Why HubSpot is the CRM Upgrade Wealth Management Firms Didn’t Know They Needed
Almost all wealth managers use a customer relationship management (CRM) system, but they generally aren’t thrilled with the results. Recent surveys show that firms’ satisfaction with their CRM has dropped 20 points since 2020.
Most analysis suggests this is “shiny object syndrome”, where the novelty of a CRM wears off over time. But my experience suggests many firms have simply found themselves with the wrong solution – and therefore miss out on a range of benefits.
The problem is simple: firms stick with CRMs built specifically for their industry, which means they overlook the best options – HubSpot.
How Wealth Managers Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions
There are at least a handful of CRM use cases that should be table stakes for wealth managers:
- Compliance: Wealth managers can significantly reduce their compliance burden using a CRM. The system can be leveraged to streamline regulatory reporting and create a comprehensive record of client interactions across all communication channels.
- Digital Marketing: Research shows that the fastest growing firms are more likely to focus on digital marketing – and more likely to use more different digital channels. To reach prospective clients. The right CRM should make it easier to scale these efforts and leverage data to target hyper-specific audiences.
- Audience Insights: The industry is changing fast, with generational wealth transfers and the consolidation of wealth forcing dramatic changes to firms’ key audience. A CRM is not just about recording client interactions – that data can also be used to identify hidden trends and gain novel insights that could help pivot the business.
- Automation: Every wealth manager I talk to is tired of non-revenue generating activities – and a CRM can enable more effective automation to give them more time to focus on client service and growth.
But many of these are not readily achievable with CRMs geared directly toward wealth managers. The industry seems to have collectively assumed a CRM is primarily about storing client data – rather than transforming operations and driving growth.
It’s like they could have bought a Swiss army knife – but they settled for a corkscrew.
Why Most CRMs Let Wealth Managers Down
Before we get into the benefits of HubSpot, it’s important to understand the root of our problem. The average wealth manager I speak to is:
- Overwhelmed by ever-growing tech stacks: They have tools for investment research, client management, and a range of compliance and operational tasks – and it’s all getting a bit too much.
- Anxious about growth: They want to attract new clients, but often lack the digital infrastructure capabilities to deliver personalized digital marketing campaigns or scale nurture campaigns.
- Operating in the dark: They don’t have data to understand how their marketing, sales, and service functions perform – which means they make decisions based on gut instincts without the means to evaluate their success.
All of which means introducing a CRM to the mix – without extensive integration and the support of other tools for sales, marketing, and service – will only add fuel to the fire.
HubSpot Gives Wealth Managers More Tools with Less Effort
HubSpot is a leading CRM platform trusted by companies across virtually all industries – but it’s far more than that. Rather than an alternative to platforms like Wealthbox or Redtail, I encourage wealth managers to see it as an upgrade for their entire tech stack.
At a basic level, Capterra shows that HubSpot has six key features that Wealthbox lacks – and more than 2x more than Redtail. Marketing automations, sales reports, forecasting, and task scheduling are a few great examples of functionality that those industry-specific CRMs are missing. But I think the more salient difference is that HubSpot delivers all these tools within a single cohesive, easy-to-use platform.
HubSpot consists of six distinct tools:
- HubSpot CRM: A centralized customer relationship management platform (CRM) that creates a single point of access for all your data.
- Marketing Hub: A set of marketing tools to attract, engage and nurture HNWIs while reducing the marketing burden.
- Sales Hub: A set of automated tools to optimize sales processes, build trust faster and track leads based on their financial needs to prioritize high-value prospects.
- Service Hub: A client service management platform that helps wealth managers manage a growing book of business efficiently.
- Operations Hub: A set of tools to connect and automate business processes to help your firm save time and implement more consistent processes.
- CMS Hub: A content management system (CMS) that lets wealth managers build web pages with ease, increase local SEO and offer clients a professional experience.
These operate seamlessly together to deliver everything wealth managers need to simplify their tech stack, save hours of effort and deliver more consistent messaging across marketing, sales and client management.
How Wealth Managers See Tangible Improvements with HubSpot
The most immediate improvements wealth managers report when switching to HubSpot are:
- Funnel Reporting: HubSpot’s reporting features unlock full-funnel visibility that wealth managers can use to understand their marketing, sales and client service performance in far more granular detail.
- Enhanced Automation: HubSpot eliminates data silos and makes it easier to access the exact data needed for a particular process. Wealth managers can more easily develop automations that support compliance, improve sales performance, and deliver precision targeted marketing campaigns.
- Connected Revenue Processes: Sales and marketing can more easily and effectively collaborate when they use the same platform and data. This enables wealth managers to create a more consistent experience for prospects and ultimately attract, nurture, and convert new clients faster.
But the overarching impact of these improvements is simple – it drives far greater efficiency across the entire organization.
For example: My agency recently helped one firm use HubSpot to revamp their marketing and sales process. Rather than just attracting more new clients, the platform also allowed them to proactively reduce the costs associated with new clients.
So they were able to attract 1700% more new leads through LinkedIn Ads and drive down the average cost per lead by more than 200%. Then they were able to nurture the leads more effectively using automated marketing content – such as personalized email sequences. And finally they used the data generated during that process to enhance the sales process and ultimately convert more new clients.
The best part?
Their internal team spent less time worrying about each of these processes – because they could actually see what was going on. They could make decisions based on reliable data and not constantly jump between platforms to get a grip on what was happening in their pipeline.
I believe this is the future of wealth management marketing. And based on the response I get whenever the real value of HubSpot “clicks” for our clients, I don’t think I’m alone in that belief.
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