Product providers' efforts to reach financial advisors may be for naught if they don't ease up on how often they're communicating with them. A report released in January by Practical Perspectives found that advisors are overwhelmed by the contact they get from various asset managers, insurance companies and other product providers. They ignore most communications, unless they're from a firm they're already working with.
"Advisors consider the marketing and sales outreach they receive from product providers and other sources to be useful, but most don't have the time to digest the messages given the sheer volume and other day-to-day priorities," Howard Schneider, president of Practical Perspectives and author of the report, said in a statement.
The report found a typical advisor receives as many as 25 different marketing contacts a day, although about a third said they receive "significantly more" than that. Probably not surprisingly, email was the most common form of communication, accounting for more than half of the contacts advisors received.
"Providers are spending countless resources on outreach each year to build awareness, loyalty and sales. Many advisors indicate these contacts do influence key factors such as their willingness to consider a particular provider or their loyalty to a firm," Schneider said. "The struggle is how you get the attention of advisors in a highly cluttered environment with so many firms competing for the chance to connect."
Many advisors suggested reducing the number of communications sent to them as a way to get their attention, but the big changes they wanted to see were more concise materials that were focused on relevant topics and targeted their particular client base, according to the report.
