In brief
In this article, we define three levels of client insights and describe the opportunity gained from exploiting each one. We go on to explain how this sort of business intelligence will separate winners from losers and how the data you need for it is already in your marketing and CRM systems. As a result, you can now be more discerning about paying a premium for client insights from an external provider’s black box.
Commercially actionable insights
At Accomplish, we see three levels of client insights, and each delivers commercially actionable results that can separate winners from losers.
Basics – how does the impact on client behavior of your marketing and sales activities compare against other asset managers? And where, therefore, are the strengths and weaknesses on your sales funnel?
Advanced – how well are you converting digital engagement (e.g. clicks, video viewings, and podcast downloads) into in-person engagement (e.g. event attendance and client meeting volumes) and, therefore, what can you do to keep your sales funnel as wide as possible for as long as possible?
Ninja – how well are you converting leading behavioral indicators into dollarizable client behaviors like buying (sales conversion), staying (client tenure), and buying more (products-per-client), and what more can you do to manage the inter-relationships between them?
The data you need is already in your systems
“We used to think we did insights well, but it turns out we were just paddling in the shallow end. This is high-ROI stuff!”
Regardless of which level you aim for, only you can know your effect on whether clients buy, stay, and buy more, and no one else can tell you how it happened. For example, how did your web engagement translate into event attendance and meeting volumes, RFP and sales conversion rates, client tenure, and greater products per client?
Because the data is already in their marketing and CRM systems, asset managers are using the Client Behavior Benchmark to generate the levels of client insights listed above. In one move, therefore, the benchmark has both raised the bar for what qualifies as an ‘insight’, and reduced their cost to you because it’s your data to begin with. This means you can now be more discerning about paying a premium for client insights from an external provider’s black box.
The winners, therefore, will exploit their existing data to manage their effect on whether clients buy, stay, and buy more. This makes the arrival of the benchmark an opportunity to be seized and converted into an ongoing organizational strength.
Extract and exploit data you already own
“What is more important than whether our clients buy, stay, or buy more?”
Seizing the opportunity couldn’t be easier.
An industry-wide innovation project has built the data dictionary that lets you find the information in your systems, and several years of live data have identified the strategically significant use cases.
To gain the insights needed to secure these benefits, all you need to do is sign up for the benchmark, pull the instructions off the shelf, and then extract and submit your data for analysis.
The benefits don’t stop here … they keep coming
Adopt best practice – over 150 subject-matter experts from around the global industry contributed to designing the benchmark, and the User Group continues to meet quarterly to ensure its ongoing relevance as the market evolves. This means you will gain immediate access to the best way to measure the most important client behaviors in a way that will let you find out if your results are any good or not.
Data integrity is a survival skill in the digital era – the first task for firms in the benchmark is to assign ownership for the different metrics. The structure brings accountability and will highlight any blind spots in your data that you can use the dictionary to fix. In addition, Accomplish’s quality checks ensure no data enters the benchmark that has not passed our stringent tests. This gives you peace of mind that your data is clean and that the insights will be based on like-for-like comparisons.
Strengthen links between marketing and sales – managing your sales funnel as the single outcome of the client behaviors that different teams stimulate strengthens links between those teams. The collective pursuit of a single goal – a sales funnel that leaks as few clients as possible – breaks down internal barriers, creates teamwork, and provides a seamless experience for your clients.
Take control of your data and exploit it fully
To conclude, whether you aspire to basic, advanced, or ninja level insights, by making the most of the data that is already in your systems, you can make sure your firm will be one of the winners. As a result, we urge you to take control of your data and exploit it fully. Check out the Client Behavior Benchmark for more information about how to do this.
