In today’s noisy and competitive landscape, capturing the mindshare of the advisors you want to recruit to your broker-dealer is more challenging than ever. Once you have a recruit’s attention, differentiating your firm as a destination of choice for their next career move is not easy.
At Cetera, we recently reimagined our home office visit strategy, embracing the importance of face-to-face meetings in our recruiting success. That means bringing prospective candidates to our offices to meet with our key leaders and experience our culture. If recruits are willing to spend this time with us, it’s likely they have narrowed their decision down to just a few firms for their next professional home. That makes the home office visit critical, since we think it can actually break a tie in our favor.
We tried to reimagine the home office visit, keeping several objectives in mind. We see these meetings as a unique opportunity to clearly establish Cetera as a top-of-the-line firm, create an unforgettable and lasting impression, provide access to senior leadership, and reinforce our value proposition and key differentiators. We want to give each recruiter a personalized and memorable experience.
We have six tips for developing a winning home office visit strategy:
1. Remember the importance of face-to-face interactions.
Sometimes we forget that for two years, most of us were stuck at home, meeting almost solely virtually instead of in person. As in-person events continue to make a comeback, people are craving human interaction, making the home office visit that much more important to recruiting success. Keep this in mind and consider going the extra mile when hosting recruits to woo them to your firm.
2. Embrace the attention to detail.
Focusing on the fine details of each recruit’s visit goes a long way toward leaving a lasting impression. The reality is that little things matter, whether it’s the agenda you set at the hotel, or whether you host memorable activities like a museum tour or a professional baseball game. Even the transportation and food and beverages matter. So remember that your attention to detail can be a game changer. Focus on defining and delivering a memorable experience with no details too small to overlook.
3. Double-down on your meeting space.
Where you meet—the physical space—is a key component of your recruit’s visit. We have all spent too much time in stuffy conference and meeting spaces. With this in mind, Cetera has taken a different approach and designed an immersive space in our headquarters that facilitates conversations and builds community. It has great views, a game room, outdoor space and lounge areas. This space sets our recruits at ease and sparks authentic conversations and interactions in a comfortable and relaxing environment.
4. Develop a pre-, during and post-event strategy.
While your actual home office visit may only last a day or two, the reality is that you are making an impression on your recruit before, during and after the event. Consider what will be most memorable throughout these three distinct phases, and remember that personalization is important. Handwritten invitations and thank-you cards are more memorable than a canned letter, as is having your company’s brand front and center throughout their stay—on the hotel television and coffee mugs, for example.
5. Clearly define expectations.
Make sure your recruit is crystal clear about what to expect, and leave no stone unturned. Develop detailed and personalized agendas that give your guest a comprehensive picture of where they will be traveling and when, which team members they will be meeting with, off-site activities to consider, and topics that will be covered. Most importantly, make sure they know that the visit is all about them. Your agenda is designed to guide your time with your candidates, but ultimately, they should be telling you what they want to get from your time together.
6. Don’t ignore “stop signs.”
Spending potentially thousands of dollars to bring an individual or team to a home office visit excites the entire organization to “get to yes.” But sometimes a prospect may do things that give you pause. They overindulge at the bar. They make comments suggesting they wouldn’t fit in your culture. They do something that makes you scratch your head. Don’t ignore those warning signs. If a recruit does something that suggests a bad cultural fit (or if they offend people), that’s an indication of future behavior. Those are the candidates, despite the expense, that you should pass on.
As you recruit talent to your firm, remember the importance of these in-person interactions. In today’s highly competitive landscape, we are all looking for ways to differentiate our firms for potential recruits. Having a thoughtful and well-defined home office visit strategy can make a big difference—and help you win more tiebreakers on the recruiting trail.
John Pierce is head of business development at Cetera Financial Group. He is the author of Sell More and Sleep at Night: Developing Relationships with Emotional Intelligence to Increase Sales, available on Amazon.