Great business development managers are highly valued and appreciated by advisers – but they are in the minority, according to the results from our latest poll.
40% of those who have voted in our poll to date have said that their key BDM contacts are delivering less value to the productivity and growth of their advice practice this year. 27% say the value being delivered is about the same, while 29% have indicated they are receiving greater value from their BDMs in 2012.
These results, and the comments that we have received, seem to suggest there are pockets of excellent services being provided to advice practices by BDMs. This excellent service appears to be unrelated to the company which the BDM represents or any particular sector of the industry. According to advisers (commenting in riskinfo and in the Australian Risk Advisers LinkedIn discussion forum), it’s all about relationships and partnerships:
… the best BDMs don’t look and sound like BDMs
“… the best BDMs don’t look and sound like BDMs … They are the ones that genuinely build a relationship with you – always the best outcome.”
“I can only praise the change in value-add that has taken place over recent times for the practical involvement the BDM’s who service my business provide”
“Interestingly, it has nothing to do with whether they are risk, platform or investment based. I think social media is building a smarter BDM.”
Responding to your feedback, industry commentator, consultant and former adviser, Baz Gardner, who inspired this poll, offered an observation about his own experiences with BDMs when he was an adviser:
“Over my career I have met many hundreds of BDM’s but the ones that knew how to value add always managed to sneak past my ‘adviser guard’ and build great relationships without me even knowing it was happening…”
And this comment from highly-regarded NSW adviser, Bill Webster, reinforces the message to financial institutions and BDMs about the importance of the alignment of values between BDMs and advisers:
“When you find a person in a BDM role where the values align you usually become more than just colleagues and that relationship usually produces outcomes that meet each parties needs…”
This conversation about the value of BDMs to advisers is taking place within the context of a changing world in terms of how consumers relate and communicate with their financial adviser, and how advisers and BDMs interact and communicate with each other:
… not only do our clients want us to interact with them differently but we also expect the same from our service providers
“The world has changed; not only do our clients want us to interact with them differently but we also expect the same from our service providers…”
Some advisers are suggesting BDM services are being spread too thinly amongst a growing portfolio of adviser clients, prompting Baz Gardner to point out that the emergence of social media and digital communication allows relationship management at scale. But Mr Gardner also makes this point, which is effectively the same point being made by many advisers in this discussion:
“Forget the ‘media’ part and take notice of the ‘social’…”
While there are pockets of excellence in terms of BDMs delivering value, the fact remains that two in three advisers (67%) have said their BDMs are delivering the same or less value in 2012 than previously. Does this match your own experience? For such an important component in the relationship between advisers and financial institutions, we are keen to hear from you. Our poll will remain open for another week…
