Mark Patterson
	Packaging Yourself

Packaging Yourself for Today’s Brand Savvy Clients

It’s a different world. The industry is changing and so are your clients. No pun intended, but the over 50 market has matured in many ways. They’re better informed, more aware, and surprisingly brand savvy. As an advisor you’ve been focusing on getting in front of them, but the real challenge is to get inside them – to break through the wall and get inside their hearts and minds. The secret to breaking through is to develop and package your brand.

Your brand flows from your Unique Creativity.™ It separates you from the competition and magically connects you with your perfect clients. Your Unique Creativity is the essence of what makes you who you are. It’s the source of your thinking and the fountain of the value you deliver in the market. Discovering it and packaging it can make even the most obstinate seminar regular beg for more—not more chicken and rice, but more of you and your secret sauce!

Brand packaging includes your insight, vision, style and a lot more. It includes your knowledge, presentation, likeability and more. You’ve seen it on the TV show, American Idol. A young person comes to the microphone and sings like nobody’s business but then the judges say, "You just don’t have the whole package." What they mean is that something is missing, something that throws the whole performance off. It might only be off a little, but that’s the difference between going home or going on to Hollywood. It’s called "star quality" or simply, "it". The same is true of your brand. You might be close but do you have the whole package? Are you clearly and powerfully communicating your unique strengths and vision? Is your identity high quality and professionally crafted? Are your clients giving you a standing ovation or are they asleep in the balcony?

In today’s brand savvy world it’s not enough to simply understand the products and have a technically accurate, compliance approved presentation. Today’s clients demand more and your prospects have seen boiler plate at the last 3 seminars they attended. You have to deliver the total package. You have to be knowledgeable, informative, inspirational, reliable, likeable and most importantly… uniquely you. This total brand package is what breaks through and connects you with clients and prospects. It will make them drop their forks and grab their pens eager to sign up for that first meeting with you to see how you will help them reach their personal and financial goals. So if you want to break through, package your brand for today’s brand savvy clients.