New business comes in many forms. A social media marketing campaign. A client referral. A cold call that leads to a meeting that leads to a new plan under advisement.

But in a competitive market with high rates of turnover, advisers would be well served to develop a plan for both finding and approaching potential clients, top retirement plan advisers told an audience at the 2023 PLANADVISER National Conference.

Deena Rini, senior vice president and managing director of retirement plan services at Oswald Financial, said advisers should think about their sales approach in the same way they do with new clients: focusing on the value proposition and what the advisory will bring to the plan sponsor for the months and years ahead.

Rini said her firm made an important pivot several years ago after a ‘eureka’ moment when staffers realized they did not have a standardized process for onboarding new clients.

“Everyone was doing something a little bit different, which operationally made things inefficient, and our clients were all experiencing different types of services from us,” she told fellow advisers in Scottsdale, Arizona. “We took that as an opportunity to develop a welcome kit and an operational onboarding experience.”

The program advanced, however, into a way to approach prospective clients with a full packet of information and details on what Oswald can provide.

“We treat our prospects as if they are already clients,” Rini said. “We believe that’s the first step in the sales process.”

Rini said the firm’s welcome packet includes information on key contacts and their roles, a timeline of what to expect, and answers to frequently asked questions the firm receives, such as, “Am I a fiduciary?” It also highlights areas such as participant education and engagement. “We remind them of all the value and impact we’re having for their participants,” she said.

New Opportunities

Thomas Ming, managing director at Pensionmark Financial Group, noted that advisers should be open to new business areas or paths.

His firm, which had not typically been active in 457 government plans, saw opportunity to bring their specialty to that space and, at times, provide better options for plan sponsors not used to seeing relatively lower fees or additional plan elements such as managed accounts.

After some early success, Ming’s group is now building out that practice area.

“We have the experience now and the plans underneath us,” he said. “We see it as a wide-open space.”

Another area of growth is nonqualified deferred compensation plans, Ming said. The advisers noted that these offerings “go in waves,” but that the market seems to be good for them right now, and Ming said his group is working on a handful of nonqualified plans and executive bonus plans.

Beyond looking for new areas, Ming said it is important to consider what clients need and look to meet them in a simple, efficient way. To that end, the firm recently launched a pooled employer plan, with Pensionmark acting as the 3(38) fiduciary, Pentegra serving as the pooled plan provider and Empower serving as the recordkeeper.

“I think it’s a really good solution for those clients that are looking for that type of oversight,” Ming said.

Seeing the Potential

Neal Stamper, the corporate retirement and financial wellness director at Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting, noted that the pandemic pushed many businesses to focus on general operations, and not retirement plan benefits. He said the time is ripe to establish new relationships with potential clients.

“COVID has thrown us all for a loop, but we’re getting back to a point now where it’s getting back to business as usual,” Stamper said. “We can call [businesses] now and have a conversation that basically starts by saying, ‘Hey, look, we deal with a lot of plans, and we’ve seen over the past three years that companies have not been looking closely at their benefits.’”

Stamper said these calls can lead to conversations about topics such as participant education or SECURE 2.0 developments that can help get a business’s “people to a better place” when it comes to retirement savings and general finances.

Stamper also recommended that advisers not dismiss calling referrals or even cold-calling firms where there might be a lead. He noted one situation in which he called an organization where he noticed turnover in its human resources leadership. After initially getting voicemail, Stamper got a call back from the contact that eventually led to him winning the plan.

“Now, would we have gotten that based on emails?” Stamper asked the audience of advisers. “The catalyst was having [the prospective client’s] cell phone number and me just calling him and saying, ‘Hey, we’d love to talk with you, and here’s why.’”

Stamper also backed the idea of having a ready-made plan to show prospective clients what they will be getting from working with him and the team.

“I think a lot of companies haven’t seen someone’s value proposition or even know what they’re supposed to be getting from a 401(k) adviser,” he said. “I think it makes a lot of sense just to put on page what your value is and what you do for clients.”