-Blue Chip Magazine
The increasing availability of information on the Internet is turning many
traditional financial advisor business models on their head. Chris Preen, Director
of online directory FindanAdvisor.co.za, investigates.
The common perception amongst financial advisors is that the legislative changes
experienced by the industry in the past few years have been completely government
driven. In reality, governments around the world have simply been keeping up
with the rising tide of the New Consumerism.
In the past decade there has been a massive power-shift. Says Dr John Leihard
of Houston University: “We’ve been seasoned to mass production and
mass media. We’re smarter buyers than our grandparents were.” More
and more marketing experts are echoing the same sentiments. “Consumers
have become jaded and cynical”, observes Rob Mackey, partner at a leading
US marketing consultancy, “There is a pile of broken promises heaped on
the floor.”
The gathering momentum of change can undoubtedly be attributed to the Internet.
Today nothing remains out of reach of the proactive consumer. At the click of
a button, mountains of information about every product and service is accessible.
Potential clients, unsatisfied with just a phone number and a free cocktail,
are researching the people they want to deal with and then contacting them directly.
As Brad Hill, respected Google analyst comments, the whole marketing procedure
is being changed from a push process to a pull process. Bombarding the public
with adverts, phone calls and direct mail is falling on deaf ears. The web-surfing
public is taking the initiative into their own hands and choosing their financial
planner themselves, rather than waiting to be chosen. The key now is for advisors
to ensure that comprehensive information about themselves and their service
is out there to be found.
These changes are not going to go away, especially when today’s army
of net-savvy children become the clients of tomorrow. Fortunately everything
cuts both ways. Planners who embrace the new changes also have gains to be made:
· reduced traveling time by leveraging e-communication
· larger geographic target markets
· less “cold calling”
· reduced stationary and printing costs
· valuable new marketing avenues through internet exposure.
The good financial advisor will always need a healthy dose of conservatism.
But it may pay to bear in mind what Jean Paul Getty had to say: “In times
of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.”
-Blue Chip Magazine
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