What can I do when logged in?

You can submit new articles, so we can make unique versions of them and distribute them for you.
If you want to simply publish the same article on 800 websites, you can tell us to do that.
You can see the archive and current status of all your article distributions.
You can order any number of high-quality articles - just let us know your keywords.
You can browse the archive of all the articles we have written for you.
You can order our Complete Service (10 high-quality articles plus 10 article distributions).
You can purchase more credits for our services and check your affiliate earnings.
Much more ...

SpinDistribute.com Article Directory

The following article was published in our article directory on February 24, 2017.
Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System.

Five strategy must-haves of a successful modern advice firm

Article Category: Advice

Author Name: Lee Werrell FCSI FISMM

The Retail Distribution Review fundamentally transformed the way advisers operate all those years ago but the question is now, "have advice firms adapted their strategies?" Not really, says Lee Werrell, CEO of Compliance Consultant. Here he lays out five key elements every professional firm should solve to move ahead in today's digital world.

Every advice firm needs a clear vision if it wishes to compete effectively and profitably in the modern market, states Werrell.

Yet, many firms do not appear to have one, he says. They resemble a fee based reflection of a commission model and lacking a clearly defined set of goals while still basing their pricing on clients' funds. {On top of|In addition to|Besides} that they attempt to juggle vast books of clients {instead of|rather than|as opposed to} {focusing on|concentrating on|paying attention to} the right ones, he says.

{Here|Below} are Werrell's five elements every advice firm should change and focus on if it intends to compete profitably and effectively in today's market:

1 Vision And Leadership
Any management consultant will tell you that every firm needs {a clear|a very clear|a crystal clear|an understandable} vision and a leadership {committed|dedicated|devoted} to that vision.

Great firms are {outstanding|exceptional|superb} at prompt decision making but cautious in their managing of change. They have absolute clarity of purpose and {how to|the best ways to|effective ways to} arrive. In the absence of that clarity of focus, firms naturally drift and procrastinate and nothing happens, says Werrell.

{In order to|To|If you want to|For you to} achieve a clarity, firms should {identify|determine|pinpoint|distinguish} five or six key values that all staff members} of the firm should {abide by|comply with|agree to|acknowledge}. They should {outline|describe|detail} a clear purpose and target audience and unanimously agree a set of targets they {want to|intend to|plan to|must} achieve over a particular amount of time, say ten years.

Once firms have {determined|pinpointed} their vision, they should put it on paper, and consider how it looks at various time points. A good way of doing that is to have a range of lists: a one-year plan, 90-day focus, and a rolling list of all the issues that need addressing. These then need appropriate review at either board or committee level.

2 Marketing Focus and Using Their Own Big Data
Werrell says that in the pre-RDR days, firms were generally trying to be a one stop shop, capturing client's at every possible price-point and service level. Today they are still "attempting to be way too many things to lots of people". "We should {think about|take into account|take into consideration} precisely what is it we are aiming to deliver to what {kind of|type of} client," he says.

For clients, it has to be all about service, relationship and trust, yet {too many|a lot of|way too many} advisers focus their marketing message on things like their qualifications and their overly wonderful CIP or Investment Strategy. Many firms just don't get it that client's (and incidentally the regulator too) are concerned about outcomes and the likelihood of achieving them.

Advisers {need to|have to|must} be better at articulating their real value to clients, he says. They should sit back and ask themselves, what do their clients want from them and what do they want from their lives, what do they worry about, what keeps them awake at night?. Then they should ensure they assist them with those issues. "Advisers must drop their own ego trips, and move into the value-added space and develop the capability needed for that," Werrell says.

They should also aim to have deeper and more meaningful {relationships|partnerships|associations} with a smaller number of professional connections - two or three at most - and {help them|assist them to} do what they do best: building client relationships.

3 People
Sometimes tough decisions have to be made. And that can involve staff, says Werrell. He says firms must select the right people and {get rid of|do away with|remove} the wrong ones. As Jim Collins states in his book "Good to Great", they need to not only get the right people on the bus, but have them sitting in the right seats.

Critically, managers then really should recognise and reward right behaviours. "Much as it may hurt, the best businesses can run perfectly well without you, get confident in letting go," says Werrell. Rewarding doesn't have to be monetary or lavish; in many cases a "well done" or "You did that really well", will provide all the motivation the recipient needs at that time. As Dale Carnegie said, in "How to Win Friends and Influence People", you should "Be lavish in your praise and hearty in your approbation."

Werrell also says it's vital to grow future staff from within your business. A hugely sustainable way of growing a business would be to have a lead consultant, beneath whom should sit the servicing advisers, followed by paraplanners, report writers and admin workers. If you have an established hierarchy and a clear promotional path, people know where they fit in and where they can set their sights. They can then progress up the ranks, he says.

4 Pricing
Price too soon will spoil the sale. Yes it has to be clear and transparent, but the service you provide is not all about price or advisers will be replaced by the Robo-Advice that everyone tries to ignore.

Advisers are all about their service, yet for many advisers funds under management still determines their fees, says Werrell.

"If you think about it, if you are only paid dependant on the money the danger is you will be perceived as only interested in the money," he says. Which begs the question of "Will you try to make the money look better by presenting the figures in a different way?"

And with all the work advisers do that is not related to a client's funds, this makes no sense, he says. "It's got to be about treating the adviser fairly".

Advisers should start to think laterally about how their fees can effectively be calculated to ensure they are being fairly paid for the value they add to the relationship.

5 Big DataAdviser's are sitting on a gold mine. Many of which have little or no idea what to do with it. "The elephant in the room is 'Big Data'" says Werrell.
All advisers are signed up to the data protection register and all have enormous amounts of data about their clients that they could use to segment and create several target market client profiles. Instead, they just add the client's email addresses to a spreadsheet and send them the weekly or monthly newsletter.
"A key part of adding value to any relationship is to add value by letting them know what you do." Werrell states. "If they don't think of you as a go to person, then they will get lured elsewhere."
Using Social Media to leverage these client's natural curiosity and need to belong, creates a strong bond. They will always think of the many ways to contact you, instead of who they should contact. Preparing a string or emails to be automatically sent to new client, new newsletter subscribers, visitors to your website and many other opportune ways, creates an information blanket that client's wrap themselves up in and see you as their sole provider.
Compliance Consultant has experience in strategy formulation and strategy maps, through our Pathfinder Evolution product and we have also pioneered the social media aspect for regulated financial advisers, using many free tools and system automation so as not to add to the burdens of their staff.

Keywords: strategy, independent financial adviser,ifa,wealth managers,retail advisers, financial services,uk

Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System. We also offer Professional Article Writing to everyone who's looking for high quality web content.

SpinDistribute.com Network

Each article you submit at SpinDistribute.com is sent through our innovative Article Distribution System to our network of more than 1840 publishers - about 55% of them are high-quality article directories, 30% of them are niche blogs and 15% of them are other content-rich websites.

To achieve the best possible success we only publish your article to most related websites. This means your article will show up on approximately 640 - 880 most related websites which will give you great SEO results.

We also offer a separate Professional Article Writing Service to everyone who's looking for high quality web content and well researched unique articles.