Like many other industries, financial services sales teams had to pivot to adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost overnight, they went from engaging with clients in person to interacting with them using digital communication tools such as Teams and Zoom. It required employees to quickly learn and equip themselves with new skills to be able to continue servicing their clients.

Now that we are entering a new normal where hybrid and remote working have become standard, many of these new working practices are here to stay. At the same time, the client has become more digitally savvy than ever, demanding a highly personalised, intuitive and instant service, driven largely by their experiences in other areas such as retail.

So how has this digital transformation fundamentally changed the way financial service firms work and build relationships with their clients? What does this mean moving forward? 

How is technology enabling these relationships to be fostered? And how can companies continue to develop the talent and skills needed for this new digital world?

“We’ve seen a move away from traditional methods like cold-calling and mass mailings, and towards more targeted and personalised approaches,” says Frederik Bussler, consultant at Gridline. “And with the rise of digital channels, we’ve been able to build deeper relationships with our clients by engaging with them where they are already spending their time.”

The shift to digital has created a more complex buying cycle, resulting in more firms turning to sales enablement to engage with buyers and drive sales, starting with brand building. By equipping sales staff with the resources, processes and technology needed to interact with prospects, this enables them to sell more effectively. Customer data platforms are key to improving customer insights and engagement, and ensuring buyers are reached at the right time and given invaluable content. By bringing all client data together and analysing it in real-time using artificial intelligence, firms can accelerate lead generation with tailored messages to website visitors based on their browsing behaviour and be more targeted in their campaigns and messaging.

“Essentially, companies need to learn how to run themselves like a technology firm, because many of these customer journeys are digital,” says Eduardo Roma, a partner and leader in Bain & Company’s financial services, customer strategy and marketing and digital practices. “They also need to use technology and data to understand the customer and what they want in a much more personalised way.”

Essentially, companies need to learn how to run themselves like a technology firm, because many of these customer journeys are digital

Another key enabler are content management and automation tools, which help sellers find, personalise and share content with clients quickly and efficiently. 

Companies should also adopt an omnichannel approach to sales, based on the client’s preferred communication method. This can range from in-person, by telephone, text message, email, chat, video conference or social media to using martech platforms to share personalised content with clients.  “Concise, impactful messaging and interactions have a much greater chance to stand out and be memorable among the large volume of interactions across platforms such as instant messaging, video conferencing and social media,” says Nigel Cannings, founder of Intelligent Voice. “These skills are certainly going to be needed as the world evolves, and organisations whose employees can adopt these best practices most effectively will thrive.” Finding the right balance between in-person and digital communication with clients has been key for Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). While in-person meetings remain vital in supporting the client and relationship building, digital enables them to be more agile and responsive to their needs.

“Digital has greatly improved our global connectivity with clients, both further afield and closer to home,” says Rhodri Mason, LGIM’s chief of staff. “To support this, we have fully refurbished our sales and marketing office with digitally-enabled meeting rooms and break-out pods.” 

There are also benchmarks available that can be used to score overall and channel-specific marketing activities and recommend areas to improve on. In addition, conversational intelligence tools can be used to analyse calls and email messages, and measure every seller’s performance to identify skills gaps. 

“With proper integration, organisations can make the link between action and performance measurement like never before,” says Nathan Gampel, CEO and founder of Simpel and Associates. “The key is to create the processes and organisation in conjunction with the system, so the data becomes useful instead of just another database that costs money and performs redundant tasks.”

To support this, companies need to design an onboarding program that equips and supports new sellers with training on their products, services and processes using their own in-house capabilities, followed up with specific sales coaching. They should also use in-person training and digital learning platforms and tools which have already proven successful in other industries to ensure their workers have the necessary skills to service the client and can sell successfully in the new remote environment.

While digital tools can provide a more customised client experience, they can’t replace the work of humans, however. Firms, therefore, need to harness the complementary skills of older, more experienced workers and their younger, digital savvy counterparts. “Although younger advisors have better digital skills, they do not have the wealth management or market savvy of older advisors,” says April Rudin, founder and CEO of The Rudin Group. “Firms would do well to create multi-generational teams to maximise their skillsets.”

Sudhir Chaturvedi, president and executive board member at L&T Infotech, concludes: “We need to look at client relationships across multiple dimensions. The first is to have a true 360-degree understanding of the client, the second is the ability to give proactive advice, and the third is the provision of a one-stop execution model. It’s also imperative to keep people informed of the performance of their financial products and services and provide real-time self-service.”

