Tony Vidler
Tony Vidler is the expert in professional services on creating strong personal branding and target marketing positioning. Tony has been in financial services since 1990, including roles in agency management; starting, growing and selling a sizeable brokerage business; expert witness; as a senior executive in sales and marketing and been a leading figure in the NZ financial advice profession for a decade. Qualifications include Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant, and his expertise is recognised in Financial Standards Power 50 most influential people in social media in financial services, together with recently being named as one of the Top 250 Online Influencers in Financial Services Globally. Learn more here .
Articles by Tony Vidler
- Business Growth
The Most Important Business Strategy Is Knowing What Not to Do
One can’t design a great strategy without being really clear about what this means, and perhaps the easiest way to think of it is it’s a deliberate decision on what not to do.
- Business Growth
The Financial Advice Model Is Changing. Are You Changing With It?
Everyone wants things done differently. Everyone wants bespoke. Everyone is willing to change service providers if that is not understood.
- Business Growth
The Most Powerful Differentiator for Financial Advisors May Be the Simplest: Dependability
Being there. Being reliable. Being able to follow through relentlessly on what you say you can and will do.
- Opinion
Your Reputation Is Everything. Do You Know Who’s Shaping It?
A professional’s personal reputation is undoubtedly the most important personal branding element and should be managed carefully
- Business Growth
When Prospects Ask, “Why Should I Pay for Financial Advice?”
Everyone knows advice is not free, it is at someone’s expense, and someone is hoping to get a payday from delivering the free stuff.
- Business Growth
Your Need to Close the Sale Is Costing You Clients
I think it has always been true, but it is more true than ever: a needy adviser is a major turn off to potential clients. YOUR need will a sale.
- PowerAdvice
Clients Will Pay for Advice. Just Not What Most Advisers Think
Consumers have never much cared for the financial products themselves. And our process of delivering best practice compliant advice?
- Business Growth
One Word in a Conversation Can Make or Break a Sale
We can break a probable sale or make the sale in an instant. It can turn on a phrase or sometimes even a single word. The words we use matter.
- Business Growth
The #1 Reason Ideal Clients Choose Another Advisor
“Poor positioning of yourself and what you can achieve for your ideal clients is the number one reason for ideal business opportunities not coming to you….
- Business Growth
Advisors: Where Do You Add Value?
In the continual search for differentiation strategies and creating a strong sense of “value received” by clients one of the ways to think about
- Business Growth
Twelve Prospect Barriers That Prevent Clients From Hiring Financial Advisors
There are many barriers which can prevent a prospect from engaging in the professional financial advice process, and those prospect barriers are our problem to address.
- Business Growth
Client Contact Frequency: Are You Communicating Too Little… or Too Much?
The question of whether client contact frequency makes a discernible difference to the strength of the adviser-client relationship, or enhances the perceived value of
- Business Growth
The Most Profitable Client Conversation Advisors Still Aren’t Having
For most practices creating an up-selling strategy should be relatively easy too all the more reason to make sure you do it!
- Business Growth
If Your Content Isn’t Engaging, Your Future Clients Are Gone
You must continually think of those prospective future clientele as an audience until such time as they choose to do business with you.
- Business Growth
Not Every Client Needs Custom—Here’s Where To Draw Line
It is our livelihood in many respects, yet one of the vaguest phrases we use is personal service.
- Business Growth
Decisive Leaders Outperform in Uncertain Markets Every Time
All know the stories and admire the folk who have built incredible professional services businesses and we continually fail to learn from their successes.
- Business Growth
Better Negotiation Starts Earlier Than You Think
The reason why that is so, according to professional negotiators, is because most people tend to go about negotiating the wrong way.
- Business Growth
Advisors Under Pressure Are Overlooking One Investment That Drives Growth
Everything is else is more pressing and demanding than a practice leaders own people most of the time.
- Business Growth
Three Questions Every Client Asks Before Saying Yes
A great marketing process helps prospects move along the buying decision-making path by pre-empting their concerns and need for answers.
- Business Growth
Which Service Should Lead Your Marketing Strategy?
That is critical to having an effective value proposition anyway, right? So this establishes the cornerstone of the marketing strategy.
- Business Growth
Marketing Messages That Convert Follow a Simple 7-Step Structure
For any marketing message to be effective there are a number of things that one has to get right – but there is a bit of a formula!
- Business Growth
Attract Ideal Clients by Distinguishing Your Brand From Your Firm
How the marketing efforts and messages of the two differ, but still be complementary, and the types of messaging which each should employ….
- Business Growth
Four Levers That Drive Higher Valuations for Professional Services Firms
The emphasis upon growing renewal commission income or setting ongoing fee for service or advice contracts with clients.
- Business Growth
The Easiest Way to 10x Your Referrals (Almost No One Does It)
The easiest method for anyone to generate and get more referrals and favourable introductions is to GIVE more referrals and introductions.
- Business Growth
Why Great Advisory Practices Pay for Values—Not Just Production
Figuring out what one should reward is the first step to getting your compensation & motivation package right.
- Business Growth
Not Just Money: Explaining Time, Effort, Risk, and Price to Clients
When you consider cost from the perspective of what are the range of possible costs then you rapidly realize that there are 4 potential costs for a client:
- Business Growth
Where Referrals Really Come From in Professional Services
Virtually all consumers who are prospective professional services clients are discriminating in that they are increasingly selective, wary and critical.
- Business Growth
How to Reach the Point Where Ideal Prospects Call You First
They all have one thing in common, and that is the professional has secured the position of being the Trusted Adviser
- Business Growth
Stop Burning Prospects: How Patience and Process Turn Interest Into Clients
Whether we realised it or not in financial services we were selling off the shelf solutions and making them fit clients needs.
- Business Growth
How Strategic Alliances Can Solve Your Lead Generation Problem for Years
It is hard work perhaps but creating strategic alliances is one of the smartest business building moves a practice can make.
- Business Growth
Why “Good Enough” Is Costing Advisors More Than They Realize
Average adviser performance can be turned into outstanding adviser performance by making the changes that make the difference.
- Business Growth
Thinking of Acquiring a Practice? Ask These Questions Before You Make a Costly Mistake.
Generally there appears to be 5 main reasons that advisers suggest as their reasons for acquisition of another business. They are
- Business Growth
Why Profit Isn’t Enough: The 3 Pillars of a Truly Valuable Financial Practice
Profitable practice is is the first objective for practitioners, but building a sustainable profitable and valuable practice is even better isn’t it?
- Business Growth
Why Your Marketing Should Never Stop—Even When Business Is Booming
Clients have an unfortunate habit of leaving, or dying, or no longer needing advice….there is continual attrition in even the best client bases.
- Business Growth
How Top Advisors Create Unshakeable Top-of-Mind Awareness With Their Clients
Who do most people turn to first for financial advice? Whoever is top of mind…and who is that usually? Their family.
- Business Growth
Who’s Really Paying Who? The Question That Will Redefine Financial Advice
For many advisers yet to experience it, full transparency on costs and fees is good for business.
