BLOG. 2 min read
In our "Closing the Customer Knowledge Gap" whitepaper, we discussed how leaders can set their firms up to unlock more advanced profiling, scoring and segmentation—enabling them to create more targeted and customized client experiences. That all begins with being able to identify the right customer base that will provide healthy ROI for your sales organization. It then relies on your firm’s ability to influence advisors along the decision-making journey.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of products can seemingly meet the needs of each slice of a client’s portfolio. The challenge for asset managers is making their products not just known but also making them stand out from the crowd for advisors. The more influence a firm has over an advisor’s decision-making, the more competitive its products become.
The most influential engagement can occur before advisors even start researching investment options, by creating a need for a new investment product and shaping the criteria they will use to evaluate potential options.
There are compelling ways that firms can influence advisors’ product decisions as they evaluate potential investment options—and increase their influence on future product decisions, even when advisors aren’t seeking new investment options. In our "Three Key Ways to Influence an Advisor's Product Choices" study, we hone in on three ways that firms can better influence advisors’ product choices.
According to this research, conducted in association with Horsesmouth, an asset manager’s best opportunity to influence product decisions is through their content and commentary, which was the second most important information source, rated as very or moderately important to product decisions for 58.7% of advisors.
Producing content and commentary that enhances understanding and perceptions of the firm’s products—and making sure advisors can easily see it—is the best opportunity asset managers have to directly influence advisor decisions.
In fact, more than half of advisors identified six information sources as being very or moderately important to their product decisions—with information from third-party product databases ranking highest. Investment ideas are a critical opportunity to gain influence early in the decision journey—58.6% of advisors named asset managers among their top three sources for investment ideas.
Talking with a firm’s salesperson is another way asset managers can be directly involved in the decision-making—if the advisor is open to that and perceives the interaction as helpful.
For more insights on how to garner more influence with advisors who are making investment selections, check out our "Three Key Ways to Influence an Advisor's Product Choices" study.
