Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of your adviser facing activity and the resulting business outcomes, PTP: Identifies the levers of business and technical support that will have the biggest positive impact for you in the adviser market. Clearly benchmarks your brand against a) your competitors across support imperatives and b) average market spend and resource allocation in each area. Points clearly to the optimal blend of support services (content and delivery) required to meet and exceed your business objectives with the advisers you want to do business with. Enables you to plan and deploy resources more scientifically and with greater confidence that they will deliver the desired outcomes. Annual subscription including two reports - £5,850 Windsor House Cornwall Road Harrogate North Yorkshire HG1 2PW T: 01423525795. Phil Wickenden, MD So Here’s The Plan M: 07966092075 E: phil@soherestheplan.com Annual subscription for two reports - £5,850 Special discounts available if you contract for PTP and some or all of our Adviser Business Insights (see separate brochure) a full debrief, going into more detail on your performance specifically a top-line technical support spend and resource allocation benchmark against all participating providers a personalised strategic plan – taking into account your business objectives. Tony Wickenden, Joint MD Technical Connection M: 07808584743 E: tkw@tecconn.demon.co.uk

Seek first to understand… Delivering smart is far better than merely ‘doing more’ according to advisers. Providers need to spend more time listening before wading in with solutions, confident that the time invested will pay dividends. Price competition between providers has been a big contributory factor in the diminishment of adviser support services. But as pressure is felt across the value chain, and providers (in the main) respond by cutting back, advisers are finding it harder to tell the difference. However, this lack of distinguishing characteristics (an inevitable fallout from damaging price wars) flies in the face of what we know drives advisers to place business: Our first wave of research showed advisers are most likely to choose to work with providers based on personal relationships, quality end to end support and consultant likeability. The impact of these so-called ‘soft’ metrics on propensity to do business is profound and based on hard data. Advisers view suitability as more than just the right contract (on paper) at the right price. Service and support play an equally important role, if not more in some instances, in helping to deliver enduring value. It would be a huge mistake to under-estimate their impact on provider and platform selection. This wave, against a backdrop of dwindling field support, the importance of centrally based teams (either telephone or online) continues to rise, with three quarters of the of the fifteen central support measures now averaging over 8.5 / 10 in terms of their value. On the flipside, the importance central resource (events, collateral, CPD support etc.) has fallen. Yet what we have seen over the last six months from providers is the reverse: providers and platforms have invested and improved performance in the areas that matter least and have seen performance fall significantly in the areas that matter most. Doing the wrong things right just makes them wronger, but a market maligned by the mediocre also represents a fantastic opportunity for any provider or platform that can get their service and support proposition right. This study continues to forensically identify the levers of business and technical support (and blends thereof) that will have the biggest positive impact for your business. There is no shortage of events, calculators and collateral (the market is awash with tokens of support who’s primary purpose is not focussed enough on better adviser or client outcomes. This has contributed to the marginal decline we have seen this wave in the value advisers place on them. Yet despite this falling importance, providers have decided to invest more time and effort in precisely those areas that are a) less valued and b) are hardest to truly differentiate yourself in due to the plethora of collateral out there - central resources (valued at only 6.58 by advisers) saw industry performance improve my a huge 2.35pts. At the same time the standard of central support delivered by the industry (the most important support, valued 8.53 / 10) dropped in by 0.73pts. In fact 59% providers saw performance fall across all central support functions. Advisers have been bold in their preparedness to say that their services are not for everyone. That makes sense: besides from the pure economics involved, another definition of ‘everyone’ is ‘average’, and if you’re just the same then you’ve already lost. This is a problem because while product suitability and price are clearly critical determinants of provider selection, they really are just the first check point on an increasingly less linear journey. We asked advisers to think about the process they typically undertake when deciding which providers / platforms to use and to allocate 100% across six factors. Indeed, price / rates are seen as the single biggest factor influencing decisions (25.25% weighting) while product suitability represents a further 19.08%. This, though, leaves a significant amount of the decision influenced by service (31.11% - including business processing and administration) and the overall support package (17.05%) highlighting the importance of getting this right. Seek first to understand Talking to advisers about their business and technical support needs, a fairly compelling 69% said (without prompting) that providers need to spend more time understanding the fundamentals of their businesses before foisting solutions on them. Advisers appreciate that in this new world (that feels, and is, older every day) greater time must be invested in learning about the foibles of each firm and the quirks that make each the unique business that it is before promoting products and services. This message should speak volumes; but you can’t listen and talk at the same time. It’s fair to say that most communications initiatives from providers and platforms seek first to be understood as the industry clamours to get its points across. In doing so (increasingly noisily and obtrusively, in some instances), advisers’ true needs can be ignored – or at best paid lip service to. Out of this dislocation comes an open door for providers and platforms that have experience, specialism and commitment to help advisers offer the best solutions for a core of increasingly sophisticated clients. Service still matters Empathic listening is not about agreeing with the other or building faux rapport through clever (stupid) techniques. It is about truly committing to understand someone else’s world.  Doing the wrong things Providers, at least when it comes to wider service and support, have been less effective in defining who they are for and focusing relentlessly on doing this well.   No one wins in this scenario. There are, though enclaves of excellence and positively disproportionate gains to be made for those prepared to stop, listen and then invest in the right areas. Average advisers scores across all 15 of our business and technical support metrics: