Recruiting Challenges

The greatest single recruiting problem that firms in financial planning and insurance face is getting in front of enough qualified prospects to hit hiring objectives, and grow your firm.

The tremendous competition within the financial services industry - financial planning, insurance and brokerage - to secure financial advisors and sales assistants that can deliver the sales results needed for growth, creates challenges for Management and recruiting personnel that are not easily met. A common strategy firms use to achieve their growth goals is to secure "assets under management," by increasing the number and/or productivity of their sales personnel.

While traditional recruiting methods can be effective when properly implemented, experience shows that many fall short of goals, regardless of how well they have been implemented. In many cases they produce uncertain results. Alone, they simply cannot fill the pipeline with a sufficient number of prospects to meet hiring objectives. Existing methods can also be costly. Note that in some segments of financial services, firms pay dearly for each other's children.

Most successful professionals are least receptive to career change.

Every financial professional will be receptive to a career change at points in time over the span of his or her career. However, there is an inverse relationship between success and receptivity to change*. The more successful a producer is, the less likely it is at any given point in time that he or she will be responsive to your firm's message. A successful recruiting process must address the intermittent nature of this receptivity, to help pinpoint opportunities and optimize hiring results.

Traditional methods of cold call direct mailing to a purchased list of prospects leads to uncertain results in terms of both quality and ratio of acceptance. Yet they still require your firm the personnel, time and expense of prospecting, list procurement, mailings, administration, plus attendance confirmation, and most importantly, an organized and diligent follow-up process.

Online resume and job posting services have become less effective.

While bulletin board, resume and job posting services on the web may have once been effective, the number of companies using technology to search through these databases has grown so dramatically, that they all but overwhelm prospect listings. In fact NetKing posted a "perfect" financial planner resume on one service. Within 15 minutes we received 60 replies, and more than 300 replies within two days. One must also ask: would most top producers really post their resumes on a bulletin board or Monster.com? If so, what are your chances of a face-to-face meeting with this person?

These challenges and problems are effectively addressed by NetKing's iVR process, as it pre-identifies, qualifies, and over time sustains relationships with a known, receptive set of prospects. It yields predictable results, at a known cost. It may also easily be integrated with your existing recruiting programs and referral processes.

*Results of NetKing online survey November 1999