Business Development For Financial Advisors: From Necessary Evil To Integrated Strategy

I’ve been in the financial advisory business for roughly 28 years—and for 28 of those years, I’ve had a challenging relationship with the notion of “business development”—or the shadier moniker by which it is also known, “sales.”

This has been such a tenuous relationship because many of us in the industry—and all of the advisors at my firm—consider themselves high-level professionals, not salespeople. Yes, without business development, there is no business, but many, if not most, professional advisors would much prefer to do great work, have that work recognized, and have prospects lining up to request being clients.