In the last article I told you about a client that we took from ZERO to $20k/months. But how did we figure out what made them more badass than their competitors?!
A lot of it came down to one simple question.
WHAT ARE YOU AGAINST?
When we did a Brandshrink with them, which is our deep-dive interview where we identify what is so badass about a company, I asked them what pissed them off about their industry, and they started to get really heated. They told us that they were fed up that Merrill Lynch only works with people who have a minimum of $500,000 in liquid assets, and that they think people who are still BUILDING their businesses and careers, people who might not HAVE that kind of money yet, should still have access to reliable, financial advisors and advice.
They were AGAINST the BIG CORPORATE Merrill lynch way, yet they had built a brand that still looked a lot like Merril Lynch. The copy was a little more hip, but it didn’t reflect the passion they expressed when they spoke about their disagreement with how Merrill Lynch does things.
BY truly understanding what they were AGAINST, we could build a brand that sounds and looks like it stands for something that’s ACTUALLY different from their competitors.
Rather than say they “break from the mold”, their brand now ACTUALLY breaks from the Merrill Lynch mold through it’s young, fresh look, copy and vibe. They were able to embrace a business model that is unheard of in their industry specifically because it made sense to their demographic.
ONCE YOU REALIZE THAT YOU ARE AGAINST SOMETHING, YOU CAN REALLY EMBRACE WHAT YOU ARE ALL ABOUT.
We productized their first step, the financial plan advisors do for every client when managing their money. Except instead of including that plan in the fee, we told them to charge for it.
That’s right, we actually told them to charge for the financial plan that their competitors are doing for free. And it made their business explode.
How come? Because it addressed a fundamental desire their young demographic has- the desire for a quick fix. Instead of marrying a financial advisor to get the plan, you can just buy it! And decide later if you trust them to manage your money.
But the magical thing about this is that in the process of delivering a Stash Plan (that’s the name of their $1000 financial plan) Stash demonstrates incredible value to the client. Through that process the client builds trust with them, and at the end, 90% of those stash planners become managed money clients anyway.
THE RESULT? $20K/MONTH IN STASH PLANS, A SERVICE THEY WEREN’T GOING TO CHARGE FOR BEFORE THEY MET US.
The result? Mo more schmoozing to get clients. Instead they get paid to sell their services.
THE RESULT? A BADASS BUSINESS.
In the next article, I’m going to show you how to translate this into your business.