The Secret To Client Management Solutions

How you handle your client management solutions could be the difference to how profitable you will be.

As an advisor, you face a number of challenges in today's technology-driven environment. You need software to generate, process and control business leads and opportunities. You must also have database management control; improves internal and manual processes; improved customer relationships and service; increase productivity; have staff accountability; and reduced costs and reduced duplication of efforts.

As your business grows along with your client base, you seriously run the risk of having things fall through the cracks if you are not using technology to help support the business. Effective client management becomes paramount. Regardless of the stage in your career, technology does make you a better business person.

An advisor goes through certain stages in the course of operating his or her business. The earlier stages focus on efficiency, and the latter stages involve making significant revenue gains as well as maximizing efficiency with financial reporting software. In the beginning, you are just getting started and have to learn the forms and procedures.

The next stage is contact management. At this stage, you should be using a computer, incorporating a word-processing program, a spreadsheet and a financial planning package along with some of your back-office functions.

Two years into the business, you are at the growth stage, at which time a snowball effect takes place. You know the workflow and how to organize your workdays. The problem many advisors face at this juncture is the rapid increase in the number of clients they're serving.

At this point you are probably more reactive than proactive regarding client management. You've gone from growth management and getting clients to making sure the relationships you've established remain secure and grow stronger. Many advisors, when they reach this point, begin losing contact with clients and actually start forgetting who they are. Hiring more staff is usually the first remedy to this problem.

At the final stage, you have a team in place. The issues are not only managing client relationships but also managing your entire book of business. As as example you want to make a change in an investment, you must identify all clients who fall into that category, notify them and then automate the whole portfolio transaction.

Even with the success many advisors across the country enjoy, Stevenson is surprised by the number of individuals who still do not have or resist using any sort of client-management solution despite the obvious advantages.

At a minimum, it will save having to re-enter basic client information repeatedly. Having up-to-date and accurate current information will also tie into other client-contact activities, such as completing tasks, making phone calls and even using your calendar.

All the tasks and activities done on behalf of a client in a good contact system will automatically register.

As the advisor acquires more clients, it becomes even more important to set up processes within the contact-management system. This means more than just name, address, phone number and so on. It also means managing the business and using a software package that is easy to operate and helps you become more proactive.