A Pandemic Reemergence Strategy for Wealth Management

Over the past year we've been working with heads of Distribution and Marketing in Asset Management and Advisory. Every senior leader admitted to a slower than desired emergence from full virtual to engaging face-to-face with prospects. Suddenly the phone gained 10,000 pounds and email became an all too comfortable blanket. It's not surprising - anyone looking for new clients or advisors are really not sure how prospects are engaging. The good news? We're all trying to figure it out. Here are five other challenges senior leaders are faced with that must be addressed:

1. Multiple skills sets under one roof in terms of sales maturity, sales focus and selling acumen: This has been happening for a while. Companies have let their new hire onboarding lax and fear seasoned associates won't respond well   to "training." Often the best solution is to refresh the sales process and anchor a prospect-based value prop. The best are providing training AND best practice in a collaborative environment.
2. Team Selling through SMEs and intermediaries to create a unified prospect experience with often conflicting priorities: This is a challenge because each type of intermediary has their own selling style and operate at different levels    of sales acumen. Bankers for example are focused on selling their full suite of "products", whereby financial advisors selling employee benefits are used to the complexity and sales cycle of the consultative sale.
3. Helping Relationship Managers make the shift to a more direct selling role ("growing sales per relationship"):          We are seeing this all across industry. And it's great news. There is no better resource to make business building recommendations to clients than the folks working the account everyday. The downside is that most are waiting for the    next SOW instead of initiating sales conversations. They need a sales process, rudimentary lead nurturing tools and a great message.
4. Support for sales desks: the real pathfinders of the pandemic – building upon their ability to make connections:    The internal desks we're working with are rock stars. They have put fear aside and are not just making contact, but engaging with context. Our training is supporting them with key themes and reasons to meet. Without that, not much is happening.
5. Budget time: find the time that a consultative sales effort demands: Most "people" not just salespeople arrive at their desk and the first thing they do is "react". It's early, it's easy, and often it's a tactic to get to the meat of the day. But selling has to have a forward lean and can't be fit in. In fact, you need more than time for selling, you need "energy." Prospects draft off of your vitality, your creativity and the privileged insights you took the time to curate. Managing bursts of energy, not time is the key to sustained prospecting efforts and prospect engagement.

For more insight into how Bill Walton Sales Training is helping clients tackle these issues, contact Bill Walton at bwalton@billwaltonsalestraining.com.