Aligning Value Propositions and Technology Solutions with Gareth Hopkins

We're talking the latest tech best practices and expert insights , all while keeping it real and entertaining . So grab a coffee , sit back and let's get ready to blast off . I'm your host , frans van der Toij . Gareth , what's going on with me ? Good morning , good morning listeners .

He's got a young baby still , you know . So it's been a period now for five months . So , gareth looking good . Five weeks , five weeks oh my word , I thought it was five months . You see , weeks , five weeks oh my word , I thought it was five months . You see , oh , wow , even better , man , that's up on you .

Um , but tell us a little bit about yourself , gareth , just like who you are , where you're from , and then we'll get into into the deets thanks , yes , so obviously new father very proud of that , um , and uh , yeah .

Um , we started and are still very much focused in the financial services sector . It makes up a very large portion of our client base . Um , I , you know , we , we built this practice or this technology and this business from from the ground up . Literally , it started , as as most um things do , where we , um built it for a .

It was built by an advisor for his practice and expanded out . So , anyway , um , I won't kind of focus too much on the product , but , yeah , um , sales and operations and support . As you know , you kind of multi , multifunction when you are an entrepreneur . And , yeah , we've been working with FSPs for the better part of 15 years now .

So , just yeah , excited to continue , you know , bringing value to the market , excited to continue innovating and learning . Learning is the key , you know . You think you know everything until you don't .

You know , when we think about the technology side of things , you know often as technology companies or technology providers or developers of technology , you know , I know like you've got a long list of feature requests and people want all sorts of weird and wonderful things , until you ask them also like , what are they going to do with it once they have it ?

That's also a different story , but that's not the point . I know that tech providers tend to like we want to build this and want to make it more robust and we want to have , like , feature reach and all of these kinds of things .

You want to put more tech in , and I think financial advisors and planners are probably in a point where they just want to do less tech , you know , because so they want to use less systems . They don't want more systems , even though at the moment , like that is probably the landscape , but they want to take it out .

Want more systems , even though at the moment , like that is probably the landscape , but they want to take it out . Now you have a very interesting background in the sense that you've been on the business side of things and you're also on the technology side of things .

Can you maybe just share a little bit about you know how do those two worlds intersect and how do you think ? I mean , do you think differently about technology when you are talking to a business and somebody who's just focused on the tech and they want somebody to buy their tech , I mean , is there a bit of a different approach there ?

Are you going to pay for that dev ? And obviously you know I'm joking , but the idea is that you know everyone that people panic , people have found a need , or they at least find a small need . Something's happened once . I need to do this , I need to do that , and they hone in and then they ask you for that . That .

That feature very quickly losing your direction and building things that are maybe useful for one client or one instance in one client's journey . And I'll tell you that for free . We've got features in our system that have probably been used once or twice and never used again .

Not a lot , but that's the nature of the beast , and when you're chasing it , you want to say yes to everyone . No one likes to say no . No one , you know , wants to tell a client no , and so you get caught up . But I think the key is to just stop and consider .

You know , in development you've got a roadmap and you've got processes that you need to follow to make sure that you are adding value , not only you know technically , but obviously to you know what the product is trying to solve .

So it's the hardest job in the world determining what's important and what's not important , and I think the biggest key in that area is to just take a breath and go slow .

And I guess that goes for all businesses , for , whatever it is , you've got to make sure that you understand what it is that you are being asked , what it is that you are wanting to build or going to build , should you build it , and how you're going to move forward from there . It's a tricky one . I want to say yes to everyone .

You're going to have this platform that is just so convoluted and you'll never get it off the ground .

We just don't realize it and before you know it , you're running around like a headless chicken trying to please everyone , which is a bit of a problem . So let's get into value propositions , because that's really at the heart of this . On the one hand , there's value propositions .

On the other hand there's the technology and sort of how these two actually play together and then how we can go about .

