Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Dear Bev,
Where do we go to find good talent? We have a thriving advisory firm, run by great leaders and we grow every single year. We rarely lose any of our team. But when we do, it is usually because someone is moving out of state or leaving the industry. We’ve never lost anyone to a competitive financial firm.
But when we do have open roles, it’s a problem to find good people who are a fit for our culture. We mostly search by word-of-mouth and by posting on LinkedIn. But we don’t get good candidates from which to choose. One of our roles has been open for seven months– we are looking for a junior advisor. We don’t even require them to come with “a book” as some firms do. We have plenty of overflow to give to someone who is good at client servicing.
Are there tips you can offer to help us stand out and attract attention?
F.A.
Dear F.A.,
I hear this issue raised from my clients. Many believe they have a great working environment and can offer a nice position but they can’t find the right candidates to offer the situation to in the first place! There are a few things advisory firms miss when searching for new employees.
- Be proactive meeting people and identifying new talent. Get to know the colleges in your area and get friendly with their career departments. Go to industry events and meet younger advisors who may be considering a career change. Be active in your community where people interested in a career in financial advisory can meet you and learn more about it. Become known and get to know people who might be either a possible candidate, or a connection to a candidate for your firm.
- Be on the lookout for talent even when you don’t have a “role.” A lot of advisory firms wait until they need to fill a position. Then they are more urgent about finding someone. Instead of waiting until the position is open, go back to idea #2 and be actively talking to people on an ongoing basis. If you were to identify someone who was a good cultural fit, you could stay in touch until the right opportunity came about. One of my clients talked to a younger advisor who was working in a large insurance company. They were just friendly and would meet for coffee on a regular basis. Eventually the younger advisor got tired of being inside of a large organization and asked my client if there was a role for him. It was over two years of knowing one another so the fit was a perfect one. If you can be patient and in it for the long haul, it can pay off.
Finding the right talent for any given firm is a process, not a single event. Start thinking about it as more of a process (and a sales process, at that) and you might find your experience shifting in locating the right people for your firm.
Dear Bev,
I have an advisor with outside interests. I don’t want to share details about what she does or she will recognize herself. But she runs a successful business that is completely unrelated to financial advice. There are no compliance issues; it is all disclosed.
The problem is that I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of full-time focus here at the firm. She hasn’t been a rainmaker and she needs to focus her time more. She debates with me that time is an issue – she thinks she can be just as successful working 30 hours a week as she can 45-50. I don’t see how this is possible. She claims in her other business she is exposed to wealthy individuals and families and that she is able to network and uncover leads.
Am I being sold a bill of goods? Have you ever heard anything like this from other advisors? I don’t see how more time in my office does not lead to more work being done on my behalf.
D.B.
Dear D.B.,
Not only have I heard of this – I was involved in two conversations this week of a similar nature with other firms. During the conversations, and to illustrate to my clients it is a manageable situation, I was harkening back to a client we had many, many years ago who had someone on staff who owned and managed a series of very successful high-end gyms. The locations were in wealthy towns and his clientele had a lot of money. He managed to run these locations well, and engage in conversation with his clients there about finances. Many of them became clients of the firm. He worked with another advisor and partnered in bringing in the business, but it worked really well for the firm overall and for him personally. So, yes, it is doable, but it requires commitment and dedication.
There are often two problems that don’t necessarily have to do with just working “more hours.” It is possible to work smarter, not just longer hours, however one best have a clear plan of action in order to maximize your time.
Does your advisor know how to engage in conversations with clients from her other business? Is she comfortable bringing a client from one business to the other? Do you expect her to fully close these opportunities or is she charged with just finding a prospect and someone else in your firm can help her sign the client? Have you put parameters on her and set expectations for numbers of introductions and ways to leverage her relationships? Are you tracking what she is doing when she is in the office? Is she as productive as she can be?
In one of the conversations this week, the team member started with a part-time focus that has morphed over time into full-time. The owner of the firm should have caught the situation earlier in the process because now it is a full-blown commitment and the advisor involved doesn’t think he can pull back in either area.
This is another reminder to me that things don’t work themselves out on their own. You have to establish your desired outcome with this advisor, understand what obstacles there are to her contributing more new business to the firm and insert rewards appropriate to what she is being asked to do. You will probably need to manage the situation closely and track whether she can shift to successfully manage both endeavors.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Entrepreneurship. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
Read more articles by Beverly Flaxington