Greene Consulting recently hosted a forum with some of the best market level leaders we know in the wealth management industry to discuss some of the key opportunities and challenges facing financial services firms.  These leaders who come from a variety of firms from small to large, have a unique perspective with true, “street-level knowledge”…

Whether you are an advisor, coach a team of advisors or lead a division, the purpose of this brief article is to encourage you to pause for a minute and honestly reflect on your approach and your firm’s approach to the Client Discovery Conversation and, more specifically, think about how you would answer the following…

Given the breadth of contacts we have in our work in the financial services industry, we are afforded the opportunity to encounter some of the best bankers, advisors, market leaders and executive leaders in the industry. Recently, we thought it worthwhile to connect some of the best in these roles with each other, believing that…

One of the things we do quite often in our quest to help our industry raise the bar on the value provided to its clients is participate in pre-call planning sessions. A majority of these sessions are focused on planning for an upcoming Relationship Review Meeting with a high-value client. All too often, we hear…

Planning software firms like eMoney and MoneyGuidePro are exponentially growing in terms of the number of firms and advisors utilizing their planning software (with currently well over 100,000 advisors in the U.S. equipped with eMoney or MoneyGuidePro, not to mention the numerous other planning platforms). Yet, the vast majority of firms incorporating these capabilities are…

Though the DOL Fiduciary Rule is off the regulatory table at this point, its impact on investment advisory and wealth management practices is undeniable and likely lasting.  As a result, financial planning has become a strategic priority for many firms and advisors.  Yet from what we at Greene Consulting have seen, the implementation of such…

The single biggest obstacle to consistently achieving goal in our industry is sales leadership, or more specifically, the lack of consistent, value-add coaching. Probably not a profound revelation for most of you. But if you’re not convinced, do a quick Google search on the impact of coaching. I did one moments ago and immediately found…

Recent research about the financial services industry suggests we have some work to do as to how our industry is perceived by the general public. In 2016, the financial services industry (for the fourth consecutive year) ranked dead last out of 15 industry categories.[1] Only 1 out of 3 customers are strongly committed to continuing…

The industry is now at an inflection point. There are two strategic priorities: achieving excellence in client experience and managing transformational change. PWC Global Banking and Wealth Management Survey 2013 The conclusion in this PWC survey served to reinforce what Greene Consulting anticipated back in 2010 – that the next major focus for financial services…

“75% of solution selling efforts were considered failures after only three years.” McKinsey & Company 2015 I thought it timely to write about this topic as we have recently run into so many financial services firms who are implementing a new sales process. Obviously, the goal in doing so for most firms is to enhance…