Latest / The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners / 217: *FREE DOWNLOAD* Create a Laser-Focused Marketing Message that Speaks to Your ICA

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217: *FREE DOWNLOAD* Create a Laser-Focused Marketing Message that Speaks to Your ICA · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine being able to read the minds of the most perfect ideal client for you and know exactly what they are looking for?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: You know what do they want out of an advisor.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: How do they make their buying decisions?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: What are they afraid of?
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: What will turn them on, what will turn them off?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: What types of experiences would be ideal for them to turn them from prospects into clients and then from clients into referral generating machines?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Aspects into clients, and then from clients into referral generating machines.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And then can you imagine having a marketing message that is so tight that these types of clients are seeking you versus you chasing them down?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: This is what this week's episode is all about Crafting that perfect marketing message that speaks directly into the heart of your ICA, and so much more.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: If you're an OG listener to this podcast, you might remember this episode from way back when, episode number 10.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: So this week, our newest group coaching cohort that started in August.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: There's two groups of 23 advisors.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I'm super excited about them, but we are actually getting into this on a way deeper level, obviously, than we can get into on a podcast.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: But I was preparing for this week's content for the group and it's all about ideal client avatar and I was just reminded, when I was preparing this information, that you know I thought wow, since we have thousands and thousands of more listeners now than we did back at episode 10, that this might be a great replay because it is so fundamental.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I call it the eye roll work that nobody wants to do but should, and it's crazy how much advisors then leaving the program when we're doing their exit interviews talk about how fundamental this ideal client avatar work was and how it was something that brought them a ton of clarity.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: You use this ideal avatar info in so many places and I've got a free downloadable workbook for you that accompanies this episode but you use this information to inform literally everything in your business, or at least you should use this information to inform literally everything in your business.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: You want to build everything all your processes, all your email templates, your client experience, everything about around your ideal client avatar ICA, what it is that they want, what they don't want.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The more dialed in your processes, the more focused everything becomes, and this, my friends, is how you become known for something.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: The workbook is in the show notes for you and you could also find it on my website the efficient advisorcom backslash two, 17,.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: The episode number.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: It's totally free, it's all for you, and if you did this exercise over two years ago, when the initial episode aired, it's time to redo it right.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: This is something that you, as the CEO of your business, should revisit every few years and every time, aim to make it tighter and tighter and more dialed in.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, let's dive in.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I know you're here because this career is kind of a weird one.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: It can be hard and it can be overwhelming, but you know it's possible to have your dream business.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: You know the one that you're running it instead of it running you.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Libby Grywe and I built a 100% referral-only planning practice and grew it to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year to lean into being a mom, wife, sister, friend, daughter and, frankly, a travel-obsessed human.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I'm here to teach you how to do exactly the same and to help you take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: We are about to transform your practice, so move over.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Advisor ADD.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: It's time to take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's dive in, because I love this topic.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Once I figured this out, it was a game changer for me.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So, ideal client avatar what is it?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: It sounds like blue people from a movie.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: So let's begin with defining this term, and you'll hear me just refer to it as an ICA probably throughout the rest of this podcast.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: But your ideal customer avatar, or ideal client avatar, is the client you want to serve.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: You want to take care of this person and help them along their journey.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: You want to take care of this person and help them along their journey.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: It's the people that give you energy, the people you enjoy working with and are profitable.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: This is the client that would win customer of the year.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Right, they love you.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: You love them.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: They're the client that takes your advice and it tells others how amazing you are.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: They're your evangelist.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: They need the type of planning that you enjoy most.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: It's someone you enjoy spending time with and you feel like a million bucks when you're helping them.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: That ideal client is the person you want to take care of.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: You want to serve, you want to help, you want to assist for the next decade plus Pick the word that describes what you wanna do for your clients for the next 10 years, but I personally use the word serve.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: And we are gonna get intimate on this person.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: And, because you know me, I love me a good step-by-step guide, and I've, of course, got a companion worksheet to accompany this episode that will help you through the process and help you document the details as we go.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: So I'll put the link in the show notes, you can print it out and have it available to you while you listen.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: You can listen and print it out later, but you're going to love it, okay.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And so, because I love step-by-step, we're going to break this down into four steps, I'm sorry, five steps.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: The first four steps are to identify who is your ICA.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Then step five is how we're going to use that information to create the impactful marketing message, and that is where it gets really fun, okay.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: So step one is to identify the type of planning that you love doing.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: What's the type of planning that gets you excited?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Is it retirement distribution, is it college funding?
