The Biggest Thing Missing In The Financial Industry That Prevents You From Standing Out

Most female financial advisors say their biggest challenge with growing their business is attracting QUALIFIED prospects.

Sure, if you’re like most of the women I work with, you’re phenomenal at what you do, so when you get referrals they’re typically qualified and already pre-sold (because your clients RAVE about you!)

But when it comes to attracting “NEW BLOOD” and getting qualified “new blood,” you may struggle to stand out, like everyone else.

Let’s face it, everyone knows a financial advisor. They have an uncle, or neighbor, or friend of a friend who’s a financial advisor, so why would they flock to you? 

The one and only reason, they would come to you instead of someone they know (or someone who knows someone they know) are because you’re speaking directly to them (and they feel like you totally get them and can help them.)

This then presupposes that:

1. You must know who you’re talking to (Your Target Market)
2. You must use language that resonates with them (which means you have to talk about their problems and the results they want...in their language)

When you know who you're talking to, meaning your target market, and you shift all your language to be talking to that one specific person...you immediately become an expert.

And when you are seen as the expert, you stand out!

Of course, there’s a little more to it than that, this is the beginning.

The best way for me to show you what I mean, is by sharing a story with you. I’ll give you some examples to hopefully inspire you, because the best way to inspire people is through success.

SUCCESS = INSPIRATION 

Meet Lisa. 

When Lisa hired me she was a Financial Advisor, but she wasn’t having any success. I didn’t realize this at the time, but she was also a dating coach in order to try to make extra money to support her ‘Financial Advisor’ business.. 

I know what you’re thinking… that sounds crazy. Stay with me.

You see, as a Financial Advisor, Lisa KNEW she could help people. She just hadn’t figured out HOW to get the right people to know she existed. 

Through all the trial & error, as a Financial Advisor, not only was she NOT making money… but her business was actually COSTING HER $300 EACH MONTH.

Lisa KNEW she needed to do something differently. She was working so hard, and not getting anywhere. 

Imagine trying to tell people how to grow their wealth, all while you're taking money out of your retirement - just to pay your bills. It was incredibly hard for her. She had all the right intentions to help people and yet had no idea how to attract clients, so she could actually have the opportunity to change their lives. She was frustrated and totally confused.

Even though she had a mentor at her financial advisory firm, she was unclear of what to do. She was told to go networking, make calls and just put herself out there. 

So, she tried to work with everyone and met with anyone who had a pulse and gave a ton of her time (and advice) away for free.

Typically when you give your time away for free to ANYONE, without even pre-qualifying them to make sure they’re actually committed to reaching their financial goals — you end up not helping them at all. 

So, Lisa… who had no extra time on her schedule to do the “typical” financial advisor marketing activities — started posting on social media in hopes to find clients for her dating coach business.

Having no clue how to target her marketing, or write compelling messaging to attract the right leads, her posts as a ‘Dating Coach’, were all over the place. She posted stuff about dating, relationships, and all her current discounts.

She was talking to EVERYONE. There was nothing in her content that made her stand out.

After giving it a solid 3 years in the financial business (while running her coaching business side hustle), Lisa had almost exhausted her retirement account and was hell-bent on finding a solution to win in business.

She was most passionate about helping shift people’s beliefs and behaviors about money, so after finding me on Facebook and having a call with me, she decided she wanted to be a Money Coach, instead of a Financial Advisor (or dating coach for that matter.)

IMPORTANT:

Let me be very clear. I'm in no way am I recommending leaving the financial industry and becoming a money coach. Ninety percent of my clients are financial advisors and Lisa is the only one who jumped ship to be a money coach. It was just that in her case, that was truly the best fit for her.

But, regardless of whether you’re a financial advisor, or money coach, or architect or CPA, the specific strategies that I’m about to go over, which worked incredibly well for Lisa, will absolutely work for you.

WHAT DID LISA DO TO GO FROM -300/M TO $128,500 IN 12 MONTHS? 

The first thing Lisa needed to do was pick her Target Market. 

Now, you might think it's better to cast a wider net so that you can reach a bigger audience, but this can be really confusing for your audience when it comes to your marketing message.

And, it is an absolute FACT, that casting a wide net leaves you looking like everyone else and makes it much much MUCH HARDER to attract qualified prospects.

