Skye Wealth owner and financial adviser Phil Thompson explained that his firm functions under the philosophy that “the business services the clients … not the adviser”.
Thompson explained that, realistically, clients’ primary goal when coming to his business is to get insurance, and beyond that, who serves them is somewhat irrelevant.
“They actually don’t care about us, like, at all. We’ve got to be competent. We’re going to be skilled. We’re going to be knowledgeable. We’ve got to be really good at what we do to educate our clients. We’ve got to empower them to make a choice that they’re happy with,” Thompson told ifa.
“But at the end of the day, the clients want insurance in place, and they want to trust that they’re coming to the right place and getting the right insurance in place.
“In terms of the adviser and that adviser relationship, it’s important to the experience because they want that trust, but we view it as Skye as a business is servicing these clients, not just the adviser.”
One way that this philosophy manifests itself in the business, he explained, is in the attitude that advisers are not the “hero” in the advice process, with each team member considered just as important as the next.
“In most advice firms, the adviser is the hero of the client’s journey and nothing is done without the adviser’s consent,” Thompson said.
“In our business … I don’t care if you’re a client services officer and you’ve been here for one week, or if you’re me and you own the business, we’re both just as important to the client experience. We’re both just as important to this business. Doesn’t matter if you’re an adviser or client services. We’re all here to help our clients.”
As Skye is currently looking to expand, with plans to bring on six new advisers over the next 12 months, Thompson said he makes it very clear during the adviser hiring process, telling them that “the downside of working here is you’re not going to be the hero”.
“Every other advice firm will worship you as the adviser, and you’re the most important and whatever. We just don’t believe that that’s the case. So, our advisers in our business also believe in that philosophy,” he said.
“They believe that we’re all human beings. We’re all just as important as each other. We all need to help our clients, and so the client service officer who’s been here a week is just as important as the adviser who’s been here for five years. Our whole team buy into that philosophy.”
Thompson explained that this way of thinking also helps improve the business’ functionality and efficiency through actively encouraging all staff to make recommendations on how they could improve processes, no matter their position in the firm.
“Some of the things that we do is we think about the theory of marginal gains that David Brailsford coined. Just really small, 1 per cent improvements throughout our whole process will make a massive impact on our business,” he said.
“So, every day, we do what’s called ‘business improvements’. It’s like that suggestion box, the old school suggestion box. We do that digitally.
“We have a management team look at all those suggestions. Everyone’s encouraged to make a suggestion, and we implement it really fast. So, if anything’s broken or not as ideal as it should be, we implement those changes really quickly.”
