Case Study 1
Improving Performance For 1,000+ Advisors at Top Financial Services Firm
A leading global financial services firm with more than 600 offices worldwide needed to dramatically improve the performance-and decrease the attrition rates-of its Financial Advisors, who are charged with increasing the firm's assets under management of high net-worth clients. A staggering 70% of Financial Advisors were not meeting their goals.
In order to reduce the tremendous drain on the organization in terms of costs, lost opportunities to build the business and time, the firm needed to optimize their training systems. Moreover, to truly deliver on their promise of being trusted advisors to their clients, the firm needed to implement an entirely new model for developing their talent and their ability to create strong client relationships.
Key Challenge
Within the highly competitive financial services environment, the company had long been promoting a transaction-oriented approach to selling rather than using a high-service, client-focused, consultative process that fostered long-term client relationships. Under the current structure, the firm's Financial Advisors-who were in their first twelve months of employment-were not given sufficient levels of training. Nor were there adequate systems to provide the skills and support needed within their branches to increase assets under management and thereby increase the likelihood of their success in meeting the company's benchmarks.
JDA Approach
JDA provided a suite of training, consulting and coaching services sharply focused on introducing a comprehensive system for skill development, as well as solidifying a structure for the firm to better ensure the retention and successful performance of strong talent.
The power of JDA... reflective listening, meaningful questions, and understanding styles helped bring in $7.7 million in new assets for the month.
JDA's unique "Performance-Sustaining" process created long-term change in the organization by:
- Removing the blocks to better communication-and better skill development: To improve the success of new Financial Advisors, they first needed to be equipped with better skills and taught viable methods to build long-term client relationships. JDA provided Consultative Sales training for over 1000 Financial Advisors. They also implemented a branch coaching process that consisted of training managers and FA mentors at the branch and regional level on the skills of coaching and meeting facilitation.
- Identifying key influencers to ensure ongoing talent development: In order to build systems of ongoing support after the initial training, JDA identified professionals within the organization who would be most influential in the continued growth and development of the Financial Advisors. We consulted with the Regional Training Managers on their in-branch coaching process and helped them optimize their bi-weekly conference calls so every touch point of their communications with Financial Advisors was productive. Further, we coached Senior-Level Financial Advisors to act as mentors and take newer Financial Advisors "under their wing" in developing new skills for their particular branches.
- Implementing practical strategies and tools: To ensure permanent improvements, we worked with managers on developing a more structured sales meeting process for their initial and follow-on client meetings. And, finally, we identified peer-to-peer coaching opportunities that enabled Financial Advisors to share best practices and lessons learned with one another-which further reinforced the new strategies and tools within the target groups.