You're listening to Financial Adviser Marketing, the best show on the planet for financial advisers who want to get more clients without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal. James is the founder of TheAdviserCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisers grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard. [00:31.7]
James: Financial advisors, it feels so good to be here. I am pumped up. I'm honored to even be here right now. I have such big catalog of podcast episodes. So big, so large, so tremendous. The biggest podcast catalog anyone has ever seen. Many people have told me that it's a tremendous podcast catalog.
Jonathan: Ahh…Love it.
James: People can go back. Little, little Trumpy Trumpy in here.
Jonathan: Yeah, huge. It's going to be huge.
James: A huge podcast show. Huge, tremendous. Many people have said it's the greatest podcast catalog they've ever seen. We are at the point where you can go back and you can listen for literally hours. Let's do, let's do some math here. So this is episode 103, 104.
Jonathan: 104. [01:18.9]
James: 104. Okay. So let's say that we have a 104 episodes, you can hear the clacking in my calculator here. Each one let's say is an average of 20 minutes. I mean, I've got some interviews that are 40 minutes long about other episodes that are like 15 minutes long. Let's say an average of 20 that's 2080 minutes. Divide that by 60 to see how many hours that is. Ooh, 34.6 hours. Holy Moly! This is the point where if you're a brand new advisor, you can listen to these episodes. You can get almost, almost not everything cause I’m, I'm honest with you that you're not going to get everything in a free podcast. Like just I'm telling you, it just being transparent with you. You're never, not just with me either it's just not going to happen. You're not going to get everything you need to succeed in a free podcast, but you can get almost everything you need to succeed, that nobody can cover every little detail, but I'm giving you quite a bit. I mean, 34.666 hours of content for free. Don't charge you nothing, no sponsors. I'm not breaking off in the middle of a show saying, you know what? My favorite underwear is Me Undies. [02:26.56]
Jonathan: Can I get those?
James: You can get your pair of Me Undies, none of that. None of that don't do that. I am the sponsor because I got stuff that can help you. So I want to start the show off with a little, it's going to be weird, I promise. A little something called marketing incest. [02:41.0]
Jonathan: Hmm, okay.
James: If you're in the marketing world, you've heard this before. This is not my concept. This is not my original thinking. And I originally heard this from Ben Settle, email marketing extraordinaire. If you are an inner circle member, one of the bonuses you get upon signing up is interview with Ben Settle about email marketing and some of the things that I have learned from him and I, when he said that when he, when he said marketing incest, I actually think he got that from Dan Kennedy though. I am immediately saw the parallel to the financial services industry, so here it is. [03:16.3]
So back in the 1990s, there was the, the pickup artist industry where all these guys were going out and learning how to pick up women. And whether you agree or disagree with that, or think it's offensive, like just put your opinions to the side here, learn the marketing lesson here. It was on fire. I mean, you got the book, the game and all that. It was a big freaking deal. And the marketing world was selling this stuff, like you wouldn't believe. They were creating courses and books and programs like learning to pick up women become Casanova and all this other stuff. So there was a guy, his name was Neil and Neil dressed like, he dressed with like leather in fancy clothes and he shaved his head and he would do all these things to pick up women. Well, he was so good. And he got so well known that other people started copying him. So they dressed the same way. They shaved their heads like him. And they even used all of his pickup lines without any context. And that's important. I mean, you need the context in order to make the lines work, but they would use them without context and it's dangerous. [04:20.6]
So these strategies were so common that eventually they stopped working, because think about this. All those guys looked exactly the same and they did all the same things, they were all just copying each other. Women would just point and laugh. So it started off well, and it was working and then it didn't work because everyone was doing it. Hmm. That sounds a lot like copycat advisers. It's starting to get bad, Jonathan. They're seeing the same things and they copy each other to the point where no, none of their strategies work as well as they otherwise would. And this did come from Dan Kennedy. It just hit me right now. He did call this marketing incest. This happens in a lot of areas, even with something as simple as a funnel, building software. Funnels, funnels are not new. I know the people think they were invented in 2014 like. It's not new. It's not new stuff. It may have been hot when it was reinvented. And it was like a new concept, but now everyone sees it and they get a bad taste in their mouth because it's so common. [05:28.6]
