Published in Barron’s on October 3, 2023
Listen to the podcast recording with Greg Bartalos
Below is a summary of the podcast directly from Barron’s:
Financial advisory firms that identify, and double down on, the interests and passions of their employees have more effective and motivated teams than those that exclusively focus on monetary compensation, says Amy Parvaneh, founder and CEO of Select Advisors Institute, a full-service marketing and sales management firm.
“The whole reason why I even started talking about compensation planning and how do you reward your people really stems from the fact that I could write all day long different sales manuals for teams. I could make the world’s best website. I could write everyone’s best messaging and pitch. But unless there’s that internal motivation from the actual people within the firm, all of that is just going to be kind of like a car sitting in a garage. I always say what we create is the car. We need the people on the team to be self-motivated.”
Parvaneh, who worked previously at Goldman Sachs and Pimco, says that beyond financial compensation, some employees are motivated by recognition while others seek self- improvement or influence. Those that are “cause motivated” are “driven by things beyond money,” she says. “You think of some of the biggest CEOs in the world right now. They are already billionaires. They don’t need any more money, so what’s driving them?”
Harnessing the power of employees’ interests. “I’m really big on how you motivate people to do things. One part of it is financial compensation. How do you structure it? The other part is nonfinancial compensation. It doesn’t just have to be with money. It could be to read into people’s brains and what motivates them and be able to build out programs and different reward systems that will trigger them to want to do things without you having to constantly nag them to do it.”
Using an assessment to identify skill sets. “The first thing I advise my clients to do is to take what we call the Select Advisors Rainmaker test. It has been created by our firm by looking at the data of all of the advisors that I’ve coached and consulted throughout the years. We started the firm in 2014. And we look for common skill sets. What we’ve realized is that there are pretty much about 12 essential skills that an individual needs to have, and if not be groomed around to become really good at sales.”
Clarifying what sales represent in your practice. “Step back and clarify what you mean by the word sales, because sales means different things to different people.
Your receptionist can say, “Well, I’m getting sales because I was really nice to a little lady who walked in and I gave her coffee, so I kept the client.” It could get very blurry if you’re not being very clear. No, when we say sales, we want cold leads, or we want wallet share, or we want client retention. Just be very clear about it. From there, you could mathematically figure out what the financials should look like.”
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Select Advisors Institute (SAI) is a specialized brand development agency for wealth managers and financial firms. With over 12 years of experience and insights gained from serving firms that collectively manage more than $300 billion in assets, SAI helps advisory businesses clarify positioning, strengthen differentiation, and build brands designed for trust and growth. Led by Amy Parvaneh and an expert team, SAI delivers brand strategy, messaging, authority positioning, and digital brand guidance tailored to the realities of financial services. If you’re evaluating brand development agencies, discover how SAI builds credibility, consistency, and market leadership for advisory firms.