This Adds Instant Credibility to Your Marketing Messages

Here’s a quote from Chet Holmes’s book, The Ultimate Sales Machine:

(Before his untimely death, Chet was business partners with Tony Robbins and Jay Abraham – and this is still one of the best books on sales, nearly 20 years after publication. Emphasis mine.)

“If you come from the place of truly wanting to serve your buyer, then being a market expert – not just a product expert – means being more knowledgeable than any of your competitors. This is easy to do as most of your competitors will be more concerned about selling product than about positioning themselves as experts. In every case where I have personally run companies using these strategies or helped clients do the same, we have literally slaughtered our competitors. Even after they see what we are doing, they cannot grasp it. Truly, building a core story or stadium pitch is working smarter, not harder. The one who gives the market the most and best information will always slaughter the one who just wants to sell products or services.”

He goes on to teach a simple approach to starting your sales and marketing messages:

> Start with market data.

For example, don’t start your marketing message with you, or what you can do, or something you’re trying to sell. Start it instead with a quote, a stat, a rule, a bit of research from a credible and/or well-known source.

(Those who are observant will recognize what I did above.)

By doing this, you’re borrowing credibility from that source, to make the point you want to make. You’re borrowing expertise and displaying it at the same time. You’re getting attention and believability via the sources you use, instead of saying, “Believe me, I know what I’m talking about and I have something important to say.”

Your prospects will engage more, see you as more credible, believe you more, and ultimately become more likely to respond in whatever way you direct, deeper into your message.

So, how, specifically, can you apply this in your marketing as a financial advisor?

Become a collector. Collect quotes, stats, studies, research and more proof and credibility elements that could make your points for you.

Then, use it. Use it to introduce your messages. Use it when you’re talking to prospects. Build it into your communication materials. Find ways to lead with this market data, then reflect on how it applies to your prospect, and how your product helps them with that.