Sales, by definition, is the single most important source of organic growth to your company regardless if you are in Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Financial Services, or most any other industry.  Whether through obtaining new customers, expanding your existing customers, or more successfully managing your partners, effectively driving and increasing revenue through your sales force and related channels represents the end-result of a vast majority of planning, analysis and strategic business decisions across the enterprise.

“Where do we start?” is a common question, especially when facing a challenging and volatile economic environment.  One of the most vital (and often overlooked) ways of exploiting your existing sales process to a competitive advantage is through investment in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.  Why is this a starting point?  If you are like most sales executives, the volume of information already at your disposal or that which can be easily captured is not being leveraged to anywhere near its potential.

CRM is now a top technology priority for CIOs, moving to No. 8, up from No. 18 in 2011, according to a global survey by Gartner Inc.'s Executive Programs. And in a separate Gartner survey, CEOs cited CRM as the most important investment area to improve business over the next five years.

As a former VP of Sales, I ,too, often fell into the trap that my CRM system was good for managing contacts, the progress of my team’s opportunities, and, at times, producing an accurate pipeline.  I say “at times” because lackluster user adoption, less-than-impressive reporting capabilities and little analytics were the main contributors leading to us overlooking the treasure-trove of information at our fingertips.  We often were more focused on the marketing initiatives and sales messaging we planned to implement in the hopes of achieving our sometimes lofty goals.  Not to belittle the importance of Marketing and other initiatives; on the contrary: use the information at your disposal to improve productivity and performance there as well.

Leveraging CRM to uncover the “buried treasure” is a topic that can span best practices across people, process and technology.  Not to oversimplify the process, let’s briefly focus on segments of our customer ecosystem and what benefits effective CRM investments can offer:

1.    New Business:

• Identifying previously unknown opportunities
• Visibility (into the last “touch”, activities, etc.)
• New developments: industry / geography / company
• Network of contacts, relationships, “spheres of influence”
• Social media
• Partners / Distribution Channels

2.    Existing Clients:

• Opportunities for upselling
• Upgrades (technology) / New initiatives (services)
• Cross-selling

3.    Customer Service:

• Client Satisfaction- effect on renewals, upselling, cross-selling
• Referrals
• Loyalty- impact

Please share your success stories across any segment of this customer eco-system, particularly the challenge, how it was overcome, and the benefit.  This may include how re-thinking the use of your existing CRM system benefitted you, changing the system, data mining, integration, or implementing a particular technology like Business Intelligence.

I recently reread a series of Perspectives on the Financial Services Industry written by Booz & Company. The section on the Wealth & Asset Management Industry commented on two opportunities: a) “stake out a new position in an unusually fluid market” and b) “use emerging technologies to significantly enhance the customer and advisor experience.”  I was particularly intrigued with the second suggestion.  Just how can technology enhance the customer experience?

The authors (John Rolander et al) suggest technology should be used to address customer frustrations like the hassle of doing business with an Asset Management firm, the feeling of being undervalued, left in the dark or left on their own.  But they also point out that it’s challenging to balance innovation with the practicalities of implementation.  Indeed choosing from the ocean of possible ways to invest in technology and making sure it’s done right can be an expensive and time consuming proposition.  But they conclude the potential result is exciting with the possibility of transforming the industry operating model “from an industrial one to a digital, low-cost, and flexible one that enables richer client and advisor experiences.”

In our work we so often see firms focusing on technology as a way to increase productivity (which is great) but fall short of the further goal of enhancing the customer and advisor experience.  Reflecting on how we can push the envelope and make the technology do more is challenging.  But it’s also an opportunity for some firms to pull ahead of the pack and we’ve enjoyed working with some who’ve done that.  If you have any questions or thoughts about how CRM can help enhance your customer or advisor experience, call (212) 563-4400 or leave a comment below.

"Let me introduce you to my financial advisor" is a phrase that is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago. A valued customer pays you the ultimate compliment when he brings his children, friends and coworkers to you and asks you to help them secure their financial future. CRM for Financial Services is a fine resource for managing relationships, but you have to work to develop the relationships in the first place. Creating quality relationships, maintaining them and building them takes much more than software.

It takes connections to build relationships in the Financial Services industry. Customers are more likely to trust you when they can connect you to something or someone they trust. The connection can come through a variety of sources: an alma mater, a club membership or a mutual acquaintance. CRM software, such as SalesLogix of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, can help you to leverage those connections and expand your customer base by keeping track of associations, relationships, and personal data. You never know when remembering a birthday, or facilitating an introduction can land a new client.

Once those relationships are established, CRM for Financial Services can help you maintain them. Effective CRM software doesn't replace your relationships with your customers; it enhances them. Understanding the big picture of your customers' financial landscape, will help you identify gaps that wealth-building products can fill.  Business intelligence built into a CRM system can produces customer-specific marketing recommendations.

For example, tell your CRM system that one of your customers is expecting her first child. The system can prompt you to congratulate her when the baby arrives. While you're at it, you might as well help her figure out how much more life insurance she needs now that she has an extra mouth to feed, and the responsibility that comes with it. While you're closing the insurance deal, help her establish a college savings plan for the child. You'll follow up to open a savings account for the baby when he reaches the age where he can understand what saving money means.

