/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
As you might know already, I’m a big believer in telling a story.
As I write this, it’s presidential campaign season. The candidates are all about telling their stories. They want to get their preferred narratives out there, in front of voters. Successful candidates are very well rehearsed on these stories. They constantly make references to these stories, in the effort to brand themselves, differentiate themselves from other candidates, and inoculate themselves against attacks from competing candidates and their staffs.
Why?
Because it works!
It works in financial services, too.
In fact, it works so well that I don’t want you to have a single story defining you. I want you to have at least eight! And I want you to know them cold.
Read more
How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
/ by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
An increasing number of financial advisors are catching on to the fact that most of their clients and target market reside in a digital world where, if they fail to connect with them there, they risk becoming irrelevant or obsolete. Email, the internet, and social media have transformed the way consumers conduct their lives, and their influence now surpasses all other forms of persuasion, including television and print media. The critical question financial advisors must ask themselves now is, “How much digital influence do we have over our target market?”
Read more
How Financial Advisors Should Manage Emotional Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
People aren’t rational. We’re all creatures of emotion. Good salespeople bear that in mind. Whatever your training and education, as financial advisors, we’re not engineers. We’re not technicians. Not in the sales interview.
We deal with people first.
Not numbers. Not machines.
Advisors who understand this are going to do better than advisors who don’t.
Read more
How to Build Your ‘Why I Am Here’ Story
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Your ‘why I am here’ story is an essential market differentiator. First of all, not every financial advisor even has one – other than to make money. And out of those who really do have a client-centered reason for being in this business, not all of them are able to express it. So if you have a real reason you come to work every day, and you’re able to articulate it in a way that makes sense to the clients and gives them a reason to work with you, you’re already way ahead of the competition.
That’s why you need a “why I am here” story.
But the ability to articulate your story in a way that makes it stick is essential. You don’t want to get lost in the details. You don’t want to get sidetracked. You don’t want to get interrupted while you’re trying to tell it. And you don’t want to bore the listener!
Read more
Communication in a Post-Pandemic World: How to Connect with Prospective and Current Clients
/ by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
All of us are affected by the coronavirus and the shutdowns. The virus is slowly running its course but social distancing will be with us for a very long time to come.
That means most of us are going to have to change the way we market and sell our services. “Meet and greet” networking events will be out of the picture for a while. When they do come back, they’ll be different. They may look more like ‘show and tells’ with slide shows than mingling sessions.
Even walking into businesses and asking for the owner is going to be fraught. The small ‘handshake’ ritual that has been with us since antiquity will be changed as we figure out our new forms of etiquette and social conventions.
So, what’s the best path forward?
Read more
How to Build Your Story-Benefit Matrix
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Last week I blogged about a useful sales tool called a story-benefit matrix, and why you should develop one for your practice. Just going through the process is beneficial: It forces you to think through a number of different ways your prospective client will benefit by working with you – and gives you an opportunity to help tell an illustrative story that will cement that case.
It’s basic “soft-skills” at work.
But it’s helpful to understand how to build one yourself, so let me help you with that.
Read more
Why You Should Create a Story-Benefit Matrix
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Recently, in my post ”Never Underestimate the Power of a Good ‘Who I Am’ Story,” I mentioned the concept of building a good “story-benefit” matrix. I wanted to take a little time and drill down that concept.
Many salespeople are familiar with the concept of a features-benefit matrix – a handy little cheat-sheet that helps sales and marketing people translate product features into benefits for the customer.
Here’s how a features-benefit matrix works in a nutshell.
Read more
4 Reasons Financial Advisors Should Invest in Education and Self-Development Early On
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Warren Buffett is perhaps the most successful investor there ever was. Not from just one or two big hits, but from a long string of investment successes over more than six decades. But he didn’t get where he is now without studying very hard at Wharton, then at Columbia, where he studied with the legendary Benjamin Graham.
Further, like a Roth IRA, self-development pays off the most when you do it aggressively early in life. The benefits of learning and knowledge compound over time (as long as you keep learning).
Here are four reasons why you should start investing in education and self-development as early in your Financial Advisor career as you can.
Read more
8 Stories to Help You Build Trust and Open Accounts
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
As you might know already, I’m a big believer in telling a story.
As I write this, it’s presidential campaign season. The candidates are all about telling their stories. They want to get their preferred narratives out there, in front of voters. Successful candidates are very well rehearsed on these stories. They constantly make references to these stories, in the effort to brand themselves, differentiate themselves from other candidates, and inoculate themselves against attacks from competing candidates and their staffs.
Why?
Because it works!
It works in financial services, too.
In fact, it works so well that I don’t want you to have a single story defining you. I want you to have at least eight! And I want you to know them cold.
Read more
Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Good “Who I Am” Story
/ by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Human beings are storytellers. We tell stories because we respond to stories. It’s been so since the dawn of history.
In western civilization, we have received many of our great stories, myths, legends and cultural archetypes from stories memorized and passed down from generation to generation around campfires, dating back to pre-literate times.
Read more
How to Choose Your Specialty as a Financial Advisor
/ by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
The financial services market is becoming more complex and more complex every day. Everybody needs a focus. And those with focused practices are better able to serve their clients. None of us can be all things to all people so it’s important to specialize in the kind of advice you give.
But do you know how to choose your specialty as a Financial Advisor?
There are two key considerations – both equally important: Your market, and your passions.
Read more