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Is it tax efficiency strategies, maybe RMD planning, maybe it's protection, I don't know.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: You get the picture.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: What is the type of planning that makes you feel like.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: You just straight crushed it and you helped people.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, so step two is to identify kind of a profile of the people that you want to help, that you love helping, and we're going to figure out what they have in common.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Once you know, not only does it make it easier for you to find more clients like that, it also helps you create a laser-focused marketing message that helps them find you.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And guess what else happens?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: When you are working with the clients that you enjoy doing the type of planning that you love, you become so much happier in your work.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Years ago I remember coaching an advisor and her business was at.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was a great place right.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: She was doing amazing, she was making excellent money.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: She was feeling like she kind of figured out some of that work-life balance.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: She was from the outside looking in, crushing it right, but she was starting to feel a little disenchanted in her business.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: There were still days that she showed up at the office and there were clients that she just did not love working with and she was doing some planning that she just would procrastinate on because she didn't like it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: There were pieces of her business that were just kind of eh, overall, she loved what she did, but sometimes she felt like it was just starting to get a little stale.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: So I asked her to just describe to me what her 10 favorite clients were like.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: So pick your 10 favorite couples and tell me about them.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: So she thought about it for a second and then went oh my gosh, yeah, I never really thought about it, but they all are kind of connected in some way.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Right, they all own small, successful businesses or the clients are married to an entrepreneur.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: They all are married, they're all Christians, they're all about my age, they're all low maintenance, easy to please and appreciative, and I love helping them do planning with their businesses.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: So then I asked her to describe to me the five clients that she liked the least.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about the kind that when they call or you see their name on your calendar and you're like ugh and you just dread returning that call or having that meeting.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: What do those five people have in common?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: And she did that, and those five people had some similarities too.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: So basically we started to identify who she was having fun with and what kind of planning got her excited and made her feel like she was making a difference, which was her goal, and the plan was to just straight triple down on that.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And guess what?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: She was re-energized and her business exploded in the good way.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: So the question is, libby, how do I get more of those types of clients?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, that kind of maybe sounded like the Kool-Aid, oh yeah, but that's what today is all about.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to walk you through a much more sophisticated version of this and then tie it to marketing and prospecting, because I know you and that is what you want.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: That is the money shot of this episode.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, so grab that companion guide, that step-by-step blueprint that you've got printed out, and what we're going to do is we're going to list out the top 10 clients that you have done the type of planning that you said in step one, that you have really enjoyed.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: We're going to list now the 10 clients that you've done that type of planning for that you had a lot of fun doing it with.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: So pause me right now and seriously write out the names of these 10 clients and I'm.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: We'll come back to this in just a second and if you're multitasking, come back to me, because step three is where we start to drill down.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, got it.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: So now we are going to move on to the third step, which is to create a spreadsheet.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And I know some of you just got excited and some of you just groaned at the thought and much to your delight or dismay, this is going to be a super duper simple spreadsheet.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Again, I've got this on the step-by-step guide for you, so maybe instead of calling it a spreadsheet, we'll just call it a grid.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Does that make it sound like less sterile?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: This will only take you a few minutes to set up promise, and it's really important and I'm not going to waste any of your time.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I am not going to ask you to do something.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: That is just busy work, right?
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: That is not the spirit of the efficient advisor, so busy work is not efficient, okay, anyway.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: So step three we are going to take these top 10 clients and now we're going to figure out their common attributes.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: So your spreadsheet will have these headers ages, married occupation, geographic location, introvert, extrovert, do they have children?
