In thinking about the subject of my last post — on the importance of image in marketing, and how it often trumps all other factors — I was struck again by the idea that, marketing techniques are value-neutral. Like atomic power, which can be used to light cities or to blow them up, marketing techniques can (and are) used to promote fine attorneys and advisors — and to promote charlatans, as well.
One charlatan in the news recently is a German man who, passing himself off as "Clark Rockefeller" managed to marry a couple of wealthy women, be accepted by the Boston-area yacht club society, and receive all kinds of job offers with top financial firms, despite significant warning signs — including a glaring lack of knowledge about rudimentary financial matters.
What is the key factor in creating attorney-client (or advisor-client) relationships? Trust. And what does it take to create trust? Surprisingly little, the latest research suggests. This article in the Boston Globe, referencing the Clark Rockefeller saga, makes the following points:
"Research has suggested that, once people form an initial impression of someone or something, they seem to have a hard time convincing themselves that what they once believed is actually untrue - Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard, calls this "unbelieving the unbelievable."...
"Researchers have discovered that surprisingly small factors - where we meet someone, whether their posture mimics ours, even the slope of their eyebrows or the thickness of their chin - can matter as much or more than what they say about themselves. We size up someone's trustworthiness within milliseconds of meeting them, and while we can revise our first impression, there are powerful psychological tendencies that often prevent us from doing so..."
Although the article is not about "marketing" and no reference is made to brochures or websites or offices, the implications are clear enough: people don't have x-ray vision, they are forced to make quick judgments and generalizations, and once they have done so, it's very difficult to change. Whether or not you think this should be the case, it is. So the question for professional advisors is: are you going to make it easy for potential clients to select you — by delivering an instantaneous shorthand message through your visual presentation — or are you going to make them work at it, and perhaps end up selecting someone who is not as good as you, but who understands the techniques that engender trust?
Your biggest challenge may be in accepting that it is not a question of either/or — style vs. substance. It's more accurately a question of substance — presented in a style that is instantly understood and accepted by people who have no other way to judge.
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