Advisors, how well do you really know your clients?

When it comes to M&A deals, capital raising and other major financial transactions, companies rely heavily on their advisors to lead them through what is generally a critical stage for their business.

Advisors are depended on for expert knowledge, strategic advice and confident decision-making. They are hired to guide the business through to a successful and lucrative deal outcome – and they regularly do.

However, all too often they are still in the dark about many aspects of their clients’ business. And as a result, the likely outcome of the deal itself.

 

Current processes equate to a lack of visibility

Even the most skilled and experienced advisor has to navigate numerous blind spots across the disparate channels and systems they use to manage clients and activity. Lack of visibility over a client’s critical documentation and how they are progressing is a product of legacy behaviours that haven’t changed much since the first days of email and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Without a comprehensive, real-time view, many advisors rely on gut instinct on which to base their decisions. They don’t have easy or quick enough access to the real data that shows where their client’s business actually stands. And, if they do, assessing the business is a manual and resource-consuming process that eats up significant time and cost. With more advisories and companies adopting the technologies to automate these tasks and identify opportunities, the cost of aversion to change is skyrocketing.

 

Not knowing is an increasing risk

Advisors and their teams operate using a model that already involves long hours and slim margins. The risks of taking on the wrong client, misrepresenting their business, missing a piece of critical documentation, or – worst of all – causing the deal to fall through completely, are all possible outcomes that stem from limited visibility.

The risks associated with not knowing will become more pronounced as AI technologies and predictive analytics make their way into the mainstream. The 2016 Narrative Science survey reported that ‘58% of enterprise business executives were already using predictive analytics within their organizations’, and that ‘61% of those who have an innovation strategy say they are using AI to identify opportunities in data that would otherwise be missed’. Once the majority are using these innovations, there will be no competitive chance for those who aren’t – they simply won’t be aware of the opportunities or threats.

 

Know everything about your client’s business

Ansarada’s platform helps advisors evaluate their client’s business long before it’s time to enter a data room, so there aren’t any last-minute surprises to derail progress.

Advisors start by sending a bespoke scorecard to the company, where they answer some questions and fill in their basic information. Their score will tell you where they stand in less than 15 minutes, and quickly highlight opportunities and gaps in their critical documentation – and ultimately their business.

Once your client has their information safely housed in the platform, you can verify their documents with a simple click. The dashboard view gives you a 360° snapshot of activity, so you can see your client’s progress in real time and all the topics that still need verifying. The platform’s content library clearly explains what each document is and why it is important, enabling your clients to be self-sufficient and eliminating the need for any hand holding. The score gamifies the process, encouraging your clients to engage with the tool and improve their position without you needing to chase them or dig deeper into a problem area.

 

Assess your clients with the Ansarada platform

Strategic events or exits have become one of the best ways for a company to add value, so the future outlook for advisors is bright. But they are only going to achieve this by adapting quickly and by using innovations to get these advanced insights about their clients.

 

Really know your clients. Learn more about Ansarada’s platform for advisors.