So I'm really keen , like I said in the intro , you know there's , I think , like many things in business , everybody's got say , well , that's what a value proposition is , um , but I'm quite keen , just to start with in in your view , like , how do you articulate value proposition , uh , for business and and why is it crucial for them ?

So let me say this the value proposition , as I have always understood and from the research I've done and the learning that I've done , et cetera , is your value proposition , is your promise to your clients , your promise of value . Why are you going to pick me ?

The value proposition is ultimately the reason a client chooses you over the next person advisor , whatever it may be , okay . So this value proposition is the reason people choose you over someone else . Okay , your unique differentiator .

Now , what we always always purport in our business or businesses within the FIRE group , but also when we are consulting , you know , to our technology clients , is this should drive your purpose .

Your value proposition may be nice and broad and diverse and dynamic and whatnot , but if it's not driving your purpose it's a waste , it's a waste of time , it's a waste of effort and , potentially , resources . Define your purpose . We in the FIRE group believe that there is one single purpose for a business , that is , the creation and retention of clients .

A single purpose creation and retention of clients . Now , everyone might say , or a lot of people might say , no , it's money , no , it's meaning , it's purpose , it's blah , blah , blah . That's measurement . Okay , measurement of your purpose is how much money you have , how many houses you have , how many clients you have , how much market share .

Whatever your measurement is that suits you , how many smiles you get per day that's measurement . Purpose creation and retention of clients . Okay , if you're a business , otherwise you're a nonprofit and you're a , you know , not a nonprofit , but tongue in cheek .

So the idea is that driving your purpose , everything you do all day , every day , needs to drive that purpose . Okay , to make sure that you are delivering , you need to clearly define your value proposition . Okay , now , all of us in well , in the financial services sector will have heard from many years segment your client base , determine what you do for who .

The idea is that that comes from a very important place Value proposition . We cannot give everyone the same . Okay , we should give everyone the same level of service , but not the same amount of service , okay . So we all know , when we walk onto a plane , if we're sitting in first class , business class or economy class . It's differing levels of service .

It's not because I'm less important or more important , because it's what I've chosen and what I'm doing . So define your value proposition , define your segment okay , or segments and then deliver on that .

All right , it sounds simple and obviously , if we had more time , I'd open that up , but essentially , what you need to do is you need to be able to define that target and identify that and then deliver . And that's what we're talking about today is delivery and delivery systems .

Practically just , you know , if I decide because for me it's like you know I think back to when , when I started uh , propulsion , which was called something completely different in the beginning , um , but we , when , when I started this back 2014 , um , the thing came up the other day .

So , with 10 years that we've been going , now it's like absolutely , amazing yeah it's crazy , um , because it only feels like yesterday that that's the problem . But when I started like , I literally started off saying like why do I ? It's almost like , start with what you have , where you are Sure you know that kind of approach .

And I just thought , like you know , my natural thing would be to work in the financial planning profession . The big question for me was what would I do ? Because I could deliver advice to clients , which I was doing at that point in time , and I didn't enjoy any second of it , simply because there was too much emotion involved for me .

And then , on the other hand , I was thinking like , okay , so I know I do that . What do I have of knowledge ? I have skills , I've got those kinds of things and I've got a very unique love of things , so almost like the Ikigai thing of where everything comes together .

But I was just thinking , like you know , I love business , I love education , I love technology a lot and I love content creation . So what can I do where these four things are at play all the time ? Maybe not all at once , but they are always part of the equation and that eventually became what we're doing today .

But I was still like I know I understand financial advice and plans . I was in their shoes . I worked alongside them for a very long time , so so that was sort of my my beginning .

But if you're there and you're starting off new , you know , or even like I always like these things are amazing for me , like you could be brand new in financial planning or you could have been here for 20 years . The beauty is , you can decide to do things differently today and change things around .