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Employer assets under management, income and net worth, and you, of course, can add any other qualifier that you want to that.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: But what we're looking for in this section is the quantitative qualities of the client.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: We'll move on to qualitative here in a minute.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, so in my practice when I did this exercise, I took these 10 clients that I just had a blast working with and I found out, when I kind of compiled the data and looked for themes, that they were married.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: They were ages 55 on average.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: They were in professional careers, mostly science-based kind of engineers or medical or pharma.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: They had big careers.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Most of them had more money than time.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: They were all pretty analytical.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Most were dual family or dual career families.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Most of them lived in the Cincinnati area and mostly on the northeast side of the city, and their average household income was around $185,000 and their net worth was around $1.5 million.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: So what we do is we just want to get all of this data onto the spreadsheet and then just look for commonalities and trends.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: So that could be anything from companies that they work for.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: That could be the age group that you tend to kind of rock.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: You might do better with extroverts and salesy people, or you might really enjoy engineers and spreadsheets you do, you and it's going to look different for everybody.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: So even though these are kind of like trends and averages, it obviously doesn't encapsulate everything about all of your clients and that's not our goal.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: We're trying to just figure out, with your ideal client avatar, sort of a conglomeration of all of these attributes.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So what we'll do is we will give this conglomeration a name and a specific description and then I'm going to show you how to use that for marketing processes et cetera.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So my ideal client avatar went something like this Jim and Jan von Kleinstien married two grown children, five grandchildren.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Jim is an engineer with General Electric and Jan is in marketing with Procter Gamble.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: They live in Mason, ohio and make $185,000 combined and they just crossed the $1.5 million mark in their net worth.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: So that's quantitative.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Right Now we're going to add on the next section here is going to be qualitative.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: So again, I know it doesn't accurately describe any specific couple and not everybody was dual income, not everybody was an engineer, not everybody had a wife in marketing.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: It's just this ideal client that we're trying to create so that we can speak specifically to them and we'll use this in our marketing language.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: And that is just where I get really, really excited.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: We're not quite there yet and I promise, stick with me through this part and then it gets fun.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, so if you're multitasking, come back to me.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, so if you're multitasking, come back to me.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: So now we have built your basic qualitative avatar.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: What we need to know now is what are their fears, what do they need?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: What are they thinking?
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: What compels them?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: How do they make buying decisions?
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: What have their past experiences been like with financial advisors?
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: These qualitative pieces allow you to then laser focus your efforts and speak directly to your ICA.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: If your message isn't focused, your marketing and referral efforts will be diluted and they'll lack relevance and your message will be unclear.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: So let me say that again for the people in the back right If your message isn't focused, your marketing and referral efforts will be diluted and lack relevance and your message will be unclear.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you've all heard the old adage if you try to appeal to everyone, you'll appeal to no one.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: So there's this podcast that I was listening to and I'm not going to name any names, but it was funny because in their description it says we help everyone, from Fortune 500 companies to solopreneurs, with our referral strategy, and I remember hearing that and thinking really.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: So you're telling me that the same system, the same referral system, works for companies with tens of thousands of employees like General Mills, cereal, and it also works for a real estate agent in Loveland, ohio.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: While it might be possible, it just didn't seem like plausible and it comes off kind of as generic like, hey, we're just trying to cover all of our bases.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: How about if they said our system works for financial advisors on small teams in the Midwest?
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I would go, holy smokes, that's me right.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Holy crap, that's me, this is designed for me and that's what we're really looking for with our marketing messages.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Is we want our clients to raise their hand and say, oh my gosh, how did she know that?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what I've been thinking.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: That's exactly the type of product or service that we could really use, or gosh, those are the questions I've been asking myself.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: She works with people just like me, or he works with people just like me, okay.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So step four we need to know what motivates your clients.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: We need to know how they think.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: So we have some questions here on the step-by-step guide.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: There are questions for clarity.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: We're going to ask ourselves these questions and try to answer them as best as we can, and what I want you to do and I'll walk you through these quickly but what I want you to do is really think to yourself how have my clients answered these?
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: If I were to ask you know, jim and Jan von Kleinstien, if I were to ask them these questions what would they say to me?
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And if you feel like you're kind of stuck here, pop into the Efficient Advisor community on Facebook and I'd be happy to tell you more about what it looks like to conduct an ideal client avatar discovery call.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, so calling people and kind of getting these questions from clients that you know like and trust and know like and trust you Okay.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: So let's get into some of these questions.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: The first one is what are their biggest fears?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: What do they truly want and need from you?
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: What problem do they need you to solve?
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: So an example of this might be they truly want and need a plan, they need a playbook, they need someone to tell them what to do.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe they are do-it-yourselfers and they need a second opinion just to make sure they're not missing anything.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: But what is it that they need from you?
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: What problem do you solve for this ideal client avatar?
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So for me, jim and Jan von Kleinstien I don't know why I love that name they wanted to walk out of our office with a plan.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: They wanted to know where their income was going to come from in retirement.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: They wanted to understand and be educated on how all of the pieces of their retirement plan fit together.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And, because my clients were really analytical, most of them wanted to see it on paper, with all the graphs and charts and all the beautiful things.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: So, knowing this, I knew what to include in my deliverables, right, okay?
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So the second question what are their biggest fears, pain points and frustrations?
