2005

PROCEEDINGS

The Brand Called You

Peter Montoya

I
can see I have a very motivated group here. You want
to make more money and enjoy your careers more.
What I know is credible, even though it may sound
incredible to some of you: there are realistic ways that you
can double your income if you are serious about pursuing
them. You must have a well-written marketing plan, a
marketing system. Out of curiosity, how many of you feel
you have a well-written marketing plan? I cannot give you
a complete and total marketing plan; however, I can give
you a very healthy shove in the right direction.
As you may already know, I also run the world’s only
Personal Branding agency. Some of you might be thinking
Peter
NAME
Montoya
AND is TITLE
presidentbio
of Peter
info. Montoya Inc., of cattle iron on people’s backsides – that’s not what
where he employs strategists, designers and writers Personal Branding is. A Personal Branding agency is an
to craft the most innovative, effective personal advertising agency that brands, markets and promotes
branding strategies for thousands of clients across people. I have almost forty employees, they are account
the country. In addition, he educates thousands executives, writers, designers, we craft custom brochures,
of professionals yearly in seminars and workshops. postcards, logos, web sites, all the tools that you need
Montoya has written two books, “The Personal to market your practice. We custom-design them all.
Branding Phenomenon” and “The Brand Called Also, I have written two books, The Personal Branding
You,” and he is the publisher of Personal Branding Phenomenon and The Brand Called You, and I will
magazine. He regularly appears as a personal conduct over one hundred seminars this year.
branding commentator on CNN, MSNBC and Fox In general, most financial professionals are poor
News. Prior to his current work, Montoya worked marketers. Most of them do not do it on purpose. No
for a nationally recognized sales trainer, living in 25 one strives to do bad marketing, rather we see what our
major cities and leading more than 2,000 training competition does and we just go and copy it. Some of the
sessions for workers in a broad range of industries. bad marketing I’ve seen committed by Financial Advisors
Peter Montoya Inc. includes the following rotisserie of items – an impressive
1921 E. Alton Parkway, Suite 200 collection of throwaways and unwanted junk.
Santa Ana, CA 92705 I’ve seen pens, pads of paper, maps on business cards.
Phone: 888.730.5300 I’ve seen puzzles – this is a really dopey strategy, call me
E-mail: jfox@petermontoya.com up for answers. How about the refrigerator magnets? The
envelope opener? The envelope opener with the refrig-
erator magnet – sort of a two for one deal.
I’ve seen the paddle with the ball, the magic jar opener
and the worst marketing piece that I have ever seen done
by a financial advisor is a fly swatter shaped like a house.
I/RI/R CODES:
Code: 2750.0
1800.00 Each time I see this piece, I still chuckle. I can imagine
Cassette: A0519 this financial advisor driving down the road saying, “Boy, I
CD: C0519 need to market myself. I’ve got it; I’ll get five thousand fly
AUDIO CASSETTE:
swatters, stick my name on it and give it to every prospect

