If you knew what personality traits were prevalent among high performers, how would you recruit differently? If you knew that a large portion of your sales force was offering price discounts below those of their peers, how would you change this practice? By asking key questions like these, wealth management firms can begin to determine which levers to pull to shift advisor performance.
As I explained last week, improving advisor productivity represents a significant opportunity for growth in wealth management. The challenge for firms now is to take steps to expand their depth of insight into what separates top-tier advisors from the middle of the pack, and make the right decisions to improve productivity.
Pulling levers, shifting performance
For firms looking to increase their advisor productivity, answering the two questions I posed upfront could look something like this:
- Focus on learning capabilities. Any time an advisor receives training, a return on investment is necessary. Analytics can provide insight into the maturity of an organization’s learning capabilities while highlighting areas for improvement. Effectively leveraging learning opportunities can dramatically improve a firm’s ability to build advisor effectiveness.
- Implement peer comparison models. These models can help firms translate insights about their sales forces into actions that drive results. By developing a data-driven pricing application that can be easily referenced during a sales conversation, advisors can see how “Advisors Like Them” typically price the offering they are discussing, creating confidence in the package and eliminating resulting revenue loss.
Wealth management firms have a great opportunity to position themselves for profitable growth by using analysis-driven insights to improve advisor effectiveness. The first step is to identify the most distinguishing features of your top advisors. Once you do that, a positive shift in the advisor lifecycle performance curve is likely to follow soon after.
To learn more, download: Read the survey: Shifting the Curve: Insight-Driven Advisor Effectiveness.