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GAFM Articles > > Wealth Management > China Economic and Wealth Management Summit - Wealth Management - It's personal™
China Economic and Wealth Management Summit - Wealth Management - It's personal™
By John Jarrett
07 October, 2006
| As China banks and financial institutions engage in the lucrative wealth management sector, high-net worth individuals in China are going to start being besieged with phone calls and contacts from financial planning and wealth management sales teams all vying for their investment capital. What are the key issues for Financial Planning Managers and technical investment consultants to focus on in this growing sector? How can you establish profitable client relationships in a market where relationships are measured in years and not minutes? How can you establish trust quickly? | ||
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| Personally we've had the experience of sometimes receiving daily calls from Financial Planners and the like to try and capture our investment dollars. Let's put ourselves in the client's shoes for a moment. As a financial planner, within moments of meeting a client in a face-to-face scenario, you expect a potential client to disclose their annual salary, their current net worth, their monthly budget and personal information about their children, retirement planning or personal goals. How personal can you get? In a market like China where such information is not easily disclosed, how can a financial planner succeed in a market that requires client trust to be established as early as the first contact with the potential client? | ||
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| For clients in China who are not used to being engaged by financial planners or wealth managers, there will definitely be a reluctance to provide such personal, detailed information. Trust is going to be the single most important element in the near term in the opportunity engagement with a potential customer. How do you establish trust in the short-term and at the same time deliver long-term profitable relationships? Here are a few tips: | ||
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| 1. | Trusted Brand | |
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| An establish Brand will be very important in the short-term in China. How will local brands play out as compared with global brands and private banks that have global experience? How can local brands capitalize on the marriage of local experiences with global best practice? Local institutions are going to have to invest in substantial training of their staff to demonstrate that the 'team' has the same skills as a global competitor. This will involve having staff who understand thoroughly the investment process, offshore and local investment markets and key taxation, retirement and wealth preservation issues. In addition, strong marketing commitment to presenting a very professional image is essential. Fact sheets photo-copied on poor quality paper are not appropriate for a customer who you want to invest US$100,000. Of course, local institutions can capitalize on their local brand presence to leverage these types of products to their wealthier clients. This provides the clearest advantage for local institutions to utilize ahead of the global competition. | ||
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| 2. | Independence through Product Mix | |
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| mix of assets that combine local funds with strong historical performance and offshore products, such as US or global equities, which allows more aggressive exposure to areas like tech and Bio-tech stocks, mean that clients can have some flexibility rather than just being limited to local products. Obviously there may be limitations in investing outside of the local market for some investors, but in any case local institutions should be preparing to offer products other than those just in their own portfolio because of the obvious limitations. Typically, banks and financial institutions have tended to focus on wealth management as a sales process for existing products. However, as clients gain sophistication, this proves to be a short term gain. The more powerful long term opportunity lies in providing your clients with a mix of the best information for their circumstances and the best products to suit their needs, regardless of where that product is sourced from. Clients will trust you more if you appear to provide independent advice. | ||
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| 3. | 'Template' client models | |
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| If clients don't want to disclose their net worth and current financial situation, then don't force them to. First establish the client's risk profile or tolerance and then based on an investment 'range' use a fictitious case study of a similar client, to narrow down investment choices for the new client. By using a case study a client can simply say - "No, I don't wish to invest that much in equities…" and you can further narrow the portfolio options until you have something suitable. Work up some template client models that you can use as the basis of a discussion with potential clients in an initial contact engagement. Indeed, it is very useful to go on and model the expected results of the investment mix suggested with these case studies. It is then only a short step to working on the client's own needs. | ||
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| 4. | Strong pre-sales and after-sales commitment | |
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| This is still even a problem in established markets like the US. When you get the opportunity to deliver for a client, keep contact with them and deliver high-value service, without expectations. Here are a few tips: | ||
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Follow up quickly after your first meeting and be thorough in your response to the client. | |
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Give them the information they ask for and don't overwhelm them with product information or 'sell' that is not directly applicable to them. | |
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Once you establish a client relationship through a sale, up-sell carefully with only very well targeted opportunities. Remember the client's needs. | |
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Celebrate your wins with them and help them to see that you are here as their advisor, not a commission based salesperson. | |
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Nothing builds trust like great product performance and great after-sales service. Set this up and you have a client for life. | |
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