Week 41

How to Differentiate Your Firm

I often hear financial advisors ask how they can differentiate from other advisors who say they do the same thing as their firm (even if they don’t). Instead of asking yourself, “How do I differentiate?” ask the question, “How do I become incomparable?” If you want to sound different, you have to be different in a way that is obvious to your prospects. Here are five ways to do that:

1. Focus on a niche that most advisors don’t exclusively serve (e.g., United Airlines pilots).

2. Be an expert in an area most other advisors don’t serve (e.g., the Federal Employees Retirement System).

3. Develop a unique proprietary process that can’t be compared with any other firm’s process. (Hint! Not the CFP Board’s seven-step financial planning process or CEG’s wealth management process.)

4. Have a unique distribution method (e.g., your office is in an Airstream you drive to the client).

5. Offer best-in-class customer service. (This is extremely difficult because the only way for this to work is through widespread word-of-mouth from your existing clients—think Ritz-Carlton and Nordstrom.)