A real point of difference has emerged in the type of adviser and planning businesses Securitor are attracting, and it centres on the process of corporatisation.
For a while now, it has been clear that to be efficient, proficient and profitable in the post-FOFA world and beyond, planning businesses need to corporatise their offering.
That is, practices must have systems and processes in place to ensure the business (not an individual) delivers on and tracks the promises made to clients.
This model represents quite a change from the past, in particular for those businesses that have advisers who happen to be ‘accidental owners’.
For those who have often used their business as an annuity income stream without investing in it, face a tough future and their businesses will struggle. I can say this because I have seen the different journeys of those businesses that have gone down the corporatised path and those who have not – the differences are stark.
The businesses that are and will continue to thrive are those that have a work flow system in place which enables a focus on productivity. This will deliver efficiency improvements, and most importantly, ensure the practice delivers on its promises to clients – first time every time.
But achieving this model is not easy. It requires some hard conversations regarding strategy, an investment in workflow systems technology and a detailed analysis of the cost to serve the different segments of both the current and future clients of the business.
If it can be delivered, centres of influence (COIs) will have line of sight for the work being done for their clients, while CEOs will better understand where work is coming from and how to continue to market to that channel.
Finally, investments in technology will allow the business to engage its clients via tools, such as social media, as they will now be able to track the conversion rate / engagement rate for clients who want to engage in this way.
Matt Englund is managing director of Securitor and Licensee Select
