Part 1 of a 3-Part Series: How Asset Management Firms are Redefining Sales and Services Using CRM and More
Sales targeting. Trade resolution. Getting the data you need to make the right decisions. With very few exceptions, the challenges faced by asset management firms—on both the institutional and wholesale sides—are generally consistent. But the technology designed to support your efforts still hasn’t gotten it quite right. 
Whether you use a “horizontal” CRM solution like Salesforce or a point solution like SalesPage, you aren’t operating at peak efficiency. Traditional systems and the traditional approaches they support don’t take the big picture into account: It’s not about CRM; it’s about how you do business.
For asset management firms to break down these roadblocks, the conversation needs to be expanded not only to include what CRM can do (that goes far beyond what most realize), but also into technologies like predictive analytics and machine learning, as well as other tools and techniques that promote increased engagement at all levels.
In this 3-part series, you’ll learn about the components that come together to form an operational platform that will fill those gaps you’ve been dealing with for too long:
Part 1: CRM as a Platform – A CRM software solution should be more than a tool to hold customer data; it should be able to serve as an . Can your CRM do that? It should, and we’ll tell you why.
Part 2: Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics – This is very powerful technology that is very real, and asset managers can benefit from it without complications and high costs.
Part 3: Tools to Help You Go Where You Want to Go – There are several very impressive and easy to use tools that you probably already have that go beyond CRM to help boost your sales and services.
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need data to face the challenges of sales targeting, trade resolution, and other unique processes. But standard CRM has not been quite up to the task of providing the data and helping you make sense of it.
Perhaps the conversation needs to be broadened to include such technology as predictive analytics, machine learning and other tools and techniques that help you make sense of the data you’ve so carefully collected.
Asset managers have to do more to stay ahead of the competition, and they need to be especially tuned in to their most profitable relationships. Your CRM system should help you strategically, not just act as a glorified filing cabinet. If you’re thinking of upgrading your CRM system, you’ll want to be sure that the new one will support your business processes and provide real value.
You need more than CRM; you need an operational platform with CRM at the hub
Most CRM systems these days are full of features and functions. They can help you organize your data. But you want more for your asset management business. You want your to integrate with the other tools you use daily and depend on. CRM can be the foundation that supports all of your business-critical applications.
Institutional sales: Are you seeing the big picture?
If you’re in institutional sales, you need to keep on top of relationships. You will constantly be reviewing requests for information, RFPs, traders, and numerous news and activity feeds. You’ll also need to look at all of the interactions concerned with making offers and institutional sales opportunities. You’ll be tracking relationships, not just customer data.
Can your CRM system track internal interactions between a salesperson and an analyst? It is important to understand who knows who, who is meeting and why, how follow-ups are being handled…and all the details around these relationships and activities. Without this information, you won’t have the whole picture, and your business will suffer.
The right CRM solution will give you the ability to easily view how your institutional salespeople are interacting with your consultants, as well as what the outcomes of those interactions are and whether they are generating profit. The right CRM solution lets you track activity and relationships easily and intuitively without having to jump from screen to screen looking for your data.
The right CRM can monitor your team’s emails, phone calls, and meetings and use the information to point out opportunities or areas of concern. Your CRM should alert you to the fact that Mary, an institutional salesperson, hasn’t been talking much lately to John, a consultant…and John hasn’t been forwarding any deals to Mary. Maybe that’s a relationship that could be more productive.
Wholesalers: Do you know who is buying what?
What if you’re a wholesaler? You need to build relationships with advisory firms to distribute your organization’s products. You need to understand the connections between your firm’s offerings, your distribution platforms, the relationships you’ve already built and the buying history and agreements you’ve made. You need to be aware of the trades occurring throughout your distribution platforms and be able to align the trades back to the buying agreements you put together with your distribution platforms.
Can your CRM system track all that information and handle critical integrations that enable you to close the loop? Can it give you a handle on your trade agreements and tell you which fund distributors are buying your product? Can it keep track of tolerances, interests, and types of investments? If not, you can’t know for sure that you’re building lucrative relationships that will result in increased product sales.
With the right CRM solution, you can:
- Manage trip and territory planning, making your wholesalers more efficient and effective.
- Create roll-ups showing performance-based capital inflows.
- Operate in a mobile environment where your wholesalers can log calls, look up clients, and capture interactions and activities even when out of the office.
- Understand the trading activity of all your clients.
- Motivate your team by enabling them to see their achievements instantly.
- Provide detailed client profile tear sheets quickly and from anywhere so your wholesalers have everything they need to be ready for the next meeting.
- Seamlessly realign territories and account allocation so you can are focus on the most profitable relationships and activities.
How does your CRM measure up?
Looking at CRM as a platform rather than an application—and tallying up the benefits of a CRM solution that connects critical systems and uses machine learning to increase the productivity of your team—where does your CRM stand? Are you ready to move ahead? to learn more about what can do for your firm.
