Want More Business? Be the Red Crayon

Many advisors come to me after trying everything they can to get their stagnant business growing again.

They tell me all the things they've tried — online, radio and TV advertising… local sponsorships…expensive dinner seminars…training from top advisors…etc., with poor results, and about all the money they've spent.

They tell me why they don't want to reach out to their warm market or how they hate asking for referrals.

Robert, an advisor in North Carolina, came to me after he had tried most of these.

He was an investment adviser representative and CFP with life and health Insurance licenses.

Robert was grossing a little over $10,000 a month from all sources, but he hadn't moved much beyond that for years.

He wanted to keep growing but nothing seemed to be working…

The Similarity Problem

One of Robert's challenges appeared to that nothing about him made him special.

He told people he was a financial planner and that he worked with all kinds of clients.

If you're just another financial planner, investment advisor, wealth manager, or life insurance agent, you're faced with competition from hundreds — or thousands — of people that you do.

You're just another white crayon in a box of white crayons.

Here's what I mean.

Imagine you're 6 years old and you find some paper and a box of crayons. You quickly open the box only to find that all of the crayons in it are white.

Does it matter which one you pull out to use?

Then you spot one red crayon in the corner of the box.

Which crayon will you pull out of the box to draw with?

The Different Crayon Solution

If you're a white crayon advisor, you will get business, but your ability to get more and better clients will be limited.

Sending out mailings, giving people pens and refrigerator magnets, buying lists, making cold calls, and other marketing and sales activities might pull in the occasional new client, but what will work faster and better is having a way to distinguish yourself from all of the other crayons in the box.

Instead of chasing shiny new approaches to getting business: Be a red crayon.

Position yourself as an expert who can fulfill a specific need for a specific type of client.

The point that advisors who resist this are missing is that clients are more attracted to experts and specialists — to someone uniquely qualified to deal with their problem — than to general practitioners who look like all the other general practitioners in any field.

Your prospective clients are looking for the red crayon in the box.

Start attracting them by giving them what they're looking for.

Finding Your Difference

When I explained this to Robert, he protested that he couldn't be a red crayon. He was "just another financial advisor".

But when I connected with him on social media, I found several posts he had written about putting four of his kids through college.

His expertise on this subject was already a feature he could use to attract clients if his target was people like him.

As we spoke, he mentioned how he had put himself through college, too, because his own parents couldn't afford to help him.

These were two powerful personal stories that made Robert a red crayon for people like him, which would, if properly presented, comfortably attract many more new clients than any white crayon "sales" effort ever could.

It happened that Robert liked the idea of focusing on families who needed help to plan for both retirement and college without sacrificing enjoying their lives today.

I asked him to put aside his fear of limiting his market and try to make himself a "red crayon" for this target group for the next six months.

I promised him that he could take on anyone as a client, but he wouldn't be marketing to everyone. He'd be offering a specific niche a specific service.

As a result, his business started to grow for the first time in months, and in three months, his monthly gross income increased to over $15,000.

Today, it's closer to $30,000.

All from showing up in the box of advisors as a red crayon for his favorite market.

If I search for you on LinkedIn will I find a red crayon, or just another white one?

If you're a white crayon, what's keeping you from changing?

Sandy Schussel is a coach and practice development consultant for insurance and financial professionals. He has served as an MDRT Academy trainer, is on the faculty of the InsuranceProShop and is a preferred mentor with InsuranceWebX. He has served as the national sales training director for a broker-dealer and life insurance company. He is the author of two books, The High Diving Board, about overcoming fear and Become A Client Magnet, about attracting and keeping clients. Schussel's scheduling calendar is available here.