Surveys
Growing Business, New Sales Initiatives Top Priorities for Advisors - SEI Survey
Two-thirds of financial advisors said their top priority for 2010 is to grow their business and create new initiatives to increase sales, according to a new poll by SEI released yesterday.
One-fifth of advisors polled identified communicating with their client base and new prospects more frequently as a top priority, and 8 per cent viewed their top priority improving their business operations through technology.
And only 6 per cent of advisors said that staff investments – including new hires and professional development – are a top priority.
The results seem, at least at first glance, to be at odds with a recent flurry of news reports in which firms have stated their desire to boost headcount over the next year at least.
The majority of advisors who chose growing their business plan to do so through client referrals by solidifying professional relationships for referrals and by creating a formalized marketing plan. Nearly half (42 per cent) identified client referrals as the most important element to growing their business, followed by solidifying professional relationships for referrals (32 percent) and creating a formalized marketing plan (20 percent).
Three other options – holding seminars, exploring social media and increasing advertising and public relations – combined for only 6 per cent.
Advisors planning to increase and improve client communication said they were planning to increase frequency of outbound communications (30 per cent), increase frequency of client review meetings (25 per cent) and develop a new approach to client review meetings (23 per cent).
In addition, a majority of financial advisors believe they can learn how to make their business more efficient and effective through their peers.
"While many mutual fund and investment firms are good at telling advisors what to do, they often overlook sharing the valuable experience of what advisors' peers are doing to be successful," John Anderson, newly appointed head of practice management solutions, SEI Advisor Network, said in a statement.
SEI surveyed 417 advisors last month.
