Building Your Practice Identity In Your Community
A financial advisory practice is first and foremost a business about people. You serve individuals and corporate entities as their guide to growing wealth and increasing their bottom line year after year. Securing clients is essential to growing your practice and ensuring the future of your practice. However, it is far more crucial to build your practice identity within your community.
Why Community Identity Matters
What you want your organization to be and how you want it to be perceived has a tremendous impact on the direction and rate of your growth. Securing businesses and individual clients helps your business grow. Although you can get by with that game plan for a while, at some point, you need to branch out beyond merely acquiring clients and establish who you are and what you are all about in your community.
Your identity within the community builds trust and respect over the lifetime of your financial advisory practice. That trust and respect is the chief currency of providing superior financial advisory service and developing client relationships that last a lifetime. To attract the clients you want, you must be the right kind of business, and that includes evaluating your community involvement.
Building the right community identity starts with making smart choices. Here are some tips for establishing your position in your community.
Always Put People First
Thanks to the advent and extensive use of social media, it can be tempting to network and keep in contact with prospective clients via these channels and other digital means. Though these are very sound marketing strategies, be careful not to fall too deeply into this trap. Never underestimate the power of a human presence to another human being. You need to make an effort having face to face contact with each client. Ignoring the social component of accessibility can be a critical mistake.
Listen carefully, ask questions and get to know the people who live, work and do business in your area. Be passionate about people and building a stronger community through what you do. Staying on this track will help you will establish the identity you need to maintain your growth and success.
Get Involved Locally
You and your staff need to find ways to be active in the community and be passionate about doing good in it. Communities always have events that are looking for participants and sponsors. So, pick one that resonates with you and your staff and jump in. Joining in community events gives everyone the chance to make the community a better place and reminds prospective clients that you are right in their own backyard.
Having involved and active employees is a great way to establish yourself as an employer who cares about people and hires people who do, too. The way you treat your staff also tells prospective clients a great deal about how they will be treated when engaging your services.
Host or Co-Sponsor Community Events
Visibility is critical to establishing your community identity. One of the best ways to be visible is to host and co-sponsor local events and celebrations. This approach will put you in the public eye and present you as someone who prioritizes your community and its needs. It shows that you not only say you care about specific local projects or issues, but that you are willing to do the work to help make a difference. It will also allow you to work closely with other local businesses to make these events happen.
Your presence in the community inspires curiosity and the opportunity to talk with individuals about their financial future. Your work with other local businesses positions you to offer your services not just as a financial advisory practice, but as a trusted partner with whom they have collaborated on independent projects in the past. It is a win-win for your practice and potential clients.
Engage Your Community With a Focus on Your Values
When you engage in community involvement, let people know why it is important to you. If there is a community organization that needs help managing its finances, volunteer your time and donate your expertise. You entered this field because helping others find success with their finances is crucial to you. Your willingness to assist organizations in your community speaks volumes when it comes to “putting your money where your mouth is.”
The future of your business depends on how you impact your community in ways that matter to the individuals who live and work there. Put yourself out there, be active, helpful and passionate. Encourage your employees to do the same. Only through the active practice of the values that make your business what it is will earn you the identity you want in the community. Get out there and make it happen.
Opinions expressed are those of Signature Wealth Group and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. All opinions are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete.