Kate Marshall of Truly Independent argues that investors’ £2bn August exodus from equity funds, along with record bond redemptions and the first index tracker outflow since 2023, highlights shifting market sentiment.
Arguably the biggest challenge advisers face in building and marketing a business is that many people have yet to understand exactly what our profession is selling to them. In fact, a significant number seem to believe there is nothing to sell at all.
Part of the problem is that advisers are routinely perceived merely as salespeople. Needless to say, this is not a good start. But the real, underlying issue is that many would-be clients do not comprehend what they are being invited to buy in any event.
In my view, ultimately, we are not selling a product. We are not even selling a service. We are instead selling a need. – one that many individuals consistently fail to recognise until it becomes practically impossible to ignore.
This places the raising of awareness at the heart of everything. We have to ensure the public fully appreciates why the advice community is uniquely equipped to make a positive difference to millions of lives.
As I have written in the past, this means we must be seen as approachable and affordable. Ideally, we must also be seen as independent. Maybe above all, we must be seen as indispensible.
It is sometimes easy to forget there are literally thousands of potential clients out there for every adviser. The floodgates could well and truly open if more of them had a genuine idea of what we can do for them.
Dialogue, benefits and trust
Common tips on successful selling in other arenas are surprisingly relevant to the task we face. They underline the importance of making clear that the expertise and experience we can offer is not only essential but impossible to find elsewhere.
For example, it is often said the act of selling should be firmly rooted in dialogue. Particularly in our sphere, the objective should be a mutually beneficial transaction rather than a kind of perfunctory box-ticking exercise.
In other words, selling is not simply a matter of persuading a customer to commit to a purchase. It is instead a means of helping a customer articulate their needs.
Similarly, although it might be a cliché, the phrase “Benefits drive sales” rings true. A customer’s decision is normally influenced by tangible advantages rather than by endless waffle about “features”. Again, it is a question of identifying needs – and proving we can meet them.
Selling is also about trust. We all know trust is vital to a lasting adviser-client relationship, but it is also vital to starting that relationship in the first place. It has to be established from the outset, because it inspires confidence – and confidence, in turn, translates into more business.
Given all the above, it is no surprise that word of mouth plays such a sizeable role in bringing in new clients. There is no better advert for the adviser community than an ever-expanding cast of satisfied customers.
Building for a positive future
This brings us to an interesting point about the ongoing expansion of a business. As Truly Independent’s own story demonstrates, there is a lot to be said for planning with capacity in mind.
In 2010, when he launched the company, our CEO, Andrew Goodwin, set himself a target: to assemble a team of 10 advisers. It took longer than he expected, but he did it. His next milestone was 20, which was also reached in due course. Today we have more than 70.
Looking back, we now realise getting to 10 advisers required us to build a firm that could accommodate a hundred. Looking forward, we need to plan for a firm that can keep a thousand advisers busy – because that is how we are most likely to get to a hundred.
You may think this sounds slightly over-the-top – the sort of “Think big” spiel that dominates dreary books on business success and self-help. Yet most of us habitually apply such an approach to the major decisions in our non-professional lives.
For instance, we might buy a house with a “spare room”, even though we know it may not get regular use. We might own a car with four doors and at least as many seats, because we know we may need to accommodate friends, family, shopping and the like. Why self-impose constraints that could hold us back both in the immediate future and over the longer term?
In my opinion, one of the most effective ways of developing capacity is to provide different levels of service. Abandoning the shackles of the one-size-fits-all model encourages flexibility, preserves resources and avoids wasting clients’ time and money. It can be a key element of continued growth and forward thinking in an increasingly competitive market environment.
