AVAILABLE NOW
THE ART OF ADVICE PROGRAM ($660)
13 modules – Creating a Value-based Financial Advice Practice
Mentoring options:
Individual – 1 hr $220 / 2 hr block $330 / 4 hr block $550
Adviser pair – 1 hr $165 each / 2 hr block $220 each / 4 hr block $385 each
PROGRAM OUTLINE Note that (mins) refers to video duration time
Module 1 – Advice Business Planning (51 mins)
The purpose of this module is to provide business planning insights that will assist you to plan or review your advice practice. It is also an introduction to the business planning methodology used in this program. It begins with goal setting and self-examination in the form of identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, & threats; and then loosely follows the 7-Ps of service marketing, which has been adapted to the specific issues that characterise financial advice and the challenges faced by advisers.
Module 2- Advice Dimensions (58 mins)
The purpose of this module is to define advice and familiarise you with the history and evolution of financial advice. It is important because it explains why we have an advice industry with such a heavy product bias and why we have legislation (CH 7 Corporations Act) that concerns itself with financial product advice only. This module also explores the many aspects of financial advice that impact both adviser and client.
Module 3- Find your Advice Niche (47 mins)
The purpose of this module is show you an alternative to the default advice concept of being all things to all people, by encouraging you to position yourself as a specialist adviser whose deeper level of expertise is crafted for a particular and very much narrower target niche market.
Module 4 – The Value of Advice (43 mins)
The purpose of this module is to introduce the concept of value into the provision of financial advice. Product-related payments made to advisers, including insurance commissions have served to mask the true value of advice in the past. The risk of not exploring the true value of your advice is to undervalue it and under-price it.
Module 5 – Your Advice Value proposition (40 mins)
The purpose of this module is to enable you to develop a value proposition which is a simple statement that summarizes why someone would choose to seek advice from you. It is also the central platform for your marketing and educational messaging to target groups, which in turn leads into your value-based pricing model.
Module 6 – Develop your Advice Model (27 mins)
The purpose of this module is to enable you to plan the advice solutions you intend to offer to your target clients and the value they will deliver. By documenting an advice model unique to your practice, you will develop a proprietary process which will add value to your business as an intangible asset.
Module 7 – Target Clients & Centres of Influence (34 mins)
The purpose of this module is to show you appropriate research techniques that will help you find target clients and develop key centres of influence. Using demographic and psychographic research methods, you will have the ability to find and communicate with your target clients, whose advice needs match the parameters of your advice model, and who have the ability and willingness to pay. Most importantly, don’t forget the most valuable centres of influence of all, right under your nose, being your existing clients, most of whom should be your most vocal advocates if approached the right way.
Module 8 – The Cost of Advice (25 mins)
The purpose of this module is to enable you to understand the different types of costs that you incur in your advice practice, and how to put a tangible cost ‘floor’ under your pricing model. This involves a set of easily calculated time and cost parameters used to anchor your advice practice.
Module 9 – The Price of Advice (33 mins)
The purpose of this module is to enable you, the adviser to develop a value-based pricing model which reflects your specialty expertise targeted at a deliberate niche market that rewards you with the true worth of your advice. We also explore ways to leverage your value and create multiple income streams.
Module 10 – Building your Advice Brand (42 mins)
The purpose of this module is to provide you, the adviser with the knowledge to employ the internet and social media to build a professional brand and to reach niche clients and centres of influence with targeted and insightful content. Branding is about controlling the narrative and influencing the way you want people to perceive you. Most advisers rely on reputation alone, which is not enough, as it is other people’s views and opinions. Educating your market about the one thing you are exceptionally good at removes the need for prospecting. (Credit: I wish to thank and give credit to my colleague Mark Laing MBA advice strategist, for the insightful information contained in this module.)
Module 11 – Education Based Advice Marketing (32 mins)
The purpose of this module is to follow on from the previous module “Build your Advice Brand’ and provide you, the adviser with enough knowledge to compose a simple yet effective educational marketing campaign and to start turning your expertise into an actively marketed asset and generate new clients and referrals. (Credit: I wish to thank and give credit to my colleague Mark Laing MBA advice strategist, for the insightful information contained in this module.)
Module 12 – Making the Intangibles, Tangible (37 mins)
The purpose of this module is to introduce the importance of ‘managing the physical evidence’ (impression management) in the provision of financial advice. The reason is that such a lot of what advisers ask clients to pay for is intangible and therefore requires a lot of belief and trust on their part. Using impression management, there is a lot you can do to manage your brand and make the intangible much more tangible for clients. The benefits of doing so are quite powerful for an advice practice.
Module 13 – The Future of Advice (30 mins)
The purpose of this module is to help guide your thinking when planning the future. Given the staggering rate of legislative change, the reduction in adviser numbers, the rising cost of advice, changing demographics and fintech advances and an archaic government imposed advice structure; all contrasted against the rising need for advice at an affordable price, it is unlikely that the financial advice landscape will look the same in 10 years’ time.
