Do you often wonder, “why my client is not happy in spite of putting in my best?”

At times there are evident circumstances when you have not been able to deliver results and stand up to his expectations, but at times the client simply wants to switch to another advisor without any visible reason, leaving you wonder what went wrong.

The gap between what you are offering and what he is looking forward to, is the answer to your question.

The clients have various reasons to do so, which we do not recognize. The most common causes are listed as follows:

Mistakes: If you have committed mistakes in handling your clients' investments, it goes against professional standards. You tend to forget or overlook things about the client which might not be material for you but he is sensitive to. Even if you rectify the mistakes, repeated errors create a negative image of yours in the mind of your client. The investor entrusts you with his personal data and improper handling of the same leads to loss of trust.

Lack of like mindedness: The client is looking to hear what he believes in. A mismatch in personality can also lead to loss of clientele. The client might have a conservative approach and you are the one who believes in maximum wealth creation by investing in equities for a long term. Or because dissimilar outlook, you two are not able to strike a conversation. Your ideals do not match and therefore the client walks away.

Not sounding concerned: If you seem to place your product before the customer's goals, even if the product is best suited for him, he would stop believing in you. Your words should be carefully chosen and should convey that you are genuinely interested in his needs and goals. You should be all ears when he speaks. At any point you should not give the impression of diverting from your basic goal: Customer Satisfaction.

Overcommitment: Customers do not like advisors who overcommit and then underperform. Since no one knows for sure how will the investments fare, it is better to play safe. You can use historical performance as an illustration to market the product, you can narrate the strong fundamentals. But promising a certain percentage of future returns even when the markets are going good can put you in a fix if the winds change their direction.

Performance: This is an obvious reason for a dissatisfied client. The client would not want his portfolio to be a consistent underperformer. There are bad times in the market and all portfolios are bound to fall, though at different accelerations and there are good times, when the portfolios are supposed to rise. If the client is not able to make money even in good times, then there is a problem with his portfolio. So, you should stick to fundamentals of good investment while devising his portfolio.

Promptness: When the markets fall, your clients lose money and they are bound to panic. They need their advisor the most at this point, and the advisor doesn't respond to his calls or mails. At times, the advisors are so busy with their newer clients, that they lose touch with the existing ones. They do not call and are late in responding to calls or forget to call back at all. There are situations when you are targeting a lead, and he told you he would call back and doesn't call or call back too late at his ease. You don't feel too good about it, your client is also in a similar situation. So always be prompt in responding to your clients, make it a point to respond to calls or mails within a fixed time, say 2 hours. You will build a genuine image of yours in the mind of the client.

Communication Gap: This is another prominent cause which diverts the clients from you. You are trying to convey something and the client receives something else. You do not understand what the client wants and devise a plan which is totally of track. Quality and Quantity of communication matters in advisory role. You must make sure that he receives what you intend to give and vice versa. The client may not tell you directly but you have to understand from his gestures, you have to read his mind to be his perfect advisor.

A financial advisor is a friend for life. Your relationship with the client can last a lifetime if you do it right, try to avoid the mistakes as narrated above while dealing with your clients. Your client can take losses but he certainly can't take negligence, lack of responsiveness and communication and inefficiency on your part.

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Out of India's total perimeter of 15,200 km, almost half is bordered by the sea, and our country has a number of beautiful beaches and landscapes, yet Goa is the boss, when it comes to beachside New Year's celebration. Ever wondered why? It is because of the unique feel good factor it extends to the visitors, which none does. Goa's culture encompasses it's clubs, clean beaches, the latest fashion, great seafood, water sports, the sunburn festival, and collectively it draws tourists from not just India but from the world into 'the Goan spirit'. This feel good factor or the Goan spirit is the Unique Selling Proposition of Goa.

Simply put, your USP is a set of your unique characteristics which places you one step up from your peers.

When you meet a prospective client for the first time, how do you introduce yourself?

Hi, I am ABC, I am a financial advisor
Or
Hi, I am ABC, I am a Wealth creator. I advise and help people achieve their financial goals

The latter creates an impact and an impression that you are someone who is different from the rest and can help the audience achieve their financial goals.

There are people and companies who create a USP, by offering their products and services at cheaper prices; for them price is a factor which creates their USP. Amazon and Flipkart can compete by selling cheaper products in the Big Billion Days or the Great Indian Festival, but an advisor cannot sell his services at cheaper prices, you have to think out of the box and create a USP, which will help you stand out of the crowd.

Why should you create a USP?
The answer to this is a question: Why should someone do business with you?

This means that there should be something irresistible in you, so that your clients are drawn towards you and not your competitors. You must dispense an aura which makes your client call you for his financial planning and not the advisor who lives in his society. For creating such a situation, you must must identify, develop and propagate yourself as a package that makes you different from others.

How to create a USP?
Now, since you are ready with creating your USP, you must keep in mind the following two tips:

• The Unique proposition is not for you, it is meant to appeal to the clients, so whatever you come up with should eventually be for client's benefit.
• In our business, since everyone is selling the same product, you might not have something unique but can definitely differentiate the ordinary to make it extraordinary.

To build your USP, you may proceed as follows:

Identify your strengths and best qualities: Every individual is unique, you have to explore and bring out that exclusivity from within. It is observed that this unique factor is guided by your special qualities, interests and passion. List down the facts that describe you. It can be your education, certifications, background, hobbies, experience, interests, personality traits, etc.

Club your qualities to arrive at your USP: Clubbing together your qualities will give you that simple dominant factor that makes your clients wanting to be your clients. It may be a result 10 other attributes, but it is this one special combination which makes you distinct from the others. If you are someone who likes to socialise, one who is inquisitive and likes to gain knowledge from various sources and share his knowledge on random subjects with random people and the icing on the cake in you have a diploma in wealth management, then these attributes of yours can bring out your USP as you are the one who has deep subject knowledge and is good at explaining the technicalities of financial products to people.

Reality Check: After coming up with a USP, check if you will be able to live with it? It should not be old and it should not be changed. You cannot cannot come up with a new USP with every change in the financial industry. Having said that, your USP must fit in with every new aspect of your profession. If you are banking on technology, then continuously updating technology should be the constant factor. You must analyse if the USP that you have selected is the best for you. Before finalizing the USP, you may do a self check, or consult your friends and acquaintances, or check with your clients, to gauge its sustainability.

Communicating your USP: Although you might not directly narrate to your clients that this is my USP, yet it should be communicated to them, through your actions. Your marketing techniques should always revolve around your USP, your banners, your logo, your tagline, your introduction, your expressions, should always revolve around your USP. You must have seen the Ad of Chings, their tag line is Desi Chinese, and their commercials are based on the same theme. The Ad makes it crystal clear that they offer Chinese food items, yet the spices and flavours are Indian.

So, once are set with your Unique Selling Proposition, go ahead and make the world follow you.

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different" - Coco Chanel

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