Key Illuminated Insight
Mahjong workshops teach strategy for the tiles. The players who win also read the people around the table, and wealth management marketing works the same way. Many firms explain their tiles well: the planning process, the investment philosophy, the credentials. Clients decide on what they feel and rarely say. Firms that study that unspoken side write marketing that makes prospects feel understood before the first meeting.
Step into full illumination.
My friends are learning to play mahjong.
I've played since I was little, at a table crowded with cousins and aunties, tiles clacking and someone always teasing someone else about a discard. So I've loved watching mahjong turn into a craze. There are workshops now, and teachers, and whole evenings devoted to strategy.
My friends are getting good. They can read their tiles, plan a hand and keep track of what's been thrown.
Hardly anyone is teaching them to read the table.
The people at the table tell you what's about to happen
As a kid, I thought winning came down to the tiles in front of me. My aunties showed me otherwise without ever explaining it.
One auntie narrowed her eyes for half a second before she discarded. The conversation paused, just slightly, when someone drew the tile they needed. Posture shifted when a player got close to winning. If you were paying attention, you felt the win coming before anyone declared it.
The tiles told me what was possible. The people told me what was about to happen.
I've carried that into every boardroom since. Read your tiles, and read the whole table.
Clients decide on what they rarely say out loud
Wealth firms know their tiles inside out. The planning process. The investment philosophy. The credentials after each advisor's name. The quarterly market commentary. Advisor marketing has its own workshops and playbooks too, and plenty of what they teach is sound.
The trouble is that the decision to move a family's money gets made at the table.
A prospect who asks about fees in the first five minutes is often telling you they've been burned before. They want to know whether you'll be straight with them.
A couple sits down to talk about retirement. One of them does all the talking about returns. The other stops speaking whenever risk comes up, and that second person often decides whether you get the account.
Many firms' marketing speaks fluently to the tiles. Websites walk through the process in four steps. Brochures lead with the investment philosophy. Prospects read all of it and still struggle to tell one firm from the next, because so many firms at the table are holding similar tiles.
Write your marketing to what goes unsaid
Start where my aunties did. Watch closely, and listen for what goes unsaid.
Notice the first question prospects ask, and what sits underneath it. Go back through the prospects who came close and walked away, and find the moment the conversation turned. Ask your best clients what nearly stopped them from signing. Sit in on a first meeting and pay attention to the person who isn't talking.
Then write your marketing to that. When your website answers the question a prospect was too careful to ask, they feel understood before they've met you. That's where the relationship starts, long before the planning process comes up.
I'll keep playing with my friends while they learn, and at some point I'll pass on what my aunties never needed to say out loud. Look up from your tiles once in a while. The whole table is talking.
My aunties' table sits in Chapter 9 of The Work That Holds You, in the section on market understanding. If you'd like to see what your firm's marketing might be missing at the table, send me a DM and I'll send you The Patterns Holding You Back.
FAQ
Why do wealth management firms struggle to stand apart in their marketing?
Many firms describe the same things: a planning process, an investment philosophy and advisor credentials. Prospects read several versions of that and can't separate them. Firms stand apart when their marketing shows they understand what clients feel and rarely say about their money.
How can a wealth firm learn what clients aren't saying?
Start with the first question prospects ask and what sits underneath it. Review the prospects who came close and walked away, ask existing clients what nearly stopped them from signing, and pay attention to the person in a first meeting who isn't talking.
What does mahjong have to do with wealth management marketing?
Mahjong rewards players who read their tiles and the people at the table. Wealth marketing that explains only the firm's process and products covers one side of the decision. The other side happens in what clients feel, and the strongest marketing speaks to both.