American business magnate Warren Buffett’s warning that “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it” is a precious lesson worth heeding by financial services operators seeking to generate trust in the digital age. 

After working hard to claw back favour following the global economic crash in 2008, the industry generally impressed during the pandemic. But with cybercrime on the rise, customers expecting a better online banking experience, and more players in the market, building trust is increasingly challenging. 

A report published in April by global cybersecurity company Imperva, based on responses from almost 7,000 consumers across Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States, found that 63% of people don’t trust financial services organisations to keep their data safe. Clearly, there is much work to do.

Here are five ways financial services operators can build trust in the digital age.

1. Actively push for positive reviews

When was the last time you didn’t buy something because a bad review put you off? It’s the same for financial services operators. Hence why those in the sector must do more than monitor online reviews, suggests Jeremy Helm, a financial analyst at Modern World Business Solutions. “You need to be actively pushing to gain positive reviews,” he says. “You can set up an automated email via Trustpilot that goes out a week after a purchase is complete.”

And if the reviews are not favourable, learn from them. “Don’t ignore them,” continues Helm. “Others will be reading the negative reviews before making a purchase, so make sure to answer the complaint promptly and politely. But also, if you’re not to blame, there is nothing wrong with highlighting where the issue lay respectfully and factually.”

2. Cut back on nuisance communication

A recent freedom of information request, made by customer communication firm Quadient, showed an increase in spam communications from financial services operators over the past year, which is eroding consumer trust, according to the company’s principal of banking and financial services, Andrew Stevens.

"Operators urgently need to cut back on nuisance communication – irrelevant or non-useful contact, which only damages trust and drives customers away,” he says. The FOI request showed 8,796 banking-related spam calls and texts were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2021 – 38% higher than the 2020 figure. Additionally, insurance-related nuisance calls and texts rose by 40%, with 3,989 complaints.

“Our research shows 43% of consumers are willing to blacklist businesses for sending spam,” continues Stevens. “Instead of bombarding customers with irrelevant offers and deals, they should remember that every piece of communication is an opportunity to win customers’ trust. For instance, by providing useful information to help them save money amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.”

3. Learn from tech titans and be clear about values

“Interestingly, the five most trusted brands across any industry globally are all large-scale tech firms,” says Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS, which supplies conveyancing services. “They provide a seamless cross-platform experience that is personalised to individual users. Google is probably the best example.” 

He spots a paradox, though. “These companies are probably utilising our data for commercial gain more than any other business. Yet, there is a perceived trust from consumers. This is partly because of how these businesses fit with their values. But also because they deliver great customer experience and hyper-personalisation. Financial services firms could benefit and build trust by taking a similar approach.”

Sébastien Marotte, president of EMEA at content management company Box, agrees. However, he calls for greater clarity about data use. “The best way for financial service organisations to build and maintain trust is through open and transparent compliance reporting.”

4. Don’t forget the importance of human touch

Financial services organisations collect more information on their customers than any other industry, according to Adam Mayer, a director at data and analytics firm, Qlik. “Trust is imperative to this industry – and needs to be built from the ground up,” he says. “Don’t forget the importance of a human touch when building trust in digital technologies.” 

While AI and predictive analytics can generate powerful recommendations, employees will provide oversight into actual decision-making, Mayer adds. “And, more importantly, they will explain those decisions to the customer. Blending human and machine insights improves the accountability actions being made, which helps smoothen some of the hurdles around trust and regulation.”

Additionally, ensuring employees have the requisite data literacy to understand, question and apply the predictive forecasts to their decision-making process is critical.

5. Show your AI workings

As more financial services are investing in AI solutions, it’s vital to show how decisions have been made. “Explainable AI addresses one of the key issues for banks using AI applications, as they typically operate as ‘black boxes’ offering little if any discernible insight into how they reach their decisions across lending and fraud detection and to improve customer service,” says Hani Hagras, chief science officer at banking software company Temenos.

He provides an example. “With buy now pay later (BNPL), Temenos Explainable AI provides additional transparency, enabling the customer to understand why a particular flavour of BNPL was recommended to them and make an informed choice. This increases trust in the BNPL service and puts the customer in control.”

