Too many advisors fail to follow-up after missing out on a piece of 401(k) plan business. Those that do rarely get a straight answer. The solution, says Yaqub Ahmed, is to hire a win/loss consultant.
The senior vice president and head of defined contribution for Franklin Templeton described the process and reasons for doing so on Saturday morning at the GRP Advisor Alliance 2016 Industry Leaders Conference in Haines, Alaska.
“We’ve hired Chatham Partners to develop research and whitepapers around the subject of why 401(k) advisors fail to get the business,” Ahmed said. “They call and ask the prospect about why they did or did not go with the advisor. Plan sponsors are far more likely to open up and reveal the real reason if they are speaking with a third party, as opposed to the advisors themselves.”
In this way, he added, advisors can fine-tune their pitch, presentation and team and learn from the experience.
“The whole idea is to improve what the advisor is doing,” Ahmed explained. “Small business owners rarely hire win/loss consultants, but it’s what all the large firms do. It’s a way for advisors to institutionalize their practices. It’s about analyzing the optics of the organization, the sales process and the team. The report they get back is usually a one page summary and a transcript of the call. It also looks good for the advisor to say, ‘You’ll be receiving a call from a research firm with whom I’ve partnered.’”
Grant Arends, president of consulting services with Alliance Benefit Group of Kanas City, added that he is “astounded by how advisors drop the ball in finalist meetings.”
“One example was an advisor team going into a conference room for the meeting. A woman was the head of the team, and she carried in the cookies and passed them out, while the men carried the books, presentation material and other items. The people in the meeting were turned off by the fact that the men reduced their female boss to the menial task of handing out cookies, and the team didn’t get the business.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