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: So, for the sake of this example, let's say, maybe it's they're afraid of running out of money.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe they're afraid of not being able to maintain their lifestyle.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Maybe they're worried that they're paying more in taxes than they should be.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Or maybe they're worried about taxes in retirement.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's being afraid that they are missing something important in their retirement plan that they hadn't considered.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And maybe some of the pain points are it's hard to find information out there because it's all conflicting.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Like when they Google retirement planning, there's so much information, none of it seems cohesive and it's all conflicting.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's they don't have time to manage all of this.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: This isn't my area of expertise, right?
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: So, thinking through, what are their biggest fears, what are their pain points and what are their frustrations?
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: So I want you to really spend some time on these questions and really genuinely sit down with the template and write them out.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, question number three.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: And write them out.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, question number three what have their previous experiences with finances or financial advisors been?
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: So maybe they've done it themselves, maybe it's we've had people in the past, but they weren't really like actively involved or consistent.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was a bad experience where they went to a financial planner and they just felt like they were being sold into something.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: So this question sit down document.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: What have other people told you?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Their problems have been?
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: So I used this all the time in our financial planning practice.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: People would just freely share what their pain points were, what their frustrations were, what their previous experiences were, and we just made it a point to not do those things.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, maybe, for example, I had clients that would say, well, we'd show up to our appointment with our previous guy and he just never really seemed prepared, and then we would make sure we were prepared, or you know.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: And then we would make sure we were prepared, or you know, we showed up to our meeting and he just kind of went through our rates of return and, frankly, we could have done that online.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: There wasn't advice.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Great, I can learn from that.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: We need to make sure we're giving advice.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, those are kind of silly, obvious examples, but you know what I mean?
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: That's kind of over the years, how we built out our client experience was basically just learning what the other guy or gal did wrong and then making a commitment to not doing those things.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: So that leads us right into question number four how will their experience with you and your team be different?
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: You need to be able to articulate this in that first meeting, in that connect meeting, online, in your marketing copy, without it seeming salesy.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: So really spend some time digging in.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: How will their experience be different with you?
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: And basically, what we're answering is all of the questions from number three, and it's okay if you don't know all of the questions from number three, okay, and it's okay if you don't know all of the answers to these questions right now.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: You're going to do one of two things.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: You're either going to pay close attention to your clients that fit this ideal client avatar description as you meet with them over the next few months.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: What words do they use, what language phrases or what idioms do they say and if you don't have a lot of clients coming in here soon that are in that ideal client avatar space, you can do one of those discovery calls where you pick a client that fits the description that you love and ask them to just share with you.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Like, hey, what are you hearing from your friends or your peer group for these four questions?
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Or can you tell me a little bit more?
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: You like, hey, what are you hearing from your friends or your peer group for these four questions?
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Or can you tell me a little bit more about blah, blah, blah?
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: And then we're going to use these answers to develop your pitch, the language you use in presentations, referral events, workshops, social media, marketing, all the things, and we're going to tailor that language to speak directly to them.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I was talking to my best friend, jen, who is an advisor, and we were going through this ICA work with her new marketing dude, who is totally awesome, by the way and when I asked Jen what her clients were concerned about, what were their pain points, their frustrations, what were they saying were their issues?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And so she said something like this they're worried about inflation eroding buying power of their assets.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: And I go.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Wait, wait, stop there, right there.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Is that what your clients say or is that what you say?
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: And she laughed and I said tell me in their language.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: And she said no, okay, you're right.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Should they say stuff like I'm worried about taxes, or I'm worried about running out of money, or I'm worried about inflation?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: So in your marketing language, you're not going to talk in your language and say we help clients who are worried about inflation eroding the buying power of their assets.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: No, you're going to say we help clients who are worried about taxes and inflation and we make sure that they don't run out of money.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, do you see the difference?
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Do you see how, when we're using their language and their phrasing and their wording, it speaks directly to them?
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, so here's another example.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I love examples.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: If your clients are consistently saying oh, you know, I don't know much about the stock market and I know I should pay more attention, you can tie something like that into your marketing message, like we provide year after year management and planning so you don't have to be a stock market expert or feel like you need to check out your accounts all the time.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Again, do you see the difference there?
