System and method for administering an advisory rating system

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for scoring and ranking financial advisors based on their sales histories. The system includes a database and an advisor rating system processor in communication with the database. The database stores sales history data related to a plurality of financial advisors. The advisor rating system processor obtains data related to financial advisors from the database and calculates a score for each financial advisor based on their sales revenue and sales frequency. The advisor rating system processor then compares the advisors based on these scores and generates a report indicating to which financial advisors a company should market financial products.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

In general, the invention relates to a computerized system and method for calculating and using a financial advisor rating from the perspective of a financial products company. More specifically, the invention relates to a computerized system and method for rating and ranking advisors and producing a report indicating to which advisors a financial products company should market a financial product.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Financial services companies sell their financial products through financial advisors, brokers, and agents. Investment and insurance companies rely on their wholesaler force to market their products to financial advisors so that the financial advisor can recommend and sell the products and policies to customers. The number of financial advisors selling a company's investment and insurance products can be orders of magnitude higher than the size of a wholesaler force. It is very difficult for wholesalers to effectively market to and maintain relationships with such a large number of advisors. In many cases, rather than marketing towards all financial advisors, it is more beneficial for a wholesaler to put significant, tailored marketing effort into a subset of all financial advisors he is responsible to marketing to, with certain financial advisors identified as promising marketing targets for a given financial product based on their locations, client bases, and sales histories. Because of the overwhelming number of financial advisors a wholesaler is responsible for, it is very difficult for wholesalers to determine to which of the many financial advisors they should focus their marketing efforts, and to then determine the most effective form of marketing for each financial advisor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is therefore a need in the financial industry for a system and method for determining towards which financial advisors a wholesaler should target his marketing efforts. Data currently available on financial advisors' sales levels, top products, territory, and response to marketing campaigns can be harnessed to solve this problem. The system and method disclosed herein leverage available data on financial advisors to score and rank financial advisors and produce output that assists wholesalers in determining how and to whom to market financial products and can automatically generate marketing materials and marketing plans directed at selected financial advisors.

Accordingly, systems and methods are disclosed herein for scoring and ranking financial advisors based on their sales histories. The system includes a database and an advisor rating system processor in communication with the database. The database stores sales history data related to a plurality of financial advisors. The advisor rating system processor obtains data related to financial advisors from the database and calculates a score for each financial advisor based on their sales revenue and sales frequency. The advisor rating system processor then compares the advisors based on these scores and generates a report indicating to which financial advisors a company should market financial products.

In one embodiment, each advisor's score is based on a ratio of the advisor's sales of one company's products to the advisor's sales of all or of other companies' products. The processor can process data from over a period of time to determine sales trends that are used to calculate the advisor score. In another embodiment, the advisor rating system processor compares a company's current financial product line to financial advisor's sales history to determine compatibility between the two. The advisor score is then based in part on this determination of compatibility.

The advisor rating system processor can compare advisors within a given geographic region. In this embodiment, the system may also include a graphical user interface for displaying the locations of the advisors within the geographic region along with their ratings or rankings. Furthermore, the processor may use geographic and travel information along with these locations to generate a route between multiple advisors for the wholesaler to use in travelling from advisor to advisor.

The advisor rating system processor can also be configured to automatically generate electronic communication, such as an email, and send it to a financial advisor based on the financial advisor's score.

According to another aspect, the invention relates to computerized methods for carrying out the functionalities described above.

DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

To provide an overall understanding of the invention, certain illustrative embodiments will now be described, including systems and methods for rating financial advisors. However, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the systems and methods described herein may be adapted and modified as is appropriate for the application being addressed and that the systems and methods described herein may be employed in other suitable applications, and that such other additions and modifications will not depart from the scope thereof.

FIG. 1is a block diagram of a system100for rating financial advisors, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The term “financial advisor”, as used herein, shall refer to an investment advisor representative, registered representative, stockbroker, or independent insurance agent, each of whom may participate in the selling of financial products. Depending on the type of products sold by the financial advisors, registration and/or affiliation with a broker-dealer or other financial advisory firm may be required. The system calculates a rating for individual financial advisors based advisor characteristics, sales data, and other data and information about the financial advisors. A financial products company uses this rating to determine towards whom to market financial products. The term “financial products company”, as used herein, shall refer to an investment or insurance company whose products are sold by financial advisors. A financial products company may also include wholesalers, who market financial products to financial advisors. Wholesalers may be employed by a financial products company, or wholesalers may be third-party individuals or employed by a third-party company, for example independent marketing organizations (IMOs) contracted by the financial products company to market financial products. Wholesalers who are not directly employed by the financial products company but who do marketing the financial products company's products are considered a part of the financial products company for the purposes of this application.

The report generated by the system on financial advisors can be in the form of a list of advisors with their scores and ranking. Alternatively or additionally, the report can be or include a map that displays the locations and uses colors or symbols to indicate the ratings or rankings of the financial advisors. The system may automatically generate suggestions of marketing actions to take towards the financial advisors. Furthermore, the report may be input directly into an automated customer relationship management (CRM) system that automates certain marketing activities, such as sending emails or mailings to advisors based on the results of the scoring and ranking.

