What’s the outcome?

When you’re honing your message for potential clients, this can be a good place to start. What makes your approach different and better, but also where does it lead your clients?

Because it’s one thing to talk about your investment strategy and planning discipline, but framing them in the context of client outcomes puts it in perspective for the prospect. And often IAs don’t spend enough time on this side of the equation. Here are some examples:

• A fulfilling retirement: Instead of just reaching a magic number, for you this might be about working to define a lifestyle that will generate the fulfillment that used to come from work. Your approach to understanding the client, combined with savvy accumulation and preservation tactics, could help your clients work toward a new life stage and avoid the emotional transition challenges that many new retirees face.

• Bucket list completion: While your day-to-day services are helping clients build wealth or generate income, maybe the end goal is a different kind of achievement. You might help them define a bucket list and map out routes to physical, charitable, travel or intellectual goals.

• A stable financial foundation: Many investors, even wealthy and high-net-worth clients, feel a sense of instability or uncertainty. It could be that your role is to provide the clarity, communication and practical financial tools that give them the confidence that they have a firm footing.

• Family financial stability: Some outcomes are bigger than the client’s personal financial goals. Considering younger generation(s) as part of the family unit, you might build plans and structures that empower your clients’ children and grandchildren, positioning them to pursue greater things.

• A lasting legacy: Similarly, the outcome your ideal client is looking for may have little to do with quarterly performance reports. In other words, the wealth you’re helping them grow will withstand transitions, generational shifts and other changes, so that you’re not just reaching a number or an estate value, but rather giving them the tools to make the impact they want to be remembered for.

• A sustainable lifestyle: For advisors with a focus on income stability or cash flow optimization, the result for clients is about enhancing and supporting their day-to-day lives. These are pre- or post-retirees who want to keep their recreational and social calendars full without wondering what it’s costing them.

Once you land on a clear, relevant client outcome, the services and resources you highlight for potential clients should be presented in this context. So in early prospect meetings, articulate exactly how your investment process, client service approach or COI network could move the prospective client closer to this destination. Otherwise, for a prospect considering a change or evaluating a number of options, it can be difficult to parse out all the information being shared, or understand what, ultimately, it means for them.

This approach can also help ensure the clients you take on align with your practice’s vision—because it means they measure success in the same way you do.