A CRM system puts all of the information you've collected about your customers and puts it at your fingertips in just a few clicks of a mouse. A customer who calls because she needs to have you look up some numbers for her tax return won't be kept waiting long, because it's all in CRM. And, while you have the customer's attention, you can find out whether she needs a loan to pay her taxes or an investment for her tax refund, and whether she's maximized her tax-sheltered retirement account contributions.

Standing alone, CRM is merely an information system. Combined with your personal touch and attention to detail, CRM can be a powerful resource in financial services.

Is it possible to grow a brokerage firm in this economy? Many firms have found that not only is it possible, but it's very doable if you focus on four key steps.

1. Develop a culture based around marketing & sales. Every company has a culture. Your culture is created as members of the company interact with each other and potential and existing clients. If you cultivate a marketing and sales culture for your brokerage firm, you can expect continual growth.
   
   Teach employees at every level to use every conversation with potential clients to advance the firm's relationship with that individual. Empower all members of the firm by giving them permission (and direction) to assist everyone who walks through the door. Forbid employees from saying, "I'm not really qualified to answer that question." Instead, teach them to say, "Let me check on that for you," or, "Allow me to introduce you to Mark. He's best at dealing with that issue."
   
   
2. Develop efficient workflows to facilitate marketing, sales, and contract management. Just as plants require energy to grow, brokerage firms require time, energy, and resources. In order to maximize the use of these resources, make sure that you are creating standardized and efficient workflows. Standardization will reduce the amount of time for common activities.
   
   Each of these areas--marketing, sales, and contract management--needs its own system for keeping track of information, but the systems should be simple enough that members of the firm can easily get what they need without extensive effort or training. You may decide that your firm needs new software to handle some of these tasks, but keep in mind that the ultimate goal is growth, so be sure your solution is scalable.
   
   
3. Incorporate technology solutions that increase workflow efficiency and information flow and have the potential to automate some of the repetitive processes like filling in a customer's information multiple times. CRM for Financial Advisors can make your firm more efficient by allowing you to focus on qualified leads, coordinating focused sales activities across your organization, and better informing the brokers of useful customer information that can help to foster relationships. When brokers know their clients, they can better act in the clients' interests, which brings in more future business.
   
   When employees of your firm don't have to spend precious time on data entry they can focus more on sales or educating customers about investing. Morale improves when employees can spend their time doing what they aspire to do, and the sales culture of your firm becomes even more enriched.
   
   
4. Create an aggressive plan to seek out and hire talent that can sell, that understand your business processes, and that are capable of maximizing the use of the technology you have implemented. When your firm is running efficiently and smoothly, the atmosphere becomes contagious. Team members tell their contacts how much they enjoy working for your firm, and soon you can become very choosy about whom you hire.

When aggressively seeking top talent, keep these tips in mind:

• Write interesting job listings. Think of your job listing as an advertisement. You must sell your firm. Also, be sure to have an employment page on your website to handle inquiries.
• Offer interesting benefits. A gym membership, an allowance for setting up a personalized workspace, and time off for volunteer work may catch the eye of top talent.
• Pay well. With the money you're saving by being more efficient, offer better-than-average compensation to catch the best employees.

This four-step plan will help you to grow your brokerage firm. Get more efficient today, and watch it grow.

Someone once said "If you're not growing, you're dying."
 
So how do you ensure your business keeps growing?  I’ve observed three sales behaviors – which might even be characterized as truths - as I’ve worked with our clients:

Truth #1. If you are not meeting with new prospects as part of your daily routine, you cannot expect a flow of new clients.

Every business, no matter how great, loses customers over time.  Apple users switch to Android, Linux users to Microsoft.  It happens.  That's just the nature of business.  So, in order to simply maintain your business, much less grow it, you must always be prospecting.  This is the secret to all successful sales people.  

One of the best prospect sources is referrals from existing clients.  Almost nothing is as powerful as one friend or associate telling another how great a job you are doing managing their money.   There are two great ways to get referrals.  One of the easiest is to give a referral.  Provide appropriate referrals to professionals whose money you handle - and they will feel compelled to do likewise for you.  It’s the reciprocity effect.  

Another way to attract prospects is to become an authority in your field.  Everyone wants their situation handled by an expert.  Get yourself invited to speak about a topic at an event or conference, and you gain instant experts status.  This, in turn, gets you more speaking invitations which further builds your credibility.

Truth #2. If you are staying in your office all day, you’re going to lose out to other competitors.

It's hard to overestimate how important money is to most people.  Those with significant assets want to meet the person who will be managing their money.  And there is nothing like a face to face meeting to build trust.  If you are using a CRM system, you should be able to access and maintain all of your client data on the go using a PC, iPad, or smartphone.  Take it with you so you can answer client questions quickly and so you can show your client just how much you know about them as well as their unique situation.

Truth #3. You get what you measure.

You’ve heard the expression a million times.  But do you actually do it?  That is, do you have a set of goals with clear metrics that you can measure?  Whether you then track that metric by hand or with one of the great automated tools available today, the really successful Financial Advisors we’ve seen are compulsive about measurement.  

Why?  Well the first reason is focus.  When you focus on a goal with a specific metric you naturally start to complete activities in support of that metric.  But the second reason is that a metric gives you the opportunity to see when you’re starting to go off course so you can correct.

I’m curious what others think is critical to keep their business growing, please comment below.