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in town. And when anyone of my prospects is killing a The fact is, you are. You have a Personal Brand. Let’s
pest, hopefully they will think of me.” What a wonderful talk about what branding really is. You are probably doing
association that is. more branding than you think. Here are some definitions
Now, are these marketing tools the most effective use of that may make you think of the role branding plays in
your time? Do they represent the most effective use of your your business.
dollar? Of course not. I am going to share with you how to First of all is a short, very succinct definition of sales.
spend your time and dollars more effectively. Sales is convincing. To sell is to convince. To sell is over-
Every marketing challenge and every branding chal- come objections. You negotiate a sale. If you convince
lenge you have faced, we have already faced working with someone to buy, you get a check. You know you are using
our clients. I guarantee you that you cannot give me a sales skills when your lips are flapping. Flapping lips indi-
marketing or branding challenge we have not faced and cate sales. But selling is usually a result of other business
conquered with great results with our existing clients. activities. Usually, selling follows marketing.
We will talk about Personal Branding. Personal The purpose of marketing is to generate sales. Marketing
Branding is the most important philosophy you are is generating new business. Marketing is getting in front of
currently using to attract new clients. And, you probably prospects. Direct mail is part of marketing. Advertising is
don’t even know that you’re using it. Maybe you do. How part of marketing. Yellow page ads are part of marketing.
many have you said at some point in time, “The reason my Seminars are part of marketing.
clients work with me is because of me.” This is an industry I’ll make you a bet 80 percent of you, if I asked you one-
built on personal relationships. To make your business to-one, would say to me, “Peter, I don’t do any marketing
work, you have to create personal relationships over and at all. All I do is work off referrals.” Referrals, even if
over. So, we’ll talk about what Personal Branding is, and they are completely by accident, are still an element of
why is it so critical to your success. marketing. So even if you consider them accidental or
The second topic is branding strategy, and at the heart incidental, referrals, in the greater scheme of things, are
of that strategy, is specialization. Many of you are over- still part of marketing activity.
loaded with clients that are not best suited for you. We’ll Marketing is one part of branding, and branding’s job
talk about how to attract more of the right kind of client, is to influence. We are influenced by brands. We associate
the kind of client that is more profitable to deal with. value with brands. That’s why branding is everything;
Which skill sets are more critical to your success, your that’s where you start, before you sell, before you market.
sales skills or your marketing skills? Marketing is correct. Branding changes the way people think. It changes percep-
Marketing is more critical today, because you can be a tion of a product or a service or a person. It builds value.
first-class salesperson, the best salesperson in the world, Whether you realize it or not, you currently have a
and go flat broke if you have nothing but your sales skills brand. What would you guess is the most important goal
to rely on. of your branding? What is the most important purpose of
What’s more important: your marketing skills, or your your branding? Now, I have done enough of these seminars
branding skills? Yes, the answer is branding. Many of you to hear a gamut of answers, and most of you will say some-
were just now shaking your heads, thinking: “What in thing along these lines:
the world is branding and what does it have to do with “The most important goal my brand is to differentiate
me? Branding is for big companies like Nike, Coca-Cola, me from the competition.”
and Microsoft, I am not doing branding. I running a little “The most important goal of my brand is to create trust
teeny financial planning practice, how could I be putting with a prospect or a client – I speak the truth, and hey,
a brand out there?” they believe in me.”

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“The most important goal of my brand is to create what How about your marketing? Imagine yourself doing
is called an identity in the marketplace, so they will some really high-profile marketing. If you budgeted for
know who I am and what I do.” a blimp, radio ads, television advertising, that would
Sure, the most important goal of your business is to create one perception about you. Or maybe you do almost
attract new business, and these prospecting goals are under-the-radar marketing, you have a very tight sphere of
all goals of your brand. However, they are not the most influence with professional referrals, maybe you do some
important part of your brand. They are nowhere near the high-end networking. Those two marketing paths have
most critical aspect of your brand. I’m familiar with all of an effect: they create different perceptions. Different ways
those ideas, I’ve read those ideas, I’ve thought those ideas, marketing lead to different perceptions in branding. So
and they are important ideas – but they are not the crux marketing is part of branding.
of your brand. How about customer service? How quick do you return
Branding is really about the meat and potatoes of your phone calls? How do you answer the phone, how do
business. Branding is really about attracting and main- you manage the phones? All customer service is part of
taining quality clients. That’s what branding actually is. It branding as well.
is actually getting and keeping new business. That’s what How about your interior design? If I walk into your
should get you excited. office, and I find just a one-room office, papers strewn every-
You may look at your priority list and you might say, where, and I see you and only you behind one desk, that
“Here are my priorities: I have to make sure that I have would create a very specific perception about your brand. If
a good operation, I have to make sure I stay compliant, I walked into your office and it had marble floors and cherry
I have to make sure I keep my books in order, I have to wood walls, I have a different perception. Depending on
make sure I prepare financial plans or tax returns in a the circumstances, neither one is wrong or right. All I am
timely manner.” saying is that they are very different perceptions. So the
Certainly, you might also prioritize attracting and main- design of your office is part of branding as well.
taining quality clients. On your list of priorities, where does That’s not all. We can look at you as a person, we can
this one fall? Is it your first priority? Number l? 2? 3? 4? 5? If you look at your image, how you dress, how you walk, how you
are saying anything lower than “1” you’re facing a problem, talk, how you speak to your clients, and to whom you’re
because without this – without clients – the operations, the married. Who you married and who your kids are also
compliance, the education we do are worthless. The number create a perception about you as well.
one priority you have is attracting and maintaining quality So, ultimately, what’s branding? It’s who you are, your
clients, and that’s what branding does for you. personal image, your customer service, it’s your sales, it’s
Now most of you think branding is fairly empirical. You your marketing, it’s also all the products and services
think branding is business cards, slogans, advertisements, you offer. If one day in the past you were a Insurance
that’s how you build a brand. Advertising and marketing Professional, and now you’re a Insurance Professional who
are part of branding, but branding is actually a much offers investment advice, then as soon as you add invest-
broader discipline. ment advice, does that change the perception about you?
Imagine if I sat before you, and you were my prospect, You bet it does. So your products and services change
and I tried to hard close you. Would that be part of my perception of your brand as well.
brand? Of course it would. What if I tried to sell you, and I All your sales, all your marketing, all your customer
was meek, no matter what I did, I just couldn’t ask for the service, all the delivery of your products and services – in
sale? That would be part of the brand, too. So the entire sum, in total, what aspects of your business create your
scope of the sales process is part of branding. brand? Everything. Everything you do is actually branding.

