Every time you communicate, you’re doing one of two things:

1. You’re adding value
2. You’re taking up space

When you add value, you’re contributing to the conversation. Clients are more likely to listen to you, remember you, and take action on what you say. They’ll pay more for your time, and respect your opinions. Your listener will give you their most precious resource: their full attention.

You add value when you are communicating using your own high-performing traits.

On the other hand, the more space you take up, the more difnancult it becomes to continuously earn your spot, and the more likely you are to become ignored and irrelevant.

Your clients have a constant temptation to go elsewhere. Many wealth advisors are selling the same products and services as everyone else; financial products and services on the surface are pretty much the same, and to the untrained eye, advisors are, too.

As a result, advisors face the daunting challenge of setting themselves apart in order to build loyalty among current clients.

Once you know what makes you valuable to others, you’re more authentic and confident, and more likely to make a positive impression.

So ask yourself… are you losing prospects (or failing to gain new revenue altogether) because you’re just taking up space?

The more value you add, the less you have to compete on price, and the less likely you are to become a commodity.

Whether you realize it or not, you already add value in a very specific way. The key is to identify that, and build your communication around it.

There are seven different ways to add value, and communicate so that others want to listen and take action:

1. If you fascinate with Passion, like me, you speak the language of relationship.
2. If you speak the language of confidence, you use Power to lead with authority.
3. Mystique thinks through decisions carefully and speaks the language of listening.
4. Innovation will surprise your customers with creativity and bold ideas.
5. Trust personalities are counted on for their loyalty and stability.
6. You might use Alert, the language of details, if you watch the details carefully.
7. Prestige continually raises the bar with higher standards and is the language of excellence.  

By understanding your own Advantages, a wealth advisor can shape his or her entire communication plan around it. Click here and use code FOXBLOG to find out your Advantage for free.

So how can a financial services advisor keep his customers loyal? By emphasizing his unique Advantages with every interaction. A wealth advisor who can lead with his ability to instill Trust (one of the seven Advantages) each time he communicates by providing accurate and essential details will never become a commodity in the eyes of his clients.
The lesson is simple:

The more value you add, the less you have to compete on price, and the less likely you are to become a commodity.

Here are two ways to know if you are adding value to co-workers and clients:

• You become admired for a noteworthy ability to contribute a specific benefit. Your specific benefit might be deep knowledge, a highly prized skill, special service, or elite network. For example, if you’re a mortgage broker, you find better rates and niche financing.
• You deliver specialized value, even if you are more expensive or less convenient. Your clients want to work with you, even if you have a long waiting list, even if they have to travel far to see you, and even if they pay twice as much as for your competitor.

Are you adding value… or just taking up space?

You can add value, and be perceived as intensely valuable.

Your business can be more engaging, more attractive, more memorable – without spending more on marketing or overhead.

Hear Sally Hogshead speak about decreasing client confusion and why your natural advantage of persuasion matters most during disruptive times at the 2017 FOX Wealth Advisor Forum. Click here to learn more>>