By: Thusith Mahanama

To our clients and the asset management industry, the entire team at Assette pledge our support. If we can help companies adopt new ways of working, we will. If our clients want to quickly add new capabilities, we will make it happen and if our knowhow and expertise can help, we will share it.

To that end, we are starting a regular series of tips and advice posts learned from decades of experience in helping clients around the world. We thought it was best to start with the big task on everyone’s mind right now — quarter-end reports.

With marketing and client reporting teams creating and reviewing reports from their kitchen table instead of the office, a lot is going to be different for our industry. Here are a few tips to help better navigate the next few weeks of work.

#1 Plan to spend more time on reporting

From report creation to reviews, things will likely take more time than normal, particularly if your data isn’t all in one place and or your team cannot securely collaborate digitally. Build-in extra time into your plan and communicate expectations with clients.

#2 Use all the tools at your disposal

Does your sales enablement and client reporting system include features that you haven’t used yet? Can it help with batch sending emails, archiving, compliance reviews? This is the time to turn those features on. Automation is your friend.

#3 Collaboration must be enabled

The shift from the office to the kitchen table will be challenging for your team. Walking over to the next office to ask a question, compare a spreadsheet or figure out a data source is no longer possible. If your team doesn’t have a secure way to share and collaborate on documents, consider collaboration software to at least help your team communicate. Whether it’s something as simple as a regular video conferencing meeting or a secure messaging channel, having the ability to ask questions quickly is essential.

#4 Ramp up communication efforts

This may sound strange given that getting the essentials delivered may not be easy. But now is not the time to be quiet with your clients. Frequent and clear communication provides a sense of normalcy and calm in a time when there many unknowns. Consider instituting a reoccurring email blast with content on how your firm is navigating the crisis and the support you can provide. You don’t need all the answers to provide reassurance.

#5 Produce content that addresses the crisis and how you can help

Producing content that addresses the crisis and how you can help is a good idea.  Consider adding a page to your typical reports that provides reassurance that your firm has a strategy in place and will be helping them get through the crisis. Help frame your clients’ thinking regarding the current situation and what to expect.

Bonus Tip: Plan for the future

Hopefully, your firm has a unified sales and client communication platform that enables teams to securely access the data systems they need from home. If not, that’s a topic that should be added to your business continuity discussions. It might seem hard to think that far ahead with everything going on, but one thing is for sure, the end of the second quarter isn’t far away.

What advice would you share with others about doing sales enablement and client reports virtually? Share your ideas in the comments.