The financial professionals placing emphasis on price, product, and performance will soon find themselves in a race that can’t be won. De-commoditization starts with a focus on process. It is your process that will inform the client experience.
At the center of that process is your client. How do your clients perceive what it is that you do, and then turn around and describe it to others? More importantly, do they feel compelled to do so? Are they proactive in sharing and introducing you to important people in their lives or do they simply react when a moment presents itself? And in that moment, what is it they say? Is there a compelling aspect of their relationship with you that reflects professional contrast, or do their words fall into the sea of sameness, a description every client uses to describe every advisor?
One of the first exercises we implement with advisors engaged in coaching and consulting at USA Financial is called “Make Your Clients the Voice” and it is exactly what it says… engaging your clients in a simple, yet meaningful exchange where you ask them to share specifics of their experience with you and your firm through three simple questions.