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Everything you do to attract and maintain quality clients. are we so afraid of? Being sold? You and I, your clients, we’re
Now what position would you like this brand to hold all quite educated, quite cynical, yet we have the highest
in the marketplace? Would you like people to think of it sales resistance on the planet. We hate to be sold.
when they have the need, or before they have the need? The good news is this: we hate to be sold, but we love
Obviously, the answer is before. Unfortunately, much of to choose to buy. That is why branding comes first. When
your marketing tries to get to your prospects right at the you brand yourself correctly, people show up pre-sold.
moment they decide they have the need. The best brands Now I would like to conduct a survey here in the
on the planet know how to penetrate people’s minds with audience: How many of you have received a phone call
personality, products or services or their company identity recently from someone you didn’t know? They called you
regardless of whether there’s an immediate need or not. up, and said, “Oh, my friend is using you and I can sure use
How is that commercial supposed to sell beer? Now your services, when can you meet with me?” How many of
that’s a good question. How’s a commercial supposed to sell you have gotten that phone call? Please raise your hands.
beer, when it doesn’t talk about beer at all? I am going to give you ten phone calls like that a week,
If I told you to sell beer, most of you would get out every week for a year. One year from today you will have
there and talk about beer. You would talk about the barley, received 520 phone calls from quality prospects saying,
the malts, and the brewing and the distilling, most of “I’ve heard about you – you sound great, sign me up.”
you could probably assign a beta number to the distilling How great a business year are you about to have? Not
process. You would tell your prospects that you were very much of a year? A very good year. You don’t sound very
qualified to sell beer and you would work hard to get excited about the year of you.
your CBS: your Certified Beer Specialist designation. You I can find the absolute worst Insurance Professional in
would try to build your credibility. your city. The absolute worst. A Insurance Professional
But … the best brands on the planet do not spend who should have lost his license, who wears a clip on tie
nearly as much time talking about their product as they do and is not too sharp. I can give them ten phone calls a
building personalities for their products, and this makes us week, every week for a year. One year from today, they, too,
more apt to buy. will receive 520 calls from quality prospects that say “sign
The first rule of branding is to emotionally predispose me up.” How great a year are they going to have? Not a
a prospect into a business relationship. You and I are busi- good year, or a really great year? Yes, they will have a really
ness people and sales people, but at our very skeptical core, great year. Why is that? They’ll get 520 phone calls from
we are also consumers. As consumers, do we love or loathe quality prospects.
being sold? Do we love it, or loathe it? We loathe it. We See, here is the thing about being a better, more
hate being sold. successful Financial Advisor, it is this: being a better, more
Now, any one of us can walk into a Gap clothing store, successful Financial Advisor isn’t about being a better
and inside the door is a person that works for The Gap financial advisor, it’s about being a better marketer, a
called a greeter. Now their job is not to sell anything; rather, better brander.
their job is to make sure every person who enters that store Now here is my guess: I’m guessing that this moment,
is greeted. You walk inside and they say, “Hello, welcome here and now, is not the first moment that you have
to The Gap,” and you respond with “just looking” or some thought of this. You have heard these thoughts about
variation on “get out of my way,” and you swerve around branding before, yet most of you – still – still have not read
them as quickly as possible. Now, the greeter is usually an a single book on marketing or branding in the last year.
18-year-old high school student. Many of you have kids Most of you spend less than 5% of your time marketing,
older than that, yet you are petrified of this teenager. What and most of you spend less than 5% of your money actively

