Three Adviser Panel

This month we talk to David Russell, Saxon Mew and David Thompson - all Investment Advisers at well known Stock Broking and Financial Advisory group Wilson HTM. These three Advisers have all established their business over the last few years. I thought it would be interesting to compare their more recent experiences in Business Development for all those other Advisers starting out or currently growing their own client portfolios.

VUE: Welcome Gents. When starting out, advisers will naturally have fewer clients and therefore more “free time”.  Yet it is easy to waste that time spinning your wheels in business development.  From your experiences, what are the top three things an adviser should focus on when establishing their client portfolio?

· David R: Set yourself some long term personal goals to establish where you want your business to be in 2-3 years. Establish a picture of the ideal client which would help you achieve these goals and work out how you can build relationships with them. Focus on daily or weekly activity levels; eg. aim for two meetings with new leads per week.

· Saxon M: First thing is to really know a few stocks very well so that when you speak to active clients or prospects, you sound confident because you know what you are talking about!  I would also focus on a particular profession (adopt a profession)-this will make you look like a specialist when dealing with the profession.  Of course, it will mean understanding the profession’s jargon and attending some of their networking events.  Finally, I suggest quality not quantity.  The more accounts you have, the more time you will need to spend on each client.  Sometimes it’s worth it to let the smaller prospects go so you can concentrate on the larger prospects.

· David T: Broadly speaking the top 3 things advisers should focus on when start out are – activity (lots of calls!), persistence (keeping following up until you hear a clear no) and be ambitious (with an ethical approach and quality product there is no limit to your success).

VUE: Many advisers ask about specialising.  Should a growing adviser pick some area of specialities, or should they be happy to do whatever business comes their way at the start?  What did you find worked the best?

· David R: I found that when starting out there was time for both.  I think it is better to have a few target markets to focus on, but in the meantime any business that falls into your lap gives you the chance to gain more experience and helps to build your confidence.

· Saxon M: I suggest going broad for a few months first and then specialising because after a few months you should have some idea of which profession is worth more of your time.

· David T: I wouldn’t recommend exclusively focusing on any specialisation when first starting. You should find which areas you have the most success over time and target your business development at that particular area.

VUE: When building a client portfolio, advisers tend to make a lot of assumptions, many of which turn out to be incorrect or limiting.  Thinking back, is there one particular incorrect assumption which you think advisers could avoid?

· David R: New advisers need to avoid assuming that because they’re starting out they’re not skilled or qualified enough to advise on larger accounts.  Junior advisors have the exact same resources at their fingertips as the big revenue writers of the firm, all they lack is experience; easily made up for with self-confidence backed up by thorough knowledge of the subject matter.   

· Saxon M: My initial assumption was that the portfolio the clients had with me was all they had.  It wasn’t until I dug deeper by asking more questions did I find that some clients had portfolios with other brokers or had money to invest!  Don’t assume, always ask questions!

· David T: An incorrect assumption I made in the past was that if someone did not get back to me straight away that they weren’t interested in working with me. Don’t panic if you have unreturned phone calls and have sent emails without reply! People tend to lead busy lives full of distractions between work and family life, so consistently staying in touch is important. There was a long lag between first contact and sign up for many of my good clients.

VUE: Advisers have many different business development tactics to generate leads and kick-start their client portfolio – marketing seminars, networking, cold and warm calling, strategic alliances, keep-in-touch programs, client referrals, speaking engagements and more.  Which two strategies did you find the most successful and what’s one tip to keep in mind for each strategy?

· David R: The two most successful strategies from my point of view have been marketing seminars and networking within the communities where I’m already involved.  Marketing seminars can take a lot of work to put together, but there’s a high chance that some of those that go along will be ready to have that crucial first meeting and start taking advice relatively quickly.  When starting out your existing networks can be very valuable.  It’s important to let all your acquaintances (friends, family and old colleagues) know what you’re doing and to start building your profile as a person with expertise in your field.

· Saxon M: Marketing seminars - I think you should only target one or two professions so that the seminar looks like it is ‘tailored’.  For those wanting to specialise, it will give you a little insight on your chosen specialty, such as hours they work and how to approach this profession (e.g. to speak to a doctor normally one needs to speak to the practice manager).  The other is cold calling - it must be the hardest thing to do but it works!  I’m not sure it is the most effective method but as a new adviser you probably have time to make those cold calls.  From memory, the statistic is one success for every 20 cold calls made.

· David T: The two strategies I found most useful in generating leads were marketing seminars and making phone calls. The tip I would recommend for marketing seminars would be to be organised well in advance and if possible speak yourself (the audience will see you as an authority on that topic if you do a good job). For calling all I can say is to get a list of people who you are best placed to help and call as many as possible with as much enthusiasm as you can muster!

Thanks guys. It’s easy for established advisers to forget what it was like to build their business, so these tips from successful advisers who still remember their early Business Development experiences are very useful. If you are looking at the stock market wondering what 2011 brings or how to make your money work as hard as you do, then perhaps you should be calling David Russell (07 3212 1321, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Saxon Mew (07 3212 1059, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or David Thompson (07 3212 1327, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) at Wilson HTM.