Harder than haemorrhoid cream: selling financial planning

Houston, we have a problem.

Selling financial advice, let alone financial planning, is an age-old issue.

We all know why:

The trust – Advisers still frequently come out second (after journalists) as being the least trusted profession. People think they’ll get the hard sell, or be duped into buying things they don’t need

The complexity – no one wants to feel stupid because they know so little about financial products, or their own finances

The boredom – I’ve fallen asleep already because finance is so damn dull

The value of ongoing planning is particularly difficult to put across. How do you show people why they should keep paying for it?

Especially when what you’re helping people with is invisible. And particularly when you’re encouraging them to stick to the plan and do nothing.

It’s no wonder it’s the hardest thing in the world to market.

Well, I’m sure there are other things that are harder. But it’s definitely up there with haemorrhoid cream and hair loss treatments in terms of a challenge.

And yet, if only people knew…

That it can change peoples’ lives:

🥳 That you can free people from a job they hate by helping them to retire early

👵🏻That you can help people to visit their grandchildren even if they live over the other side of the world

🤩That you can enable people to become who they’ve only dreamed of becoming before, because they didn’t know they could make it happen.

And that the ongoing piece is just as valuable:

🙌🏼 That you can help to see how far they’ve come

🌈 That you can challenge them to them to see further

😎 That they can gain confidence, clarity, and reassurance every time they see you.

The other issue is that financial planning’s plus points are also everybody else’s

It’s bespoke and tailored. Holistic and organic. Flexible and transparent.

Where have we heard that before? This list could describe lots of modern services and products.

Personalisation is now everywhere: no one wants to be seen to be off-the-shelf, one-size-fits all, rigid, formal and complex. This is 2020 not 1960.

So where does this leave us?

🍸Today we’re going to a cocktail party

How do you normally describe what you do to people you meet?

Financial advice? Financial planning? Pensions and investments?

*Tumbleweed*

(Have you ever been to a cocktail party by the way? 🍹Just wondering.)

Do you tell people you transform lives?

And that you just happen to do it through financial planning?

How can they glaze over after telling them that?

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