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investing in marketing. “Know what you do” and “do Now picture the same conversation with your worst
what you know” are two different things. You have to client. Imagine your worst client, someone with whom you
take branding and marketing much more seriously because probably have a poor relationship and a low degree of trust.
branding and marketing is your business. You say to your worst client , “Mr. Client, I have done all
Today, your biggest challenge is this: your biggest my homework, all my analysis, and I recommend we do A,
challenge is to become more people’s “blank” than B, and C with your investments.” How is your worst client
anyone. More people’s Financial Advisor, more people’s likely to respond? We know how. “I’ll think about it, I’ll
Insurance Professional, more people’s Employee Benefits get back to you later, I want to get a second opinion from
Specialist or whatever you call yourself, that’s what you my gardener before I take your advice.” Terrible, miserable
put in that blank and that is your biggest challenge today. working relationship.
Would you agree? If this business is all about relationships, why are you
Today, this business is all about relationships. Given promoting your products and services first? If this business
a choice of two situations, which one would you pick? is all about relationships, why are many of you concocting
Situation A: you provide world-class service, great service, corporations which you then hide behind, or hide inside.
everyone in town wants it, everyone needs it, and it’s also Let me talk about that for a minute.
at a great price, however … everybody hates your guts, you Many of you have opted to promote a corporate iden-
are a miserable person to be around, that is situation A. tity instead of your individual identity. I know the reasons
Situation B: you provide good service, not phenomenal why you have done that. You’ve read Michael Gerber’s
service, but good service, everyone in town loves you, book and you want to create a firm. You want to make
you’re wonderful at building relationships, and you are sure you can sell it. However, while I know the reasons you
really able to engender trust. Which situation would you have done that, let me ask you some questions.
pick for greater success and happiness? Situation B. Who do you trust more, corporations or people? The
Today, relationships grease the wheels. A relationship answer is people.
allows us to deliver our most important service. Your most Given a choice of buying a service from a corporation
important service today is advice. The only way you can or buying a service from a person – the service is exactly
deliver advice is if your clients trust you. the same quality, the same price – who would rather have
The last person we trust is the person who says “trust the service delivered to you by? A person.
me.” So knowing that, how do we build trust? Well, here I have done this enough to know why you choose
are two keys to building trust. individuals over corporations. Usually, people choose indi-
The first key to building trust is rapport, we are more viduals over corporations for three reasons.
apt to trust someone that we like. The second key to The first one is a relationship. With your local profes-
building trust is integrity, you got to walk your talk and do sional you have a relationship that is enjoyable, you get
what you say you are going to do. Your words and actions the sense that they know you and you know them. It feels
have got to be completely and totally consistent. good to be in a relationship.
Imagine yourself sitting before your very best client. Reason number two: accountability. If a corporation
Most likely you have a great relationship and a high degree makes a mistake and you want to complain, who do you
of trust. You say to your best client, “Mr. Client, I recom- call these days? Some 800 number answered by a call
mend we do A, B, and C with your investments.” how is center in Pakistan. It’s an uncomfortable, unpleasant
your best client likely to respond, and what words would situation and most of us just say , why bother? Why even
they say? They would say, “Okay. You’re the expert. This is complain, they’re not going to change. I’m not going to
the way I can get it done.” talk someone who actually matters.

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The third reason you work with a local professional the high-quality discount retail store.” Well, they couldn’t
versus a large corporation is that the groundwork is laid be the high-quality discount retail store because what
for an atmosphere of mutual goodwill. Have you ever had brand owns that position in your mind? Target. So, what
a client ask you how business was, and you could tell that does K-Mart mean today in the marketplace? Bankruptcy,
the reason they asked that was because they wanted to dirty stores, and Martha Stewart. Bad company, all the
hear that you were doing well? How many of you have had way around.
clients express interest in the health and success of your Now, K-Mart is attempting to position itself as “high
business, raise your hands, isn’t that amazing. They want to style, low price.” The only way that will work for K-Mart
see you do well, they want to see you succeed. is if their stores live up to the advertising. You actually go
On the other hand, what is our perception of corpora- to the store and see high style for low price. That is their
tions that make a lot of money? They are greedy. So we challenge.
choose people over corporations because of the account- Now, many of you are trying to duplicate the K-Mart
ability, because of the relationship and also because they strategy, being all things to all people. This is rather diffi-
want to see us succeed. If that is the case, why are most of cult. I have a client named Tom Roberts out in Albany,
you promoting yourself as corporations instead of people? New York. When Tom got into the business, what he
If you have 300 or 400 or 500 clients and ask them who decided to do was to specialize in the one apartment
provides them with financial advice or financial services, building that he lived in. For the first year, all he did was
most likely, they will not cite a corporation. What’s the door knock. This is in the mid-Nineties. He door-knocked,
name that’s going to come out of their mouths? Probably he cold-called to get referrals in one mid-rise apartment
your name. So why do we convolute the process by building. By the end of his first year, he had 80 clients
promoting this corporation instead of the person? in one building in one year. It worked pretty well, so he
I suggest you start promoting your Personal Brand, decided to forge on with the strategy. He went to the
because when you do it differentiates you. It makes you building next door, he dominated that building, and once
unique in the marketplace, and it also connects you to that building was dominated he went on to the next, and
human beings, versus being another cold, greedy, and so on and so on. By the end of last year, he was working 11
calculating corporation. Start thinking about yourself first, mid-rise buildings, one of which he lived in, and every one
instead of some corporate facade. Relationships make the of his 1,000 clients lived within a three-minute walk of his
business cogs move today. apartment. But here’s the kicker to me. Yes, he did make
Let’s talk strategy. The most important branding strategy $750,000 last year, but, of that 1,000 clients in those 11
is specialization. Specialization, this is what builds the mid-rise buildings, what was his market share? His market
most important brands. Conglomeration can kill a brand. share is 80% plus.
What major retail store went bankrupt in 2000, trying to What’s your market share? You probably don’t have any
be all things to all people? K-Mart. K-Mart could not figure idea, because your idea of marketing has no parameters. No
out what its brand was. For 15 years, its brand got more and target. If you can fog a mirror and walk on your hind legs,
more diluted. It tried to be all things to all people. Then I want your business – I’m the right professional for you.
they got a new CEO in the mid-Nineties to specialize the You try to be all things to all people and the danger is, you
brand, and for a while the CEO said, “You know what, could become, as the saying goes, “nothing to nobody.”
we’ll be the high-quality, low-price discount retail store.” You see, today, in your line of business, your strength
Well, they couldn’t own that position in the marketplace is also your weakness. I think today, your strength is your
because who owns that position? WAL-MART. So, they low barrier to offering new products and services. With a
said, “Forget that, we’ll ditch that strategy, we will become couple of licenses you can do anything you want. You can

