All too often, the first words you hear from an advisor, particularly one you don't know well, are "Okay, you've got 3 minutes...tell me what you've got"!  In this scenario, there is little time to communicate to the advisor that you "get it", that you understand the nature of their business and the challenges they may face. Enter the Positioning Statement...a brief introduction that quickly connects your topic or agenda to a topic or agenda in which other advisors have expressed interest. A well crafted Positioning Statement typically results in a better dialogue and often more time to discuss the advisor's particular needs, plans, etc.

Positioning Statements certainly differentiate you in the scenario above and quite frankly should be used at the onset of every important advisor meeting.  

You might include one or more of the following key points in your Positioning Statement:  

• Your interest in this particular advisor
• A solution that advisors / clients respond well to
• The benefit to the advisor of this particular meeting
• A recent initiative that has been successful 

Positioning Statement guidelines:

• Your statement should take roughly 15 to 20 seconds to deliver
• If you make a claim, substantiate the claim with a fact or example
• Less is almost always more - practice and delete unnecessary words or phrases   

Let us offer one example from a participant in a recent program: 

Having been in financial services for xx years, I've had literally thousands of conversations with advisors. No topic has been more pervasive recently than retirement income planning, I've been meeting with advisors to share best practices that I've learned around this topic. Candidly, I don't know enough about the particulars of retirement income planning within your practice. I would like to meet with you to better understand your particular needs and plans and share how I've seen our products utilized in this space.