Bluerating | August 2022
It has been long, too long in fact, since financial advisors, private banker and bank managers last met their colleagues and managers in person.
Over the past two months, in-person meetings have been resumed: since May and for almost the entire month of July, countless banks and financial networks have been launching their own conventions.
Conventions are valuable ventures, with at least three main points of strength.
The first concerns the relational sphere: financial consultancy and banking addressed to retail clients, private clients and entrepreneurs are jobs in which relationships, whether professional or human, play a key role.
Moreover, the resumption of in-person meetings has had a very important revitalizing effect. Of course, it is easy to imagine that, in the future, less meetings will be held in person than in the past, since everyone is now able to use remote communication tools. However, meeting in person at least once or twice a year would be optimal.
In truth, a hybrid meeting/convention model is currently taking hold: people come together in groups of different sizes and connect remotely with the leading figures of the company.
It is, of course, a good alternative to the endless in-person meetings of the past. However, let’s not forget that the current success of several financial networks has its roots in historical conventions.
The second strong point of conventions is their motivational effect. The managers of some among the most successful financial networks and banks capable of dealing with a large audience, can motivate their men and women by conveying a strong sense of belonging.
In other words, motivation is strengthened by hearing and watching fellow colleagues as well as leading figures. It is a matter of chemistry: endorphins and serotonin tend to be produced more easily in a forum with hundreds or thousands of people than in a meeting room, behind a computer screen.
The third, essential strong point of conventions is sharing business strategies, described by the leading figures of the company.
In fact, one thing is sharing goals and strategies through a document, another thing is hearing the managers of the company explain, articulate, and motivate the steps to be taken in order to reach a goal.
The fourth key element is development. At conventions, one or more guest speakers often offer an external perspective or relate a successful venture, which represents a valuable learning experience.
When a convention works, you can tell the day after, as the level of satisfaction and motivation should increase. In fact, conventions are often an occasion to anounce organizational changes, the implementation of procedures and optimization of aspects of the structure.
The assessment of the level of satisfaction of a financial advisor before and after a successful convention highlights that the overall level of satisfaction with the business in question can increase up to 30% and, with it, the level of trust in leading figures as well as the sense of loyalty to the bank or financial network.
Undoubtedly, the process of digitalization triggered by the pandemic will hardly lead us back to past habits. However, in-person meetings remain a true driving force for all professionals, in particular those working in the world of finance and banking.
With all due respect to those who believe that, in the future, we will only meet in the metaverse.
Nicola Ronchetti