Sales enablement is key to the success of any financial services firm. When fully optimised, it can increase revenue; drive efficiency and growth; and improve engagement, retention and productivity.

So, what exactly is sales enablement? Essentially, it’s a company’s strategic approach to improving sales productivity and revenue through engaged buyer experiences. Creating and maintaining sales and marketing alignment ensures that organisations provide sellers with the resources, processes and technology needed to engage with clients, so they can sell effectively.

Transforming your strategy

There are three key advantages of effective enablement strategies for financial services companies: operational efficiency at scale, productivity within distribution, and analysis and integration. Being able to automate the creation process of marketing content is a critical component of driving efficiency at scale.

“The pressure now for companies to do more with less is constant, and digital transformation projects are no exception,” says Andy Baillie, regional vice president, NEMEA, at Seismic. “Whether it’s asset or wealth management, private equity, or investment or corporate banking, the need to have constant communication across every sub-vertical is always there.”

Productivity within distribution is driven by customer expectations. By providing them with high-quality, personalised, relevant and timely content, and then monitoring how it’s consumed, firms can have far more productive sales cycles and close deals faster.

Whether it’s asset or wealth management, private equity, or investment or corporate banking, the need to have constant communication across every sub-vertical is always there

It’s vital to have the ability to understand how effective content is too, both in terms of the way it’s consumed and how it affects the sales cycle. More than 90% of buyers said that they bought from a sales representative who was able to provide them with content they needed throughout the sales process. A sales enablement strategy allows sales representatives to move deals through the pipeline faster because they can provide the client with the key information and insight they need. It also allows them to be quicker and more efficient in finding the information they need to handle objections and complete the sale cycle faster.  Consequently, this increases operational efficiency and advisors’ effectiveness to deliver superior client experiences.

A sales enablement platform enables companies to monitor, analyse and feed back to marketing on how content drives sales forward. It also shows the return on investment of content creation and distribution.

Boosting performance and profits

A successful enablement strategy can both boost performance and profits. Profitability is further driven by the adoption of social selling tools to amplify a company’s brand and give them a more authentic voice, enabling them to build a broader and more productive relationship with clients.

“Clients also expect their vendor to have a deep knowledge and understanding of their preferences based on their historical purchasing decisions,” says Baillie. “That means providing them with focused, targeted content that speaks to their needs specifically.”

Training and coaching are central to enablement. That’s evidenced by the fact that companies that invest in high-quality sales coaching produce, on average, almost 17% greater revenue growth than those that don’t. Establishing a culture of continuous learning and development is critical to long-term success and can help financial services firms differentiate themselves and their advisors from the competition.

Aberdeen Group found that those companies who had a successful enablement programme had 32% higher sales team quota attainment; 24% better individual representative quota attainment; and 23% higher lead conversion rates.

Most clients would rather engage with a company that provides a satisfying client experience. That starts with giving them the confidence that they are dealing with an experienced team of advisors with a proven track record. And in a sector as high stakes as financial services, building trusted relationships is crucial. 

Clients also expect their vendor to have a deep knowledge and understanding of their preferences based on their historical purchasing decisions

Being able to build trust with clients by demonstrating that they understand their unique needs and situation will help advisors engage more effectively and put them ahead of the competition. Financial services firms must help their teams engage prospective clients with the right content, at the right time, in the right channels – all in a compliant manner. This can only be achieved by tapping into data insights and technologies that enable hyper-personalisation consistently at scale.

Building an engaged sales team

Another advantage of enablement is an uplift in engagement, retention and productivity within the sales team. Effective in-the-moment sales training and coaching can help new representatives meet their quota up to seven weeks faster than the industry average of six to nine months, according to CSO Insights.

Turnover for firms with high-quality training and coaching is also 7.6% lower than those organisations whose training is less than satisfactory, the Sales Readiness Group has found. Low turnovers are a clear indication of a highly-motivated and engaged sales team.

The bottom line is that an engaged workforce results in a successful business. And sales representatives are at their most engaged when the quality of their coaching and guidance is at its highest. With the right combination of in-the-moment training and coaching, financial services firms can be confident that their advisors are equipped with the most relevant skills and knowledge, no matter where they are in their careers.

The Seismic Enablement Cloud is a unified platform for sales engagement and growth. It brings together sales and marketing teams by merging historically-siloed systems such as training, content, engagement and insights into one platform to drive efficiency and effective selling at scale.

