Dealer groups as part of your plan
A couple of weeks ago, when I wrote about the importance and knowing your own mind when considering the future, a couple of dealer group leaders thought my article was 'anti-group'.
Tuesday, October 24th 2017, 10:11AM 
1 Comment
by Russell Hutchinson
In fact, that’s not true. I am a supporter of dealer groups, and I still think that advisers should think about what they want. These two ideas are compatible - I think they go hand-in-hand.
Clearly lots of advisers have found value in groups; only yesterday, the first thing an adviser said they would recommend to someone new to the industry was to "join a group", and I agree - the multi-dimensional support, training, inspiration and help are all essential.
But, for the more experienced, imagine choosing a dealer group without thinking about what you want first:
Choosing a dealer group that you don’t like, either at random, or because you have no other choices, could be a catastrophe - one which would cause you to resent the relationship and likely manufacture disagreement.
That would be destructive to both businesses, with you feeling constrained and the dealer/licence-holder wasting time trying to ‘save’ a bad situation.
Choosing a dealer group as your new licence-holder in the new regime because they share your values, provide services that you need, and your advice model and theirs are a good fit - that is the ideal basis for a long-term relationship that will likely create positive feedback, each business helping the other to grow. Yours thriving with better support, theirs growing with yours.
The essential foundation for that choice is knowing what you want from your business. The next step is knowing the dealer group offer. How they will help you; what their culture is like; whether they can add value through collegial support, leadership, role modelling, compliance services, and systems.
Those things are on offer in varying degrees from a number of different places.
Offers vary, and although the differences are sometime small, they can be significant. One area that deserves particular attention is sales leadership. Being good at what you do can be built on many things, and systems are vital, but even more important than the ‘how to’ is often the ‘why’ and the ‘want to’.
If you find a group of people who can help conjure up strong, motivating, answers to those questions, that’s great. And you need to know what you want in order to find it.
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We also agree that its important for advisers to have a choice. They need to have a choice as to joining in under someone's license, or getting their own.
It is vitally important that if an adviser is joining a group, they can access the systems, support and development that will enable them to grow their business.