Editor’s note: This article is part of a series written for this publication by Caroline Garnham, London-based founder of Family Bhive, the online marketing platform for wealth advisors and their clients, and a former head of private client with Simmons & Simmons. Her views are her own, but this publication is pleased to share these insights and welcomes reader responses.
This is the quietest part of the summer, with people taking time off to get ahead of the games. What better time to plan ahead for new business in the autumn.
The last six months, since leaving the law, I have taken the time to ask private bankers and other wealth advisors how they market their services. I want Family Bhive to complement their marketing, so I needed to find out what the wealth advisory industry was doing. Some discoveries surprised me, some shocked me, but overall it’s clear there are opportunities for all. Over the next few weeks I would like to share some of my findings and the opportunities which they present.
Crunch the numbers
“Know your client” is a hugely important phrase when it comes to marketing, whether on a macro scale at executive level or on a micro scale at the relationship manager level. Departments have clients as do relationship managers and the same principles apply to both: the 80:20 rule. Can you clearly identify the 20 per cent of clients who produce for you the 80 per cent of your profit?
When I took over the private client group at Simmons & Simmons this was the first thing I did. Within a few years, I was one of the highest profits per partner lawyers in the firm.


