Financial planning practice management firm Strategic Consulting and Training (SCAT) has launched a new adviser education program that it claims will teach planners how to engage and retain customers by selling advice rather than product.
According to SCAT principal Jim Stackpool advisers are all too often criticised for selling product irrespective of a client’s individual needs and he hopes the initiative will contribute to reducing consumer discontent with the profession.
“Adviser education to date has created great technicians versed in the habit of selling product, rather than improving their advice expertise,” Stackpool says.
“I believe this is a glaring issue which helps to encourage a so-called ‘product flog’ culture prevalent in sections of the industry.”
The Cultivating Advice program kicks-off this Thursday and is an intensive, independent adviser coaching programme that was developed in the US and has been tailored by SCAT to apply to the Australian marketplace.
The syllabus comprises 30 advice tactics and seven high-level strategies designed for participants to attract, service and retain advice clients.
“Our intensive coaching programme focuses advisers on how to sell advice, regardless of the product solution. For an industry trying to make fee-based advice the gold standard, this approach gives advisers the tools and confidence to charge for their advice and service delivery, irrespective of product,” Stackpool says.
The program was developed in conjunction with US-based CEG Worldwide, an affiliate of SCAT.
