how they might be able to help us.
"We see developing our elevator speech as a means to get all the staff focused on what we're all about," says James Tarvin, CFP®, a fee-only adviser with Guardian Wealth Management, Inc. in Chattanooga, Tenn. "It's a succinct way to tell our story and distinguish us from others. And it's a way to qualify potential clients, since we are intentionally casting a narrow net. We also hope that we can get enthusiastic clients and co-professionals—attorneys and accountants with mutual clients—to know our elevator story as a means of helping them generate referrals for us. It is also a good conversation-starter at community functions, and gives us confidence as we work a room of strangers."
MAKING A STATEMENT, STANDING OUT
So, how do you develop a good positioning statement? You want to tell people who you are and how they will benefit from working with you, with an eye to what makes you stand out from the crowd. If you're a fun and spunky person, you might play up your personality with colloquial language. If you are more serious, trying to deliver a cute positioning statement will just come across as phony.
Once you've developed something that feels right, you'll want to practice and internalize it so you speak naturally whenever a need or opportunity is presented. Notice how people react when you deliver your positioning statement. Do you pique the listener's interest? Do they say, "How do you do that?" or "Tell me more?"
Whatever your style, create a clear, compelling positioning statement that quickly answers the listener's fundamental question, "What's in it for me?" If you truly believe in what you do and how you help people, you'll exude a confidence that will attract people. The more clearly you define and communicate the value of your services, the more distinct your marketing edge will be.
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Marie Swift is a nationally recognized consultant who has for over twenty years worked exclusively with some of the industry’s top financial institutions, training organizations, investment advisory and financial planning firms. A top rated speaker at dozens of industry events including FPA, NAPFA, TD Ameritrade Institutional, Securities America, Schwab Institutional, NFL Players Association, Financial Network, Pershing and Lockwood conferences, Marie is dedicated to elevating the conversation in the industry.
Marie is also a prolific writer and contributes to many of the industry’s leading publications, including Financial Planning magazine. You can read Marie’s
newest content on www.financial-planning.com where she writes the weekly Marketing Maven column. She is also contributes content to the Networking 2.0 blog for Sourcemedia’s interactive, online destination created just for women advisors as an extension of the Women Advisors Forum events being held in cities across the country multiple times every year.
A thought leader for thought leaders, she is known for bringing some of the industry’s best and brightest voices together for dialog and debate. Her Thought Leader Round Table series is just one example how Marie generates interesting conversations with movers and shakers in the financial services industry.
Her Best Practices in the Financial Services Industry blog provides additional insights and advice, including podcasts, articles, videos and other helpful content for independent
financial advisors and the institutions that serve them. Find it at www.marieswift.com.
Prior to establishing her own firm in 1993, she served as Director of Corporate Communications for Worldwide Investment Network in Irvine, California, where she helped FNIC’s then #1 Top Producer attain and maintain that title for five consecutive years. She managed a staff of twenty that supported two-dozen successful registered representatives,
estate planners and wealth managers.
As president and CEO of Impact Communications, Inc., Marie leads a dedicated team of marketing communications and PR professionals serving financial institutions and a select group of independent advisors on an exclusive basis. Marie resides in Leawood, KS and can be reached through her website, www.ImpactCommunications.org. For breaking news, follow @marieswift on Twitter -www.twitter.com/marieswift.
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