In brief
The medium-term is where your CX either converts digital engagement into revenue or it doesn’t. In this article, Adam Grainger and Neil Thornburn explore the medium-term opportunities of CX – a 9 to 18-month window where CX stops being a buzzword and starts delivering results. This is the second in a three-part series examining CX’s short-, medium-, and long-term opportunities and how you can track your performance through the CX Benchmark. As with the first article, it is packed with practical examples, case studies, and metrics, but get in touch if you have any questions or want to see how your firm compares.
Why the medium-term matters
We define the medium-term as between 9 and 18 months – a vital timeframe because it aligns with the average asset management sales cycle. CX gains in this period determine whether early digital engagement translates into meaningful, revenue-generating client relationships. Without this follow-through, early wins risk becoming empty momentum.
“The medium-term is where CX moves from potential to performance.”
In this second article in our three-part series, we show how to move from digital traction to in-person connection and sales conversion – the core medium-term opportunities of CX.
Before we look at what’s possible in the medium term, let’s quickly revisit the quick wins that create the foundation for this exploration of what happens next.
What we learned about short-term CX wins
In Part 1, we explored quick wins that focused on strengthening digital engagement, reducing friction across channels (e.g., email, social media, your website), and differentiating your brand through strategic calls to action.
These early moves lay the groundwork for deeper value by attracting and qualifying prospects. But digital engagement is a means to an end, not the end itself. The next phase is about converting interest into intent and intent into income.
Facilitating this momentum in your pre-sale experience (aka, your sales funnel) is where you can either accelerate – or stall.
Medium-term opportunities of CX: where attention becomes revenue
In our experience, these are the most significant benefits that flow to the asset managers who focus on the experience they give to their clients. Each benefit represents the conversion to a new stage on your sales funnel.
1. Higher conversion of digital into in-person engagement
In the medium term, asset managers should focus on converting digital engagement into deeper and more valuable in-person engagement.
This stage of the pre-sale experience (aka sales funnel) contains a key inflexion point. It relates to the behavioral shift from minutes given anonymously in online research to hours given to the kind of in-person engagement that will identify the prospect as ‘interested’.
Here are the top 5 strategies we know for facilitating this vital conversion.
- Score content engagement – use behavioral signals (like time on page, downloads, and repeat visits) to identify high-intent prospects. This allows Marketing and Sales to prioritize outreach based on buying signals, not just clicks.
- End digital journeys with human CTAs – design campaigns that guide users toward personal interaction – like a meeting, roundtable, or briefing. Generic CTAs get ignored; personalized invitations drive response.
- Design events around solving problems – events that offer answers to real client challenges are far more effective than those that just present your capabilities. Position them as opportunities to learn, not just to listen.
- Coordinate with Sales for contextual outreach – share engagement insights with Sales so they can follow up with relevance and purpose. A well-timed message that references recent behavior is far more likely to land.
- Remove friction from sign-up and scheduling – make it easy for prospects to accept an invite – with pre-filled forms, calendar integration, and minimal steps. The easier the process, the higher the conversion rate.
Measures of success:
- Increased conversion rates from digital touch points
- Rising event attendance and turn-up rates.
- Increased conversion from event attendance to prospecting meetings.
2. Smooth and timely handover of qualified leads from Marketing to Sales
Unlike the earlier stage, which Marketing could drive independently, this phase requires a coordinated handover of a named, qualified prospect from Marketing to Sales – a moment where internal alignment is tested.
In contrast to general marketing, this prospect may have bespoke needs that you will need to identify and address in your RFP and sales pitch.
This moment is the first on your end-to-end client experience where you will convert your prospect’s investment of time into money.
Measures of success:
- Increased RFP success rate.
- Increased pitch win rate ($).
Case study – one firm in the CX Benchmark boosted its RFP success rate from a fourth to a second-quartile position by improving RFP selection and involving the RFP Team. Hence, the RFP Team understood the context of the outputs they were creating and could better target them.
3. Fast progression from buying decision to billed revenue
Here’s where the rubber hits the road. How well did your sales team identify any bespoke needs, and how efficient is your organization at handing over your new client from the sales team to their onboarding colleagues? How well Sales prepared Onboarding for this will determine the client’s first impression of your post-sale experience. The benefits you should target here are fast implementation of the investment decision for the client and fast conversion of the buying decision into billed revenue for you.
Measures of success:
- Faster average onboarding duration.
- Estimated revenue variance vs industry average.
What separates CX leaders from the rest
However, these medium-term opportunities of CX don’t emerge on their own. Behind every measurable CX improvement is a set of internal enablers that determine whether firms can sustain momentum – or lose it. In our experience, three enablers stand head and shoulders above all others:
1. AI-driven CX
Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to become a foundational enabler of CX – so much so that we believe AI-driven CX (within this medium-term window) is set to become a ‘table stake’ for the asset management industry.
At its core, AI-driven CX applies advanced technologies – such as machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), predictive analytics, and intelligent automation – to enhance the quality, relevance, and responsiveness of client interactions.
