In the video below, Scott Keffer discusses platforms and how prospects learn about you.
Platforms: How Do Your Prospects Hear About You?
(Below is the transcript from the video.)
What are your platforms? In other words how do your prospects hear about you?
So here’s an interesting observation, your process is about how you do what you do. This is about who you are and your why. Most advisors sell if they will, how they do what they do. Discerning prospects by who you are and why you do what you do. Everybody else talks about what they do, and how. Discerning prospects don’t buy what and how. They buy who you are why you do what you do. That’s why it’s absolutely critical to understand … this whole idea whether you go through this with one of your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, whatever it is. It’s great to walk through Andy’s book as well yourself. And just say, what is our why and how can I weave it in? Because people buy who you are and why you do what you do. Not what you do and how.
So there are 904,000 advisors in the United States. About 76,000 in Canada, so what does that mean? That means there’s competition out there and according to the US labor department, those 900,000 are increasing at 10 times the inflation rate. I’m pretty sure that my landscaper is a financial advisor. Well we laugh but today everybody’s being recruited in to it, right. So there’s one advisor for every 10 millionaires. One advisor for every 10, in Canada there’s one for every two. Now the good thing Keith is, you only need 24 families, right?
What’s the population of Toronto?
I was thinking about five million, so good sized city. But Keith just proved that you don’t need that many. 24 families, really nice business. So we don’t need that many. But today there’s a lot of confusing choices, right. Stock brokers, attorneys, CPA’s, Banks, online. They’re all competing. They’re all competing, same thing. Online is saying they do what you do Ted, right. Do what you do, you just go online. You can get documents in a box. Really, terrific. Terrific. Just what I want, surgery in a box. Just what I want.
So how do you stand out? See this is what your clients SEE see. What the SEE is an SEA of advisors. And when the SEE and SEA of anything they all look the same. They all look the same. And now they’re all talking the same, and now they all send the same stuff. Which means if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck it must be a duck. Which is exactly why I failed out of the business originally. I walked like a product pushing financial advisor. I quacked like a product pushing financial advisor, so I must be one. And so I was treated like a product pushing financial advisor. So in 1994 when I went back in the business I still had no credentials, I had no clients. I had no referrals, but what I did, I preset … the Folgers principal, I set the stage and people see what they expect to see. So all of a sudden I’m dealing with millionaire clients and I didn’t have any clients before.
Before I was showing up at … go to people’s house, and you show your thing, and then they’d say oh run it like this. And then you’d run back and you’d run an illustration and then you’d come back. And then they’d say, how about run it like this. Then you run back and run the illustration, they come back, right?
So all this does is waste money. Just saying, I never had a brochure. Never had a brochure, advertising, mail house seminars, elevator pitches, networking, social media et cetera, et cetera. Et cetera, and I think that sandwich signs don’t work either and your picture on grocery carts probably isn’t a good idea either.
But what about really cool cards? Websites, brochures, blah blah blah blah. Me too advertising, me too marketing. Me too, me too, me too. So when Barry and I started working what was the biggest problem? I had no credentials. I had no history. I have a rented regious office with Ikea furniture. No millionaires are going to hire somebody like that right.
If you preset, if you set the stage. So all the traditional advisor marketing is you talking about, enough about you let’s talk about me, me, me, me, me. Enough about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think about me? Was it Toby Keith who said enough about you, another country song? Enough about you let’s talk about me, me, me, me, me.
So fortunately I learned this. So what’s the date on that? 2003, that’s when you can actually hang out with Seth Godin, spend a day with him in a small group. So I went there, and that’s exactly why because up to that point in time I had figured out the only reason to have a website up to that point in time was to see what competition was doing that was the only reason I saw other people had websites. Or to see that there websites were out of date. So I didn’t have one, when I went there he essentially tore them apart and they taught me how to think about this idea in Purple Cow. Which is how to be remarkable. Remarkable has the idea of I stand out but it also has the idea of, if somebody has the ability to remark about me. And that’s the key to remark ability. You have to be remarkable. Give people a reason to talk.