And financial advisors, let me just save you the trouble. If you click on an experts ad or a marketing experts like social media link or whatever, and it takes you to a funnel builder page, you do something like ClickFunnels. I have nothing against ClickFunnels. It's an amazing software, it's run by amazing people. But when you see that their website, the “experts”, website is built on something like click funnels, here's a news for you. It means that they set it up in less than five minutes; they're looking for the easy way to build their site. They're looking for something that they can just test, right. They're not serious. If you go to someone and they've got their actual website and everything is built on their own domain and their site, they are serious. If you, so don't just take that for what you will. I'm not going to get deep into that, but you've been warned financial advisors. If you see an expert or a coach or a guru or whoever pose out there and you click on the page and you're taken to a click funnel site, just you've been warned. [06:29.3]
And I'm even a victim of this. I'm a victim of the marketing incest. I named my business, The Advisor Coach before coaching was a big thing. Now I know people have this preconceived notion of me because of the business name alone. And it sucks. It sucks, because everybody is a freaking coach now. They coach this and I'm a life coach and I coach you with your sleep. And I mean, I have sleep coaches, but I, I coach you with your Facebook and coach you with your Twitter and coach you with your text messages. Like everyone is a coach. It's insane. So I have been a victim of this. Now, you know, in 2021 and beyond, I have to be labeled as The Advisor Coach, because that's what my decision was and it was before coaching was so hot. Now it's everywhere. But you've got to stop this marketing incest, if you want to succeed. And what we're talking about today is a way you can be different from everyone else. And we're talking about why you should stop introducing yourself to prospects. Sounds strange. Well, maybe it is. [07:35.4]
Hey, financial advisors – if you’d like even more help building your business, I invite you to subscribe to James’ monthly paper-and-ink newsletter, The James Pollard Inner Circle.
When you join today, you’ll get more than one thousand dollars’ worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren’t available anywhere else.
Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [07:58.0]
James: Let me explain. Years ago, this financial advisor hired me to critique his team's phone call script. Now, I don't know why, because this isn't, that wasn't really what I did. But being the little time horror, I am, he offered me a bunch of money and asked me to do it. And back then, I would just say yes to whatever opportunity came across my desk. Cause I mean, I thought that's what you did. I thought that's what you did in business. I was very, very wrong. I don't operate like that anymore. So thankfully those days are long gone, but I am glad I said yes to this project because it contained a valuable lesson and it's the lesson I'm going to share with you today. [08:38.2]
His script sounded something like this. Hello? This is Joe Blow with XYZ financial here in any town USA. I'd like to take some time to introduce myself and learn a little bit about you and your goals. Does Tuesday at 4:00 PM or Wednesday at 1:00 PM work better for you? Well, this in case you don't realize about now, this script totally failed and it failed for several reasons. First, the whole idea of “introducing yourself.” It means that the meeting will be all about you. When you say something like that, your prospect immediately visualizes a boring meeting where they drone on and on and on about your ex, where you drone on and on about your experience, your “experience” your companies. Let me ask your storied history and whole bunch of other crap they don't care about. And this isn't limited to cold calls either. [09:34.4]
This is the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast, so we're going to relate this to other areas, marketing. If you talk about yourself and nothing but yourself, when something like email marketing, it's probably not going to do as well. The same with LinkedIn. If you do nothing but post about yourself and the challenges of, of that you have in your successes, people are probably going to tune out. You want to make it about your target market. What do they want? What can you do for them? Now, the next reason that this script failed is because it used the alternative of choice close. Now this is very common in sales. I get it. You can read Cardone and get them, her and Tracy. And there are so many different how Hopkins and all these trainers that tell you closing, closing. Well, it may work if you are a car salesperson and you're giving shoe signs at the airport, but if you're a financial advisor, wake the flip up, this doesn't work. [10:31.0]
