Author Archives: Dan Scafe

Have Your Cake and Eat it, Too—Logic and Workflow Automation

Automating business logic and workflow is impactful to a firm’s growth potential, but also to an individual’s productivity. To get this right, we recommend starting with data. When onboarding new clients or enhancing projects with existing client partners, SalesPage’s focus is on getting the data right. In the asset management industry, there is A LOT of data. Most of it exists in silos, which makes the data difficult to leverage through multiple departments. CRM related activity, such as notes, calls, emails, etc., is just one layer of data (or layer of cake, depending on your view) – however, there is much more...

Data on Device: A Here-And-Now Trend for Asset Managers

Picture this: You’re a top-performing external wholesaler with a territory that includes San Francisco. You have back-to-back meetings with three individual reps who work on different floors in the same building. After meeting with the first rep, you walk into the elevator and push the button for the floor on which the second rep works; you pull out your mobile device to look up a sales report for crucial information that can help you close the deal with that second rep—only to discover that you don’t have service in the building. Without that rep’s data available to you, you have a sinking feeling that you’re toast. But at this point, you don’t have a choice; you just have to move forward and hope that you’ll be able to close the deal—even without the data that would have made your life easier and your deal more certain.

On the Go: Getting the Most Out of Mobile

You may have experienced, as I have, arriving at work and settling into the morning routine—a cup of coffee in hand while you’re sifting through e-mails; then, it hits you. You check your left and right pockets. You check your computer bag or purse. You go out to your car to look in your center console. With a sinking feeling, you remember leaving your phone on your nightstand. All of a sudden you feel like you’re missing your right leg.

Preparedness and Overcoming Challenges

At last week's NICSA Strategic Leadership Forum, one stand-out motivational speaker, Rob O’Neill, shared how he developed preparedness and how that has helped him overcome significant challenges and achieve success. That led me to thinking about how SalesPage and the asset management industry have also worked to be prepared and overcome challenges.

Can You Bring the Value, Please?

Getting past a gatekeeper can be extremely difficult, no matter what the industry. For the asset management industry, you had better bring value. That’s right, VALUE. I think Benjamin Huneke, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, put it best when he described the process of evaluating strategies to employ for their clients. According to Huneke, when a firm is interested in having their strategy considered, that firm should bring a new product idea to discuss, rather than asking where assets are flowing, and if they can create a product based on those flows. It is more effective and valuable when “sellers” do their homework, identify industry and asset trends, and then approach prospective clients with new ideas based on that research. The bottom line is that you have to bring value to the table when trying to build a relationship. Ask yourself, “What is the value I am looking to deliver when reaching out? Do I have the right message at the right time?”

Segment Like a Ninja

Networking, great presentations, illuminating discussions, people who make you think: does it get any better than that? Well, strangely, it does. Attending an event in Chicago this week—MFEA’s Marketing Council, hosted by Morningstar—gave me a new perspective on some of the challenges involved in segmenting data, and really underscored the importance of being able to easily update your segment definitions as the industry changes.

Global Perspectives at ICI GMM

This year’s ICI GMM conference gave me a lot to think about. The fund industry is definitely becoming more global, and SalesPage has responded to that trend by providing a unified solution that supports all users, both those working within the U.S. and those working in other nations. One area that is and that will continue to be a challenge is integration. Fund firms all use a variety of data sources, systems and service providers, each of which is often vital to their organizations, but–as Fink noted–integration is key, and as we've learned at SalesPage, successful integration takes careful planning and execution.

Marketing and Sales Need a Shared Message

There’s a distinct advantage when the distribution and marketing sides agree on a single clear message that a firm can then “broadcast” to the outside. When the two teams are aligned in this way, sales can expand on marketing efforts and reinforce the brand, and marketing can develop a stronger plan to communicate the message. Without this cooperation, disagreements can lead to massive complications from both a product standpoint and from a branding perspective.

Aggregate Data for Better Decision-Making

SalesPage has a unique focus on the investment management industry, and especially on data aggregation for that industry. We understand that handling and aggregating volumes of data on a daily basis is a key industry challenge. We understand that every firm wants to fully tap into the insights inherent in all of their disparate data. By offering solutions that incorporate data management, sales reporting, and CRM tools, SalesPage helps our clients overcome these challenges.

Data Comes First

We encourage firms to focus on data first, and to understand that bell-and-whistle functionality is just icing on the cake. If you don’t have the ability to properly manage, process, and apply business logic to your data in your CRM solution, your software is useless. Firms rely heavily on accurate data to make effective decisions. Important data, especially data you are paying for, needs to be leveraged fully through your CRM solution to maximize return.