Have you ever been to a teppanyaki restaurant?
For those who aren’t familiar, ‘teppanyaki’ is a style of Japanese cooking, where various meats, fish, and vegetables are cooked on a ‘teppan’ (a hot metal plate).
What’s so special about that?!
Well, what makes the style unique isn’t just the food. It’s the experience.
In teppanyaki cuisine, chefs cook the meals on the restaurant floor in front of guests. Diners have a front-row seat to the culinary show that their chef puts on – involving heat, sizzle and lots of interaction with the diners.
So to be more general; what differentiates a teppanyaki restaurant isn’t what’s being delivered, but how it’s delivered.
So how does this apply to financial advice?
Well, let’s think about what you (and most other financial advisers) do versus how you do it.
You give clients clarity, security and reassurance. You help them achieve their financial goals and satisfy their financial responsibilities. That’s what you do. Some advisers do this more effectively than others, but the fundamentals are pretty similar.
How you do it, however, is distinct.
Consider these two examples:
Adviser One strives for their clients to have as little involvement as possible. They strive to remove the burden their clients face in managing their own finances. After all, that’s why their clients engage with them.
Adviser Two, however, takes the opposite approach. They act as a sounding board to their clients – being available at the end of the phone to discuss ideas and steer them in the right direction. Their clients are interested in finances and need to be involved.
These two examples are clearly different. And they appeal to different types of people.
When we think about how you position your firm to your clients and prospects, we need to consider both what you do and how you do it. Both these characteristics play an important role in making your value glaringly obvious to the right people.
Being in the market for Japanese food is one thing. But providing an exciting, social experience is far different from delivering a takeaway meal for two to enjoy in front of Netflix.
So, ask yourself these questions:
- What do you do for clients that makes you different?
- How do you deliver your service in a way that makes you different?
- Who are the people who value this combination the most?
If you’re interested in attracting more of your ideal clients, focussing your marketing efforts in the right areas, and reducing the need to justify your fees to clients and prospects, take a look at my new webinar: ‘The Three-Step Solution to Positioning Your Financial Advice Offering‘.