FINANCIAL NETWORKS: HEAD OR HEART?

Bluerating | December 2022

Passion, the deep desire to achieve a personal goal, the pleasure to see one’s job recognized and appreciated are two of the ingredients which make the job of financial advisor unique. 

Its distinctiveness is highlighted in the numbers and figures that describe the sector in which financial advisors operate, an industry unaffected by crisis. However, numbers do not mirror the passion driving financial advisors, who are currently ending an obstacle course head-on, the hardest since the 1929 crisis.

Many people wonder about the reasons behind the success for financial networks (historical and recent). And the secret lies in the perfect combination between head and heart.

Financial networks are living businesses. The head represents the more concrete and rational aspects, the functioning of the operating machine, the digital tools made available to clients and advisors, their web collaboration, as well as the investment, credit, and insurance products.

Also, the fundamental operational and strategic support offered by financial networks on several fronts: advisory desks, product specialists, area managers, communication, and marketing.

Finally, salary and its components, front fees, management fees, monetary and non-monetary contests, loyalty plans, etc.

Each element has made it possible for financial networks to gain further distance from traditional financial consultancy and banking, which still characterizes a large part of the operators of the financial industry.

With no head, the living business would not work at its best.

Sometimes, a small, even temporary, issue in the functioning of financial advisors is enough to perceive the parameters of their satisfaction, for example, with operations (back office and front office operations for both clients and professionals, customer service etc.) and, inevitably, with the financial network/bank.

With some exceptions, the problems to the operating machine can be solved with no consequences.

Today, working as a financial advisor without a financial network providing access to IT equipment and to the latest digital platforms would be impossible.

Moreover, there are also intangible factors which determine the success of financial networks. These factors are attributable to the heart of the living business.

Among them is the ability to work as a team and to motivate each member, creating a healthy sense of competition based on the merit of each single individual.  

This magical alchemy, which brings together personal skills, merits, and shared goals is the true secret of financial networks.

Knowing how to motivate people, supporting them in times of difficulty and enhancing their successes, rewarding the single star player without making the others feel any less are skills common to all managers leading the most successful financial networks.

Today, the founders of financial networks have been replaced by brilliant and successful managers, whose credibility and commitment can lead to new success. On one condition: they must put their heart into their job.

Nicola Ronchetti