Advisor Development: It’s Time to Make a Change Part II

By Rick Swygman | April 8, 2024

In our last blog Advisor Development: It’s Time to Make a Change we shared our perspective on the importance of changing your approach to “sales training” to achieve the results you are seeking. We (expectedly) received a few inquiries asking:

“What about coaching? Isn’t that the best way to develop advisors to ensure any training provided truly sticks?”

YES

+66% Increase in Impact

when training is complemented by in-field coaching and reinforcement.¹

+4x Sales Revenue

Sales reps reporting to great managers deliver four times more revenue than those working for poor managers …

BUT

Studies show that Coaching is the weakest skill of sales managers².

Only 11%

— of companies have a fully developed training program supporting their sales managers³.

While the above statistics relate to all industries, they certainly hold true for the wealth management industry. Consistently effective coaching DOES significantly impact advisor development and revenue growth. But based on all we’ve seen over our 40-year history dedicated to the financial services industry, sales leader coaching is the most neglected “priority” of all the strategies organizations can adopt to drive growth.

The Wealth Management Coaching Challenge

A survey conducted by the Sales Executive Council concluded that sales leaders in best-in-class sales organizations dedicate at least 3 hours per rep per month in direct coaching activities, which equates to 65-75% of their time (compared to an average for all sales organizations of 45%). Suspecting that this level of activity is difficult to achieve for wealth management sales leaders, we conducted our own survey of some of the best sales leaders we work with to see how our industry compares. Our suspicion was confirmed.

Based on our survey feedback, the average time dedicated to direct coaching activities was in the range of 25-30% per month. Far short of even the 45% average for ALL sales leaders, not just best-in-class.

As we dug more deeply into this issue, due to some key factors such as the competing priorities wealth management sales leaders deal with, finding a way to give them more time to coach was an untenable solution. It’s quite likely that for this reason alone, organizations decline to act on the coaching priority, and when they do the results are limited and sales leader frustration ensues.

The Solution

“Best-in-class sales organizations have a clearly defined, repeatable process that sales leaders can commit to and follow.”⁴ The key question is, how do you do that with 1/3^rd the time capacity compared to these best-in-class sales organizations?

We answer this for our clients by committing to three guiding principles in the delivery of sales leader training:

Simplicity, Efficiency and Consistency

Most coaching processes we’ve seen delivered in the wealth management industry are far too complicated and overly burdensome. Given all the administrative duties for which front-line sales leaders are responsible, the coaching process becomes difficult or even impossible to execute with any consistency.

To counter this is – and to achieve the simplicity, efficiency and consistency needed for success – we’ve found it most impactful to focus on three critical coaching competencies.

WHO to Coach

Often due to executive leadership expectations to address poor performers, sales leaders tend to spend an inordinate amount of time on the wrong advisors. Confirmed by numerous studies on this topic, coaching time spent on poor performers does NOT statistically improve performance. Time spent on top performers also has relatively little effect (though adequate time should be dedicated to supporting and retaining them). But time spent on the middle, “core performers” with the potential to become top performers, often leads to significant improvement. These are the advisors with whom you should spend the majority of your coaching time.

WHAT to Coach

Clearly defining WHAT to coach is a significant time-saver and provides the necessary discipline to drive results. Sales leaders are often left without clarity as to the specific skills and practices they should coach to. What is needed is a clear and tight definition of the core competencies advisors need to master for optimal success AND objective standards within each competency (i.e. what “good” looks like). Without this, sales leaders are left to draw on their own experience and coach according to “how I used to do it,” which leads to significant performance variability from one leader and market to the next.

If the core competencies are tightly defined from an organizational perspective the coaching process is then significantly simplified (see HOW to Coach below) and leads to greater consistency throughout the team and the firm.

HOW to Coach

Once clear on WHAT to coach, sales leaders are equipped for the third competency which can now be implemented with far greater efficiency and consistency. This is accomplished by two key tactics.

Conducting Binary Assessments

With the competencies and competency standards now clearly defined, the coaching process can be focused on conducting brief “binary assessments” of the advisor’s proficiency relative to the defined standards by asking questions such as:

“How do you position your value in meeting with a new prospect?”
“What is your framework for an effective discovery conversation?”

The time-saver here is that the coach’s role is now one of assessing if the advisor is proficient based on their ability to effectively answer the question and demonstrate proficiency. No longer are coaches compelled to spend valuable time teaching and training, as that should be provided through your advisor training resources.

Defining your Coaching Strategy

Too often coaches struggle with what to focus on to best guide and support an advisor in their development. They often feel compelled to address multiple skills or practices the advisor needs to work on to improve their performance.

We strongly encourage “The ONE Thing” coaching strategy. Once you’ve assessed the advisor’s strengths and weaknesses, resist the temptation to help them in multiple facets of their role and instead focus on the ONE thing that will make the greatest and most immediate impact on their productivity. Once that ONE thing is mastered, move on to the next.

While there are more details behind how we help our clients develop their front-line sales leaders, we’ve found that a framework of this kind – committed to the guiding principles of efficiency, simplicity, and consistency – enables you to deploy a coaching process that will have a profound impact on your productivity and your culture.

Call to Action

If you would like to learn more about our Sales Leader Coaching Program or have any questions or thoughts you would like to discuss in more detail, schedule a call below.

¹ Sales Executive Council
² Corporate Executive Board
³ American Society for Training and Development
⁴ Sales Benchmark Index