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An orchestrated approach to marketing
Over time we’ve learned that while the dog-eat-dog world of sales and marketing portrayed in films like Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross makes for excellent drama, it’s by no means an effective strategy. In fact, it’s the polar opposite approach – pack hunting – that distinguishes the marketing efforts of today’s most successful firms.
We’ve all seen instances where a dynamic face-to-face seller drops the ball because they lack the necessary follow-up skills. Or the tenacious appointment-setter who can open any door but has difficulty in closing the sale. Your goal as team leader should be to leverage those strengths and mitigate those weaknesses for the greater good of the team.
As with all other aspects of your team, defined rules and structures, along with a cultivated environment of mutual accountability and interdependence lay the groundwork for marketing success. Everybody on your team should have a well-defined role to play in the acquisition of new client relationships. Someone is responsible for managing the pipeline. Someone else is in charge of appointment setting. A third person takes ownership of appointment follow-up. And you, as team leader, ensure that the entire team is contributing to and participating in the building of client advocates.
Today’s financial advisory teams are able to rely on collective skills in ways that weren’t possible just a few short years ago, with CRM technology greatly facilitating information sharing and group learning. And a growing number of firms are now using these tools to further emphasize the value of the team and migrate away from the inequities (in both recognition and compensation) that served as the hallmark of the “rainmaker.” Traditional highly-leveraged variable compensation based on individual performance has given way to competitive base salaries coupled with smaller variable compensation based on team performance.
Effective marketing requires a well-orchestrated approach that’s thoughtfully choreographed and carefully conducted. This is especially important when it comes to engaging your younger Millennial team members who strongly desire the interactivity of the group – both hunting and going on appointments together.
Coaching Questions from this article:
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