6 Important Advisor Growth Strategies For Success

Every successful advisor on the planet is doing these six things to scale their business.  See which factors you’re already using and create those you’re missing.  Bring these systems to your business and see how they work for you!

Pricing

Pricing your services “just right” appears at the beginning of this list because successful advisors price their services based on the value they provide to their clients and on what their ideal clients will pay.  They don’t give away services or discount their fees because of possible future earnings.  Their ideal clients don’t ask for discounts.  They don’t pick their pricing out of a hat or based only articles they’ve read, .  They plan their services, touchpoints, and fees around their ideal clients.   Successful advisors have a niched business, and that niche is evident in their business model, business framework, their systems, and even their office décor.  These advisors are willing to cut a client meeting short if the person/people in front of them aren’t the “right fit” and, thus, not worth the advisors’ time and effort..

Productize

People buy products more quickly than they buy services, so stop selling services! To productize is to name every service you provide.  So, it’s not Financial Planning, but a Financial Planning Formula, or a name based on the result of identifying your ideal clients’ core challenges.  Don’t have a First Session; conduct a Work Smarter Session, a Clarity Session, a Getting to Know You Session.  Many of my clients have a “product” called “Second Look Consulting”.  Naming something your ideal clients would relate to formalizes the service in their eyes.  One- to three-word names are best.  However, if you need a fourth, then “just do it”.

Path

The path you take is very important.  My new clients are extremely business-oriented.  When they tell me about all the ways they are marketing, my head spins.  The path toward growing your firm requires first managing your business and then marketing it.  I know, it’s not sexy to do the planning, strategizing, and tactical work.  However, managing comes before growing.  You can market first and maintain the appearance of being busy.  But you’re wasting time because you won’t attract your ideal clients until you clarify the who, what, where, and why behind what you’re doing.  Why not do this from the get-go? Create a niche and then your ideal client profile.  Segment your client base and give each segment different touchpoints, service levels, and prices.  Clarify your firm’s message, your vision, mission, goals, strategies, and the value you provide.  You will learn to connect with prospects – to stop talking about yourself (WIIFM) and to instead learn about them (WIIFT).  THEN you target market “5” ways consistently based on where those ideal clients “hang out” in numbers on and offline.

Prospect

You must know everything about your prospects, down to where they shop, what books they read, whether or not they are on LinkedIn®, etc.  You can take guesses, but the best way to learn about your ideal clients is to set up 20- to 30-minute sessions during which you ask them questions.  My clients hate doing this but, once it’s done, they tell me that their own clients really enjoy being interviewed! In fact, clients enjoy it so much that we look for other ways in which they can meet to chat with their ideal clients – ways that have nothing to do with their portfolios or selling them another service.

Problem

Your success does not stem from your being the best advisor in your state, your country, or the world.  Your success is built on the problem(s) you solve that the client is ready to pay for, as well as on the value your clients receive for the money they invest in your business.  (Yes, clients are investing in YOUR business.)  Create a list of the problems you solve.  Better yet…

Ask your ideal clients: “What problems do I solve for you?  Because you want to know what’s most important to them… and not guess.  (Hint: you’ll use this information IN your business and when you talk to future clients.)

Ask every new client: “What ____________ (choose one word to fill in the blank – problems, issues, challenges, frustrations, fears, aggravations) are you experiencing that brought you to me?”

Process

Every process your business has starts and ends with a step.  Sometimes it ends with “repeat”.  Name the process, name the steps if you can, and write them down or draw a map.  Give the document to your team so that they can learn and use it.  If you name your first session with a prospect “Getting to Know Each Other Time” or “Discover Session” or whatever you choose to call it, the client will remember to tell the next person they refer about how you work!  Example: My clients can tell a prospect to go to my website and request a Work Smarter Session.  Or, if they know someone who is not yet ready to hire a business consultant or executive coach, they can tell them to get my tips by joining my Business Mastery newsletter.

Is there more than these 6 business growth factors? Of course, but these are the primary factors to start with, IF you’re interested in scaling your business and spending more time OUT of the office every week than you do now.