Bank / Credit Union Financial Advisors – Create More Leads and Income by Doing Less
For nearly 30 years, we have worked with Commercial Bankers, Trust Officers, Wealth Managers, and Financial Advisors across several spectrums of consulting and business development. How they interact with one another is often a precursor to the level of success their organization achieves.
In this blog, we talk about how creating a simple, repeatable communication process with your internal financial partners can create more leads and income.
A Hidden Component of Culture
“Who is your go-to Financial Advisor?”
I have literally asked this question thousands of times – and that’s not an exaggeration. This question is a fundamental part of our client development process and often sets the stage for what we will need to work on with a particular client. We don’t track the answers, but an educated guess would be about 40% of the time the person being asked this question does not have an answer.
Relating to the above question, it’s not uncommon for us to hear that bank or CU leadership does not promote open communication between traditional lines of business and Financial Advisors. This very well could be the case, but it’s not an excuse for Advisors to not indulge in self-promotion! Financial Advisors are arguably the most entrepreneurial people that work in that institution – take it upon yourselves to establish the type of culture you want to work in.
Referral Programs Help But Aren’t Enough
A common misunderstanding is Advisors that who work for banks or CU with robust referral programs get a lot of referrals. While this might be true at face value, it often doesn’t translate to additional revenue and income. A referral program by itself is not enough to accomplish the goals and objectives an institution and/or its Advisors have.
A well-supported referral program by a bank or CU that is tied to an organized, regimented communication agenda driven by the Advisors themselves achieves higher levels of referrals and those referrals are of higher quality. This is where Advisors start creating more leads and income by doing less. And they are also delivering a much better experience for their institution’s clients and members.
Up-Sell? Cross-Sell? Or Both?
Wealth advisory and planning often gets into pretty intimate parts of our lives, because Financial Advisors often get additional information (some confidential – some not). In most financial institutions, there are multiple team members Advisors can choose to work within any particular line of business. They have a unique opportunity to establish a much better connection between their client and another team member.
Three Calls to Action…
- Establish a monthly or quarterly Zoom / Microsoft Teams meeting*. These are typically no more than 20 minutes and are open-ended invites to anyone from tellers to the CEO. Have a written agenda ready to go.
- Develop an active strategic partnership with 1 or 2 business development bankers. These partnerships are much more than back-and-forth referral sources. The objective is to simply provide the best overall experience for each other’s clients and members.
- Donuts, coffee, and bagels go a long way (post covid19). On the first Wednesday of every month, make a tasty delivery to one of your branches along with a few business cards. Your institution will let you expense it, and if they don’t, it might be time to look for better options.
* Compass Consulting provides the venue (Microsoft Teams), agenda, and facilitates monthly meetings between Financial Advisors and personnel in banks and CU’s. Call 760-477-1299 or email support@compassconsulting.com to learn more about these virtual get-togethers and to have a meeting facilitated by us for free.