What are you selling – SAUSAGE or SIZZLE…?

Close your eyes and picture this – you’re in the sausage business, and so is the butcher across the road…. Your sausage recipes are virtually the same, even though his are a bit more expensive. Thing is, he has a heap of people taking those little numbered paper tags – lining up to get served; but you’re lucky to get rid of stock before it goes out of date.

What’s the difference?

Well, your competitor’s sausages are marketed as ‘coming from contented free range pigs’ happily playing together in the glorious mud on a prime rural lot on the outskirts of town. There are signs up around his shop showing kids happily playing around in gumboots feeding those fortunate pigs, and talk about how the kids’ dad (the farmer) has been farming this land for generations.

There are complimentary recipe sheets on offer that turn the modest ‘snag’ into a gourmet meal, and the butchers all wear traditional butcher’s stripy aprons. The sausages are weighed, wrapped in old-style paper in and placed in a paper bag – just like the good old days (and normally an extra sausage or two thrown in….).

Your sausages are basic ‘pork sausages’ pre-wrapped in plastic trays and gladwrap, stacked in a fridge out the back. There is a ‘specials’ section at the front with a hand written price because they’re nearly out of date.

So why does one brand of sausages sell – even though it’s more expensive – and one doesn’t?
Because the ‘free range’ sausages take the customer on a journey that gives them an emotional connection between their desires and the brand – the customer (prospect) is made to feel they are not just buying sausages, they are buying good wholesome food from a local farmer to feed their families.

So the moral is… good marketing tells a story. Or as the cliché goes, ‘Sells the sizzle not the sausage’.

So what does this mean to you as a financial planner?

Well, it means that in a market where consumers have a choice and options to receive financial advice, and one product is not that different to another, and where they are more informed and educated than ever before, you need to find a way to stand out, build a relationship with that prospect, and ‘Talk Through’ them!

What is ‘Talking Through’ your prospects? Well, like all good relationships, the relationship between a client and a brand is based on trust – the sausages in the example are bought because people know where they came from, how they were made, and the quality is consistently good.

Whether you are selling financial advice, land, new homes, dishwashers or furniture – talking through your customers is making sure that your prospect has comfort in your advice, products and services and that your message is directly aimed at them and their needs.

It might mean creating a step by step guide to building a tax effective superannuation nest egg – so your prospect starts to see that you ‘know your stuff’ and looks at you as an authority in this area. You become their ‘go to’ person for advice and support.

It might mean running a social media promotion through Facebook or LinkedIn that encourages people to share their experiences of your advice or an excellent outcome they’ve had working with you – for example, taking photographs of themselves enjoying a holiday on their post retirement trip.

You could build case studies or a ‘client results pages’ for your website / social media, where real clients talk about their experience of working with you and what that has meant for them.

These are just a few examples, but each of them has a common thread – they include people. They create a human touch for you, your business and the value of your advice. They encourage engagement with your brand. And they foster connection.

There is a caveat to this….  You need to back it all up with a quality advice and excellent service.

But you need to get this right. In a noisy, competitive marketplace, where our profession is being pulled from pillar to post and our integrity (and our value) is being questioned…, the brand that takes a client on an emotional journey, engages them on their fears and frustrations…. their wants and aspirations (their 4 Forces….), and talks about Results rather than ‘technical jargon’ will thrive and prosper every time.

If you’d like a copy of my ‘4 Forces’ worksheet so that you can be crystal clear on how to ‘Talk Through’ your prospects and only sell the sizzle, click here to grab one now.