The Firm Knowledge Center, And A Purpose-Driven Culture

Several years ago – when we first began exploring financial services marketing organizations – we extolled the virtues of developing a “Firm Knowledge Center” inside Marketing.

Why?

As in these times, when validation of the marketing investment is essential, not just for the reasons of learning and output, but also for the purpose-driven culture it can bring to the marketing team as a whole.

How does this work; what is a purpose-driven culture?

Quite simply, it’s an environment where marketers find meaning in their work. How often do marketers go to work, get inundated with conference calls, meetings and deadlines, and lose sight of the mission? How often do they get so wrapped up in the mundane, day-to-day trivial details, that they forget the big picture – and even more importantly – stray from focus on the target market? Especially during tough economic times, when marketing departments are strained by budgets and lower head count, it’s easy to get buried in the details, and lose sight of the end goal.

How, then, do you create a purpose-drive culture for your team?

It starts with leadership and building the “Firm Knowledge Center.”

During my days in sales, the entire sales organization (some live, some via conference call) gathered for a monthly sales meeting to review our results. Our sales leadership would address us as if we were CEO’s running a business; didn’t matter if you were a “VIP” or the new guy on the sales desk – you held a stake in our sales results, and they let you know it. This was a key part of our “Firm Knowledge Center” – delivered live, and in real time: overall how the firm was doing, results at the account level, and product level. The outcome was a team that left the meeting with a clear view of where we’d been, where we were currently, and where we wanted to go. We had clear purpose and a solid goal, and it gave our jobs meaning.

How does it work for marketers?

The same way: a purpose-driven culture succeeds when marketers understand that they are fulfilling, well, a purpose, or a need.

Start with feedback. Share it, post it, announce it, and celebrate it. Whether your wholesalers loved the last sales idea, or a financial advisors praised a brochure, or investors downloaded something new off your website – it needs to be made known, to the marketers, the entire department, and the distribution organization.

Purpose is attained, and needs are met when marketers are empowered by leadership and knowledge (thus, the “Knowledge Center!”).

We outlined 3 primary components of an effective Firm Knowledge Center:

• Drive client understanding—This includes analyzing advisor and client behavior, increasing segmentation efforts, driving data integrity and thoroughness, and overseeing the CRM system to ensure that it serves the needs of marketing, as well as sales.

• Provide strategic direction for both firm and sales actions—When bundled with competitive and industry analysis, this area will produce both routine and ad hoc trend analysis and insight.

• Lend purpose and accountability to marketing efforts—For marketing to gain credibility with management and the investment organization and warrant increased investment, it must measure and validate its initiatives.

An organization only achieves a purpose-driven culture, and can only build a Firm Knowledge Center, when its leaders take charge and drive it there. Whether you are CMO, Channel Manager, Product Manager or e-Marketing Manager – you can create purpose for your staff by empowering them with a firm knowledge center, and leading them towards your collective purpose.

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Are we the wrong people to be designing investment products for the masses?

Back in the 80s, when I worked in women’s apparel at Sears (Ba-duh-bum!), the then head of the division challenged us when he pronounced that his wife “will not buy her clothes in our store.” No crap! At the time one of our biggest volume products was the $5.99 Binky—a zipper-up-the-front “houseshift.” While the Binky was decidedly functional and I can only assume comfortable (if not fast to put on), it wasn’t exactly high stylin’. Instead it spoke to a time when people still scrubbed their sidewalk, not something the wife of a highly paid senior executive would wear out and about!

His wife wasn’t a typical Sears customer (nor was he) and the segment of customers willing to pay $120 for a dress at a Sears cash wrap wasn’t exactly target rich. That didn’t stop us, however, from developing a line of Stephanie Powers dresswear with one of the former heads of Evan Picone. A year later, the line was quietly dissolved.

What does that mean to us?

Despite compensation rollbacks, our industry remains rarified when it comes to pay. We are all decidedly HNW. So when it comes to the masses, we must remember that WE ARE NOT OUR CUSTOMER!

As such, we need to be careful that we don’t overreach the real return expectations of these investors nor underestimate the fear and risk that accompanies relatively small nest eggs (typically under $50,000) and the damage wrought by market downturns. While we can “feel their pain,”

“The masses aren’t for us. We target the corner office broker,” you’ll say.

That may be where you are aiming, but why then $1,000 minimums and $50 or $100 subsequent purchase minimums? And what of all those retirement plan participants from all walks of life? Seriously?!

The lesson in this story is that as you work to design investment products and mutual funds—assess exactly who the market for the product will be. If you plan to serve the masses, remember to do your homework and try hard to get out of your own skin. Otherwise, we’re building products for ourselves and not our customer!