So the question I've got then how do I know then what's the starting point for my value proposition ? Because all I had was who I wanted to work with and sort of the kind of things I wanted to do , but I did not have a value proposition at that point in time . So so I don't know . Is there any any thoughts on that and ideas ?

Uh , I think one of the things that that resonated francois , if I may , when we chatted with you , know that resonated with you is um , is , is , is our , what we called our three pillars of a successful relationship . And to get to that we had to do the research . I sat and I'll talk about myself now in my business .

I sat in the early days in the late 2000s , in shopping malls , okay , at golf courses , whatever it was , wherever I could get an event or a table or whatever the case is , and I asked people walking by what do you want ? Now I was building something for financial advisors .

So I said to them for example , if we were your financial advisor , what would you want from us ? Okay , because what we wanted to do is we wanted to build a platform or a tool that was going to facilitate what FAs needed to do for their customers .

So we needed to know what FA customers wanted from FAs , okay , and then we were going to go and build that .

So to kind of draw it back is to say ask your customer right , yes , of course , when you're starting out , let's just take the insurance or the investment game or whatever in the financial services . You're starting out . You're starting out on the basics , right , you're selling insurance , you're selling ras , you're selling whatever you're selling .

But as you refine and define , you go further , but the only way you can do that is ask , so you learn what you like to do . So I don't want to sell insurance , I only want to sell investment . Or I don't want to sell product , I only want to sell advice .

Whatever it may be , that's fine , but eventually you're going to define your target market , and this is another critical thing that my mentor tells me regularly not everyone is your target that is and and and we none of us like to . Yes , it can . It might not be used as well , but the idea is that not everyone's a target market , so don't chase everyone .

So define your target target market , define your value proposition , and that's going to be defined by your target market . Who are they ? What do they want ? Okay , if you look at the billboards of the , you know I find that I am , I am the target market of the pineapple insurance .

I don't have that product in and it's not a plug , by the way , but I like their marketing because it's funny , because it appeals to me've defined their target market .

Those people who've given up dating apps for running apps , you know , or whatever the case it resonates , the people who dialed in for adsl and went and they've written that out there on bloody hard park and it's fine , it's funny . So they've defined it .

They're not trying to reach my parents and they're not trying to reach the gen z's , they're trying to reach that market .

And he he said I've got this idea and I want to train people on this and this and this because then they can sort out their own problems . And I said , well , it's a great idea , but have you actually asked these people if that is what they do ? Do they actually want to solve their own problems ?

Because if they don't , it's just wasting a lot of time and effort , you know . So it's one of the big lessons , because we built a lot of stuff just on hunch or on what I thought was cool , and then it went absolutely nowhere . Recently again , to be fair , there's nothing wrong with that .

So let's just say that I've got my value proposition . I'm very clear on my purpose . I know what I'm trying to achieve and how am I going to do this . What am I going to do in this process of creating and keeping clients ? You know how , like . Where does technology then fit in ?

And we believe we've built a delivery system and it's not so much about we , we , it's more about why and how . So the reason we built what we built was because calculations and projections and all of that jazz , which is , you know , very powerful tool and very powerful tools and and systems , are there and they and they do what they do .

Okay , delivery is unique to your value proposition . So in our learnings , as I mentioned , sitting in malls and all of that jazz , we found out that relationships were key outside of , or on both everything product performance , administrative efficiency , trustworthiness , product options , price commission , all of that jazz .

Relationships are number one , and david hit the nail on the head earlier when he said communicate , okay , the client is . You know , a relationship is being able to comfort your client when something goes wrong . You can't stop what's gonna go wrong .

The markets happen , okay , things happen , whatever it may be out of our control , your relationship and your value prop means that I'm communicating regularly , or whatever it may be out of our control .

Your relationship and your value prop means that I'm communicating regularly or whatever it may be , the comfort in knowing that that person's there to have your back Okay , that's the key . You know , whether it's investments or insurance or whatever it may be , okay .