Where traditional CX models rely heavily on manual workflows, reactive service, and static client segmentation, AI introduces real-time personalization based on behaviour and intent. Rather than waiting for human teams to triage inquiries or push out broad messages, AI tools can tailor content and communications dynamically, track sentiment across touchpoints, and suggest the next-best actions.
Crucially, AI doesn’t just improve speed – it adds scale. Tasks that previously required significant time and human input (like sorting inquiries, escalating exceptions, or tracking onboarding progress) can now be handled seamlessly through AI agents. As these tools learn, they won’t just respond to client needs faster – they’ll begin to anticipate and resolve issues before the client even notices them.
In that sense, AI-driven CX shifts the experience from reactive to proactive. It moves us toward a world where clients don’t need to raise queries because the underlying friction never occurs. Over time, that kind of predictive CX becomes not just a differentiator but an expectation.
2. Collaboration to convert client engagement into revenue-generating action
AI or no AI, the fundamentals will remain the same.
No single team can achieve this new revenue alone, so another key enabler will be whether the firm’s leadership encourages collaboration and focuses on conversion rates or just absolute achievement. Collaboration must extend beyond intent and into process.
“This is the best gift the Events team can give to their Sales colleagues.”
For example, a focus on conversion makes the accurate measure of success for an investment event not attendance volumes, but the proportion of attendees who request a follow-up meeting to explore how your idea applies to their specific portfolio. This is the best gift the Events team can give to their Sales colleagues.
Case study – because Accomplish’s CX Benchmark focuses on client behavior, we have seen multiple asset management firms change their events policy from ‘let’s get as many attendees as possible’ to ‘let’s design events that maximize follow-up’.
Collaboration becomes most effective when supported by structure. Clear handover protocols and SLAs between teams should define ownership of the different stages and embed involvement.
For example, if Marketing involves Sales in developing its campaigns, it will optimize the conversion of contacts into MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads).
Similarly, if Sales involves the Onboarding Team in evaluating mature prospects in its pipeline, it will optimize the conversion of its buying decisions into actual revenue.
“If conversion metrics go unmeasured or unowned, warm words … will ring hollow.”
Case study – another firm in the Benchmark transformed its median onboarding duration from 25 days longer than the industry average to 5 days faster. By mapping delays caused by internal coordination issues, they unlocked an estimated $1.4m in additional annual revenue.
3. Measurement and executive oversight
The third enabler relates to the glue that binds teams together and maintains momentum during busy periods.
How well are you converting digital engagement into higher-value client behaviors like event attendance, follow-up meeting requests, RFP successes, pitch win rates, and paying clients? And how well does it compare against your prior performance and industry averages?
Asset managers are good at measuring performance – so apply the same discipline to your sales funnel. If conversion metrics go unmeasured or unowned, warm words to clients about experience or commitments to shareholders about commercial focus may ring hollow.
The winners, therefore, will review a CX Scorecard regularly to maintain a sense of collective performance and responsibility.
Stop. Start. Continue.
These enablers require consistent practice but also discipline. That means changing behaviors and making tough choices about what to stop and start doing. Here’s a checklist we have found helpful as an aide memoire:
What firms should stop doing:
- Measuring success by volume alone (e.g., event registrations rather than conversions).
- Running siloed campaigns or pitches without involving downstream colleagues.
- Treat onboarding as an administrative task rather than a critical and dollarizable stage in the client journey.
What they should start doing:
- Designing campaigns / and investment events with Sales follow-up in mind.
- Establishing SLAs and pre-sale collaboration procedures.
- Measuring, reviewing, and improving collective performance.
What you should continue doing:
- Anything we’ve mentioned in the article above if you’re already doing it.
The risks of inaction
Failing to build on early CX momentum may damage your brand, signalling that you’re more froth and less substance.
Prospects may enjoy your online presence but hesitate to commit – a red flag would be low conversion rates from digital to in-person engagement and sales conversion.
As the stakes grow, so do the risks of inaction. But for those ready to move, the medium term offers clear, achievable value. Let’s wrap up with the key takeaways.
Key takeaways
We hope this article about the medium-term opportunities of CX will serve as a practical field guide because this timeframe is when CX moves from potential to performance. It’s where your early momentum either accelerates into revenue – or stalls out.
The firms that win in this phase:
- Focus on conversion.
- Coordinate linkages between Marketing and Sales, and Sales and Onboarding to ensure their efforts are consistent and mutually supportive.
- Replace warm words with measurable outcomes.
If your firm has already improved digital engagement, now is the time to build on that success – not let it evaporate. Your decisions in the next 9 to 18 months will shape client relationships (and revenue) for years.
Want to benchmark your CX? Or optimize your conversion from digital engagement into these medium-term benefits? Get in touch to see how your firm compares on medium-term conversion metrics.
Coming next: CX as a long-term strategic advantage
In the final article of this series, we’ll explore how medium-term momentum sets the stage for long-term transformation.
We’ll look at how CX, when embedded across the client lifecycle, becomes a strategic differentiator – one that maintains engagement, protects retention, and deepens your share of wallet.
