Have a Process for Decisions on Major Changes at Your Firm

Dear P.F.,

It’s interesting to me how little your team seems to be talking about what the client needs — client expectations, client experience, clients embracing the changes you are making, and so on. You reference not wanting a client to talk to a bot, but in all of the discussions you are having, is the client at the center? You have retiring advisors, whom I assume have been working with your clients for some time. You have team members in ops and client service who have been supporting your clients directly and indirectly. And then you have some senior people staying (you and two others) and younger advisors taking over client situations. Everything you are outlining seems very internal to me — all about what’s going on in the firm and with relationships there.

It might be time to bring your clients into the loop and ask them for what they want in the future, and what is or isn’t currently working. You can do this a couple of different ways:

1. Consider putting together a client advisory board. Each advisor could hand-select two clients from their relationships to represent the client voice. It’s important when you do this to have a clear agenda and let your CAB know what they are signing up to do. Develop a few questions about the transition, about technology, and about how they want to be served. This should be an open dialogue, and it’s often best done using an outside third-party facilitator. The board would not only be there to address the upcoming changes but to support the firm on an ongoing basis. Most firms have their CAB meet once or twice a year with new topics to discuss. You could rotate members over time to keep the discussions fresh. At the same time, it also would represent continuity as things change at your firm.
2. Have each of the advisors conduct a one-on-one conversation with five to seven clients about the upcoming changes. For this it’s important to construct a standardized list of questions — almost like a focus group. These discussions should be scheduled and happen outside of an annual or update meeting about the client’s account. Those meetings are for the client, and they should be at the center. These discussions are more for the firm to gain information and insights. If you can keep it to under an hour — say, 45 minutes — that’s best.
3. Once you gain some insight from your clients via either #1 or #2 above (or a combination of both) you want to have a firm-wide meeting to talk about what success looks like for everyone on the team. This discussion will be more productive if you have direct client input to use as you talk about what’s coming next. I’d include everyone in this meeting, so you can have representation from all areas of the firm. Let people craft outcomes together and talk about pros and cons. Then, together, you can develop a plan of action for what you will do over the next one to three years, as things change.

You need to establish some sort of formalized process — to get client input, and to bring the team together. What’s happening now sounds very fragmented and unproductive. While not everyone will agree, having a process for discussion and reviewing your options gives everyone a voice. If you put that in place, people can understand the “why?” of the decisions that are ultimately made.

Dear Bev,

We are taking our firm through a wholesale change — both name and branding. We found out we were using a name that was registered under another company, and we need to change it for legal reasons. The chaos that has ensued is really mind-bending. I know a name matters, and how we talk about what we do matters, but the fighting that is going on is really over the top. Everyone (we are a team of nine) has a point of view and is unwilling to compromise.

I’ve thrown my hands up and said I don’t care what we are called as long as we can make a decision. Every name that is proposed is already owned, and the ones that aren’t are inappropriate. But even with that said, I no longer care. My partner thinks I am abandoning the firm with my attitude. I have work to do and clients to serve. I am not in a position to fight over something that, in my view, isn’t going to change much for us materially. How do I step away from this in a professional manner without damaging relationships?

M.S.

Dear M.S.,

It sounds to me like you need to establish a decision-making process and approach for this topic. You probably need to have one within the firm, in general, so when big things like this come up, there is a governance piece around how decisions are made.

I must disagree with your perspective, though. I understand you are busy and have better things to do. However, the name of a firm and how you describe what you do are critically important and matter a lot. There are marketing firms who make millions of dollars coming up with names and positioning for firms of all sizes in every industry you can think of. Why? Because it matters what you are called, what the URL you are using for your firm actually is, and how you stand out in a crowded market. I urge you not to remove yourself from the discussion. Instead, find a way to make the discussions more productive.

Perhaps members of your firm could anonymously submit some ideas. You could have one of them gather these together and create a list of options. First, you need to determine that the names are available before you waste time talking about them, so task someone with doing a trademark search so you know which of the suggested names are available. Once you determine the short list of choices, circulate these to everyone without discussion. Send them via email and ask each team member to separately rank their five favorites 1-5 (with “1” being the first choice). Again, a neutral party should collect these responses and then provide a list of the top selections. Once you have done these steps, only then should you get in a room to talk about which ones are the best and why.

Let everyone have a voice in this process, but make it clear the decision ultimately rests with one or two people. The senior leaders or owners of the firm should have the final say. If they aren’t as invested, as you say you are not, leave it up to someone who cares about marketing or the person most vocal on the topic. In advance of any discussions, you need to establish the decision-making process, communicate it and stick to it.

With a process and an approach in place, especially if the first two steps are done anonymously and objectively, you should move toward a final solution a bit more easily. Will everyone be happy with the outcome? Perhaps not, but you can’t help that. All you can do is try to set it up to be as open and fair as possible, with someone holding the absolute final say once the decision is made.

Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).

She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.

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