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When someone asks what you do, should you focus on the benefits you provide and describe how your clients are better off?
Contrary to what you may have read about crafting a persuasive “elevator pitch,” I say the answer is “no.”
During the question period after a talk, I was asked about the worst advice I’d seen recently for financial advisors looking to attract new clients. There’s no shortage of candidates – most of what’s written about closing techniques and many of the suggestions about extracting referrals from clients come to mind.
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But my answer didn’t focus on those. Instead it related to a couple of articles I’d read in the last while on the need for advisors to construct an effective elevator pitch. The main point of these articles was that during opportunities to network, advisors need to succinctly articulate how clients are better off as a result of working with them.
The conclusion from reading those articles is that this approach risks doing more harm than good. In my view, when asked what you do, rather than launching into an explanation of the benefits you provide, you’re better off keeping your message brief and to the point and as quickly as possible ask a question in reply.
Here’s why.
The elevator pitch in brief
The concept of an elevator pitch is dead simple. Imagine you’re waiting for an elevator. Just as it arrives someone joins you – and when you look at him, you recognize each other as university classmates from 20 years before. From articles in the press, you know that your former classmate, let’s call him Bill Smith, is the successful CEO of a high-tech startup.
He, on the other hand, has no idea what you do.
“ Dan Richards,” he says as you both step into the elevator and it starts to descend. “ What a small world. Tell me, what have you been up to?”
If you listen to some experts on this topic, you now have 10 seconds to answer in a way that communicates how your clients are better off as a result of your efforts, in a fashion that will intrigue and engage Bill and open the door to the possibility of a conversation about working together.
How I help doctors
In one video by a self-styled expert, professional service providers are urged to focus on the outcome they create rather than what they do. For example, if someone helps people organize their homes and offices, they “create time and space in the lives of the clients I work with.” Or if someone is a divorce lawyer, their answer should be something along the lines of, “I help people navigate through one of the most difficult times they’ll experience, helping clients make smarter choices so they can go on to happier lives.”
Here’s another take on how you should answer the question about what you do. In an article in a leading publication for financial advisors, a consultant suggested that if you target women going through divorce, your elevator pitch should be something like: ”I work with women who are suddenly single and ready to take charge of their lives and their finances.”
This consultant goes on to lay out a scenario in which two advisors are at a conference for physicians; during a reception a doctor asks each of them what they do.
The first advisor answers: “I’m a financial planner,” bringing that conversation to a rapid close.
The second advisor’s reply is very different. “I help doctors develop an RX for their retirement and make sure they can enjoy it fully by solving the three most common problems they typically face as they retire.”
The author of this article suggests that a doctor is much more likely to want to pursue a conversation with the second advisor, who has provided a compelling reason to talk further.
To which I say, not so fast.
There’s one big problem with this suggestion and others like it: They contradict your primary goal when meeting someone new, which is to position yourself as a professional. In my view, the big downside to these kinds of responses is that instead of communicating that you’re a professional, they scream “SALESPERSON.”
Positioning yourself as a professional
Remember, if you want to be viewed as a professional, you have to act like a professional. I’ve written in the past about “the private bankers rule,” suggesting that private bankers dealing with affluent clients are good role models for how advisors should behave. Whether dealing with prospective clients or existing clients, to be viewed as a professional you should behave like a private banker at an exclusive financial institution or a partner in a large law firm or accounting firm. That applies to what your office looks like, how you dress, how you and your staff greet clients, the jokes you tell and the language you use.
And if you can’t imagine a private banker, lawyer or accountant saying or doing something, then chances are you shouldn’t either. Imagine that you’re at a conference for financial advisors and during one of the breakout sessions you find yourself sitting beside someone you don’t know. You notice from their badge that they’ve got CPA beside their name and after introducing yourself, you ask what they do. Consider three responses:
The first is: “I’m an accountant with the firm of Richards Carruthers Thompson.” I think we’d all agree, it can’t get much more boring than that.
The second response: “I help financial advisors navigate the complex issues around financial management for their practices so their time is freed up to work with clients and to spend more time enjoying their lives. Quite simply, I worry about their financial affairs so they don’t have to.”
And the final answer: “I’m an accountant who specializes in working with financial advisors to address some of their unique challenges.”
To which of these would you be most likely to provide the response that everyone in a networking situation hopes to hear: “ That’s interesting, tell me more?” And which would you most likely hear from a private banker, lawyer or accountant?
I’d suggest that most of us would pick the third answer. Even though it describes what the accountant does rather than the outcomes for his clients, this answer positions him as a professional and provides a reason to talk further without subjecting us to what feels like a sales pitch.
Your goal when meeting someone new
Remember, whenever you meet someone who could become a possible client, whether it is a long-lost university classmate who you encounter walking into an elevator or someone you meet at a conference, you have only two goals:
- Position yourself as a professional who might be able to help them at some future point.
- As quickly as possible, get the other person talking, by asking them “And how about you, what do you do?”
That’s it. Those are your only two objectives when meeting someone for the first time. Naturally, you want to avoid the boring, conversation-stopping response of “I’m a financial planner.” But nor do you want to launch into an unnatural, artificial spiel that screams “salesman.”
As you think about your own answer to the question, “What do you do?” formulate a short response that conveys what you do while positioning you as a professional. The private banker’s rule provides useful guidance. As you run through the possible answers in your head, consider whether they’d likely come from a private banker for upscale investors. If the answer is no, then think further to ensure that your elevator pitch doesn’t leave prospective clients looking to get off at the next floor.
conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written and video commentaries, go to www.clientinsights.ca. Use A555A for the rep and dealer code to register for website access.
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