Niche Slapped: If Everyone Is Your Client, No One Is Your Client

How to build your client avatar as a financial advisor

Defining your avatar as a financial advisor involves creating a detailed profile of your ideal client. This helps tailor your marketing efforts and services to attract and retain the right clients.

Remember, this is who do you work with, not who you dream of working with. Everyone wants to work with the ultra-wealthy, but not everyone has what it takes. Working with high-net-worth individuals requires combatting imposter syndrome at a level that some advisors might need to accept they aren’t cut out for.

Rather, define who you enjoy working with. Who hires you? Let’s work together on developing that. Here are the steps to define your avatar:

1. Identify demographic information.

• • Age: Determine the age range of your ideal client. Are they young professionals, mid-career individuals, or retirees?
  • Gender: Specify if your services cater more to men, women, or both.
  • Location: Define the geographic area where your clients reside. This can be local, national, or even international.
  • Marital status: Consider whether your ideal clients are single, married, or divorced.
  • Income level: Identify the income bracket of your target audience.
  • Occupation: Specify the types of jobs or industries your clients work in.

2. Understand psychographic information.

• • Values and beliefs: What values and beliefs are important to your clients? This might include their attitudes towards money, investing, and financial security.
  • Interests and hobbies: Knowing what your clients are interested in can help you connect with them on a personal level.
  • Financial goals: Understand their financial goals such as retirement planning, saving for college, buying a home, etc.
  • Pain points: Identify the main financial challenges and concerns they face.

3. Define behavioral traits.

• • Spending habits: Are they frugal, moderate, or extravagant spenders?
  • Investment style: Are they conservative, moderate, or aggressive investors?
  • Financial knowledge: Gauge their level of financial literacy and experience with managing money.

4. Create a detailed client persona.

• • Profile creation: Combine the demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information to create a detailed client persona. Give your avatar a name, age, occupation, and a backstory.
  • Visual representation: Create a visual representation of your client persona to make it more relatable and tangible for your team.

5. Tailor your services and marketing.

• • Service customization: Tailor your financial services to meet the specific needs and preferences of your client persona.
  • Targeted marketing: Develop marketing strategies that specifically address the pain points, interests, and goals of your ideal client.

Build your prospect process

Once you know who you work with, it is time to define your prospect process.

What starts in the beginning will last until the end.

I was just chatting with my dad about a new restaurant that opened in our hometown. The first time he went, his waiter's name was Joe. My dad went with a group of about seven other people, and Joe, with his New York accent, did not fail to meet expectations. He ran himself off his feet to make sure they never did without. My dad called the next day to rave about his experience.

A few weeks later we decided to go with him. We had a group of 10 and specifically asked for Joe’s section.

We got there, and my dad lit up to see him. Guess what? Joe didn’t remember who my dad was. He was flustered and trying to take orders quickly and move on from the table. He was hurried and inattentive. There was no “experience” other than feeling rushed. It wouldn’t matter how good the food was or wasn’t – the experience was lousy.

Will Guidara addresses this issue ad nauseum in his book Unreasonable Hospitality: The remarkable power of giving people more than they expect (a must read if you are hyper-focused on client experiences). Patrons come back a second time to a restaurant that knocked their socks off, but if there’s a subpar experience that second time, there is a diminishing chance of them ever coming back again.

Why do so many restaurants fail? Like any business, it's when the business model fails and the experience doesn’t match the price.

It’s easy to pick apart a restaurant, but what about your own practice? I drove up to our office in downtown Anchorage, Alaska on a recent Tuesday. I had morning meetings outside the firm, so I didn’t arrive until just before 9 a.m. My amazing team had been there since 7:30 a.m., and we were already going strong.

When I pulled in, there was a black garbage bag by the front entrance. It was weathered and worse for wear, reminiscent of the bar across the street’s weekend activities. Undoubtedly, the trash bag had been there long past an acceptable occupancy in my mind. It was Tuesday.

That means the bag had sat there for two or three days. Worse yet, seven people in my office walked by that bag two days in a row, and not a single one went through to pick it up. Why would they? They aren’t the janitors.

Does it matter? You bet it does. When a prospect or client comes through our entrance, if it looks like a – hate to do this, but it is too fitting – trashy place, what’s their immediate impression? It doesn’t matter what our inside suite looks like. They already have a distaste for the building.

Not to mention, my team thought that it was so insignificant that it didn’t matter. Everything matters, or nothing does.

Guess what immediately got added to the morning opening checklist for our office? A perimeter check.

What starts from the beginning will last until the end. If we are cavalier about how we treat the client experience, that will resonate with our team and clients alike.

Take the steps right now by writing down — in minute detail — what your prospect and client experience is like. Be granular with this activity and see what areas, if any, you need to train your team in.

Let me help you start off, and then you can take it from there:

1. How do prospective clients hear about your services?
2. How do they reach out to schedule an appointment? Phone, email or do they swing by? Do they hit your website and try to book online? Can they book online? Do you spell out your process online? Is your headshot more than three years old? (If so, that’s catfishing. Take a new one).
3. When someone pulls up to your office, what do they see?
4. Does your team stand or sit to greet them?
5. What beverages do you serve? (If the only answer is Keurig – way to go – you have the same decor and experience as my oil mechanic).
6. What does your office smell like?
7. How are people dressed in your office?
8. Who greets them?
9. When they enter the conference room, what do they need?
10. What are you presenting in your meeting?
11. What does the client leave with, if anything?
12. When they leave the meeting, how do they dispose of their beverages and food?
13. Can they make their next appointment when they leave? Update their credit card? Get copies of the information?

Everything – every tiny aspect – must be documented, rehearsed, and discussed with your team. This all becomes part of the process so that when you prospect, you can consistently deliver the same experience across the board.

Everything matters, or nothing does.

Jamie Shilanski is a Registered Financial Consultant® for Shilanski & Associates, Inc. As an RFC® she helps clients understand the various options and nuances of financial services so they can make informed decisions. In this discipline, she customizes a financial plan that fits their unique set of circumstances.

---

A message from Advisor Perspectives and VettaFi: To learn more about this and other topics, check out some of our webcasts.

More RIA Resources Topics >