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Brokers aren’t used to creating their own presentations. Compliance rules, you know. Series 7s take stock presentations and add their names to personalize ‘em.
I’ll let you in on a secret though: most of the largest producers DO create their own presentations.
Why do you think that is?
Well, because the largest advisors understand that canned speeches have a harder time converting prospects.
Big advisors understand that better sales pitches are attuned to the audience receiving them.
Big advisors understand that they need to differentiate themselves.
Big advisors understand that their content, their pitches, and their delivery occupy the space where they meet the needs of their prospects.
The art of the advisor presentation
It’s time to move on from the ways we’ve presented in the past. Here’s the framework that I’ve seen work for advisors and their marketing efforts:
1. Build EXPERTISE: Need to demonstrate your mastery over you subject matter quickly in the presentation. This is the starting point for delivering any powerful message.
2. Create AUTHORITY: Knowledge isn’t enough. Applied understanding of your material has to be followed with your status in the industry — with your peers, affiliated institutions, and clients.
3. Establish TRUST: Key to establishing a bond with your audience, they need to trust that the advice you’re giving them is sound. That you’ve got their backs.
4. Convert prospects to CLIENTS: Once the previous 3 steps have been executed, it’s relatively easy to convert those ready to enlist your services. Marketing is all the work that goes into making an easy sale.
I think this is an effective delivery mechanism no matter what you’re selling but if your presentation doesn’t do this, you’re not going to see a lot of ROI. Think of the topic of your presentation (investing in emerging markets, retirement planning) as the vehicle that moves you from Expertise to Authority to Trust to Clients.
Useful tools to conceive and create presentations
There are a ton of resources online and off that can assist you in conceiving, creating, and delivering your presentation. Here are a few I use.
- Sliderocket (tools): This is particularly useful for online presentations — it’s slick, easy to use multimedia, and even has a function you can use to schedule and run a webinar around your presentation.
- Presentation Zen (strategy, how to): Garr Reynolds’ site. Garr is one of the preeminent speakers, analysts on making powerful presentations.
- 100 top speeches (examples): This site has actual audio of some of history’s best speeches. You don’t have to recreate the presentation wheel. Learn from the masters and adapt their techniques to your own.
- Download HubSpot’s free ebook The Ultimate How-To Marketing Guide: Looking to drive more traffic to your website?
- Edward Tufte (strategy, how to): Considered many as the father of modern presentations, Tufte has numerous books and resources to help business people convey persuasive ideas.
- Skitch (tool): I use skitch to annotate images or webpages I pull off the Internet. It’s super easy to grab an image or chart and add it some text or arrows to drive your point home.
- Duarte (strategy, how to): Nancy Duarte is on fire. Her firm, books and training are behind some of the greatest presentations today.
- Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule (how to): Guy’s template for font size, length of presentation, and number of slides is used by many smart prospecters around the world.
- Slide design for non designers (tools, how to): I like this how-to demonstration of how someone put together a visually-compelling presentation
Don’t just put up bullet points and read from a script. Inject your personality, spend some time thinking of what kind of information your prospects are looking for. Deliver it with authority and build trust.
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