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do long term care, you can do property/casualty, you can are very polarized. Bill O’Reilly – people love him, people
do health insurance, you can offer mutual funds, you can hate him. Michael Moore – people love him, people hate
manage assets, you can perform tax and estate planning. him. Madonna – people love her, people hate her. Barbara
What kind of people can you work well with…Pre- Streisand – people love her, people hate her. Brands are
retirees, retirees, seniors and widows, business owners, loved and hated, Personal Brands too, and the challenge
professionals, executives, or different types of small busi- in front you is, you are too darn likable.
ness owners? The world opens up to you. Let me explain why that’s a challenge to your busi-
What’s your weakness? You can do anything you want, ness. Number one, you like helping people, you like to
and most of you are killing yourselves trying. The worst solve problems, Number two, you don’t like turning away
thing you can do today is to be all things to all people. The money. You don’t like saying no to new sales. This can be
hardest thing to do in this business today is keep focus. a problem. The thing you have to do is this, you actually
That’s why opportunity is the biggest expense in busi- have to stop and repel. You must turn away X in order to
ness. Lance Armstrong today is on top of the Personal attract Y. The best branding provokes action and reaction.
Branding world. For example, let’s just say that Lance I was recently at a car wash down in Southern California
Armstrong gets 10 opportunities per month. Ride your and was actually in the lobby, in a client waiting area, and
bike here, speak to my group, endorse my product, be in inside this lobby area was some marquee advertising. Ads
this commercial, show up for this charity. Let’s say gets 10 for local professionals and there services, the gardener, the
opportunities a month – he might get more. Out of 10, how REALTOR®, the wedding planner, the guy that does the
many do you think in accepts? One, maybe two tops. custom cabinetry, the people that usually advertise. And
The average Financial Advisor, like yourselves, prob- as I was sitting there, this REALTOR® was negotiating a
ably receives ten opportunities a month. “Come with me, purchase of an ad. She asked how much the ad was. The
come to this networking meeting, there will be some new sales manager said it was $500. She said, “$500 a month!
types of clients for you.” “Hey, I can refer you some busi- That’s an awful lot of money. How many new clients will
ness, I’m a professional, I’ll refer you some clients.” “Hey, I get out of it?” That’s a pretty reasonable question. She
I’m a client of yours, my grandma needs you help, why knows the cost, what’s the benefit? The sales manager says.
don’t you work with her.” “Hey, I’m Estate Planner, let’s do “It all depends on the ad. Let me see your ad.”
a seminar together, you bring your clients, I’ll bring mine.” She pulls out an ad – I can see it. It says her name, and
The average Financial Advisor probably gets ten opportu- her company name, and had the following bullets:
nities a month. Out of ten, how many do you accept? • Residential
Eleven. Exactly. You try to do it all, and you try to be all • Commercial
things to all people. And that can kill you. It is part of the • Retail
grind in this business, and it doesn’t make sense. So what • Industrial
I’m going to tell you almost sounds like an oxymoron. But • New Sales
you have to focus on less to do more. • Resales
You have to focus on less to get more. Focus on a smaller • Leasing
market or fewer products and services to get more clients • Renting
and get more revenue. I know it sounds strange: “Focus • Relocation
on less to get more.” But you must reject the prospects you • Consulting
don’t want in order to attract the clients you do want. The sales manager said, “If you offer all those services,
Great branding repels as strongly as it attracts. It turns surely at least one person will need your services in the
off as many people as it turns on. You see, brands today next month.”

