Making IFAs and Accountants more Memorable
Challenge
Standing out in a crowd can be difficult.
Especially if you’re an IFA, accountant or both. Attending networking events can often be relatively uncomfortable experiences for many professionals. But IFAs and accountants seem to have a harder time than most.
Why is this?
“All too quickly people brandish us as boring, we get glazed looks when we describe what we do and there are usually a number of competitors in the room.” Said Brian Hill, Managing Director of a South West IFA and accountancy firm. “Furthermore quite a lot of confusion exists for consumers in the market place.”
Brian wanted to work with someone who had a track record of helping financial professionals stand out. He wanted conversational ways of explaining what his firm could do and how it was different from other IFAs and accountants. Plus he needed the flexibility to be able to confidently convey this at both formal business networking events and informal social occasions.
Andy Board, Tax Manager at Smith & Williamson, was in a similar position. Smith & Williamson provide investment management, accountancy, tax, corporate and financial advisory services to private clients, corporates, professional practices, and non-profit organisations. So was struggling to convey their offer in a concise, conversational way.
Result
Brain says: “One month on from the Make yourself Memorable programme, I’ve now attended 3 networking events, which have all generated much more interest than previously. The responses when I’ve introduced myself have included:
“Oh well I’d like to take one of your business cards”
“That sounds very useful”
“Gosh, you’re a good person to know”
He recently attended another training course, where everyone had to introduce themselves at the start. During the break, a delegate approached him saying, “Ah, you’re the man that can save me overpaying my tax aren’t you?”
“So,” said Brian, “In terms of being remembered for the right reasons, I’m very pleased!”
Andy Board said,“Three months on from the course, I’m generating more leads owing to making a better impression and having quality conversations at events”.
How we got there
“The Make yourself Memorable programme consists of half day workshop, a follow up coaching call and regular reminder emails. The workshop took us through the 7 ways we easily remember information and showed us how we could apply them to our business development conversations.
She gave us lots of ideas for how we can describe what we do in a different, easy-to-grasp memorable way. This has been useful both conversationally but also from a broader marketing perspective.
I can honestly say this was one of the most useful training programmes I’ve attended,” Said Brian.