So when he said this Tuesday at 4:00 PM, Wednesday at 1:00 PM work for you, it's just a cheesy sales tactic from the 1950’s, people can see right through it. The stuff written by Tracy Hopkins, Cardone, all these people, it works like it does work. They have amazing material, but it just doesn't work for financial advisors. Hopefully that makes sense. So you have, if you're getting sales advice, make sure they're just tailored specifically to financial advisors. And the whole closing tactics thing, it is a good example of marketing incest, or should I say you say sales incest because salespeople copied it each other and they use this close and now it's completely overdone. And by the way, financial advisors, if you want to improve your sales process, if you want to call it that as a financial advisor, I've got a product designed to do just that it's called ‘37 sales steps for Financial Advisors.’ And you can find that over at TheAdviserCoach.com and you can click on the products tab. I'm not going to talk about it too much here because that's not the point of the show, but it's definitely worth it. If you want to improve the sales function of your business, it's built specifically for financial advisors and it takes care of all of the other things that I'm talking about, where like traditional sales tactics and closing all the other stuff, it doesn't work. [11:42.9]
And and, if you don't believe me, you can try it for yourself. You can read one of the old school who sales books. You can take their advice and you can try that with your prospective clients. And then you can take my advice and just try it, just see, just see which one works better. So if you think that I don't know what I'm talking about, or if you are wondering if it's going to work for you, just try it. If you don't like it, let me know. We have a 365 day money back guarantee because it works. Now with his script, a much better approach would have been to briefly introduce himself. For real, not just saying, I'd like to get to know you. I'd like to introduce myself. I'd like to do this, whatever, but just introduce yourself for real. Hi, my name is Joe from XYZ financial I'm, I'm new to the area. I'm doing this whatever. And then set up a meeting with a legitimate purpose. [12:32.5]
Meaning the purpose of the meeting would not have been to introduce yourself. It would have been about delivering something tangible and valuable to the prospective client; even if all he could do is figure out if he could help the client in the first place. Hopefully that makes sense. The meeting is not about introducing yourself. The meeting is about something valuable. Your prospects are not going to care about you introducing yourself to them in the meeting. They're not going to take time out of their day to do that. Remember prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. Now sometimes best “introductory” meetings as a financial advisor, it's all about getting to know your perspective clients. It's not about you. It's not about vomiting, a bunch of information about you and your company and your story and your history. It is about getting to know them. So just be transparent. [13:28.2]
You approach people this way. You say, Hey, I've got no idea, if I can help you or not. I help people just like you. I don't know if I can help you specifically or not but I’d like to find out. And assuming you can help everyone is just wrong anyway. You can't help everyone. If you think you can, or you tell yourself, you can, you're lying to yourself. You cannot help everyone anyway. So just be candid about it, people appreciate that. And I think that's one of the things that you do all over at The Podcast Factory producer, Jonathan, you say, I help. At this point, you didn't use to say it. I know you didn't. You say at this point I help coaches and consultants with the podcasts. [14:06.7]
Jonathan: Indeed.
James: So one of the examples I gave in a previous episode was about LinkedIn outreach, I think is episode 101. So instead of saying, Hey, I'd like to set up a time to introduce myself, say something about the person's background. Like, Hey, I noticed you were involved in alligator mud wrestling. Do you still have all your fingers? So you're talking about them.
Jonathan: Nice.
James: Then you offer the person a piece of free content you're asking for permission. And it's something that's related to him or her. It's again, not about you. It's not about you. It's about them. It could be as simple as saying, ‘Curious, are you looking for way to improve your alligator mud wrestling skills? If you are, I've got a great guide to rear naked alligator jokes that I can share with you. Would you like to see it? Now that may seem cheesy. I know that unless you niches alligator mud wrestlers, I guess I don't know, but the point is clear by making it all about your prospects your chances of building a real relationship are much higher. [15:08.1]
So to sum it up, stop introducing yourself. I say with finger quotes, you can't see that because it's podcast obviously, but “introducing yourself” and start positioning yourself to serve people, to help them because that's how you build a business that stands the test of time. You get to help people. Your opportunity is to make an impact in the world. You get to give something that's worth much more than the money you're exchanging with them. So that is a wrap for this week.
Jonathan: Beautiful. What do you have coming up for us next time, James? [15:42.1]
James: I don't know. So if you have any ideas, please send them to james@theadvisorcoach.com. I can't promise I'll get back to you, but we read all the emails and we take them seriously. I take my own advice about taking people, you know, people's opinions and their show ideas. So we are here to serve. So if you've got an idea again, send that to james@theadvisorcoach.com
Jonathan: There you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, another Financial Advisor Marketing is wrapping up, but worry not we will be back with you next time. Thank you for tuning in. [16:16.4]
This is ThePodcastFactory.com.
