Cetera Financial Group has launched a new recruiting campaign this week that the 6,500-advisor network regards as unique for addressing the emotional aspects of changing firms.
Susan Theder, chief marketing officer for the El Segundo, Calif.-based broker-dealer network, says conversations about career transitions tend to focus on the advantages of making a move while ignoring the elephant standing in the room: the risks of making the move.
"What our campaign is capitalizing on is research we've conducted that shows the greatest common denominator for advisors in making a move," Theder (left) tells AdvisorOne in an interview.
That common denominator, she says, is a strong emotional response revolving around fears of loss—specifically, the loss of clients and loss of revenue as the advisor is getting up to speed in his or her new broker-dealer home.
"That loss aversion weighs far more heavily than their anticipated gains from the shiny objects dangled by firms," Theder says.
Cetera, which wants to assuage those fears by acknowledging these emotional truths, has launched a "truth campaign," centered on an interactive website that use simple relationship-based metaphors for the emotions the firm's research shows advisors are feeling.
"Breaking up is hard do," is the message of one of its pages meant to address fears that current clients won't make the transition with the advisor. "It's not you, it's me" is another that deals with advisors' inhibitions about leaving their current firm.
