Elevator pitch examples for financial advisors
An elevator pitch fails when it describes the business instead of giving the listener a reason to ask a second question. These end somewhere the other person can pick up.
Ten of them follow, written for financial advisors rather than filled in from a template. Your customer is someone in their forties who has just done the arithmetic, and what they are weighing up before they get in touch is being sold a product that pays the advisor rather than serves them.
The one-liner
We are financial advisors in [your town] — we handle retirement planning and investment management for someone in their forties who has just done the arithmetic.
Use this when you have one sentence and no idea who you are talking to.
Problem first
The thing people worry about with financial advisors is being sold a product that pays the advisor rather than serves them. That is the part we deal with. We are financial advisors, and we are paid by you and nobody else.
Use this where the problem is instantly recognisable and the service is not.
Names who it is for
We work for someone in their forties who has just done the arithmetic. Mostly retirement planning and investment management. If that is not you, you probably know someone.
Use this at an event where most people are not your customer, to find the ones who are.
Credential first
We are fee-only fiduciaries. Fee-only — paid by you and nobody else, with no commission on anything recommended. We mostly do retirement planning and investment management.
Use this in a room where qualification is the thing that buys attention.
The contrast
Most financial advisors [what the default does]. We are the one that is paid the same whatever they recommend. That is more or less the whole difference.
Use this when your market has a clear default and you are not it.
With a number in it
We are financial advisors — [number] years, [number] engagements, and we are fee-only, in writing.
Use this when you have a real number. Do not invent one.
The origin
We started because being sold a product that pays the advisor rather than serves them was normal in this trade and it did not need to be. So that is the business: financial advisors where we are paid by you and nobody else.
Use this when the reason you started is short and true.
Ten seconds
Financial advisor. Retirement planning, mostly. [your town].
Use this when someone asks what you do and is already half-turned away.
Ends with the ask
We are financial advisors doing retirement planning and investment management. If you ever hear someone say [the thing your customers say], that is us.
Use this when the point of the conversation is a referral, not a sale.
The warm version
[their question] — we are financial advisors. The part people usually ask about is being paid the same whatever they recommend.
Use this where the pitch would land badly and a conversation would not.
Writing for financial advisors: what actually matters
What should a financial advisor’s website say that a generic one does not?
Three things, in this order. That you are fee-only and fiduciary. That you understand the thing people are actually worried about, which for financial advisors is being sold a product that pays the advisor rather than serves them. And what happens next: a first meeting to look at where you actually are. Everything else on the page is decoration by comparison.
What does someone in their forties who has just done the arithmetic check first?
The credential, then the proof. For financial advisors it sounds like this. We are fee-only, in writing. We take no commissions and sell no proprietary products. You keep the plan whether or not you stay. Put at least one of those above the fold rather than on a separate page nobody opens.
What is the most common mistake on a financial advisor’s website?
Writing about the business instead of the customer. "We have been established since 1998" answers a question nobody asked. "We start with a first meeting to look at where you actually are" answers the one they are actually holding. If you only fix one thing, fix that.
How long should the copy be?
Shorter than you think, except where trust is being built. An About page of 120 well-chosen words beats 500 vague ones. The exception is anything explaining being sold a product that pays the advisor rather than serves them — there, specifics earn their length.
Everything else for financial advisors
Elevator pitch for other trades
- Plumber
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- Roofer
- Carpenter
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- Landscaper
- Handyman
- Therapist
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- Massage Therapist
- Personal Trainer