The role of the Business Development Manager needs to change with the times if it is to maintain its relevance, according to a key industry educator.
Encore Group Managing Director, Graham Peatey, believes the BDM of the future will be one who adds value to the bottom line of an advice practice.
As the financial services industry itself moves from product-based to advice-based solutions for clients, Mr Peatey says the same principle should apply to the solutions offered by BDMs to financial advisers.
In order to stay relevant to their adviser clients, Mr Peatey highlights the importance for BDMs in future to:
- Properly appreciate the full spectrum of an adviser’s business
- Add value in working with the adviser to grow the size and/or enhance the quality of their client base
- Offer meaningful feedback on processes and strategies that are proving successful in similar advice practices
Life companies and fund managers are beginning to listen to calls to reconsider or at least update their approach as to how a business development manager adds true value to an advice practice.
When delivering new education courses to institutions and their BDM’s Mr Peatey encapsulates the issue by quoting remarks from Nick Murray, author of “On Becoming a Great Wholesaler” (BDM):
“There are only two ways to live a BDM’s life…
- You’re either a slave to your product’s ‘performance’, pricing or deal features
or…
-
YOU become the product: adding value by helping advisers do more & better business than they did without you”
According to Mr Peatey, in a post GFC world, where advisers will be charging fee for service, it is the BDM him/herself that must be the product.
But while the BDM of the future must have the knowledge and skills needed to add value to the bottom line of an adviser’s business, Mr Peatey emphasises that a core competency of the future BDM remains relationship management:
“BDMs must still know how to properly relate with advisers in order to be able to deliver knowledge and solutions that will add bottom line value to the practice,” said Mr Peatey.
