FINANCIAL LIFE PLANNING
Mitch Anthony
Your Value Props
How to use objects and artifacts to describe your value.
S
OMETIMES, THE GREATEST VALUE ISN’ T MEASURED. IT’ S FELT.
When I see all the tchotchkes being given away at financial conferences by fund and insurance companies, I’ ve often wished some company would give away a crystal ball with their name on it. Then, the next time a prospect or client walks into their office and asks,“ What do you see happening in the markets in the next year?”— you could pull out that crystal ball, stare at it mystically for a few seconds, and then look up and give one of the following responses:
•“ I must apologize— this quit working in 2009. Nobody saw that coming.”
•“ I’ m glad you asked. We’ re never going to pretend to know things that we don’ t know. If someone tells you they know, they’ re dreaming. The best we can do is look at your situation and make sure you are prepared for whatever might happen.”
Propping Yourself Up
An object can be a visual metaphor for the value a financial advisor brings to clients, as well as an excellent introduction. In the workshops I host called“ StorySelling”( a name based on a book I co-authored) I use something called the“ Prop Quiz,” a technique for unlocking analogical thinking and helping advisors determine what object or artifact could help them describe their value proposition more effectively.
As you can imagine, this exercise not only leads to“ Ahas!” but also to some guffaws as well. During one presentation, a participant was given a remote control to use when telling his story. He approached it this way:
An object can be a visual metaphor for the value a financial advisor brings to clients, as well as an excellent introduction.
“ How many of you use one of these at home? Of course, we all do. As common as it is, it’ s still pretty amazing. You push a button and the channel changes— another button for the volume, another to record. Now, does anyone here really understand how scientifically this thing works? Probably not. That’ s a lot like what I do. I push some buttons, and great things happen with your investments.”
I cut him off at this point. This is the“ anti-prop” story— nebulous, goofy and confounding. Steer clear of stories like this one. The only thing it causes is the audience asking,“ What in the world are you talking about?”
In other words, the prop must help you be clear, not corny or confusing. Take another story about a time a prop was used to the desired effect:
Keith Tyner and his team at Gimbal Financial in Indiana not only have a great value prop, they named their firm after it.“ What is a gimbal?” I asked Keith. It’ s an object that holds the compass steady on a ship. Without it, you can’ t really know if you’ re going where you think you’ re going.
The fact that people likely don’ t know what a gimbal is allows him to introduce the concept. From there he shares with prospects that his firm’ s primary goal is to be a steadying influence in its clients’ financial lives, especially when the seas( in this case, the markets) are turbulent. Most people sabotage their financial well-being in stormy markets. Gimbal
20 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | JUNE 2025 WWW. FA-MAG. COM