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Financial Advisors, What’s Your First Impression Like? By Mike Schaffman Vice President of Sales & Marketing Lone Beacon

Use all five of your senses when analyzing what you’re putting out there for potential clients to see for the first time.

In psychology, a first impression occurs when someone establishes a mental image of a person that they meet for the first time. There are countless ways to create a first impression across a customer’s journey, but one thing is for certain, very few people have ever purchased a product or service after having a bad first impression. Let’s start by getting a little nostalgic. Can you think back to a moment when you had a good or bad first impression? Perhaps you met your in-laws for the first time at Thanksgiving where you oversaw the turkey and dropped it along with their heirloom serving plate. Now, you’re forever known as Butter Fingers Bob. Whatever it may be, I’m guessing you’ve made a judgment or a decision at some point in your life based on a first impression. So, why would your prospective clients in the financial advisory world be any different? Because there are so many types of first impressions, we’re going to simplify things a bit by looking at five categories: Touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell are the five basic human senses that relay input to the brain to help observe and understand the world around us. Touch(points) You’ve probably heard it before, but marketing and advertising are all about reach, frequency and of course, impressions. There are too many impressions to pick from, making that first reach out to a prospect who took an action based on something they saw or heard of

your brand and business a critical part of your process. Will they be met by a friendly voice over the phone with whom they can feel comfortable and identify with? Is there going to be a personalized email follow-up attached to the phone call or voicemail? Do you have a welcome email automation sequence designed to immerse the new prospect into your brand? Are there corresponding text messages to reach the consumer on their favorite handy device? How will you continue to nurture that prospect across digital advertising, marketing, remarketing and email? The customer journey and associated sales process are riddled with touchpoints that you, the advisor, can be in full control of. Taste The medium-rare steak that you’re serving at your dinner event won’t be the reason someone doesn’t want to set an appointment with you. It will be the figurative “bad taste left in their mouth” after they see you pop out of nowhere and jump up on stage acting like a want-to-be A-list celebrity. Making matters worse, if you’re not meeting and greeting your attendees like it’s a dinner party at your own home, not doing the small talk, then you might be making a bad first impression on your prospects. It’s your dinner event, you’re the host, so put on a smile and ask and answer questions that make these prospects feel a part of your company “family.” If you can be relatable and transparent with them, they’ll be a lot more likely to sit down and meet

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