Resources

UltimateAdvisorPodcast.com

Hosts:
Bryan Sweet, Founder and CEO – Sweet Financial
Featuring Pusateri Consulting & Training’s, President & Founder, Leo Pusateri 

Click here to listen to episode: “‘Discovering Your Value With Leo Pusateri”

Quote: Bryan Sweet:“One of the things that I think is happening today, and you’ll see more of it down on the road is the issue of discounting your fees. And you have a lot of material created around pricing, according to your value. So how can advisors confidently communicate their pricing strategy so they don’t fall into that discount trap?” 

Excerpt: Bryan Sweet: “In this episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast, Bryan sits down with published author, president, and owner of Pusateri Consulting, Leo Pusateri . In today’s episode, we delve into Leo’s three part process of uncovering, pricing, and selling your value.  We discuss the importance of aligning yourself emotionally with your clients to help them feel confident and commit to you. We go over a series of unique questions you need to answer to differentiate your business, elevate your confidence, and pursue excellence in the way you articulate your value. We take a deeper dive into Leo’s material around how to go about pricing according to your value so that it’s fair, transparent, and consistent, as well as leveraging and scaling your value via attention and growth through each client. Leo talks about his program, The Sabbatical Experience, that he has developed for high performing professionals to come together to talk about important life issues, reach their full personal potential, and start living their legacy. So, push PLAY and join us as we jump into discovering your value to gain confidence, connect with your clients, create differentiation, and ultimately take your business to the next level!” 

Becomingreferable.com

Hosts:
Julie Littlechild, Founder and CEO – Absolute Engagement
Stephen Wershing, President – The Client Driven Practice
Featuring Pusateri Consulting & Training’s very own President & Founder, Leo Pusateri 

Click here to listen to episode: “‘The Game Has Changed’ what’s going on with the coronavirus pandemic and how to act now”

Quote: “There’s a zipper on a client’s chest. We need to unzip that zipper and squeeze their heart more and keep the products and services in our back pocket. Our empathy meters right now need to be going through the roof.” 

Excerpt: Steve Wershing: “On this episode, we welcome back to the program, Leo Pusateri, President and CEO of Pusateri Consulting. Leo was recognized as one of the leading experts on defining and pricing your value. In that role, he has worked with some of the top advisors and some of the biggest institutions on the North American continent. But the occasion of bringing him back is his publication of a new paper, The Game Has Changed, his response to what’s going on with the coronavirus pandemic. In it, he lays out 10 principles for making sure that you are reinforcing, in fact even increasing, your value to clients, and the kinds of things you need to do to make sure you are taking care of your clients, taking care of your team members, and taking care of yourself.” 

FirstClearing.com

Hosts:
Bill Coppel, First Clearing Chief Client Growth Officer
Featuring Pusateri Consulting & Training’s very own President & Founder, Leo Pusateri 

Click to listen to episode: “The Next Big Project Is You”

Quote: Leo Pusateri: “Do you have an ongoing commitment to be your best? Are you seeking continued inspiration yourself as an advisor or a client? Are you wondering what’s next? Still curious, committed, or challenged to be your best?.” 

Excerpt: Bill Coppel: “It’s no secret that we live in a 24/7 world today. And because we’re in constant motion, it can be easy to lose sight of what’s important in our lives. While technology has, in many ways, made life easier and more efficient, we find ourselves spending most of our time doing, and virtually no time being. ” 

Becomingreferable.com:

Hosts:
Julie Littlechild, Founder and CEO – Absolute Engagement
Stephen Wershing, President – The Client Driven Practice
Featuring Pusateri Consulting & Training’s very own President & Founder, Leo Pusateri 

Click to listen to episode 67: “Leo Pusateri on YOU, the Advisor”

Quote: “We have all built up our own success in our own ways, we have our clients… but at some point, your next big project is YOU.” 

Excerpt: Julie Littlechild: “[This podcast] reflects on the latest work which is squarely focused on you as an advisor and how you can design the next phase of your business, and your life, to reflect your most significant goals. I really believe that this is a critical conversation for this industry and one that we don’t have often enough.  Leo starts with the idea that your next big project is you and then walks you through the seven areas that he believes we all need to examine in order to live lives of significance.” 

