Helping businesses grow through the science of advice
Of all the purchasing decisions we can make, buying advice has to be one of the most difficult.
Advice is intangible.
It involves risk, complexity, anxiety and uncertainty.
…and what’s more clients don’t even know if they’ll see the results they want.
This ‘perfect storm’ means people don’t engage in advice when they should, they don’t see the full value in what you do, and it can be hard to clearly define what makes you different.
That’s why understanding what really drives people to take advice is so important. As a specialist in advice-seeking behaviour, I help advice businesses attract, convert and delight clients by focusing on the Science of Advice.
Philip Courtenay, Founder of Science of Advice
You know what your advice has value, but…
- Although clients love what you do, prospective clients have difficulty seeing the full value
- It can be hard to attract clients in a crowded market
- You spend time having to justify your fees
- Prospective clients procrastinate
Apply the science of advice to:
- Marry what makes you uniquely valuable with those who want to pay you for it
- Present your message in a way that makes your value clear to attract and convert more clients
- Reinforce the value you deliver to delight those you work with.
Working together
Consulting
I help advice businesses in three areas:
What you do:
Defining your uniquely valuable offering for the audience that values it.
How you present it:
Presenting your advice to attract and convert prospective clients.
How you deliver it:
Reinforcing your value by behaviourally optimising how you deliver your advice.
Workshops
Revealing the drivers of advice-seeking behaviour and giving you the tools you need to attract, convert and delight clients.
Speaking
Available to speak on advice-seeking behaviour and its impact on strategy, marketing and client experience.
Strategy, Prospect Experience, Client Experience
SHAPE process. Scientific rigour
How we SHAPE your strategy
How we SHAPE your prospect experience
How we SHAPE your client experience
Consulting
Business change requires behavioural change.
The S.H.A.P.E. Process™ provides a structured way to understand and deliver the changes that will grow your business.
Whether you want to reduce drop-off rates within your digital advice journey, improve new client conversions, increase demand for your offering, or another commercial objective, you need to start with knowing what really drives those you’re engaging with.
What’s more, you also need a process to practically apply this knowledge within your business.
The S.H.A.P.E. Process™ does exactly that.
01. Scope
the problem
Some challenges may seem large at first, but can often be broken down through data analysis. For example, are drop-off rates confined to a particular group of clients?
Once we have a precise goal, we need to reveal what’s really driving existing behaviours. But we humans often don’t consciously know why we act in certain ways. To overcome this challenge, we explore in-depth stakeholder interviews and existing data through a behavioural lens to systematically pinpoint the Effort, Emotion and Economic areas required to change.
02. Harness
behavioural knowledge
Once we understand what the existing behaviours are, we harness behavioural knowledge and research to establish why they’re happening and what we can do about them.
With access to a library of evidenced financial consumer drivers, this knowledge can be efficiently applied to your specific objective.
03. Apply
the intervention
For an intervention to make the impact we want, they must consider three factors:
– Conduct outcomes and ethical integrity
– Deployment practicalities
– Unintended consequences
These considerations are incorporated into the design of the behavioural intervention for the highest possible chance of achieving the desired outcome in the right way.
04. Prove
impact
Before any intervention is rolled out, we prove its impact on a small scale.
That way, when we invest in the final step, we’re confident that you’ll be maximising your return on investment.
05. Extend
across the organisation
Extending the intervention across your organisation may involve internal workshops, communications, or process changes.
By this stage, we’ve already pinpointed the behaviours we want to change and have designed a proven intervention to do so – resulting in a clear path to success.
Philip Courtenay MBA
Philip is a sought after consultant, coach and speaker on advice-seeking behaviour.
He applies behavioural science to help firms attract and delight their clients by focusing on what really drives them.
In addition to his commercial interests, Philip is also an award-winning academic, having received a scholarship from the Economics and Social Research Council to undertake a PhD at King’s College, London, which explores the influences of advice-seeking decisions. He also holds an MBA from Warwick Business School, which focussed on marketing strategy and consumer behaviour.
Philip has held roles across various advice professions – most recently as Head of Marketing Strategy for a City-based wealth management firm.
What other clients say
Phil hones in on the most important part of engaging with prospective and existing clients; understanding what they really want.
It can be difficult to apply behavioural theory in a practical way; taking theory from textbook into your business isn’t always easy. But Phil gets the challenges advisers face and delivers information in a relevant, directly applicable way.
I’d recommend his expertise to any financial planner or business leader wanting to build and maintain strong client relationships. Thank you Phil.
Anthony Villis
Managing Director, First Wealth
We engaged Philip as an expert speaker on our retirement planning webinar to the financial broker community.
Feedback from over 700 attendees was overwhelmingly positive, with 97% saying they would recommend the session to a colleague. Philip brings his work to life with real world examples.
I would certainly recommend him and hope to work again in the future!
Teddy Daly
Head of Marketing, Aviva Life & Pensions Ireland
I’ve been advising clients for nearly 30 years, have developed a successful award-winning practice and am asked to speak on financial advice topics around the world. So, it’s not too often that someone really prompts me to sit up and pay attention – but Philip did just that.
His coaching programme and 1:1 sessions provided me with a number of ‘lightbulb moments’ . Philip has already helped me make some really positive changes to impact how we deal with prospective and existing clients, and there will be more development to follow.
Philip’s combination of behavioural finance expertise and it’s direct application to our profession sets him apart.
If you get the chance to invest in some time with Philip, you will certainly find his insights informative and enlightening, no matter how long your career experience.
Bhupinder Anand
Managing Director, Anand Financial Architecture
Behavioural Insights
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