The key elements of a solid adviser value proposition

In a recent webinar, Profession of Independent Financial Advisers president Daniel Brammall said there were seven key questions advisers needed to ask themselves to ensure they were targeting a client base that was suited to their talents and business objectives.

“The first one is what role do you want to occupy in your client’s mind? Do you want to be a technician or a sage?” Mr Brammall said.

“There are pros and cons to each, so it’s whichever one suits your personality. Some of us like to be very technically gifted, some of us like to be giving wisdom and counsel.”

Next, advisers should determine whether they wanted to deliver a mass-market or niche client service, Mr Brammall said.

“Do you want to charge a premium and have a bespoke style arrangement, or would you like to have low costs, be more available to the masses and volume is your target?” he said.

Thirdly, the adviser should think about the structure of their interactions with clients – whether they wanted to deal with a particular aspect of the client’s finances, or provide holistic advice across the whole wealth picture, Mr Brammall said.

“We’ve got either comprehensive or limited advice, just scoping a particular element. In a relationship you can also have a series of limited advice that you roll out, so it’s the combination of things that deliver that flavour,” he added.

Finally, Mr Brammall said advisers should think about being selective about the way they approached and serviced clients.

“What commitment do you want to make – are you going to make [your services] available to everybody, so ‘here are the tools we've got available to everyone’, or ‘you come to me and present your scenario and I’m going to make sure we get the right tool and solve the problem’,” he said.

“The last one is the client profile – are you going to make it random so you’ll take any and all comers, or are you going to work out who you want to target, target just those people and get really good at solving just that person's problems.”