So for us , we needed to say how are we going to deliver that and how are we needed to say how are we going to deliver that and how are we going to facilitate technology delivering value prop . And we came up with our three pillars of a successful relationship . Pillar number one is know your client . Okay .

So you've got target market , you've got value prop , etc . This is the process , right . Know your client . Who are they , who are they , what do they want , why do they want it ? Okay , in order to do that , you have to engage . Engaging is calling , meeting , emailing , smsing , communicating it's engaging . Okay . It's contacting it's engaging .

We all know if you can't have a relationship without communication , okay . So engagement and communication . In that engagement and communication , you learn your client , you learn what they want , what they need . That's going to drive and inform what you give them , your value proposition , your delivery right . So you need an engagement platform .

Okay , a platform to reach out , not only to reach out one way , but to receive responses and to record those responses and then use that data . Okay , to filter and search and subsequently deliver , which brings me on to pillar number two , which is be relevant .

So you need to be relevant is that a business owner ? Is it a parent ? Is it a retiree ? Whatever it may be I'm using examples , but relevance is critical to personalization , customization , and you use your learnings from engagement to be able to be relevant . But again , you need a platform , you need an information management platform .

Okay , so you need to be able to capture the learnings , the data , etc . On your system , on a system . Okay , because with that you will then be able to be relevant , target the right audience at the right time with the right information .

We always talk about say the right thing at the right time , you know or reach the right people with the right information at the right time , okay . So that's relevance , Excuse me . And finally we move on to value .

Now value is obviously you know objective and or subjective at least , and that's really up to the person who's creating and obviously the person who's buying .

So value is a mix of your skill , your knowledge and all of those good things and and how well you put that together and package it and deliver okay so delivery is taking everything that you do , that you've learned , and and and and giving it , essentially allowing the customer to consume it .

whether it's whether it's reactive , it doesn't matter , as long as the customer knows they are happy . Guy Holwell , at the Global Financial Planning Summit recently you know , talked about . It's all about client experience and expectations and assumptions . Expectations and assumptions are one of the most dangerous killers of a relationship .

Okay , so , if you remove all or at least create expectation , but at least have control over that expectation . Okay , what do you expect from me ? I'm going to do X , y and Z . If I do it , I've delivered . If I don't do it , I haven't delivered . It's when we say we expect this , we expect that we assume you would have done that .

That's a problem and that becomes very dangerous so our pillars . Know your clients be relevant , add value and your technology is your engagement again in that place engagement platform , uh information management platform and delivery platform .

And one of the other things you said well it's you know , the purpose of business is to create clients , but also to retain clients . So you know , how can businesses then ensure continuity ?

Because I think you get two types of business people right , maybe more , but roughly , you will fall into one of two camps Either you want to die at your desk and the business must die with you , or you want something that lives beyond yourself .

So you built that business in two very different ways , depending on your view and sort of what you want this to do . Some people have no need for the business to continue , and other people would love for this thing to become even bigger after they've they've , they've gone .

So how you know , can businesses ensure business , ensure continuity , um , and also client retention through the use of technology ?

There are other things to business continuity outside of you know , outside of your technology , but essentially business continuity is the ability for your , your business , to continue operating or delivering basic services in the face of of of you know , an emergency or something that is unexpected loss of a staff you know natural disaster sister staff , you know natural

disaster sister , you know hardware infrastructure goes down , etc . So the idea is that at least at a minimum you can pick up and and um you check your information okay , if your laptop's stolen . That stuff needs to be off-site .

If your staff member leaves , you need to have what's in their head and what's happened between them and their customer relationships in the platform . So it's all of these things

to say . Business continuity . We talk about a thing called knowledge management . That's the retention of all information and knowledge into a place that supersedes the people , place that supersedes the people . Okay , so you hit the nail on the head .

I want to eventually be a person that steps away and or maybe not sells my business , but the idea is that you can sell a business and it can continue without the owner , you know , or the founder , or whatever it may be so . you need to be able to make sure that it's it's it's . It's got that continuity Despite who is ? there .

