Are You Running Your Business with One Foot on the Brake?

Are you Marketing Financial Products and Services? Or Are You Marketing Something Else?

A critical element to your ability to market your business is knowing the difference between what you are marketing and what you deliver. You are not marketing financial planning, investment advice, insurance products, investment vehicles, etc. Those are your deliverables. Don't get me wrong, these things are the basis for your business. They are important tools in helping all your clients achieve and sustain financial dignity (and even prosperity).

However, if you are making the mistake of marketing yourself as a planner, agent, advisor, etc., you could be running your career with the brakes on. I believe that your main marketing message should be about trust and confidence. A successful relationship with a client is based on mutual trust. And all the products and services you help your clients put into place are designed to help them feel more confident about their financial situation. Therefore, as you craft your various marketing messages, you must build them around these two central themes. I'm saying you should merely ask your prospective clients to trust you. How you talk/write about your business will either engender trust or not. You need to "show up" trustworthy. And, of course, one of the easiest ways to build trust quickly is to work from referrals. Before the end of this year, or shortly into 2011, sit with everyone on your team (or by yourself if you don't yet have a team) and examine all the ways you talk or write about your business. Are you speaking to the two most important decision-making questions in your prospects' heads: 1) Can I trust him/her? 2) Will they help me feel more confident about my financial decisions?

Getting More and Better Referrals from Your Centers of Influence.

Look at every current COI and potential COI relationship in your life and compare it to this simple check list of 4 items. If you have not fully covered these four bases, then your COI relationships will never be as productive as possible.

1. My Centers of Influence know why they should be introducing me to others. They know my value. They know how I impact the lives of others. They know the value of reciprocity. I am fully referable in their eyes.
2. My Centers of Influence know who fits and who does not fit in my business. They introduce me to the right types of people - so I can apply my processes and do valuable work.
3. My Centers of Influence know how to introduce me in the most effective manner. We've discussed the importance of providing me (or each other) with introductions - not just word of mouth.
4. My Centers of Influence know exactly how I go about contacting the people they introduce to me. They trust my process for receiving their referrals.