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She was only up on that marquee for one month. Why? Why would you call the specialist? Two reasons.
She probably didn’t get any business out of it. Now most The first reason you call a specialist is knowledge. Now,
of my audiences scoff and laugh and say “How silly of that they probably charge more per hour. However, they prob-
REALTOR® to have all those bullets on there, and trying ably take fewer hours to get the job done – because they
to be all things to all people.” know more about the situation than a generalist. There is
But, here is my guess. I could look at your website, I a very good chance that if you go to a generalist, you might
could look at your brochure, I could look at you business have learned more about your problem than they have.
card and it probably has the following bullets. The second reason that brings you to a specialist is
• Property experience. There is a statement on many of your brochures
• Liability that sounds roughly like this, if I may paraphrase: “Past
• Automobile performance is not an indication of future results.” Is that
• Worker's Compensation statement true, or is that statement false? That statement
• Marine is false. Keep it on your brochures – I’m not saying remove
• Accident it, but realize that in reality, the best indication we have
• Health of future results is past performance. You don’t want a new
• Group Medical attorney who’s wet behind the ears who says “Golly gee,
•Annuities I’ll do everything I can to save your hide.” You want the
• IRAs attorney who has been there a thousand times before, and
• Mutual Funds will be there a thousand times again. You want the person
• Life Insurance that lives, breathes, and sleeps this kind of law. You want
Why did you do this? You’re afraid you might miss the specialist.
somebody out there, and in trying not to miss anybody, Here are two all-important questions. One … who
you end up missing everybody. You can still do that. are most people interested in hiring to solve any given
I’m not saying you can’t offer a wide selection of prod- problem: a generalist, or a specialist?
ucts and services, but if you offer a wide selection of Yes – a specialist.
products and services, you do not want to work for So, two … why are so many of you promoting your-
everybody in town. selves as generalists? Why, then, are you trying to be all
Who would you select: the person who does everything things to all people? I am going to recommend that you
reasonably well, or the expert in the field? Now let’s say, specialize.
hypothetically, you’re faced with going up the river. Let’s Step number one is specialization. First of all, special-
say, for instance, that the governing agency that gives you ization builds perceived value. When you specialize, you
the right to operate is very angry at you, and they want to are promoting the thing you do best – and hopefully,
take away your license, throw you in jail, and sue you for promoting it to the most receptive audience. That ideal,
thousands of dollars. All of the sudden, you are in deep receptive audience is called a target market.
legal hot water. How do you choose your target market?
Would you either call some friendly acquaintance who There are a couple of different ways of targeting a
happens to be an attorney and have them represent you; market. One way of targeting a market is targeting specific
would you search out a specialist that handled just these kinds of businesses. You can target businesses by industry,
kind of cases the government, whatever the case might by revenue, by employee count, by ownership type or by
be. Who would you call, the generalist or the specialist. company event. So you can say, “I specialize in manufac-
The specialist. turing companies who have less than $10 million revenue,

