(TSE #040) - Mastering Influence: The Secret to Being Heard

Marketing is about making change happen.

Stop and think about those words – Make. Change. Happen.

Marketing is not about convincing people to buy your product. That’s called ‘advertising”.

Advertising is transactional.

Marketing is relationship building.? Marketing is about making change happen.

How to make change happen

As many of my regular readers will know, I love expressing my ideas as equations or acronyms.

Why?

Because, for me at least, it’s an easy way to remember the point I’m trying to make.

To make change happen, people must:

1. Listen to you,

2. Understand what you have to say,

3. Resonate with the ideas you are putting out into the world,

4. Be able to see how these can apply to their own lives, and

5. Then act so that change occurs.

The key to the first step in this sequence is that people need to listen to what you have to S.A.E. (pronounced ‘say’).

What do you have to S.A.E.?

S.A.E. stands for communicating ideas that:

? Serve others ? Authentically, and with ? Empathy

For example, when a sponsored “InMail” lands in my LinkedIn mailbox, I do not listen to what the person has to say to me because:

? Although it may be trying to Serve me,

? It is usually not Authentic (in fact, it is often self-serving) and

? Little effort has been made to base it on Empathy (mass marketing is almost impossible to be empathetic).

When I am reading my LinkedIn posts, I will often come across a post and listen to what the person has to say because:

? It aims to Serve me,

? Is Authentic in its message, and

? The authenticity often leads to a sense of Empathy communicated in the message.

The S.A.E framework is the first step in effective marketing:

1. Listen to you,

2. Understand what you have to say,

3. Resonate with the ideas you are putting out into the world,

4. Be able to see how these can apply to their own lives, and

5. Then act so that change occurs.

Craft what you have to S.A.E.

Think about how you can genuinely and authentically service others from a place of empathy.

This will typically involve reaching back through your past to understand the pain points of a particular audience you attract?and providing them with a genuine, realistic solution of immense value.

For example, when the Financial Adviser Exam was launched in 2019 it meant over 24,000 individuals?had to pass the exam to remain in the financial advice industry.

I knew from my deep knowledge and understanding of financial advice professionals that passing the exam was going to cause tremendous hardship for many, simply because they had never studied for such an exam in their lives (or, if they had, it was likely decades prior) and they were?extremely time poor, meaning finding time to prepare effectively was going to be almost impossible without guidance.

This is how I built my first S.A.E. framework.

I knew I wanted to serve those financial advisers, stockbrokers, and licensed accountants who wanted to continue providing advice to their much-loved clients.

I genuinely wanted to help because I knew I had the skill set to remove the pain points the exam would bring. I knew I could:

? Provide a structured and coherent approach to preparing for the exam (serve)

? Build an exam prep program that was of value and didn’t waste people’s time, given my extensive knowledge of financial planning and create courses (authentic)

? Understand how best to structure the programs and offer various levels of support to cater to differing individual needs (empathy)

By serving the audience I knew well, I was able to provide them with an authentic solution that met their individual needs based on a deep sense of empathy and understanding.

I was able to craft my message through newsletters, LinkedIn posts, webinars, and other communication tools so my audience would hear what I had to S.A.E.

As a result, I was able to attract and?help almost 2,000 Financial Advisers, Stockbrokers, and licensed Accountants effectively prepare for the exam to enhance their chances of passing, the first time.

My efforts are still paying dividends today as people still reach out for assistance in preparing for the ASIC Financial Adviser Exam which is now open to a new and emerging market of paraplanners, compliance staff, customer support officers, Provisional Financial Advisers, and ex-Financial Advisers looking to re-enter the industry in line with recent favourable changes to education requirements.

If you want to know more about how best to prepare for the exam or know someone who does, please feel free to reach out.

That’s all for today – see you next week.

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