How to build a highly referrable business

As a financial advisor, referrals from happy clients help your business grow. Your clients are unlikely to refer you to their networks if you don’t continue to uphold the service delivery standards that you promised them on Day 1. When these standards slip, clients soon become unhappy. These clients will eventually take their money elsewhere. More importantly, they’re unlikely to recommend your business to family, friends, or colleagues.

If you want your clients to sing the praises of your financial advisory business to anyone who will listen, there are three golden rules that your business must follow:

1. Prioritise the Client

Your clients are your business’s most important resource. Without your clients, you have no business. We’re not just talking about the revenue your clients bring; we are talking about client relationships. When clients feel valued by a business, they are happy to refer you to their connections.

Nurture client relationships by ensuring that your clients receive the attention they deserve. Here are a few ways to do this:

• Address your clients by name in your communications with them.

• Message your clients on their birthdays.

• Check-in with your clients on their anniversary of starting work with you.

2. Work Smart

In order to refer your business to their networks, your clients need to know what makes your business different from your competitors’. You want to be known as the financial advisor who provides the very best service and delivers excellent results. Maintaining this reputation becomes more difficult as your list of clients grows. More clients means more reporting and a greater administrative load on you and your team.

To step up to the challenge, your business may need to hire additional administrative staff. However, this will raise your overhead costs and require you to onboard more clients to maintain your profit margin. You’ll soon reach capacity again and get stuck in a cycle of onboarding and hiring new staff.

Alternatively, you can work smart and introduce high-quality reporting software to your business operations. This will free up some valuable time to help you serve your clients more efficiently. If you implement Seed Analytics reporting software, you will have time to focus on building your business while the software handles reporting tasks. We also offer training in our reporting software for your admin staff.

3. Fight the Stigma

Financial advisors have a nasty reputation for onboarding a client, meeting with them once to sign the service contract…and then disappearing. As a result of this stigma around financial advisors, you’ll need to prove your trustworthiness before a client will even think of referring you to others.

A trustworthy advisor keeps clients updated on their investments and is available to answer their questions or address their concerns. Clients don’t want to have to ask you how their investments are performing. You should tell them of your own accord. Equip your business with high-quality reporting software to ensure your clients receive their reports in their inbox, every month without fail.

We can’t control whether a client decides to refer our business to their networks, but we can control how efficiently and effectively we serve our clients. Improve the service you offer with reporting software that serves you. Book a demo with Seed Analytics.

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Tips for brokers when hiring a new CTO

As an established broker, you need to stay on top of technological developments. Your clients (and advisors interested in joining your team) expect you to frequently update your service offering with new and exciting features.

We have identified a consistent problem that all brokers have:

Brokers are currently experiencing high competition in the market. They are constantly approaching each other’s clients to convince them to move over to their books. For brokers to be competitive and retain their clients, they need skilled advisors that are the best of the best.

The best advisors are focused and dedicated; they want to work in a place that supports their strengths and empowers them to offer excellent service. They don’t want to work somewhere that drowns them in admin. Top-tier advisors are also skilled at using technology to serve their clients, and they expect the same from the brokerage they work for.

How can this get any worse?

As technology gets more and more advanced, innovation is accelerating. Keeping up to date with the latest developments can be challenging for brokers, and quite a big challenge at that. The need for data protection services is increasing with the introduction of POPIA. Since data breaches can be devastating for clients and their brand image, clients are demanding more advanced security measures from their advisors and brokers. If brokers do not take sufficient action to ensure data security, their advisors may simply leave and take their client portfolio with them.

What is the solution to this problem?

Start with a definition of your unique proposition. Create a material view of the future in a way that you can share with brokers and clients. Why do you think your brokers can collectively offer a better level of service than your competitors?

A lot of advisors think that the "person" makes the difference. This view may be true but it doesn’t scale very well. Brokerages need to leverage IT products and solutions to deliver high-quality services at scale. These products and services are the result of an IT strategy formed with the help of your CTO.

Understand your strengths and weaknesses, and consider how they align with your vision. You need to understand what you need, what you don't need, and what the industry doesn't need. Develop a realistic idea of what it might cost to implement technological developments to improve on pain points.

Armed with this knowledge, brokers can start looking for people with the skills they need to deliver that vision. This is where Seed Analytics comes in.

Seed Analytics was founded over 9 years ago and offers data consolidation, statement generation and analytics to our extensive list of clients. We report on a number of AUM and have experience with building and launching systems that scale. Advisors use our systems to distribute consolidated statements to their clients at a click of a button.

Winning brokerages have realistic IT strategies

Advisors are attracted to high-quality brokers. Brokers who are on top of the market and the latest technological developments will attract and retain the best advisors. When you are the best broker and have a team of brilliant advisors, your clients will never receive anything less than the best possible service.

The best brokers are thought leaders who can monitor business developments and introduce cutting-edge strategies as needed by the clientele.

To learn more about Seed Analytics and why you should invest in our software, sign up for our newsletter to get industry news and hear about our new features.

Taking Over an Advisors Book: 101

As a financial advisor, your clients are your main priority. Your clients require your undivided attention. To give them what they need, you need to ensure that you have your systems and processes in place.

When taking over another advisor’s investor book, you need to be able to consolidate large amounts of data quickly and effectively. Specifically total asset amounts in each account that give you an indication of the total fees you can earn as well as any upselling opportunities. We recommend that you invest in high-quality software that can help you make data-driven decisions.

1. Research, research, and more research

Buying an investor's book is a process that needs to be respected. The seller is probably retiring from the industry and their clients have been with them for years or decades. As the buyer, you have the responsibility to research the portfolio to determine that the purchase is worth the investment. We have designed software to help buyers identify potential investors' books that may be viable options for them to purchase.

2. Use technology to your advantage

When taking over another advisor’s investors book, you need to be able to consolidate large amounts of data quickly and effectively. Specifically total asset amounts in each account that give in you an indication of the total fees you can earn as well as any upselling opportunities. We recommend that you invest in high-quality software that can help you make data-driven decisions.

3. Keep it personal

Consider that there is a risk of all these acquired investors leaving within the first two years of being onboarded. Your new clients have not yet built rapport with you and are looking for professionalism and individual attention. Make sure you use all the tools at your disposal to optimise your service offering and link it to your brand. A human connection is great but when it comes time to hand over the book you'll want your clients connected to a brand rather than the advisor themselves.

Contact us for a demo of our software and discover how Seed Analytics can reduce the complexity of buying investors' books and managing your new clients.