Why automated sales enablement is reinventing the financial services industry

4 Ways Automated Sales Enablement is Reinventing the Financial Services Industry

Financial Services is a conservative arena at the best of times. Fund managers, bankers, insurance agents, mortgage providers, credit card entities, and the like are slow to invite technology or new ideas into their space. However, things have substantially changed over the last few years. Indeed, for many reasons noted below, it’s clear that financial services as an industry could be the poster child of everything beneficial sales enablement can do for you. Finserv markets are yielding to innovations daily, and SaaS developers have noticed the shift – especially those leading the technological drive into this industry.

To put things in perspective, we’ll deal with sales enablement under three crucial sections.

1. Regulation and Compliance

When it comes to financial services, what you can say, and what you can’t is highly regulated. It often boils down to even to tactics like the message content, the media used, and even timing. Inattentive thinking that’s not super-vigilant on all of this can create questions of “over-promising” – taboo when it comes to investments, credit, and savings. At the same time, institutions are marketing with considerable budgets to capture the minds and souls of intermediaries and consumers alike – two opposing considerations, if you will. 

• The last thing any entity entrusted with clients’ assets can afford are rogue reps. In other words, reps overeager to close deals, to the point where they take short cuts and ignore the latest regulatory changes. 
• Administration divisions prioritize bringing on software that instantaneously updates all marketing and sales materials to emerge fully compliant. 
• As materials are generated for, or readily available to the reps, they are already updated. 
• There’s no possibility that waivers, alerts, small-print addendums, and the like, can be avoided in a rep-client presentation.

The measures taken, as described above, cannot monitor rep activities in and of themselves. However, that’s where sales and marketing management roles come into play. These set out presentation procedures for the reps to follow, with checks and balances, but without delaying or disrupting the reps’ schedules. The rep should have no reason not to use the updated sales aids when meeting with clients because they have genuine support value and are at one’s fingertips.  

• When a new regulation impacts client information, any administration insertion should automatically transmit to and populate through the entire system. 
• From a selling viewpoint, it includes pitch decks, brochures, agreements – indeed, every document that finds its way into the client’s vision or hearing. 
• Modern-day sales enablement software structured around the industry specifically makes the task seamless and easy to implement. It onboards reps quicker, support sales with smarter resources, and delivers the right message for every conversation. 
• The most compelling reason of all, they’re cost-effective and makes every bit of sense from an ROI point of view. 
  

2. Branding and Today’s Information

If you are an advisor, there’s no substitute for building rapport with your client. It depends on establishing trust and confidence in one’s product knowledge. This is especially true when the service stretches into the actual management of funds. Remember, there are umpteen horror stories out there, each one telling of unique scammer slyness. Added to that, the hacking epidemic and identity theft weigh heavy on clients’ minds – no matter how much they smile at you in a meeting. However you present yourself, it’s imperative to get through all the emotional interference.

The other significant consideration is that the market is intensely competitive. There are a lot of national brand names that dominate investors’ attention. Disruption of dominance in a saturated marketplace is not an easy challenge to overcome. So how does automated sales enablement empower modern sellers in financial services to get ahead? The gold standard is to turn new prospects into new customers and closing more deals in less time, but it’s easier said than done. Here are the turning points:

1. Brand identity in a constructive and uniform format is all-important. In the same way as regulations and compliance items migrate to the sales aids, so should the logos, slogans, and themes of the company. 
2. The company rules should stipulate that any client interface can only occur with explicit, branded material, coded to show the latest update.
3. Moreover, the audio and visual messaging should refer to the very latest market trading situation as a zero-tolerance requirement. If the rep can’t discuss what’s happening right now, he or she has no business presenting at all.
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5. 3. Saving Time and Effectively Communicating

Investments and banking is an intensely personable business. One inescapable metric is that success depends on actually selling eighty percent of one’s time. Credibility and confidence emerge through consistent interaction with client questions and understanding investor motivations first-hand. Moreover, moving between investment options depending on the needs, looking like an expert in each case, is crucial. Nothing short of consummate professionalism will do, where the investment brand is visible.

All the support outlined in the headings above saves the reps valuable time, adding to the hours they are in front of the client. They know that when the connection ultimately occurs, they will be showing the best brand representation, compliant information, and updated data and infographics. What’s not in all this, is the need to sell the way the customer wants to buy — optimal communication, in other words.

Maybe the investor client prefers digital communications through say Skype and WhatsApp, or Zoom calls to conference in accountants or lawyers. Or perhaps, in the comfort of their home after dinner with interested friends and family? The vital considerations impacting a successful outcome are these: 

• Who’s influencing the sale?
• What’s the quickest time to value in the clients’ eyes?

There’s no substitute for flexibility – adapting to different circumstances as a modern financial services seller. Underestimating decision influencers in any financial services situation can kill the sale before it begins. It’s more than likely that a client about to hand over a sizable chunk of savings will call on professional or otherwise trusted opinions.

• The rep’s company must equip itself technologically to accommodate clients far afield with any number of parties included, at the drop of a hat. 
• It must remove the task of arranging such meetings from the reps’ agenda. 
• Service like this attracts the best professionals to the company because it gives them the best chance of engaging buyers
• It meets the buyer’s expectations, and most importantly, differentiates the buyer’s journey

4. Training on the Job

A critical aspect of financial services competitiveness is to ensure that reps and support personnel are all on the same page. Case studies and role-plays are excellent methods for bringing new reps up to speed quickly, and getting the entire sales team to face tricky situations. Sales enablement focuses on rep training using updated data to keep case studies as close to real-time conditions as possible. Furthermore, it injects all regulatory content to focus everyone’s attention on the changes. 

Financial service reps also respond well to awards and accolades that highlight their achievements. Sales enablement apps identify any extraordinary client investments coming through the system that warrant special mention. 

In short, the platform is broad enough to accommodate staff training in every corner of the relevant investment arena, and keep the reps motivated based on meaningful recognition.  

Conclusion

Get Pitcher onside to help you get to an all-in-one financial services solution to protect your brand. They have the consultancy resources to create a single enterprise-grade platform for your business. Their Innovative sales and marketing solutions are global and proven. Pitcher is one of the best service and technology providers in the sales enablement field that can customize solutions to meet your every need. Where it’s compliance, branding, or the message, look to Pitcher to deliver the highest performing innovative content for industry-leading results. You’ll find their technologies include the latest machine learning and AI-Powered software, making the neutral networks Intuitive and easy to navigate.