We live in uncertain times since the Covid 19 outbreak, daily lives of citizens around the world changed , seemingly overnight. With worldwide lockdowns, businesses around the globe found new ways to deliver products to customers and consumers, and this is definitely true for the financial services industry. With dramatic swings in the stock exchange, a halt in travel, and social distancing, the financial industry was forced to make drastic changes to survive and thrive. Our company, Anchor Advisory Services, has been involved in financial services for nearly 40 years and never could we fathom such severe changes could take place so quickly in an industry that has remained relatively stable in the 21st century.
Serving in roles such as internal wholesaler, wholesaler, and sales desk manager for one of the biggest financial service companies in the industry, we have a clear definition of all aspects of financial sales. The pinnacle of the industry was making one’s way up the ladder to become the big paycheck recipient, an External Wholesaler. The travel, the late-night fancy dinners, the golf lunches, and the destination location annual meetings have all come to a screeching halt and - in our opinion - will take a long time to return to the pace that once was standard. This is where we believe that the much less prestigious role of the internal wholesaler will come to play a much larger (and perhaps equally important) role. When the wholesaler cannot travel and spend big-budget dollars on client meetings, what remains is the equally (in our opinion) role of the phone-proficient internal wholesaler getting the job done from inside the sales desk- or at home.
Companies are revising their budgets and hoping to maximize their sales spend. This is where Anchor Advisory Services comes into play: we have a dynamic team of internal wholesalers; each are licensed, managed and trained by two leaders with an unbelievable track record in the financial services industry.
Previously, the role of an Internal Wholesaler was thought of as simply "the financial advisors resource for handling advisors requests for planning tools, illustration support and basic service issues." This role has definitely evolved over the years and has been exponentially altered over the last 60-90 days with the shift towards working remotely as social distancing measures remain in place. Our internal wholesalers have become more sophisticated and comfortable holding virtual meetings through services like zoom. What this creates is much more leverage for the sponsor; before, they only had one resource for point-of-sale meetings: the external wholesaler. Now, with Anchor's services, they have two resources for point-of-sale meetings, the internal and external wholesaler. Couple that with the growing comfort of the advisor to utilize virtual meetings as a way to learn about new offerings and our resources become that much more valuable.
We believe that the role of the internal wholesaler will continue to improve and evolve and Anchor is at the forefront of this movement. Contact us today to learn more about our turnkey, cost-effective outsourced internal wholesaler resources.