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: When we're using their language.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: You can take these questions from step four and use them in so many areas of your business to attract, to do business with and to retain your ideal customer, and the more you know, the better it gets.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: What are their hobbies, what are their activities?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Weave it on in there.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: You'll have other questions that you'll think of as you go through this process.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to give you these four to get you started and really get your brain moving on this.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: In our group coaching program that we're building and testing out right now, our advisors are going deep into this process and I am super duper excited about it.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: We're laying in, we're layering in also like profitability and a bunch of other kinds of things into this ideal client avatar.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Anyways, this is really fun stuff and I get super excited about it.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: So when you know exactly what they want from you, you can speak to them.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: So, taking my client avatar from these questions, you know, you can then finesse your language.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: So, for example, if we look at like my ideal client avatar when I was running my practice, I might introduce a concept like this into my connector discovery meetings.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I might say something to the effect of well, most people actually come to us because they've been really focused on their careers with these big companies and they've been doing an amazing job, stuffing their company benefits full of money and they've just gotten to that place where they want a second opinion or someone to make sure that they're just not missing anything when it comes to fitting pensions, social security, health insurance and all the investments together.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Often we have one spouse that says they haven't been as involved in their investments and probably could use a little extra education, and then they visited advisors in the past.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: They just felt like they're trying to be sold something.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: So this is why we created our five-step financial planning process blah blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So you can kind of see how having this ICA really helps you create a more focused messaging.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: If you can tie in specific details based on feedback, it becomes just so direct and strong.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I know I'm harping on that, but seriously it's amazing.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Can you see how?
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Then it makes it really easy to share this information with your team or your marketing person, and then they know, as you expand and build out your practice, they know who you're looking for and who you're trying to attract.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: So if you can turn to someone on your team who's maybe handling social media and say here, know, here's who we're talking to.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: We're talking to Jim and Jan and this is what their life is like.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: It's so much easier to create that language so we can speak right to them.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: So take a peek at your planning process.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Is the client experience right for Jim and Jan?
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Is the software you're using or the output that you're providing?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Is the analysis or the product offering for Jim and Jan?
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: If not, assess if it's even necessary.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe there's some things that you can get rid of.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe there's some things that you're doing that you don't need to be doing and are kind of a waste of time because whatever it is doesn't resonate with Jim and Jan, or maybe you need to start addressing some additional needs.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Do Jim and Jan prefer digital or face-to-face meetings?
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I know you get the picture, but I do.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I get excited because I know that this ICA work impacts almost every single area of your business and because I know someone out there is thinking it.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Someone will inevitably say to me Libby, but if I speak to this specific client, what about all the other people who don't fit that description?
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: And I'll say a couple of things about that.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: A if you speak to everyone.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: You speak to no one.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And even if people don't directly fit that 55 work this way, engineer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, they're still going to resonate with the parts of what you're saying that work for them.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: And, frankly, if what you love doing and the type of work that you feel passionate about doesn't resonate with them, you don't want them as your clients.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: They're going to end up being those five clients that we talked about for my advisor friend, who she just didn't love the work she was doing and didn't love working with them.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: And I could get on a soapbox about this all day.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: But no one is going to be completely turned off by your marketing message if they're even within the circle or the realm of the people that might be interested in what you have to offer.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: And remember also, none of this is set in stone.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: My ideal client changed over the years.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: So as you develop in your advisor business, just give yourself permission to revisit it and change it over time.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: In fact, this should be part of your CEO day, at least once a year.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: So one more final thought before we go.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be perfect, right?
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: You're in the messy middle of your business and I just want you to take that one right next step.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Just do the thing, move on it, adjust it later, perfect it later, test it, try it and literally just do it and we'll be chatting ICA and obviously more in the Efficient Advisor community.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: It's a private Facebook group for advisors.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: It's just a community, a place for advisors to share what's working and not working, to ask questions, to collaborate, to bounce ideas off of one another and, of course, I pop in there and share content and do Q&As.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: It's just, it's a bunch of fun.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: You can also check out the efficientadvisorcom.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: There is a whole bunch of free resources for you and if it's free, it's for me.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: There's templates, there's a video library, there's free downloads and my website.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: It's a messy middle right now, too right it two years ago.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: There's well, really, I started it five years ago.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: There's so many things about it that I'd love to change and I just I'm practicing what I preach.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I am in the process and I am not letting it because it's not perfect or exactly the way I want it.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not not going to let it hold me back.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I know what's out there is great, even if it's not as aesthetically pleasing as I would like, and do not forget, to download the step-by-step guide to defining and marketing to your ideal client avatar.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: This, seriously, will help you create that laser focused marketing message.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So I will link all of the things in the show notes for you guys, until next time.