The mere mention of words such as collapse, Storm or more recently agribusiness would no doubt still stir up despair and disbelief for many within Australia’s financial services industry.
I’m not stating anything new. We’ve all had to endure the fallout from the global financial crisis in our own way.
For some the suffering experienced from such a global calamity has been too great to bear, while others seek good news to show their clients the industry they have relied on, as have their respective clients, is not simply a barrel filled with bad apples.
Little can be done to erase the drama of even the past six months, though perhaps for advisers taking steps to restructure and introduce a strong marketing program and value proposition to existing clients is the key.
The marketing of advice is an area where advisers are falling down as a result of the changing role of advisers, according to Advice Centre Consulting executive David Fox.
Fox says many advice principals continue to remain in charge of marketing alongside the day-to-day running of the business – a situation that has not changed for many since the establishment of their firm.
It’s typically only best practice advice firms, around the top 10 per cent in the industry, that allocate an average of 10 per cent or more of their business expenditure towards marketing activity, he says.
“So very few advice businesses allocate very much of their expenditure towards marketing, and they approach marketing very much on an ad hoc basis and very rarely do they get results,” he says.
In this week’s edition, IFA senior journalist Victoria Papandrea speaks with Fox and a number of other industry marketing experts to explore the options for promoting advice in a market downturn.
And it’s just not the downturn that will test the marketability of advice, the newly-appointed Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen has already foreshadowed that remuneration and advice will remain under the government spotlight, so the importance of conveying the message of advice will be more important than ever.
