Derek McGuire, Director of Marketing Innovation Forum, says: “Advisers have had a tough time the last two years and have sometimes been accused of being unwilling or unable to change their business models to adapt to the changing market. Change is never easy for any individual or business, but in recent weeks we have experienced first hand a number of examples of advisers reaping the rewards of innovation in their diversification efforts.”
Marketing Innovation Forum has just completed a series of 11 presentations at Sesame’s Mortgage Extra Live roadshows, which offered a prime opportunity to gain face-to-face feedback from advisers. The firm also operates an online discussion forum which has had over 600 comments from advisers in recent weeks.
Recent examples of innovation include:
· Buying hugely discounted ‘currently totally unplaceable’ first time buyer mortgage leads to help build a marketing database of future prospects
· Contacting local estate agents, solicitors and accountants to set up referral relationships where gaps have been left by advisers exiting the market
· Generating mortgage and financial advice leads and referrals as a result of promotional mailings to clients about a utilities service
· Engaging with technology to enable a single adviser to handle over 100 enquiries per week
Alan Dring, industry consultant and a guru on the Marketing Innovation Forum site, says: “Whilst there is undeniably a fraction of the intermediary community that is resisting the need to change, it has been encouraging to see so many great examples of advisers taking the bull by the horns and achieving positive outcomes as a result. As an industry we had a run of great prosperity in recent years, which unfortunately led us to let some of our key skills lapse. Planning, promotion and learning new skills are now coming back to the fore and are more important today than ever before.”
