There are a lot of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions out there, including many by large and well-known companies, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find a solution that works for wealth management firms and the advisors working with them. In our experience, the opposite is true – when we talk with potential clients who are interested in the NexJ Integrated Advisor Desktop (IAD), what we hear is a lot about what doesn’t work for them.

Bigger isn’t always better – that’s the key takeaway from the latest research report from Nucleus Research on Salesforce’s CRM offering. In fact, as Salesforce has grown larger by acquiring and absorbing smaller competitors and specific products, the organization has seen declining scores in many areas – enough to push Salesforce out of its spot in the Leader quadrant of the Nucleus CRM Value Matrix. Shockingly, 51% of those surveyed said they would replace Salesforce if they could.

Wealth management is about trust. It is about giving an advisor control of your financial health and security and depending upon that advisor to make or recommend decisions that help you meet your financial goals. When we, as vendors, focus on features that give our products an edge, we always focus on how specific features can help advisors build more trust. This is what makes relationship hierarchies so important.

In terms of technology, there are minor differences between relationship hierarchies for corporate and investment banking and wealth management. The big differentiator is the intent. Corporate and investment banks track multiple hierarchies for the same corporations, such as risk relationships versus legal relationships. This allows bankers to get a holistic view of what makes the most business sense for a client. Wealth management needs a single hierarchy because they focus on single households and extended households. So, how exactly do you make a hierarchy that specifically speaks to the needs of an advisor?

Who doesn’t want their team to work faster? And not just faster, but better as well? It’s what we all want. That’s why ‘increasing productivity’ is a key driver behind many front-office system upgrades. It’s also the reason so many vendors promise productivity improvements. So, how do you sort out the empty promises from the legitimate ones? The simple answer: do your research. Ask questions, and demand proof.

In a business landscape awash with “agnostic,” or non-industry-specific customer relationship management (CRM) tools, firms who adopt industry-specific CRM solutions are better able to unlock revenue opportunities, decrease risk, ensure compliance, and boost user adoption.

That is according to a recent Forrester Research report, “How CRM Evolves to Support Industry Requirements.” The report, which analyzes the impact and potential of CRM tools across several industries, clearly makes the point that industry-specific CRM solutions are increasingly sought after. That is particularly the case among financial services firms.

More and more wealth management firms are beginning to recognize that the ability to understand a customer better, based upon an understanding of individual likes and dislikes, enables them to offer solutions tailor-made for specific needs. This leads to product differentiation, deeper client engagement and, ultimately, customer loyalty.

In the anatomy of a financial services organization, software is the circulatory system. It picks up the data in the brain, or database, and delivers it to where it's needed. It connects all the parts of the body together and ensures the body is working well as a single entity.  
 
So, when a system stops receiving support, it affects the health of the entire company. It can become expensive to maintain, difficult to upgrade, or so obsolete it risks pulling the company behind the competition. When people can’t or aren’t using the system, or when the system isn’t able to provide the functionality that’s needed, the organization must replace it. 

Looking for a CRM to meet your needs, but struggling to identify what features your advisors will actually use? Learn what a CRM truly made for wealth management means. Boost your advisors productivity by giving them the ability to view households and spheres of influence, the chance to engage them with personalized content and ultimately engage them at the right time with next best actions.  

There are thousands of companies and products that market themselves as Customer Relationship Management solutions, ranging from industry behemoths to tiny niche products. Given the importance of relationships to financial advisors, it’s no surprise advisory and wealth management firms think they need a CRM system. But is that really what they need?

We were lucky enough to sit down with April Rudin, Founder and President of The Rudin Group, Aawad Aamir, Analyst with Celent, and Andrew Cant, VP of Financial Services Solutions at NexJ Systems, about what truly improves the advisor experience. Throughout our conversation, we discussed the future of advisor efficiency, the current state of next best action, and how firms can implement tools to help advisors be at the top of their game.

The wealth management industry has always been competitive. With the advent of robo-advisors, retail investor apps and financial firms of all stripes entering the fray, each promising potential clients more of what they want, how can an advisor stand above the crowd and attract the right kind of clients?

The wealth management industry has undergone a tremendous level of change in the past two years, driven by COVID-related forces, changing consumer expectations, and technological advances. The customer relationship management (CRM) market for wealth management is fighting to stay abreast of these trends and deliver the kinds of useful insights and time-saving efficiency advisors need to succeed.