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100 employees, who are independently owned and actu- ones whom he liked working with best, were Christians.
ally downsizing.” You could say that is your specialty, for So he decided to specialize in what he called morally-based
example. That’s one way of doing it. financial planning. He marketed only to Christians: he
The second way to target a market is by consumer. talked about his morally-based financial planning seminar.
Most of you, probably 75% of you or more, are targeting That was the phrase he used in his invitation. He used
the consumer marketplace. In the consumer marketplace, scriptural passages as a way of explaining his investment
your market can be subdivided any number of charac- philosophy. His business revenue grew phenomenally last
teristics. You can look at lifestyle – golfers, skiers, auto year – from $600,000, he is now on track for $1.8 million
enthusiasts. You can appeal to an interest group – defined in 2004. He is going to triple his business in 18 months.
by political affiliation, possibly age or gender, possibly by Why? That target market is very cohesive, very strong
occupation such as firefighters, attorneys, engineers. today, and they are looking for someone just like him.
I have a client who is an ex-engineer, he used to work His brand is very, very attractive, but he is willing to give
for Boeing. He retired from Boeing, then became a finan- up business in order to attract business. In branding and
cial advisor. Now, as a financial advisor, he works only with marketing, the religious specializations are working very
engineers. How many of you have experienced the sheer well recently. And so does branding based around life
joy of working with an engineer? Had that good time? events – retirement, divorce, bereavement, change of
Yeah, it’s a party all the way around. He works only with career, change of address.
engineers, and he does incredibly well for two reasons. So, you choose your target market. You also need to
The first reason is, when he sits across the table from an define your geographic region, what geography are you
engineer, they do not see him as a salesperson. willing to work within.
Where does he get 80% of his new business, where does I’ll give you two scenarios. Here is Scenario A: this is
it come from? Yes, he gets business from Boeing, referrals called the shotgun method. You have a $10,000-a-year
from other engineers, but believe it or not, that’s the other marketing budget and you spend your marketing money
20%. percent of his business. Where does the lion’s share in response to opportunities. Your mentality is, you have
come from? Well here’s what kills me: 80 % of his new to spend money to make money. You realize that and so
business comes from marketing himself to other financial you say, “You know what, as opportunities arise, I’ll spend
advisors who want to get rid of their engineer clients. the money.” ZYX Business Journal calls you up and says
If you think about it, the hardest thing about getting rid “Hey, we’re running a special, first-time advertisers only
of a client is that you feel guilty about firing that client. pay $500,” and you say, “Sure, I’ll give it a shot.” A buddy
But if you had someplace where an engineer could go and calls you up and says, “Hey, let’s do a seminar together,
be with his own kind, wouldn’t it be better for all parties $1,500. You say, “Sure, I’ll give that a shot.” You go to a
involved? It’s like a Star Trek convention, I don’t mind marketing seminar, you learn about direct mail. You say,
they have it, just let them be together. “Sure, I’ll give that a shot,” and your marketing during the
Also we can look at ethnic or religious background. I course of the year amounts to this shotgun approach. It’s
made a statement earlier today, which one of my attendees just done wherever you see opportunities to spend money.
in the past really took to heart. I said, “You must repel in That’s Scenario A.
order to attract.” My audience member, his name is Bill Scenario B: we’ll call this the target approach. You
Bennett, he’s in Detroit, Michigan, and he decided he decide to target one subdivision of 500 homes. Every bit of
wanted to work with Christians. He had been doing all your advertising, every bit of direct mail, all your events are
things for all people. He has been doing fairly well, making directed to just these 500 homes. However, your marketing
about $600,000 in gross production. His best clients, the budget is only $5,000 – half as much as in Scenario A.

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Which scenario will be more effective? And by effec- tors? Now, many of you may not know the answer to that
tive, I mean this: which scenario will attract more new question – and the reason you don’t is twofold. Number
clients? The shotgun approach or the target approach? one, you don’t know who your target market is and number
You got it. Targeting. Which one are you mostly doing? two, you haven’t asked.
Shotgun. The truth is the financial services business is very
Why are you doing the shotgun approach? Once again mature, and it’s very saturated, so it’s very unlikely that
– you are afraid you might miss out on something. And you are going to offer a product or service unique in the
in trying not to miss out on something, you miss about marketplace. Most likely, your uniqueness is a matter of
$10,000. Say “bye-bye” to that money. And you are also packaging or integration. It’s the way you deliver a product
missing great opportunities you can have just by knowing or service that will make you unique in the market place.
who your target market is. So it’s either how you package it – the consumer percep-
Step one … choose your target market. Step two … tion of how you’re different – or how you integrate your
design your products and services for that target market. services that will drive your success.
This one paragraph in your seminar manual contains one What I suggest you do is talk to your clients, talk to
idea that is the most important idea in my whole presenta- your prospects, and talk to your professional referrals. In
tion and the most important idea of your whole business. doing so, you find out what their unmet needs are, and you
This one paragraph here, as simple as it is, contains The can start to develop your products and services to meet the
Big Idea of the Day. What is the biggest underlying assump- need of the marketplace.
tion about marketing? What is the underlying thrust of Someday, you will be at a conference or meeting, and
marketing? What drives marketing? Here it is. You might you will hear from a top producer. The top producer will say,
want to write this down. The fundamental function of “I made $1 million doing ‘X’ and you can make a million
marketing is this: it is to find an unmet need and fill it. doing ‘X’ too.” Well, maybe you can and maybe you can’t.
In contrast, most financial professionals operate from Maybe it was right for him with his target market in his part
a sales paradigm. A sales paradigm is not about filling the of the country. With the seismic psychographic shifts that
need of the marketplace, but filling the need of the sales- are happening out there, maybe it’ll work for you and maybe
person. The mentality is this: I need to eat this month, it won’t. But don’t just run off on some great idea you hear.
therefore you need to buy my product. You have to go out to your marketplace, you have to talk to
That mentality will get you only so far. It will get you your clients and prospects and find out what their unmet
to about $150,000 a year in financial services terms. But needs are, and develop your services around them.
if you are really serious about $200,000, $300,000, a half- That idea is most important concept in the whole day.
million or million-dollar business, I am going to suggest One of the questions I frequently get is: “Peter, how much
you start focusing on the need of the marketplace. should I spend on marketing?” Could you spend tens of
When you look at the world’s most successful corpora- thousands of dollars on marketing and make zero in sales?
tions, most successful brands, they succeeded by filling The answer is yes. Could you spend nothing on marketing
the need of the marketplace better than anybody else. and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales? Yes,
Domino’s Pizza, first home-delivery pizza. Williams- you could.
Sonoma, first high-end kitchen appliance store. Charles How could you spend tens of thousands of dollars on
Schwab, first discount broker. They found an unmet need marketing and make zero on sales? Well basically, you
and filled it better than anyone else. market a product that nobody wants.
So here is the all-important question: what is the How could you make hundreds of thousands of dollars
unmet need that you fill better than any of your competi- without spending any money on marketing? Well, you

