*If you’d like to skip ahead to see your Trust Factor Score, click the link here.
Since founding Select Advisors Institute in 2014, one of the top “differentiating value propositions” I get back from advisors who sign up for our outsourced marketing and sales coaching services when we first get started working together is:
“You know how we’re different Amy? We are Trustworthy! Our clients FULLY trust us!”
But the fact is that simply using the two big bold words, “We’re Trustworthy”, as a tagline on a marketing brochure or writing them on a quarterly market outlook is not enough of a marketing strategy that will get a line of new interested clients going out the door.
Relying On Competence Alone Can Keep Advisors From Gaining More Trust With Their Target Market
For many advisors, relying on competence by showcasing their knowledge is often a primary tool used to build client trust. However, when relying on competence alone, some of the other 11 building blocks that make up the elements of trust – all critically important in establishing trustworthiness – can be easy to overlook.
For example, when an advisor earns one certification or designation, they may choose to go on to get another, hoping that having more credentials will earn them incrementally more trust. In fact, I have seen some advisors with 15 certificates following their names on their LinkedIn profiles. While getting multiple degrees and credentials is certainly commendable and can provide the advisor with valuable and relevant knowledge, when it comes to using those designations as a way to build trust by showcasing knowledge, the benefits of earning more credentials start to level off after a certain point.
Consider things from the client’s point of view. Let’s use one sample prospect: We will call him Mike. If Mary, a financial advisor, had sourced him out and cold messaged on Linkedin, asking to set up a meeting to review his financial situation, how likely would he be to have such a discussion, even if Mary had included in her messaging that she manages over $200MM, has earned a fast-growing RIA award, and has her CFP certification?
For most people, including Mike, the answer would most often be not likely at all. Accolades, awards and AUM will not be the sole recipe for gaining the trust of a prospect who you want to get a meeting with.
So unless Mary has the time to go about building trust with prospective investors the old-fashioned way – working only with people she has known for at least a decade, wining and dining prospects in her community every month, or having at least 7 lunches with someone before expecting them to open up about their investments – she needs to improve her trust profile so she can expedite their trust in her, thus leading to getting meetings faster, and closing opportunities sooner.
Some advisors may be thinking, “But we’re on multiple lead generation programs and we are closing people on the first meeting, without needing to worry about all 12 of the building blocks of trust. I guess that must mean we have lots of built-in trust and that we don’t need to worry about building more trust… we just need to focus on getting more leads!” Or maybe there were lots of people who showed up to an advisor’s workshop, and many of them signed up as clients right away.
While these are great situations for advisors, chances are that such clients make up only a very small subsegment of people called ‘early adopters’, who tend to make fast decisions and don’t need to wait for goods or services to have an established track record before making a purchase. Their primary trust needs are generally met more easily than the majority of people who are not early adopters, and who need to establish a lot more trust before committing to a new product or service.
Which means that developing elements of trust involving both competence and character can be much more effective than relying on competence alone when working to connect with a broader range of people. And by diversifying various marketing strategies, advisors can more easily highlight not just their competence but their character as well.
Because many advisors are already on the right track implementing competence factors into their marketing efforts, Select Advisors Institute (SAI) has developed marketing strategies referred to as “Character Branding”, which specifically help advisors to leverage the character elements of trust-building.
We have also created a scoring system called the SAI Trust Factor Score based on the 12 building blocks of trust, which advisors can use to see how their brand leverages the various elements of trust. The test asks questions around all aspects of trust, including the advisor’s education, all the way down to their personal character-building stories. By taking the test, advisors can see where they currently are, and how far away they are from a high trust factor.