Weekly Thought Provoker: Relationship Management Strategies

Join our online discussion: How do you overcome threats through relationship management?

Never underestimate the value of relationship management as a professional service and knowledge provider. With last week’s thought provoker we asked our Executive Business Builders Network members about their biggest concerns among the many threats and disruptions coming down the pipeline for the financial services industry.

One insightful comment from Robert Reid, a UK advisor living in Canada, mentioned CRM2 and how it’s creating the demand for a new relationship-driven value proposition.

“As a UK adviser living in Canada, my take on CRM2 is that it could well be the Trojan Horse that catches many unaware. As the speed on information flow increases and the inter-generation issue rises to the top of the pile, advisers need to be able to show evidence of succession plans and services that fit different generations and client profiles.

“Relationship Management is key and back office soft skills are rare, so a revolution in who interacts with clients is on the way and both advisers and back office/support teams need to change if they are to survive.”

Other primary concerns voiced by financial professionals were technology, and the propensity for Millennials in particular to favour do-it-yourself solutions. Every one of these threats can be addressed through relationship management.

This week’s discussion topic builds on this important subject:

The over-arching solution to all of these issues is to improve your relationship management and soft skills. Interestingly, some of the younger advisors we've spoken with are already implementing this with clients in their peer group due to demand. Let's discuss how you achieve this.

1) If you’re among the group that needs to start putting more emphasis on relationship management vs portfolio-focused interactions, where do you start?

2) What questions do you ask new clients to get at the root of their needs and demonstrate understanding? How do you find their unique pain points?

3) How often do you revisit wealth goals and objectives? How often do you reach out?

4) How do you improve your active listening skills?

5) Do you engage with family members?

6) How do you deliver bad news?

Join the Executive Business Builders Network to share your thoughts and brainstorm how to improve your value proposition in the age of disruption.

This is also the core theme at this year’s Distinguished Advisor Conference.

Additional educational resources:
Building Business Foundations

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