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Extending Your Sales Force to the Web

By Helen Gurina

Many clients would like to connect their Web site to the firm's bottom line, yet few keep a clear line of communication between sales and e-Business. Getting sales involved in the design and promotion of online material can be an invaluable resource for making the firm's Web site a success. It will also ease the workload of sales and service personnel.

Internals and externals are in front of advisors every day. They can and should be leveraged to inform e-Business teams about concerns advisors face on a daily basis. Listening to wholesaler feedback can help e-Business teams create relevant content, make navigation advisor-centric, and design tools that advisors want to use. Ask sales what queries they receive most frequently and which can be easily served by the web. As a corollary, sales will feel confident in the firm's Web site and be motivated to drive traffic to the Web site. The self-service on the site will unburden wholesalers' days now that an advisor can download a stock report on their own without asking for it to be e-mailed. If they helped to design the site, sales will be more familiar with helping advisers find it and more comfortable knowing that it can indeed serve their needs.

Though some wholesalers don't immediately see what the online business has to do with their highly in-person line of work, their reservations can quickly be alleviated. Picking up the phone is not always a valuable meeting if the adviser is just calling to ask the same question he calls about on a weekly basis. As kasina's Web Lift research shows, an adviser covered by a wholesaler has more AUM with the firm if he/she is also uses the firm's Web site. An adviser served and informed by the Web site will still be encouraged to reach out to a wholesaler, ideally by a prominent photo and contact details, for more meaningful conversations. It also eases the load on the service desks if wholesalers direct advisers online to a highly functional site. Promoting an attitude of extending the sales force online can both focus online initiatives and help sales engage in more meaningful conversations.

kasina recently participated in a webcast discussing how firms can meet advisors' online expectations. You can listen to kasina's CEO, Steven Miyao, and other industry experts discuss advisors' online behavior by clicking here.