This past week, I found myself going through the exercise of describing how a business to business financial services company (mine) creates differentiation to attract their ideal clients. 

I was on a video call, with my hedge fund partners in New York. We were discussing the various goals for our marketing and the strategies we were all implementing to attract our ideal clients. I was asked about how I’ve been able to build a brand and differentiate my company in the noisy business sector of consultants, financial experts, CPA’s, and professional services providers. After all, being an outsourced CFO for small businesses isn’t a unique idea. The question came out slightly different but it sounded like this, “Matt, we see all your blogging, all your Facebook posts, and your monthly newsletter. All great. But how do you consistently attract and retain clients? You’re just one guy, so how do you do it?” 

I had to pause. I know they weren’t really asking “how do I do it.” What they were really asking was, “How can we do it better?” I took the question as an opportunity to explain a section of my book through a slightly different perspective. You see, in my book, Taboo Business Questions, I write about differentiation through the lens of building a brand story. To explain exactly how to build a brand story, I told the hedge fund guys the story of Differentiating Through Value Addition. 

The whole point of the story, and the message I was trying to convey to my partners in New York, is that people want more and are willing to do business with those who give them more. More what? Believe it or not, it’s not more money. It’s changing the dynamic of the conversations to give clients something they didn’t even know they need. And guess what? If you present this to them, and they don’t want it, then they probably aren’t a good client for you. It’s a principle I’ve learned from doing business with hundreds of clients and finally realizing the values taught in Jacques Werth’s book, “High Probability Selling.”

So what do my clients really want? Safety. Trust. Accountability. Results. Freedom. They don’t want to hire someone else they have to manage. They want to know they have a financial partner who’s going to get done the things that are promised to them. How does this work?

I don’t do much outgoing marketing. I’ve been in business for years and I have yet to do a facebook ad campaign, a direct mail campaign, or a cold call push. I just don’t do that. Clients who come to my firm are more often than not referred in. They build a relationship with a banker, an attorney, an accountant, or a lender, and that professional sees that the client is in need of someone to get to the root of their problems; not someone who’s just going to get them money and move on. Any respectable CPA can fix someone’s books. People hire my firm because we present a solution that our clients want solved but hadn’t been able to articulate before meeting with us. What are some of the problems we solve for? 

• Irrational fear and emotionality that cripples decision making abilities
• Uninformed decision making related to poor financial management
• Lack of accountability in budgeting and attacking goals
• Rumination around basic business decision making

How do we do this? 

We use our Strategic Approach and Performance Coaching Process.

We start each engagement with our SV Analysis which allows our team to meet clients where they’re at. It aims to give our team a thorough look behind the curtains into how a business owner got to the position they got and helps to forecast goals and dreams from which they (the business owner) was being held back from achieving.

Step 1 is meeting our clients where they’re at, empathize with them, truly understand what makes them tick, hear about the stresses of starting their business, and then explain how working with our team will alleviate the stress of forging ahead each day with shaky numbers and a lack of purpose. We keep our clients focused on their goals, remove the obstacles in the way, and help them be more successful than they could have ever imagined. 

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When you’re in the financial industry, everyone can help a client “get money,” “save money,” or “make more money.” That’s easy. But, when you differentiate yourself through value addition, you shift the conversation and become a trusted ally to your clients. Our shift is the process we take clients through to elevate their mindset and help them actualize their ascension.

When I finished my story, the hedge fund guys were silent. I actually had to tap the mic and see if they were still on the call. I hoped I hadn’t put them to sleep. I imagined that they were silent because they were blown away and had to pick their collective jaws up off the floor. When they finally spoke up, the leader of the hedge fund said, “Matt. You have a gift my young friend. I couldn’t have said it any better myself. I’ve noticed that when you address the underlying emotions about money, you create clients for life.” 

That’s the value that we add; being the sounding board to our clients’ emotionality. Not to condemn them for having the feelings. But to acknowledge them, explain why they’re having them, and reframe the conversation into terms of “how we can get after our goals.”

When I wrote the chapter in Taboo Business Questions, I wrote about Differentiation from the perspective of using your brand story. I use the term “Purposeful and Direct Differentiation” as the goal for your business and that thought still holds true years after I wrote that chapter. “Purposeful and direct differentiation requires a brand story. Without a brand story, your product or service lacks an emotional connection to you and the business. While you can create an emotional connection by being the business owner and greeting your customers, it’s not scalable. And, if a customer has a bad experience, the emotional connection is strained.”

Fast forward to today. Our team uses what I wrote in Taboo Business Questions and increases the effectiveness by offering Performance Coaching services that aim to directly and professionally address the emotions crippling people’s finances. Combined with our brand story, we offer a differentiated value addition to business financing support that many business owners we talk to genuinely appreciate.