51% of all advisers are expecting to receive no referrals from centres of influence in the next twelve months, according to solutions provider, Business Health.
This information has been drawn from Business Health’s Sales and Marketing Revenue Plan (SMP) service for advice practices, which also revealed a further 22% of advisers expect to receive referrals from only one centre of influence in the coming year.
Business Health Partner, Tony Stephens, told riskinfo that a lack of confidence by advisers as well as their referral sources has led to the situation where only half of the adviser population is benefiting from business generated by centres of influence.
… many advisers struggle to articulate the value of the advice they provide
According to Mr Stephens, fallout from the Global Financial Crisis suggests that many advisers have forgotten they have to generate new clients: “Before the GFC, too many advisers relied on generating their revenue from existing clients, as their investment and super fund balances continued to grow” said Mr Stephens. But in a post GFC environment,where new client business may be harder to earn, “… many advisers struggle to articulate the value of the advice they provide.”
Mr Stephens suggests that many advisers lost confidence during the GFC, as their clients’ fund balances dropped, and this attitude also applied to their centres of influence, such as accountants, who in turn lost confidence in refering their clients to financial planners.
According to Mr Stephens, advisers need to follow the path of client-based, rather than product-based solutions and outcomes. But while this approach is widely accepted post GFC, Mr Stephens warns that the task for financial advisers is to convince both their centres of influence and their prospective clients about the value their advice delivers.
Click here to register for, and use Business Health’s (free) SMP tool, which will provide revenue projections for an advice practice for the next twelve months, and which will also demonstrate the annual bottom line value to the practice of business generated from advisers’ centres of influence.