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have a product that you sell to one person; they love it so products and services. At the top is your target market: all
much, they tell everybody in town. different types of clients.
So when you look at your marketing budgets, many of Model C will kill you. I don’t mean that literally, but
you think, “How much should I spend? How much should the problem with Model C is that you are constantly
I spend on direct mail, what should my response rate considering new types of operational challenges, new types
be?” Before you spend anything, there’s one other critical of clients, new types of products, new types of services, new
matter: is your product right for your marketplace? compliance issues you haven’t dealt with before, and new
I am going to give you four different models – and complaints you haven’t had before.
somewhere on a blank paper, you might want to draw these Model C is very difficult, because you are constantly
different models. reinventing the wheel for every client that walks in the
The first one is a triangle, and you can label it “A”. door. Model C will cause you to work more hours, and
Triangle A is wide on the bottom and narrow at the usually earn less income with more headaches and stress.
top. Label the wide bottom of Triangle A “Products and Model A or Model B will work very, very well.
Services”. At the top of Triangle A, label that “Target Now, there is actually a fourth model as well. Model D
Market”. looks just like a straight line: a narrow target market, and
By comparison, Triangle B is upside down. Triangle B narrowly focused products and services.
has a very narrow bottom. And a very wide top. Please I have a client named Jeff Brown out in Southern
label the narrow bottom of Triangle B “Products and California, and his target market is just Southern California
Services”, and the very wide top you can label “Target Edison employees. That’s all. It’s a very narrow target. And
Market”. he only does retirement planning for them. Retirement
So Triangle A, the first triangle, you have a wide selec- planning for Southern California Edison employees.
tion of products and services. You can say, I do tax plan- Some of you actually thought that branding had to do
ning, I do investment advice, I do insurance, and … I do it with image. You assumed that branding was taking some-
only for retirees. And only for older retirees, and only older thing really junky and making it look pretty. Or maybe you
retirees in El Paso. Wide selection of products and services; assumed that branding is taking a product or service and
very narrow target market. just marketing it. You can market lots of products today, but
That’s one solution. That would work for most of you. marketing is not enough. It’s got to be the right product for
The other solution is Triangle B. Look at a Triangle B. You the marketplace, and branding is comprehensive that way.
have a very narrow service offering. I only do tax prepara- Branding means determining what the product is, who the
tion, and … I do it for anyone and everyone in town. I do target market is and also how you promote it.
it for small businesses, pre-retirees, new retirees, entrepre- Bottom line: you must craft your branding, your
neurs and business owners. I have a narrow service; I do it marketing, your specialization, and your services care-
for everybody in town. fully to appeal to the right market – not everybody, but
What you should not do, however, is adopt Model C. your desired clients. And what we call branding has a
This is not a triangle, but a square or a rectangle. Model C powerful, career-changing effect: you will lose the time-
is being all things to all people. It’s offering a wide selec- wasting, soul-draining clients you don’t want and pick up
tion of products and services to a wide target market. This the clients you want, and your life and business will be
model is a square or a rectangle. At the bottom, you have better for it.

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