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Do you ever get ticked off when you see the competition doing better than you? Don’t get mad; just use these wholesome and (at the same time) sharp ways for financial advisors to beat the competition.
I’ve done all these, and they are indeed nasty. It’s awesome.
For those of you who are new to my blog/podcast, my name is Sara. I am a CFA® charterholder and I used to be a financial advisor. I have a weekly newsletter in which I talk about financial advisor lead generation topics which is best described as “fun and irreverent.” So please subscribe!.
Before I get into this, I just want to be clear. I’m not suggesting doing anything immoral like try to steal the competition’s clients, maliciously copy them, or trash talk them on social media. Always stay wholesome and above board; you should never lower your moral standards in the name of beating the competition.
Now let’s get onto it.
#1 Sniper PR
Do you ever see a competitor in an article by the WSJ or some other noteworthy publication, and you get jealous? Don’t worry. Be consoled by the fact that good PR costs $4k a month so they’re probably drained by it, but here I am to tell you how to do this for free.
Just find out who the reporter is, and then create a relationship with that same reporter. This has to be long term though. Start following them on Twitter. Make insightful comments and retweet their content; they’ll appreciate all that. Then you eventually start sending the story ideas.
Eventually if you become a valuable enough resource for the reporter, they’ll ask to interview you. If not, you can probably suggest it and they’ll say yes as long as you gain enough of an understanding of their beat that what you propose will enrich their story.
Show more value than what your competitor showed and they’ll say yes.
This method for financial advisors beating up their competition also works for conferences and podcasts, etc., anything where you want to get visibility and there is a gatekeeper you have to make like you.
#2 Strategic backlinks
If your competition is outranking you on Google, that really stinks. You should try to find out who is backlinking to their website. And then if it makes sense from an SEO perspective, get those companies, or even better, to backlink to yours. For example, if you see that a particular blogger is backlinking to your competitor’s blog about Roth IRAs, offer them a blog of yours to backlink to (on another subject, of course).
High quality, relevant backlinks may help your website rank higher, if done in concert with the proper overall SEO strategy. But they can be hard to find, which is why it’s great if your competitors can tip you off as to who is willing to link to a site like theirs.
Wouldn’t that feel nice?
Heh heh heh. (evil laugh)
#3 A psuedo-friendly collabo
This is hard to admit, but we’re probably not all #1 in all of the categories associated with how we do business.
I’ll say it. I’d like to think I’m the best a financial advisor LinkedIn marketing; but when it comes to financial advisor Instagram, I would have to admit the competition is probably kicking my butt.
Don’t bash the competition who is better than you in one particular area; use it to your advantage. Invite them to collaborate with you (on a podcast, blog, a seminar, etc) and invite both of your following. But then completely outdo them.
I want to be clear; don’t make them look bad. During the collabo, you want to make it clear that you’re better, so their followers will want to follow you for better tips than they get from your competitor.
And that’s how you wholesomely swipe your competition’s followers.
Heh heh heh.
#4 Outvalue them when they dare to increase prices
The other day I was on the website of another consultant in the industry and I see he’s charging a ridiculous hourly fee. I know what he does, and there’s no way he’s providing that amount of value. So tbh it kinda ticked me off.
But I did appreciate that he raised the bar for what consultants in financial services charge. So, instead of laying down and taking it, I increased my fee to not the same level but slightly higher than what he charges.
I almost wish I could pat him on the back for prompting me to do this. I probably wouldn’t have if he hadn’t done first.
It was so nasty that it felt deeply fulfilling.
It’s important to note that I’m talking about value even more than price here. I’m not just increasing prices solely for the sake of being on par with him. I’m going to slam the clients with massive value that justifies that price and it will elevate their experience.
So its…
Increase price and multiply value by 10x the amount you increased price.
Now wouldn’t that be such a wholesome and simultaneously nasty way for financial advisors to beat the competition? You bet.
Sara’s upshot on ways for financial advisors to beat the competition
What’d ya think of my ideas about ways for financial advisors to beat the competition? Pretty nasty, right? I at least hope it was a bit useful.
If yes…
Learn what to say to prospects on social media messenger apps without sounding like a washing machine salesperson. This e-book contains 47 financial advisor LinkedIn messages, sequences, and scripts, and they are all two sentences or less.
You could also consider my financial advisor social media membership which teaches financial advisors how to get new clients and leads from LinkedIn.
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll at least join my weekly newsletter about financial advisor lead generation.
See you in the next one!
-Sara G
