Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
Wholesalers are supposed to be product pushers. Lately our firm is making us learn skills to build better relationships. It’s a great idea, but we get paid to sell a product. It is disingenuous to me to have us learn how to be better connectors; we can have great relationships, but if we don’t sell something, we’re out of our jobs. I get the theory, but in practice, it doesn’t work. How can I push back professionally on this idea? Spending time learning something that isn’t really going to help me is a waste.
Kevin H.
The 8-Factor Sales Effectiveness Model
Dear Kevin,
Ah yes – you are addressing one of my main refrains and complaints about the money spent on training. That is, if a reward system compensates for a different behavior than is being trained, then people will gravitate toward the compensated behavior. It’s natural human behavior.
My firm is seeing the same trend that you describe and we are big proponents of the relationship sale, but I completely agree that in order to actually change behavior – not just introduce new ideas and train people – you have to have the accompanying support mechanisms in place. It’s unfortunate but a lot of businesses see a conflict between the need for revenue and the ability to offer high levels of client service.
Having said all of this, I do think that wholesalers in particular have an opportunity to stand out differently in their market. Because of the issue you outline, most wholesalers are perceived in the same way – they push product. We work with both sides of the equation, the wholesalers selling and the advisors who are buying; advisors need and might benefit from the wholesaler who takes the time to understand their business and actually get to know them. Learning some “soft skills” even when your ultimate goal depends on you selling something could change the game for you and give you an advantage over the others who are not doing the same.
I encourage you to go into the training with a “What can I learn?” attitude and look for the opportunities to add value in a different way. It may help you stand out in a crowded market.
Dear Bev,
We have a small firm of seven people. As the leader of the firm, I don’t see it as my job to make sure people get along. However every issue that comes up gets brought to my attention. I find my role to be referee and therapist all too often. Are there ways that I can respond to show my support without taking the role of parent making sure the kids play nice?
Sara T.
Dear Sara,
It is lonely at the top, isn’t it? I can understand your frustration. I often say that if businesses didn’t have people, there’d be almost no problems. Of course without the people, there would be no business either!
There are a few things you can do. You may want to do one or two of these and not all of them, so select the best for your circumstance:
- Have a focused teambuilding session. This is not just for fun; have a goal. Have them agree on what they want the culture to be. Have them define success for the office. What things matter most?
- Run profiles on each person, so they can see their differences. We use the DISC tool that shows behavioral differences, but you could use others like Myers-Briggs or Strengthsfinder. These tools can show difference in styles, communication preferences and approaches objectively. Sometimes when people on the team see how different they are from the person they can’t get along with, they get a better understanding of the mismatched dynamics.
- When someone comes in to complain, invite the person they are complaining about in too! If you refuse to talk behind people’s backs and seek, instead, to start a conversation, you’ll find that (a) people will stop complaining to you or (b) you actually can facilitate the dialogue objectively.
- Get the team together to set “ground rules.” What will they agree to as operating principles in the firm? Choose up to 5 most important principles and publish these. Put them on the wall, or have them laminated so that people can post them at their desks. If someone brings you a complaint, check in on the ground rules. If applied consistently, they can start to become part of the culture.
Most importantly, don’t try to play mediator or counselor. It never works. You want to give them the skills, the framework and the tools to work together, but you don’t want to be the fix-it advisor!
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
