Positioning: Are You Top of Mind?

Mindshare is the level of awareness of you and your firm in the mind of a prospective client.

It’s important you build mindshare in your chosen markets so that your firm is top of mind when a prospective client is ready to take action.

In their classic marketing book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, authors Al Ries and Jack Trout cite the work of Harvard psychologist George A. Miller when they assert the maximum number of products and brands that we can remember in any category is seven: that is the brand ‘saturation point’ for the mind.

Although the focus of their book is on major brand advertising campaigns for soft drinks, airlines, cars and fast foods, it made me wonder about the implications of this information for financial services professionals operating in a crowded marketplace.

If the average person can’t name more than seven brands of soft drink, they can’t possibly name more than two or three financial services professionals in a given area, whether they are insurance, mortgage and finance brokers or wealth advisors.

In Australia, for example, there are more than 5,700 insurance brokers, 10,800 mortgage brokers and 19,300 finance and investment planners. In the United States there are more than 400,000 insurance brokers.

In the battle for mind share, then, you’re first or second, or you’re out of contention. The big question – and the greatest challenge – is how do you win those first two positions in the minds of enough people when you’re in such a crowded field of competitors?

The answer is: you do it through proactive marketing.

Proactive marketing

It comprises three parts:

Prospecting. This involves building powerful relationships by reaching out and getting referrals and introductions from centres of influence

Building your database. This is an important asset, used to track and manage your relationships

Communicating and marketing. Do this systematically for everyone in your database, to remind prospective clients of your value.

Selling services financial services is a contact sport. Top performers believe it’s a frequent, systematic and close contact sport. You must commit to frequent contact with your database, with the intent of building close relationships, filling your pipeline and converting contacts and prospects into new clients and higher revenue.

To achieve your goal of having a healthy growing business, regardless of the economy, you need to gain the mindshare of your buyers in your chosen target markets.

You can’t do this simply by using SEO marketing, websites or social media. The best and most effective way to gain that all-important mindshare and great future clients is through contact and systematic marketing.