What is there that knowledge and that information facilitates that ? A specific example in the financial services sector , something you know , as we all know , called re-intermediation . When a client moves from one advisor to the next and this is just a very simple example a client moves from one advisor to the next what are we giving them ? Okay ?

Is it a name and a number and go go forth and multiply , or is it an entire history of that client's relationship , um , and transactions and communications and documents and everything ?

And we're not even talking now about other benefits to the business , because now we need a whole episode for that as well . But I've got a couple of quick fire questions for you , garrett . Seeing that it's firestorm , I thought quickfire questions would be appropriate today .

So I want to sort of just very quick , like you know , as quickly as you can answer these . Maybe just quickly . Are there any particular technology trends that you are seeing that we need to be aware of in financial services ?

But you know the client doesn't see . They see the output of that . That's a great thing . You need your relationship and your business continuity stuff .

It's a tricky one , not a tricky one , it's an interesting one , but it's something that needs to be used within the existing knowledge set , skill set . You know , value proposition , you can't just , you know this robo and all of that jazz .

If you will Do this for this customer , this is what they have . This is the thing . This is the tax bracket , this is the country they're in . They've got businesses and it spat out pretty much the exact plan that that particular individual would have created themselves . However , the client can't prompt that because they don't know what to prompt .

So you still need the advisor . So AI is one and that's going to filter in as we move forward . Automation also critical I think it was David who mentioned things in the background need to happen , but we need to be wary of automation guys . We need to be very wary of automation .

Automation Bill Gates' most famous or , for me , most famous quote Any type of automation introduced into an inefficient operation will magnify its inefficiencies .

However , introduced into efficient operation will magnify its efficiencies so , be , careful , because you don't not that you don't know , but you forget okay , you send an automated birthday message to someone you shouldn't have , you uh send a you know meeting request or something to .

Uh , you know , I was booked , booked an appointment with someone the other day and their system didn't sync with their , their calendar , they missed my appointment , um , so that was an automated process . That person didn't sync with their calendar , they missed my appointment , so that was an automated process .

That person didn't phone me , make the appointment and have it kind of in their head . It was just a . So these things are good but we just have to take care . So , ar , automation those are some trends that we're seeing come out in the business , in the industry , yeah , yeah .

So , so when gareth , when we booked the session um , our system is automated to now remind people when we haven't received certain information from them by a particular point in time , and the first time the automation went out I get a copy of it . So I sent gareth a message . I said to him gareth , ignore this , I've got your stuff , no worries .

And meanwhile , back at the ranch , I never got gareth's stuff . So gareth thought he sent me his stuff . I thought I got it and the automation was actually working well , although we thought he didn't .

So , gareth , on that note , thank you very much .

So Neil was saying just like advisors cannot be everything to all clients , tech companies cannot be everything to all advisors , which most try to be and , in so doing , water their value proposition down . I think that's such a valuable comment and something that deeply resonates with me and that I deeply agree with as well .

It's always about that , and going back to what David was saying earlier around you know with me and that I deeply agree with as well , it's always about that . And going back to what David was saying earlier around , you know that one central idea .

That's it , and there's some more stuff we'll talk about , but I'll be back next week with another topic , and I think I already know what that is going to be , because there's one critical aspect of anything in your business that we need to talk about , which I'll talk about next week . So keep an eye out .

We'll announce that on the social platforms , but for now , have a fantastic weekend . Thank you for joining us . Really appreciate it . Stay safe , be blessed , prosper and continue . Love you Bye-bye . All right , folks . That's a wrap for this episode of Propulsion . I hope you got as much out of this as I did .

Remember to tune in every Friday at 8 am South African time , for our live show called Propulsion Live . You can find it at wwwpropulsioncoza forward slash live and , trust me , you don't want to miss it .

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