Preparing for client meetings can be very time consuming as you work through the many steps that need to be done to prepare . . .

• Find last year’s notes and review what you’ve already discussed
• Follow up on what you told your client you would be discussing this year
• Find or create presentations to present concepts and ideas   
• Follow up with staff to prepare statements and create an agenda 
• Update planning software
• Update suitability
• Prepare documentation on new investments or run illustrations for life insurance

And these are just a few of the tasks you might need to complete! 

Preparing for a meeting isn’t an easy or fast process if you have to click around in your CRM to find all the necessary documents and forms. Maybe you don’t even have all these items in your CRM! Then, 

… you’re going through a spreadsheet

     … or worse yet, 

          paper files!

A consultant at ShellBlack had a client who wanted to simplify meeting preparation. They wanted everything they needed to prepare for a meeting in one place to limit the amount of “clicking around” they had to do. The consultant customized Financial Services Cloud by putting all the client’s meeting preparation essentials in a customization called Meeting Centers.

Now the client didn’t have to scroll down through the activity timeline to find last year’s meeting notes, or open a new document to make the agenda for their meeting. 

Meeting Centers — everything in one place

The Meeting Centers customization has everything you need to prepare for your client meetings and to follow up after the meetings, all in one place. It’s customized with your firm’s key types of client meetings, and each type of meeting has preset topics to be covered in the meeting. Other topics can be added from a drop-down list of suggested topics. These topics can be limited to the subjects and options for client segmentation and are customized to your process.

Click into a meeting in Meeting Centers, and you’ll see that there is already an Agenda. The Agenda Topics feature keeps track of your agenda items. Each agenda topic is listed with the ability to note whether it was discussed or why it wasn’t discussed. Notes can be added about each topic, and a checkbox can be clicked to indicate if it should be included in a client report. Client reports can be used to generate a client agenda or for post-meeting summary letters to clients.

In the Meeting Summary area, notes can be saved and locked down so they can’t be edited later. This is often required for compliance reasons. 

 This is also where Administrative Cases for service requests are added.  They can be added pre- or post-meeting, so staff can follow up on items like beneficiary changes, address changes, trades, withdrawals or deposits. Cases are generated and automatically routed to the correct people to handle these tasks, and they are tracked to ensure they are completed by set deadlines.  

There is another section for Goals, so the advisor can keep track of the things that are important to the client. These goals always need to be included in the conversation! They might include things like retirement planning or purchasing a new boat.

In the Analysis Requests section, the advisor can request an analysis from the planning team. The client may need a new retirement plan created with updated numbers from new statements or just a cost basis analysis. A request is sent to the planning team to prepare the report for the meeting or to be mailed with the post-meeting letter.

Upload files to the Files section for documentation purposes or for the planning team to use in analysis. It’s important for compliance reasons to have the documentation to back up recommendations made to clients. This is the place to store the documents so they are secure and easily found by the advisor.

The Related tab has all the related records and past activities for this client and their household. Not just related lists that are standard with Salesforce. This Related list has been supercharged with ALL the records so that advisors don’t have to go back to the household account to find the accounts, activities, opportunities, past meeting notes, assets, or liabilities. Anything you need to know about that client, before or during a meeting, is in this Related tab. These lists are also searchable! That means fewer clicks to find the information you need quickly! 

   At the top of the page, a path guides advisors through the meeting process so nothing falls through the cracks. As tasks are completed, they are clicked and the status is changed to completed. 

The Meeting Centers put everything in one place in Financial Services Cloud. It can be customized to put together all the components you want in one screen. There is less clicking around and no need to go back to Household accounts to look for the information you need. During the meeting, it is quick and easy to find information so you can get client questions answered fast. 

ShellBlack consultants can customize Financial Services Cloud to prioritize the information that is important for you, and your team!

Author Credit: 

Lisa Kilmer CFP Salesforce Consultant at ShellBlack.com 

Content Contributed by:

Brent Downey Director of Delivery at ShellBlack.com