FirstClearing.com

Host: 
Bill Coppel, First Clearing, Chief Client Growth Officer

Click to listen to episode: “The Next Big Project is About You”

In this episode you will hear:

  • Seven key emotions every advisor should explore
  • What’s causing the “communication illness” in our industry
  • How deep, personal introspection can make you a better advisor

Excerpt: Many advisors are at a crossroads in their careers and are wondering what’s next. Consultant Leo Pusateri believes advisors must spend time looking inward in order to have authentic relationships with clients. In this episode, he and host Bill Coppel – Managing Director & Chief Client Growth Officer at First Clearing – explore how gaining a better understanding of their own emotions can help advisors redefine their value.

guest articles

Wealthcare Way Journal

Article: "Squeeze the Heart" - By Leo Pusateri

"Listen before you are listened to."

Excerpt: Whether I am talking to advisors during training sessions or whether it is advisors talking with their clients, we must all learn to listen well and make emotional connections. From listening, communication and observations, I have uncovered a very real communication "illness" in our industry. What do I mean?

CPA InsiderTM

Article: To outgrow your competition, know your competition - By Leo Pusateri

Editor's note: This column is an excerpt from the book, You Are the Value, by Leo Pusateri.

I'm often told when I conduct sessions that I shouldn't spend much time talking about what makes my client's firm different from the competition. It often doesn't crystallize for clients until we do a follow-up program that understanding the competition is, in fact, very important when it comes to differentiating yourself.

At the next session, I ask the leaders questions such as, "What makes you different from XYZ & Company?" That's when the firm leaders see their talented staff members fumbling for answers.

CPAs need the language to answer this question with that discussing the competition is a good dialogue to have within the firm because they need insights into the competition when talking to potential clients. Unless they attend a session like mine, however, firm leaders and staff will seldom actually discuss the issue.

Pusateri Articles - Published & Featured in Financial Advisor Magazine

To view articles: click on the title of the article to download the pdf version.

Read The Transcript Of The Episode:

Giles Kavanagh: I wanted to speak today about pricing power and wealth services. This is an incredibly important subject and it’s one that’s one of our core focuses. We’ve worked with hundreds of wealth advisors on the subject of creating pricing power, defending pricing, and expanding pricing power frankly. Interestingly, it hasn’t gotten much focus in wealth services, whereas in other industries, it’s almost the sole focus. Let me start with a belief here. Number one, if you lose control of your pricing, you lose control of your business. So it’s incredibly important to have control of your pricing. I want to walk you through the three areas where pricing power can be created in wealth services.

Number one, quantifiable value. If you can create quantifiable, provable value, you are able to create pricing power. So if you can go to a client and say, “We’ve been able to expand your balance sheet by $200,000 or position you in better investments or create a better risk adjusted return, which has netted $70,000 or $150,000 in this quarter alone,” you are creating pricing power. So quantifying your value is the first way to create pricing power.

The second is a very important concept called scarcity. You have tremendous scarcity as a wealth advisor. You have a limited amount of time and attention, you have a limited number of clients whom you can work with intensively. So it’s very important to understand that any premium provider of services has by definition some form of scarcity. Scarcity is what creates a tremendous demand sometimes, but it also creates pricing power. Think of the art world. Some of the best artists only created X number of paintings or X number of sculptures and the art world, when they know that there are only say 20 Giacometti sculptures, it creates almost infinite pricing power. In wealth services, again, you have only a certain amount of attention that you can spend with clients. So it’s a very powerful statement to say, “We have decided to work only with 80 families and individuals, or we’ve decided to constrain our services to 200 households.” So consider where you can build scarcity to create pricing power.

Number three is differentiation. What differentiates you? So when you offer something that others in your marketplace do not offer, that can create pricing power. Let me give you some examples. Number one, if you have an accounting background and you are able to not only work on the personal finances for your clients, but also advise them on their business finances because of your background as an accountant, this is a differentiator and it should create pricing power because in the client’s mind, they may be saying, “You know what, we’ve talked to four different advisory teams, but this one advisor is the only one who actually has this differentiated aspect to his or her background.” And that is that they have a business accounting background, which could be very valuable to you. So consider where you can differentiate yourself.

