Has this happened to you?
You’ve spent years of hard work, wracking your brain to become the financial planner you want to be, and then you find most people just don’t care about financial planning.
And you wonder: how is that possible?
Perhaps your service is lacking something important. It needs one vital ingredient to really stand out.
A clear reason why you’re in business.
Not a single financial planner wants to scare his potential clients off when telling the story about their business.
Yet, very few financial planners dare to really attract their clients with the real reason they’re in business.
And what if that reason is a story that makes you more believable, trustworthy and gets you more clients (and maybe even some raving fans)?
In 1997, a young CEO was launching a new product, and here’s what he said to his team:
“Marketing is about values. Our clients want to know what it is that we stand for. And what we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well. We’re about something more than that. We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”
Then he played the “Think Different” advertising campaign video, which began with the words, “Here’s to the crazy ones …..”
The ad, of course, was for the Apple computer, and the “crazy ones” were people who dared to think that they could change the world. Steve Jobs changed how we buy and listen to music and the way we work and shop.
Apple forever changed how we feel about technology by addressing the worldview most people have.
How Do You Win People’s Hearts (and Get Some Raving Fans)?
What if the Apple ad would continue like this?
Here’s to the crazy ones. We make great computers. They are beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Wanna buy one?
Do you think that is a compelling ad? I think not.
Unfortunately, that’s how most financial planners communicate.
They say for example:
I’m a financial planner. I give advice to high net worth people so that they can reach their financial goals. I’m a fee-only CFP with specialization in wealth management. Wanna buy my service?
The real Apple ad goes like this:
Here’s to the crazy ones. In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Wanna buy one?
Do you think that is a compelling ad? I believe it is.
Apple reversed the order of their business story.
Apple didn’t tell us first what they were selling. No, first they told us why they are in business.
Apple sells computers to challenge the status quo. Apple told us why they did what they did. And that helped them to speak to what really matters to the people. So that ‘the crazy ones’ had a real and personal connection with the story of Apple.
What Steve Jobs Knew
As we all know Steve Jobs was a brilliant marketer. He knew that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
He knew that if he told the world what he was selling, he wouldn’t be compelling or different to any other computer company.
But what if financial planners communicated like Apple? So your clients had a true connection with your story?
What if you reversed the order of your story?
What if you’d not started with what, but instead started with why?
Then maybe you’d also attract raving fans.
Just like Apple.
Let’s make financial planning matter,
-Ronald
