Most wholesalers know that getting face time with high-end producers is no easy task, but making those interactions effective is even more challenging, according to new findings from Cogent Reports, a division of Market Strategies International. Only 10 mutual fund providers out of 44 leading firms managed to accomplish both with their external wholesaling force in the first quarter of 2014. These findings are the latest from the Cogent Beat™ Advisor platform, which continually tracks the attitudes and behaviors of advisors on a wide range of topics related to product usage, wholesaler effectiveness and brand equity.
According to Cogent Reports, $100 million-plus advisors saw an average of 4.4 external wholesalers from mutual fund firms per month during Q1 of 2014, with a full 81% reportedly seeing at least 1 of the 44 firms tracked in the Cogent Beat platform. However, a closer examination of the data reveals that, on average, individual fund firms touched only 1 in 10 (11%) of the highly coveted $100 million-plus advisor population in any given month.
Unfortunately, once ¡°in the door,¡± external wholesalers from mutual fund firms were more apt to receive neutral than positive ratings from $100 million-plus advisors. In fact, 55% of high-end producers gave external wholesalers a neutral (52%) or negative (3%) rating, while fewer than half (45%) said they were more likely to invest in the firms¡¯ products as a result of the visit.
However, a handful of firms¡ª1 in 4¡ªachieved above-average ratings on both reach and impact, a status Cogent Reports has termed ¡°idolize¡± in its WIFI (Wholesaler Impact on Future Investment) quadrant analysis. These 10 firms include BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, J.P. Morgan Funds, Lord Abbett, OppenheimerFunds, MFS Investment Management, Ivy Funds, Eaton Vance Funds, AllianceBernstein and Columbia Funds. The greatest number of mutual fund firms (18) fall into the ¡°initiate¡± quadrant, as they have below-average reach and impact among $100 million-plus advisors. Four mutual fund firms need to ¡°improve,¡± as they have above-average reach but low impact, while 12 mutual fund firms should consider an ¡°increase¡± to their efforts as their wholesaling teams are effective at influencing advisors but their reach is relatively low.