For more information about sales enablement and the Seismic Enablement Cloud, visit www.seismic.com

Baby boomers might have a majority of global wealth today, but tomorrow it will be different. Indeed, by 2030, Europe’s younger generations – millennials and gen z – are due to inherit around £2.3 trillion from their parents, according to recent estimates. How can financial service operators cash in on this great wealth transfer?

In 2022, client-facing teams operating in the financial service industry can – and must – leverage technology to build meaningful relationships with younger generations who are digital natives. 

Indeed, over a third (34%) of 18- to 34-year-olds would choose a different financial services provider if they were expected to visit a branch in person, according to VMware’s recent Digital Frontiers 4.0 report, which surveyed over 2,000 UK consumers. 

Similarly, Marqeta’s 2022 Consumer Money Movement report reveals generational differences. Over half (54%) of gen z – born between 1997 and 2012 – can’t recall their PINs, and more than three-quarters (77%) feel confident enough with contactless payments to leave their wallets at home and just go out with their phones. 

Consider a Chase study from 2021 indicated that 99% of gen z and 98% of Millennials use mobile banking apps, compared to 86.5% of gen x and 69.5% of Boomers.

“Younger markets live on their smartphones,” says Ben Johnson, CEO of digital transformation consultants BML Digital. “Everything needs to be available via the app, and the mobile experience has to match the ease of something like Snapchat or Pinterest.” 

Prakash Pattni, managing director of financial services digital transformation in EMEA for IBM, agrees. “Ultimately, younger consumers want to access their accounts, lock missing cards, make virtual payments and transfer money to others swiftly and securely,” he says. “Financial institutions must develop easy-to-use applications with superior uptime that can easily integrate with other apps.”

Gamification and proactive support

How can financial services operators generate trust with younger generations? “Technology is the answer,” posits Somya Patnaik, a market product manager specialising in real-time payments at ACI Worldwide. “They must bring more innovative features that will engage young people and improve their consumer experience.”

Gamification in financial services is winning a lot of trust among young consumers, suggests Patnaik. So, for instance, insurance companies might build an app that tracks fitness activities against pre-agreed goals, which, if hit, unlock rewards like cheaper insurance or gym memberships. This insight chimes with George Ioannou, managing partner at experience design company Foolproof. Learning patterns around digital activities differ according to age. Where the older generations turn to Facebook for information, younger generations are growing up using gaming platforms such as Fortnite and Discord servers. 

“This may speak to using gamified models of education within financial applications to facilitate learning, perhaps even in a sandbox, and therefore a safe environment,” says Ioannou. 

Ioannou argues that technology enables financial services organisations to become more proactive in supporting customers, and younger generations want more advice about money matters now than ever. “Operators need to step up and actively educate their users,” he adds. 

Research from Personetics, a global fintech, published at the end of June shows in the past three months only 22% of UK customers feel their primary bank has communicated with them about dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. Further, over half (53%) would consider moving banks if a rival offered better money management support and personalised advice.

Reliable source of truth 

Financial education is now starting young. NatWest is currently offering a children’s pocket-money application for free to customers. “Last year, we acquired Rooster Money, a children’s prepaid debit card and app,” explains Fay Wood, head of acquisition and digital security authentication. “We wanted to do more in the space for children.”  

She also stresses the importance of working with expert partners to provide access to apps at speed. “Five or ten years ago, we would have built something like Rooster Money in-house.”

Alongside proactive apps, social media is an invaluable tool for sales and marketing teams in the financial service industry looking to use tech to appeal to younger customers. Here, states Amanda Le Brocq, head of strategy at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, is where organisations can add value. 

Today, it is essential that financial services companies provide a compelling digital offering, so young people can consume content online and know it is coming from a reliable source

“Young people are increasingly getting financial information from social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram,” she says. “But with so much content available, people can easily get the wrong information. Today, it is essential that financial services companies provide a compelling digital offering, so young people can consume content online and know it is coming from a reliable source.”

Operators wanting to engage younger customers must look further and deeper, says Meghana Nile, insurance CTO at Fujitsu. “Social media and peers influence a lot of the purchasing decisions, meaning financial services companies that have a reputation for having ethical and sustainable practices will attract buyers from gen z, who in 2030 will be the dominant purchasing demographic.”