More than brand, technology, service, products or even Morningstar ratings, a plan advisor usually chooses a provider — especially a DCIO — based on the quality of their local wholesaler. What separates the truly elite DC wholesalers from the rest of the pack?
In the cover story of the Spring issue of NAPA Net the Magazine, NAPA Net editor-in-chief Fred Barstein set out to answer that question, by examining the best practices of the DC industry's top 75 wholesalers. Picking up where the essential basics — knowledge and service — leave off, Barstein identifies five key differentiators that are most important to advisors:
• Values and Relationships. Beyond service and knowledge, advisors need to be able to trust their wholesaler as a partner.
• Time Management. Many advisors share the same pet peeve: wholesalers who don’t respect the advisor’s time.
• Partnership and Friendship. It’s important to many advisors that the wholesaler is not just a business partner, but also a friend who genuinely cares about their success.
• Knowledge and Thought Leadership. In addition to the basics of the market, wholesalers need to deliver information relevant to the advisors based on their business and the future of the market.
• Practice Management and Problem Resolution. Wholesalers have to help advisors manage their business and client relationships — beginning with understanding their business. And problem resolution in another common theme — especially when the advisor is having a hard time getting the attention of the home office.
A pdf of Barstein’s cover story, “Wingmen! Who Are the Top DC Industry Wholesalers — and Why,” is listed in the NAPA Net the Magazine feature article index; the article includes NAPA Net's list of the top 75 wholesalers in the DC industry (which is also provided here). A pdf of the entire Spring 2014 issue is here.
