Tip of The Week
By David Miller
One of the key principles to creating long term relationships based on trust is consistency. Consistency is the fundamental principle in branding. And if you don’t brand yourself by creating consistent processes for every aspect of your business your clients will come to their own conclusions and create a brand for you. Usually this isn’t what you want. For example:
“My advisor seems a bit disorganized about how he runs his business….I wonder if he really knows what he is doing regarding financial planning. Perhaps I should be working with another advisor as well just to be sure the advice I am getting is solid.”
To be consistent you have to attend to details. No matter how small and irrelevant it may seem, it all counts. One of the first places to start, for any business, is how the phone is answered and how calls are handled. Here are some questions to ask that will help you create consistency in how your phone is answered and will start to brand you in the way you want to be branded.
1. Is the phone answered the same way regardless of who picks it up?
2. Does my staff handle the clients’ requests in a similar and consistent manner?
3. Do they put all calls through to me if I am available? And if they do is that sending a message of being organized, structured and scarce? (scarcity is a subject we will touch on in coming weeks)
4. Are they always courteous and respectful or does their mood dictate their tone and helpfulness?
5. Is the over all impression one of professionalism, organization and helpfulness?
Next time we will expand on consistency and provide you with another actionable step you can take that will create long term relationships based on trust.
If you are having trouble being consistent one of the first things to consider is your CRM solution. Most are inadequate and not customized for an advisor’s business.
This would be a great time to call us and arrange a demo of our solution - The Pareto Platform powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
“I couldn’t run my business without the Pareto Platform. It ensures I deliver what I promise to my clients and has been invaluable in holding myself and my staff accountable.” -Tom from Cincinnati