So again, the three areas that create pricing power for wealth advisors, and frankly in any business are number one, quantifiable value, number two, scarcity, and number three, differentiation.

I wanted to speak today about pricing power and wealth services. This is an incredibly important subject and it’s one that’s one of our core focuses. We’ve worked with hundreds of wealth advisors on the subject of creating pricing power, defending pricing, and expanding pricing power frankly. Interestingly, it hasn’t gotten much focus in wealth services, whereas in other industries, it’s almost the sole focus. Let me start with a belief here. Number one, if you lose control of your pricing, you lose control of your business. So it’s incredibly important to have control of your pricing. I want to walk you through the three areas where pricing power can be created in wealth services.

Number one, quantifiable value. If you can create quantifiable, provable value, you are able to create pricing power. So if you can go to a client and say, “We’ve been able to expand your balance sheet by $200,000 or position you in better investments or create a better risk adjusted return, which has netted $70,000 or $150,000 in this quarter alone,” you are creating pricing power. So quantifying your value is the first way to create pricing power.

The second is a very important concept called scarcity. You have tremendous scarcity as a wealth advisor. You have a limited amount of time and attention, you have a limited number of clients whom you can work with intensively. So it’s very important to understand that any premium provider of services has by definition some form of scarcity. Scarcity is what creates a tremendous demand sometimes, but it also creates pricing power. Think of the art world. Some of the best artists only created X number of paintings or X number of sculptures and the art world, when they know that there are only say 20 Giacometti sculptures, it creates almost infinite pricing power. In wealth services, again, you have only a certain amount of attention that you can spend with clients. So it’s a very powerful statement to say, “We have decided to work only with 80 families and individuals, or we’ve decided to constrain our services to 200 households.” So consider where you can build scarcity to create pricing power.

Number three is differentiation. What differentiates you? So when you offer something that others in your marketplace do not offer, that can create pricing power. Let me give you some examples. Number one, if you have an accounting background and you are able to not only work on the personal finances for your clients, but also advise them on their business finances because of your background as an accountant, this is a differentiator and it should create pricing power because in the client’s mind, they may be saying, “You know what, we’ve talked to four different advisory teams, but this one advisor is the only one who actually has this differentiated aspect to his or her background.” And that is that they have a business accounting background, which could be very valuable to you. So consider where you can differentiate yourself.

So again, the three areas that create pricing power for wealth advisors, and frankly in any business are number one, quantifiable value, number two, scarcity, and number three, differentiation.

Read The Transcript Of The Episode:

Giles Kavanagh: There’s an incredibly important sentence that every financial advisor, wealth advisor, wealth professional, deserves to be able to say with complete confidence when they are speaking to a client or a prospect. And for that matter, that same sentence is one that every client deserves to hear from their wealth advisor or financial professional, financial planner. And that sentence is very simple. And I’m going to say it right now.

But what’s interesting about it is that many people can say it, but they can’t say it with justified confidence. We’re going to talk about what creates justified confidence behind this one important pricing sentence.

Here’s the sentence. We have looked very closely at our value, and we can say with complete confidence that there’s integrity to our pricing. We’ve looked very closely at the value that we deliver, and we could say with complete confidence that there’s integrity to our pricing.

Now, what are the components of pricing integrity? This is very important because without them, you can’t say this sentence with the same conviction. There are three factors. Number one, the price has to be fair, mutually fair. It’s got to be fair to the clients and it’s got to be fair to you and your team. Only mutually profitable relationships in doing business.

Number two, it has to be consistent. And what do I mean by consistent? Does that mean uniform? No. It means that if you had a bunch of clients who had roughly the same amount of assets and the same amount of needs and service that you provide them with, that you’d be charging the same price, basically.

So if you had a group of four clients at a room and you walked into the room, you’re overhearing them, and they start to talk about your fees. Would you be scared and you are running for the door to avoid it, or would you be perfectly happy if they all revealed the fees that they were paying?

So is your pricing consistent from one client to the other and in financial services, it’s surprising how much unnecessary variability there is to that.

