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There are many important elements to any advisory business however, apart from you, the most valuable is undoubtedly your existing client bank.

Anyone active in this market will know how difficult it can be to secure new clients and, while clearly worth your while, the vast majority of business often comes from those you have already serviced. We’re not necessarily talking about the recommendations and referrals that happy and content clients can offer you, but we’re predominantly dealing with the ongoing and numerous financial product needs that any individual will have throughout their lifetime.

The mortgage advisory market has been relatively unique – and not in good way – up until quite recently. That’s because advisers in the past focused on the transactional nature of delivering the client to the mortgage and, quite frankly, not much else. When a mortgage market is running at £300-£350 billion lending levels and there appears to be a non-stop and never-ending stream of new clients beating their way to your door, this might seem like a good business strategy. However, it is short-termist and, given we have a mortgage market with far fewer approvals taking place, that transactional focus will be the undoing of you.

There were not many good things about the Credit Crunch or subsequent recession, however for those advisers who made it through, one of them was the realisation that ‘mortgages were not the only fruit’ when it came to looking after a client. Since then, successful advisers and advisory practices have realised that clients have multiple needs across multiple product areas and that they should make sure they are the one to provide advice and recommendations across as many of those as possible. And even if they couldn’t provide that advice directly, they should certainly be introducing them to someone who could.

Not only have advisers realised the client has multiple needs – whether it be insurance, protection, conveyancing, legal, the list goes on – but there has also been a growing understanding that constant contact was required. The reason is simple – people’s lives change constantly and what was right six/12/24 months ago is not necessarily going to be right now. This is why true advisers are constantly in contact with their existing clients to educate and inform them, and to tell them about market and product changes which could mean they’re in a position to, for example, save money on their mortgage, or up their cover, or get cheaper insurance, or write themselves a will, etc.

The point is that keeping at the forefront of your existing client’s mind has never been so important. At the end of the day, who is the client more likely to go to? The former adviser who sends them regular newsletters, updates, tailored information, birthday/Christmas cards or the former adviser who has not been heard of since the advice was provided?

We believe that the easiest way you can do this is to utilise some of the wonderful technology that now exists. For example, our system, Revolution, has client management functionality that easily provides you with all the existing information about your clients and sets out exactly, for example, when they are coming to the end of their mortgage deal or the renewal of their insurance premium. By having this management information to hand, advisers can tailor their communications to existing clients and push out some key marketing messages in the lead up to these dates.

Effectively such systems are making it much easier for advisers to maximise their sales opportunities from their existing clients; indeed this type of information proactively creates such opportunities, which is absolutely paramount for any business. Here we are marrying up client need with marketing message and forging a system whereby no existing client is left in any doubt about the services and products their adviser can offer. This obviously doesn’t have to be just mortgage-specific and a quality system should be able to show all the ‘gaps’ in an individual’s financial make-up. Are they under-insured, do they have a will, what level of cover do they have – all can be seen, understood and communication messages provided to.

Therefore, while sometimes our focus can drift onto bringing in the new, let’s not forget the old. Your existing clients can ultimately far more important and can be far more profitable than any potential/non-existent client that is yet to walk through your door. Make sure your database is up to date and that is actively generating opportunities that can provide the foundation for all future business growth.