Referral and Cross-Selling Adoption in Bank Wealth Management: A Need for New Incentives
Report Summary
Referral and Cross-Selling Adoption in Bank Wealth Management: A Need for New Incentives
Banks are focused on delivering organic growth through cross-selling, but many successful bank financial advisors have not bought into the benefits of working with internal partners to deliver the capabilities of the bank.
Boston, September 8, 2011 – A new report from Aite Group explores the importance of internal partner referrals to bank financial advisors’ cross-selling incentives and business. Based on a Q1 2011 Aite Group survey of 75 bank financial advisors, the report compares bank financial advisors who leverage referrals with those who do not, and discusses financial advisors’ motivation to cross-sell banking solutions to their clients.
Bank wealth management groups are a bright spot in a period of declining mortgage and credit card business, having typically generated asset and revenue growth in 2010. By cross-selling wealth management products to retail bank customers, banks have an opportunity to offset a portion of the revenue shortfall expected on the retail bank side in coming years. But not all bank financial advisors have bought into the benefits of leveraging internal partners and cross-selling non-investment solutions to deepen bank customer relationships.
“Bank and brokerage leaders need to agree on the success metrics of the ideal bank financial advisor,” says Sophie Schmitt, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. “Bank advisors whose business is predominantly fee-based are not always the best partners, and the best cross-sellers and partners are not always the most successful financial advisors. Leaders must also do a better job of demonstrating to successful advisors how working with internal partners can bring more revenue.”
This 20-page Impact Note contains 17 figures. Clients of Aite Group's Wealth Management service can download the report.