Number three is, is your pricing transparent? And so what do we mean by pricing transparency? What we mean is that if someone asks you a question, of clients as well, I’m interested in your services, but tell me what you would charge if I were to give you 2 or 3 million to manage.

You should with zero hesitation to response, be able to answer that question within 15 seconds, just very factually lay it out. This is the price that we charge, this is our pricing schedule.

And again, it’s surprising how many wealth advisors deprive themselves of that simplicity. We’re not talking about actually revealing your margins, we’re talking about having no hesitation in terms of revealing your pricing.

Read The Transcript Of The Episode:

Leo Pusateri: So what makes a value proposition truly unique? Let’s break the three words down first. Value, we define as those services, those strategies, those solutions, that you deliver that can help someone to achieve their vision, the goals in their life, whatever it might be, right? Proposition, well, that’s a proposal. So I’m proposing something to help you to achieve your goals. Well, what makes it unique? Well, our research tells us there’s four specific things that makes a value proposition truly unique.

First thing is that there’s a story that supports the proposition. Why do you do what you do? How do you do what you do? You told me what you do, your value proposition, I want to know why you do it? And then how do you do what you do? How can I experience it? I want to know who you’ve done it for? I want to know what you think makes your proposition different? And I want to know ultimately, look me in the eye, net it out, why should I do business with you? To that point, in terms of has your value proposition been actualized, which is part of making it unique, right? That’s the first thing. There’s a story around it. It’s supported. We call that our value ladder. There’s seven questions, after that second one of what do you do? There’s a series of questions you better be able to answer with the highest levels of confidence, passion, and speed.

Second thing, you got to live this. This has got to be part of your DNA. I’ve always said that this should be like having an imaginary tattoo on your body someplace where this thing oozes out of you. So when people say, “Geez, what do you do?” Other people can relate it to somebody else. It’s just, it’s so apparent. You’re living this stuff. I can feel. I can open up the zipper on your chest, and this thing as I look around your heart, there’s these words that you’ve worked on. That’s your value proposition. And the fact that you’re living it really begins part of that uniqueness as well.

The third area is that have you really made a difference in someone’s life, in their family, helping to achieve their legacy, their wealth mandates, whatever it is? Can you go through that to show me that you truly have made a difference?

And lastly, number four, can you prove it? Can you quantify it that you’ve made a real impact? That’s what real value’s all about. It’s the achievement. I told you, I proposed this to you in my value proposition. What makes it unique is that what I told you I could do, in fact, happened. I can prove it. I can quantify it.

Remember those four areas in terms of what makes a value proposition truly unique. That’s what it’s all about.

Blog Talk Radio

Connie Kadansky - President of Exceptional Sales Performance

Featuring Pusateri Consulting & Training's very own President & Founder, Leo Pusateri & More...

Audio Blog: "How to Differentiate Yourself in the Crowded Marketplace"

Excerpt: Many salespeople are falling into the commodity trap and they don't know their value. If you don't know your value, you cannot sell your value. All salespeople will agree to this, however, it can be difficult to settle down and do the work to differentiate yourself in the midst of the crowd.

Our guest is Leo Pusateri, CEO of Pusateri Consulting & Training.
Passionate, inspirational, and motivating are words many would use to describe Leo Pusateri. Affectionately known as the "value man" in the financial services industry, he is also recognized as the industry's premier thought partner of value-based training, not only by senior leaders in the C-suites, but among top advisors as well.

When it comes to knowing, pricing, selling, and "living" your value, Leo's time-honored and proprietary programs are in place around the world. This is a credible testament to his knowledge capital that he enthusiastically shares with clients. He has traveled the globe from Singapore to Spain, from Vancouver to Zurich, New York City to London, and from beautiful Buffalo to San Francisco—among other spots in and outside of the U.S. His travels find him working with senior leadership teams to financial entrepreneurs who represent broker-dealers, RIAs, investment management firms, private banks, family offices, insurance companies and others. Through Leo's robust training programs with clients around the globe, firms have endorsed Leo's skill set as the absolute best-in-class in bringing value-based training to the table.

Wealth Management Consulting, Coaching & Training | Pusateri Consulting
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