Strategy Highlights

Week 18
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Strategy 4: Articulate Your Value Promise

Write, refine and tell your personal story

Your value promise will motivate qualified prospective clients to consider entering your wealth management process. But it is only the first step in building trusted, long-term relationships with these individuals. To connect on a deeper, more meaningful level with affluent clients, you must be able to tell your personal story. By opening up to others about what is important to you, your listeners become much more inclined to trust you with what is important to them. Your story makes you real and believable to them.

To begin to find your story, ask yourself these questions:
After reflecting on these questions, begin to put your story down on paper. Take these steps:
  1. In two to three paragraphs, write your story about why you chose to become a financial advisor. As you write, keep in mind that this story is less about why you chose this profession and more about who you are as a person.
  2. Now dig deeper. What is it about your story that really shows the essence and spirit of who you are? Write this down in one or two sentences.
  3. Describe a single event that was a turning point for you in your decision to become a financial advisor.
  4. Explain what is was about this event that made it a turning point. What was at stake?
  5. Describe what you did immediately after this event.
  6. Recount the result or outcome of your actions following the event.
With your draft complete, commit to telling your story at least 10 times to 10 different people. As with your value promise, share it with everyone who knows your business and can provide useful feedback. As you tell your story, notice the responses of your listeners as well as your own responses. Take out the parts that are less important or that do not evoke a response in your listeners (or in yourself). Add more detail to the parts that your listeners find most interesting. By making small adjustments, your story will become better and better with each telling.