Building Understanding and Trust with the ISG Advisor Relations playbook

Advisor Relations


I’m frequently asked to share what it takes to get invited to ISG deals. In all my years with ISG, the only correlation I’ve found with invitations is advisor trust. I want to take a moment to discuss how advisors can build more trust and understanding using two of the four components from ISG’s Advisor Relations playbook—Advisor Education and Advisor Relationship Building.

Before we dive in, here is a quick refresher of the ISG Awareness Framework categories…

The first two metrics are education-based:

  1. Awareness – advisors who are familiar with the company but need more info to consider them for a deal.
  2. Understanding – advisors who know the providers well and can identify appropriate deals for them

The second two metrics are relationship-based:

  1. Trust – advisors who feel comfortable inviting the provider to a deal
  2. Advocacy – advisors who proactively recommend a provider to their clients

The chart below plots the ranks of leading providers on two attributes – trust levels from the Awareness Framework results and the number of invitations they’ve received to ISG-advised deals. You can clearly see the relationship between trust and invites. Imagine a line drawn from the lower left to the upper right of this chart. There are a handful of outliers, but the relationship is clear.

Relationship Between Advisor Trust and Invitations

The goal, then, should be to create trust with as many advisors as possible. I’m going to use the sample Awareness Framework data below to highlight a method for increasing your trust levels.

To start, a quick refresher on how to read the chart. The columns build from right to left. The advisors that represent the 9% Advocacy score are also included in the Trust, Understanding, and Awareness columns. An advocate trusts your firm, understands your capabilities, and is aware of who you are.

Sample Awareness Framework Distribution

For this chart, assume that the provider and the ISG Client Success Representative (CSR) collaborated to develop an Advisor Fit analysis. This analysis identifies the types of deals this provider wants to compete for and the appropriate ISG advisors. (This data is available to the CSR via the Awareness Framework data and can be done for any Momentum client. If you haven’t already worked with your CSR on this analysis, I encourage you to do so.)

Let’s also assume there are 100 advisors in the Americas that align with this provider’s objectives. If I were advising the sample provider, I would advise them to:

  • Start by looking at your Understanding levels. In this case, 66% of the 100 advisors understand this provider’s capabilities. That means that 34% don’t understand their capabilities—for every three deals ISG advises that are a good fit for this provider, they are only likely to be strongly considered for two deals because the advisor on the deal knows them well and can identify appropriate deals for them.
  • This sample provider should develop a campaign to build Understanding levels to 100% for advisors who align well with their objectives. They should send a targeted message to these advisors that provides information about the provider, their market credentials, and examples of client success. And they should follow that message with virtual briefings.
  • Advisors are required to share their feedback after reviewing these messages and briefings, giving the provider a strong a feedback loop. You’re all likely familiar with virtual briefings, and you can review my thoughts on effective briefings here (https://isg-one.com/research/advisor-relations-newsletter-archive/2022/march-2022).

I understand most advisor relations programs prefer higher-touch activities, but filling this gap in understanding is something that can be done quickly and relatively inexpensively. Higher-touch engagement tends to be more costly and should be prioritized for building trust—the third column on the above chart. Let’s return to the topic of trust!

  • In the chart above, 22% of advisors understand this provider’s capabilities but haven’t yet achieved a level of trust. For this segment of advisors, the provider’s goal is to get them comfortable advising a client to move them to the shortlist.
  • This is where I recommend small group and/or face-to-face engagement. I also recommend you plan to engage these advisors multiple times during the year. Remember the great quote from Forbes: “Trust is built and maintained by many small actions over time.”

This approach is not very flashy, but as an analytical and programmatic method, it is the best way to identify the right advisors for the right type of engagement to help you achieve your desired results. I recommend that every provider develop a program to build understanding with the right set of advisors. Prioritize your budgets and team resources for face-to-face engagement with those advisors that are one step away from trust already.

Of course, this method works best in conjunction with all the other amazing ways you engage with advisors. It is meant to be a strong component of your engagement strategy, not the entire engagement strategy.

I’m always interested in hearing your perspectives, so if you have a success story or a different perspective, please share it with me.

Related reading:

The Advisor Relations Playbook highlights four components of a strategy to get invited to more deals:

Advisor Relations Newsletter Archive