Business development managers (BDMs) servicing financial planners are generally not meeting targets, and dissatisfaction with team culture has them looking to competitors or other financial services providers for employment.
According to a Business Health report, Business Development Manager Research Results, which polled 115 managers representing product manufacturers, dealer groups and independent licensees, just 22 per cent indicated that they expect to still be performing the same role in the same organisation in three years time.
“Further, of the 78 per cent that expect to change roles and/or employers, nearly half of these are looking for a senior management position,” states the report. “With the current level of industry rationalisation, this is most likely unachievable for the majority of these managers.”
Muddying the waters still further for organisations hoping to maintain long-term relationships with financial advisers is that 9 per cent of BDMs indicated they plan on becoming advisers themselves.
It is also clear from the survey that consolidation and regulation have taken a toll, with 30 per cent of those polled reporting deterioration in team culture over the past 12 months, a figure even more pronounced (38 per cent) among aligned managers.
That old devil regulation again
About one in four managers indicated they are personally monitoring adviser compliance, which may be understandable with licensee BDMs, but nevertheless raises questions of competency and competing interests ahead of the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms.
Unsurprisingly, half of all managers said that regulation/compliance is overwhelmingly the top concern of their advisers, a figure that jumps to 70 per cent for non-aligned managers.
Helping advisers comply with changing regulations has thus followed as the main BDM concern and, being on the frontline in terms of compliance, is increasingly demanding a far greater skill set from these representatives.
However, this does not always appear to add up: 93 per cent of managers stated that they personally deliver sales and marketing assistance to advisers, the most of all service offers, while practices report that less then 1 per cent of revenue is being expended on marketing activities.
Managers also believe they are working harder than ever before and, while 61 per cent of participants indicated that their base salary package is between $100,000 and $150,000, the payment of bonuses suggest all is not well.
Just under half of the managers received an incentive/bonus payment of between $10,000 and $50,000 in the financial year ending June 30, 2012 but almost a third of managers stated that they received less than 25 per cent of their total potential incentive payment.
