Perception of financial planners slowly improving

Perception of financial planners slowly improving

by DONNA SADDLER

Financial planners are being better perceived by clients but there is still history to overcome.

Financial planners aren’t bad: they’re just misunderstood. Financial planners are, like lawyers, one of the professions consumers disdain.

Long pilloried as being the used car salesmen of the financial world, there is widespread confusion in the minds of the public about the role financial planners play.

Consumers often think financial planners are untrustworthy, lacking in qualifications and only in it for the commissions attached to the products they sell.

In reality, what financial planners do is help each client meet their financial goals, taking into account individual circumstances and aspirations and the options that are available to them. They do not have a nanny role to help the client abstain from acquiring conspicuous goods, but they offer advice regarding bigger expenses.

Part of the reason the industry attracts such flack is that although many financial planners are honest and reliable, the whole industry has been tarnished by the behavior of a few bad apples.

Recently consumers are becoming more satisfied with the work of financial planners. Recent research shows that one third of respondents had noticed an improvement in the overall quality of advice given by their financial planner.

Although these results show a positive improvement in consumer satisfaction levels concerning advisers, financial planners cannot rest on their laurels.

There are still issues with the level of complexity of information contained in financial documents and that financial planners are still facing a trust issue.

The industry has a long way to go to cut the wheat from the chaff; lots of guys have got fat and happy based on the growth of the industry, without providing the advice that clients need.

There are also problems with financial planners not taking enough of an interest in their clients.

Create a Uniform Workflow Standard:

Create a Uniform Workflow Standard:

CRM And Company Wide Sales Policies

by  Eliteseo4u

Business that wish to create a uniform workflow can find a CRM solution to their problems.

Keeping all employees on the same page and enforcing a workflow standard can be a nightmare for a growing company.  As the number of employee’s increases, managers and business owners are not able to spend as much time overseeing the work of their employees as they could when the company was smaller and some little things begin to fall through the cracks.  Over time the little issues can become bigger issues until the company reaches a critical point.  Without oversight employee standards begin to drop and the company can find itself in serious trouble.  A CRM system can provide workflow solutions that enforce a uniform work standard.

Why is a uniform standard important?

Uniform standards ensure that employees are all using the same process when dealing with customers.  The process makes sure that employees follow company approved steps and that all sales team members file the same reports for each sales call or meeting.  This reduces the number of variations in reports, and allows management to focus on the data.  One of the standards protocols that many companies use is the approval of all contract proposals over a preset dollar amount before the proposal is sent to the customer.  Without a system in place to make sure that employees are following the company’s guidelines, employees can get lazy and not seek contract approvals.  This can lead to problems when a customer is quoted a price that is lower than the company can afford, and if the customer approves a contract only to have that contract revoked by the company at a later date, the customer may choose to find another vendor.

How does CRM enforce the uniform standard?

CRM enforces the uniform standard through a guided pipeline approach to sales.  The guided pipeline has checkpoints that employees must meet before moving on.  At every step of the sales process team members are required to update the status of the job.  In the situation requiring approval for contracts, when the salesperson changes the status to “In Negotiations”, the CRM system can refuse to allow any more movement in the pipeline until a manager has updated the contract status as “Approved” in the CRM system.  This keeps management informed about the status of customer interactions at critical points in the sales process.

Doesn’t CRM limit creativity?

By forcing the sales team to adopt a uniform sales process it may seem that creativity is being stifled, but the reality is that workers are being more productive.  A uniform standard creates a set of easy to follow guidelines that are the same for every sale, so that employees know how to progress through the sales pipeline in the most efficient way possible.  With the guided process, employees waste much less time trying to remember what they have already done for the customer in the sales pipeline and what the next step might be; all of those decisions have already been scripted.

CRM solutions can help generate better sales leads and increase revenue, but there are other benefits as well.  Using a CRM platform to create a guided workflow standard for a company’s employees allows the employees to be more productive and more efficient.

My name is Elington Brown and I work with a CRM solution on a daily basis.  I feel qualified to write this article, because I control the CRM system for our company and that is all I do and have done for 5 years now. I hope this helps everyone who reads it.  Thanks for readi

Swinger Signs

Swinger Signs

By jwhittle812

The Swinger range is the UK’s market leading product, but why is this?

The first Swinger Sign began life as a custom pavement sign for the National Lottery in 1996, designed to be for ‘no tool’ assembly and have remained popular ever since. There are many uses for pavement signs, although the main benefits always remains the same; to increase sales, increase walk in traffic, increase product awareness or deliver information to passers-by. Efficient storage of high quality graphics is achievable on those that feature a protective screen.

Swinger signs specifically offer a high impact on-street advertising with a rounded design to minimize health and safety risks. The design of this form of advertising is very sturdy in windy locations, making it perfect for the UK. It also has soft round styling and a low centre of gravity to ensure a high health and safety rating. That’s not to mean that they are not easy to relocate around your store to ensure the most effective placement for your messages.

If you want to further grab attention to your sign you can choose to add a printed tactical header clipped on top of your sign, showing your message from either side. Some options of Swinger signs have built in wheels to increase the ease of mobility as well as the option to fill the base with water in order to secure the sign in place at choice.

A swinger sign is usually your best option when it comes to value for money due to the large variety and the versatility of purpose that this type of signage offers.

Companies can offer customisable printed panels for your swinger frame in various different sizes depending on your specifications and have the environmental benefit of being fully recyclable.

Did you know?

1)     The Icecream Company Walls is one of the biggest company advertisers which use Swinger Signs

2)     The Swinger 3000 has been continually used by Tescos since 1999

3)     The Swinger Sign has become such a staple of the UK high street that it is used in many UK TV and film productions

To get affordable swing signs for your business visit HFE Signs.

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