Planners’ personal sales pitch still winning clients
Persuasion skills have overtaken service value as a key determinant of picking up new planning clients, a CoreData report shows.
While the ability to “influence prospects” gives planners the strongest chance of winning a new client, the ability to “enthuse” the prospective clients is a close second, according to the data from the latest Financial Planning Shadow Shop.
Value of the planner’s service - the frontrunner for picking up new clients in 2012 - now comes in third, with “the ability to build relationships” and “trustworthiness” rounding out the top five.
CoreData’s head of financial services, Kristen Turnbull, said the results showed the importance of planners’ ability to market themselves to clients.
“Selling has become a dirty word in financial services, but with so much focus in recent years on compliance and regulations, there is the danger that first appointments become a tick-a-box exercise,” she said.
“First impressions are critical and planners need to sell themselves to prospects, by appealing to them on a personal level and engaging them in the advice process.”
The research was based on surveys of around 800 prospective advice clients.
Recommended for you
Advisers need to closely scrutinise how much volatility exists in private assets during their portfolio construction and how this is demonstrated by the providers, according to commentators.
Private equity firm Bain Capital has shared how it believes the wealth management industry can be transformed, potentially shedding light on how it could evolve Insignia Financial should an acquisition proceed.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed who will succeed Stephen Jones to serve as the Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister.
As the ESG and sustainable investment market undergoes greater consolidation, three commentators explore how financial advisers can explain a fund closure or renaming to their clients.
