CRM for financial advisors and credit intermediaries

The work of a credit, financial or insurance advisor involves regular contact with clients and supporting them in key financial decisions. This is no different for a credit intermediary, whose specific tasks are slightly different, but the goal is the same. The key to every action taken is customer satisfaction and assistance in choosing the best possible solution. We have a similar goal at SalesWizard, so the tool we have created is a helpful CRM system for financial advisors and credit intermediaries.

What is the difference between a financial advisor and a credit intermediary?

At the outset, it should be noted that the term “financial advisor” and “credit intermediary” are not the same. The former is fully independent, which means it cannot be affiliated with any financial institution. He must not favor the offerings of a particular bank, and must keep track of current offers and proposals from the financial sector on his own. A financial advisor is often more than just a “loan person,” and his or her expertise doesn’t end with comparing loans. Assuming it has a broker’s license, it can also provide investment and capital placement advisory services. In the case of an advisor, the fee is paid directly by the client; he does not take a commission from the financial institution.

A credit intermediary, whose leading task is to support the client throughout the loan process, has a different characteristic. This is the person who has access to the “back office of the offer,” i.e. all the information and procedures related to a particular form of credit. Access is granted on the basis of cooperation with a particular bank or network of banks, which allows you to check the offers of selected, most popular banks. Intermediaries earn primarily from commissions on each successfully processed and activated loan, they do not take money from the customer. These rates are variable and vary from bank to bank, making it difficult to speak of independence here. What remains unchanged, however, is that both the first and second professions aim to provide the best possible customer service.

Financial consulting – the specifics of everyday challenges

The most important challenge in today’s world is, of course, to attract customers who are becoming more aware and demanding every year. Financial advisors not only have to contend with mutual competition, as it were, they also compete with banks, which have their own specialized staff. This situation makes it necessary for the advisor to be a kind of business partner, focusing not on quantity, but on quality of clients. After all, any faux pas could mean a loss of trust and the customer’s irrevocable departure to the competition. At the same time, it is necessary to follow all industry news and changes in the offerings of individual financial players. This task in itself is extremely absorbing, especially if the advisor has a richly developed profile of investment portfolios. Since hiring sales teams is not an option, it makes sense to use IT tools.

Credit intermediation – tasks and challenges

It would seem that brokers have a somewhat easier task than advisors. The fact that they work with banks means that they get a certain pool of contacts from a base of customers who consistently use the institution’s services. However, this is not always the standard – many intermediaries have to source and increase their lead base on their own after a while. This is especially true for those intermediaries that serve the SME sector, i.e., small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, among others. Don’t forget that revenue depends on credits activated; no transactions means no earnings. This gives the whole thing the character of a sales process, where it is necessary to maintain the customer’s interest at every stage of the credit application. Here, too, an IT tool that combines a sales funnel, a Kanban board and a database with sales network contacts will prove useful.

Two professions, one solution – CRM software

Many years of experience in the financial industry, friendly appeal or good relations with banks may not be enough. It is necessary to support day-to-day work in order to efficiently carry out tasks and respond efficiently to the changing market situation. Online CRM will prove to be an indispensable tool in this case, which will open up new opportunities. CRM itself stands for Customer Relationship Management and applies not only to the brokerage industry. It’s a business philosophy that pays special attention to customers’ needs and expectations. Consumers’ tastes and preferences here are an indicator of development and a suggestion to model product and service offerings accordingly. Everyone – from salespeople to managers to the board of directors – must properly understand and interpret signals from customers for the company to have a chance to grow. A CRM system is used to manage the company and increase the quality of work – a solution used by both global corporations and one-person businesses.

Key benefits of the CRM system

A CRM system available in a SaaS model is all about predictable costs and mobility. The fixed fee includes not only access to the program in the cloud, but also support team support and access to more and more new features. Access to the CRM application from any device – laptop, tablet or smartphone – means that all data will always be with you. Whether you are receiving your clients at the counseling headquarters or at a field meeting, all you have to do is log into the system. Forget Excel with its hundreds of tables, notebook and calendar that you have to take with you to every meeting. Instead, try a new, more convenient solution, with a clear interface and many of the capabilities that SalesWizard CRM offers. A number of benefits await you, which any financial intermediary company will appreciate!

Higher quality of customer service

The most important benefit perceived by the customer is a significant improvement in the quality of service expressed in a variety of forms. A sense of personal treatment, faster and more accurate matching of offers, or instant generation of document uploads create an overall positive experience. This, in turn, translates into a stronger relationship with the customer, who will only use your services for any questions or loan needs, especially in the long term. This is good news for advisors, whose price list is volatile and price increases could scare off untethered clients. Satisfaction with the service, customization of the service and trust in the industry professionals makes them remain loyal even despite the higher rate. For brokers, in turn, it means free whisper marketing – customers delighted with the level of service will recommend you to their friends and relatives.

Better task management

Any business, even a one-person business, needs to carry out tasks effectively. The more people in an organization, the greater the likelihood of information noise. This, in turn, can lead to unfavorable situations:

• More than one person performs a given task, resulting in inefficient use of human resources.
• No one performs a given task, which causes delays or gives rise to the need to take overtime.
• An incompetent person performs the task, which increases the likelihood of improper performance.
• There is a lack of information regarding the task, which increases the chances of an unsatisfactory outcome of the task.

For micro-activities, SalesWizard provides fantastic support for the person or persons responsible for sales. Each successive step is described in the form of a funnel, which is assigned predefined service statuses by the administrator. No less support will be felt by larger teams of advisors and intermediaries. SalesWizard CRM management tool will work just fine!

Streamlining work with contacts

Under this term is a comprehensive set of tools from SalesWizard, which in its usefulness can compete with many an ERP system. Handling incoming requests from contact forms, maintaining a file with customer information or concluding contracts with electronic signatures are just selected examples. When dealing with multi-step tasks that are often encountered in a B2B relationship, the “Projects” module will prove useful. Importantly, some of the monotonous, repetitive and schematic tasks can be entrusted to artificial intelligence. Automation of work will definitely relieve the burden on you or your organization, and you will deal with the essence of customer work that no machine can do. You can safely import contacts from previous sources or databases into SalesWizard CRM, and this is just one form of efficient and secure data management.

Secure storage of personal data

There is no doubt that the secure storage of customer data is an absolutely critical element that determines your credibility. Notebooks can be lost, Excel can be opened by unauthorized people, so in this matter trust proven solutions! SalesWizard CRM offers maximum security with three firewalls. The first is the access firewall, which is the need for system login authorization. Without an email and a secure password, you can’t perform any action in SalesWizard. The second firewall is the IT mechanisms implemented by our team. The security measures we have taken provide a barrier against both malicious and targeted hacking attacks. The third barrier is innovation, i.e. continuous development and improvement of the product. Each update allows us to “attach” new and even better security features to existing IT barriers.

Test SalesWizard – a dedicated CRM tool

The above benefits of CRM implementation are just examples of the solutions that await you and your company in SalesWizard! Created by Polish developers and IT professionals, it will bring out the full potential of the entire team. An important point is that SalesWizard’s testing involved entrepreneurs from a variety of fields, including financial intermediation and banking consulting. Thus, the system is not only clear and user-friendly, but also does not overwhelm with the amount of data and tools. You will experience the benefits of increased quality of work both in the first hours after implementation and in the long-term horizon. Take advantage of the free seven-day trial and see for yourself the many benefits that come with SalesWizard CRM! Have questions or want to get a SalesWizard quote for your company? Write to us or give us a call and we’ll get back to you in no time!