Lisa’s first problem was figuring out WHO to target.

At first, she wanted to be the “gay guy” money coach. But, after spending some time thinking about it and toying with the idea of targeting “gay guys,” Lisa came back to me said she actually wanted to help millennials. 

*My point in telling you this, is that 1) It’s sometimes hard to choose and 2) You don’t have to be right the first time. You get to test this.

My best advice to you is to make sure that the target market you choose to first try, passes the Ideal Client Test. 

The Ideal Client Test is this: 

1. You must LOVE working with this client
2. You must provide TRANSFORMATIONAL VALUE 
3. You must get PAID WELL for it

Once she decided that she loved to work with millennial women, we started targeting her messaging specifically to that market and it started working.  

LISA FOCUSED ON TARGETING MILLENNIAL WOMEN AND STARTED TELLING THE WORLD.

Once she knew who she was talking to, the easiest thing to do was to use a strategy called "THE CALL OUT".

When she started to be more targeted, just using the words ‘Millennial Women” in the content she was posting, got these women to start paying attention. Then, because she wrote about the specific problems they were having and the results they wanted, her messaging became more mission-based. And when you have a mission behind what you do, other people will market for you!

As she started sharing her posts, her friends would drive even more organic leads her way.

Before I show you this...I want to pause a moment because I know what you might be thinking.

“But Robyn, my compliance department is so strict, I can’t even use social media to market my business.”

I get it. I was in the industry for a decade and dealt with the same crap!

But, please look past the social media post, and understand the concept here. Because you can apply all of this by using the “CALL OUT” and compelling messaging when you’re networking or talking to ideal clients on the phone with the intention of getting referrals, or at a speaking engagement (or even to get a speaking engagement). 

SHE PICKED A NICHE, THEN WHAT? 

The next step for Lisa was to use messaging that shines a light on the problem and suggests solutions to that problem. Lisa did this incredibly effectively by sharing her vulnerability, that her ideal client could 100% relate to. This allowed her audience to feel connected and aligned with her, and then her audience REALLY started to pay attention.

WHY DID THEY PAY ATTENTION? 

They related to Lisa more because she talked about the things they were most afraid of, she talked about the problems that she had, that she knew they might have as well.

She talked specifically about her own experiences and struggles, of having -$300/m cashflow in her financial planning business of three years and completely exhausting her own retirement account. Her target market found this vulnerability incredibly relatable and inspiring, sharing these details actually elevated her to expert status. 

WHERE IS SHE NOW?

As a result of Lisa targeting her marketing and creating compelling messaging that related directly to her audience, Lisa began attracting qualified leads. This, of course, led to her acquiring more ideal clients, and her business skyrocketed.

In her first three months as a Millenial Women’s Money Coach, Lisa made $10,000, more than she ever made in that short period of time. But, she was just getting her feet wet. In the next 12 months, Lisa made $128,500. (Hitting 6 figures had been a dream for her and she did it!)

But wait… There’s more!

Now Lisa is a #1 bestselling author of the book (which of course is very targeted to Millenial Women, called, “Girl, Get Your $HIT Together.” Lisa also has been featured in O, Oprah Magazine, Entrepreneur magazine and today (which is year 3 for her), her revenue is 85% ahead of her last year's numbers. She’s also a keynote speaker and has recently been featured on CNBC (multiple times!) as the expert for Millennial Women.

Does this all make sense? 

Do you see how picking a target market and becoming THE EXPERT can make a massive difference in your business?

To summarize... Here are the 3 Steps to Becoming an EXPERT:

1. Choose your TARGET MARKET: Pick 1 market to target and start talking directly to that person. (It’s easiest when you pick an avatar)
2. Practice “The Call Out’ in your messaging: Be crystal clear who it is that you’re talking to, and literally just call them out. 
3. Use Mission-Based Language: In your messaging (whether it’s spoken or written), hit on the specific problems your target market has, and talk about the specific results that they want (that you can help them get)

When you do this, you will no longer look like everyone else.

You will no longer be ignored by the very person you most want to attract.

You will no longer blend in with the crowd.

Instead, you’ll stand out and attract the right people in your world and have the opportunity to change their lives and grow your business.