For wealth managers, losing clients can be detrimental. When longstanding client relationships dissolve, it can be a blow to advisors’ revenue and reputation. Not to mention, replacing them can cost significant money and time. As financial advisors aim to strengthen relationships, retain valued clients and attract new business, artificial intelligence is an overlooked and underutilized tool.
Emerging technology continues to dominate the conversation in the wealth management community, and the jury is still out on how the advent of robo advisors and similar technology will influence the advisory industry for better or worse. Despite this uncertainty, wealth management professionals would be wise to consider incorporating technology into their strategies for recruitment and retention of accounts. The most successful advisors will strike a balance between technology and traditional touchpoints to maintain truly personalized relationships with clients and prospects.
Among those advisors who fear the increase of tech-first rather than human-first approaches to planning, a legitimate concern about personalization persists. The beauty of AI-powered sales and marketing tools is that they allow wealth management professionals to actually increase the level of personalized content they send to prospective and current accounts—and to provide that level of personalization at a much larger scale. Additionally, since advisors tend to be numbers and data junkies, they’ll appreciate the fact that AI-fueled sales and marketing systems provide powerful, data-driven insight into who the clients and prospects are and what types of communications resonate with them.
Acquire with AI
In a competitive wealth management landscape, advisors need to utilize every tool at their disposal to get in front of prospects with the right messages, through the right channels, at the right time. AI-embedded predictive analytics software makes this infinitely easier, using natural language understanding to sift through massive amounts of data from customer relationship management systems, real-time engagement, third-party providers and other sources to gain a clearer understanding of clients and prospects, in what they search and with what content they engage.
Acquiring the right new accounts becomes easier with the help of natural language understanding to better classify and understand prospects and their needs and interests. While it’s an investment upfront, AI-powered sales and marketing tools make each dollar spent on acquisition more effective and efficient, helping advisors to better identify and serve the best audience with the right messages at the right time.
Machines Make It Personal
Beyond the insight AI can derive from data to help you acquire new clients, AI can also play a critical role in retaining valued clients and strengthening account relationships. Through machine learning, wealth managers can ensure they meet existing clients where they are, delivering the personalized touchpoints that each client needs. Beyond fill-in-the-blank email templates that boast customization, real personalization is rooted in an account’s behavior and allows for better engagement with less guessing.
Machine learning ensures that marketing and communications tactics and messages that don’t resonate with a particular client aren’t received again. Conversely, as the machine identifies how clients react, it quickly adjusts to make sure that they continue to receive the appropriate type of outreach, at the time when they need it.
Putting more trust in the machine actually helps advisors become more people-focused and relationship-driven. As wealth management practices grow, maintaining personal touches grounded in the needs and preferences of individual clients becomes nearly impossible. AI-fueled sales and marketing software allows advisors to preserve the personal, human interactions that clients depend on from their wealth managers. For those looking to grow their businesses without sacrificing the relationship-driven nature of their organizations, AI allows for personalization at scale.
People-first businesses like banks, broker/dealers and advisory firms run better with machines. Growing, acquiring and retaining accounts requires a combination of efficiency and humanity that becomes much easier thanks to AI-embedded sales and marketing tools.
Kevin Cunningham is the co-founder, president and CEO of MRP.