System100includes multiple financial advisor systems102in communication with a financial products company system104over a communication network106. Each financial advisor system102includes one or more advisor terminals108via which individual financial advisors, either independent or part of a brokerage, financial services firm, or insurance company, may interact with the financial products company system104. Advisor terminals108preferably include software via which a financial advisor may obtain information on and purchase financial products for customers of the financial advisor. In one implementation, such software includes a web browser configured for receiving web page data from the financial products company system104. In alternative implementations, the software includes a thin or thick client that communicates both with the financial products company system104as well as a central financial advisor database110. The central financial advisor database preferably stores data related to financial advisor customers, issued policies, sold investment vehicles, and products available from a single financial firm. The central financial advisor database110may execute on one of the financial advisor terminals108or on its own computing device. In still another implementation, the software on the advisor terminals108includes software for interacting directly with the central financial advisor database110, which, in turn, includes software to communicate with the financial products company system104, for example, via a web service. In general, the financial advisor terminals108can be any computing device known in the art, including for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, or a personal digital assistant.

In one implementation, at least a portion of the functionality of one or more financial advisor terminals108is carried out by a computing device operated by the financial products company. In this implementation, the financial products company offers a web site for direct customer interaction, for example to purchase a new investment vehicle or request renewal of a pending policy.

The financial products company system104includes a plurality of application servers112, a plurality of load balancing proxy servers114, a database116, a financial advisor rating system processor118, CRM system120, and company terminals122. These computing devices are connected by a local area network124.

The application servers112are responsible for interacting with the financial advisor terminals108. For example, the application servers112include software for generating web pages for communication to the financial advisor terminals108. These web pages serve as user interfaces for the financial advisor to interact with the financial products company system104. Alternatively, or in addition, one or more of the application servers112may be configured to communicate with thin or thick clients operating on the advisor terminals108. The load balancing proxy servers114operate to distribute the load among application servers112.

The financial products company database116stores information about financial products sold by the financial advisors. For each product sold by an financial advisor, the database116includes for example and without limitation, the following data fields: the advisor responsible for the sale or renewal, the date of purchase, dates of subsequent renewals, product and price of product sold, applicable automation services (for example, electronic billing, automatic electronic funds transfers, centralized customer service plan selections, etc.), customer information, customer payment history, or derivations thereof.

In addition to storing data in relation to financial products, the database116may also store data separately in relation to each financial advisor. The data may be stored both in aggregate form and broken down by time period. For example, data may be stored by week, month, quarter, six-month period, year, calendar year, and/or the lifetime of the advisor's relationship with the financial products company. For example, the database116may store financial product volume data, including the number of new products sold. In addition, or in the alternative, similar volume data may be stored based on a dollar value of products instead of a number of products. In addition, the database116may store profitability data associated with the products placed by advisory firm and/or individual advisors. The database116may store financial advisors' overall sales figures for sales of all companies' products in addition to sales figures of only the financial products company's products. The database116may also store a customer retention factor for each agent and/or employee determined based on the percentage of products sold by the financial advisor that the customer maintains or renews. Additional data stored by the database116may include data indicating an advisor's success with selling additional services and implementing available automation tools, including electronic billing, automatic electronic funds transfers, centralized customer service plan selections, and automatic collection of premiums from advisors. Furthermore, for each of the above data types for each time period for which data is stored, the database116, in one implementation, stores improvement factors indicating a level of improvement over an immediately preceding time period or an equivalent time period from a prior calendar year. To the extent any of this data is not stored by the database116separately from overall financial product data, preferably the database stores sufficient data in relation to each policy such that the above-described data could be derived from the available data.

The financial advisor rating system processor118is configured to, based on the data stored in the financial products company database116, score, rank, and generate a report on the financial advisors selling the company's products. In general, and as described further in relation toFIG. 5-9, the financial advisor rating system processor118determines financial advisors' scores based at least on the financial advisors' past sales revenues or frequency and generates a report. In addition to using the sales histories, the advisor rating system processor118can use advisor profile characteristics, such as geographic location and range, firm the advisor works for, experience, and overall production levels scored in the database along with sales data. In some implementations, the advisor rating system processor carries out other business logic functions, for example billing or processing insurance claims.

Customer relationship management (CRM) system120collects and maintains data on all marketing attempts and other contact made between the financial products company and financial advisors. This contact includes but is not limited to email marketing, print mail, internal sales desk calls, and wholesaler visits. For email marketing, the CRM system120maintains data on how many emails from the financial products company the financial advisor opens, how many links embedded in an email the financial advisor clicks, and/or how often the advisor opens emails or clicks on embedded links. Similarly, employees of the financial products company or an automated system can track financial advisors' responses to other marketing communications. CRM data can also include data tracking a financial advisor's meeting attendance, seminar attendance, webinar attendance, and requests and usage of illustrations.

The company terminals122provide various user interfaces to financial products company employees to interact with the financial advisor rating system processor118. The interfaces include, without limitation, interfaces to add financial advisors to the financial products company system104, to adjust financial advisor scoring rules and methods, to manually adjust advisor scores or data, and to retrieve information on financial advisors. In some instances, different users may be given different access privileges. For example, marketing employees may only be able to retrieve information on financial advisors but not make any changes to the database. Such interfaces may be integrated into one or more websites for managing the financial products company system104presented by the application servers112, or they may be integrated into thin or thick software clients. The company terminals122can be any computing devices suitable for carrying out the processes described above, including personal computers, laptop computers, personal digital computers, and other computing devices with general purpose processors.

The third-party data sources126provide data on financial advisors not generally available in the financial products company database116or from financial advisor systems102. Third-party data can be obtained freely or by purchasing the data from third-party sources, and it may include sales data on advisors and/or additional demographic data. Sales data is especially important to the financial products company, as it allows the company to learn how much a financial advisor sells of the financial products company's competitors' products. If a financial advisor sells a lot of competitors' products, this leaves a large portion of the advisor's sales that could potentially be future sales of the financial products company's products, rather than continued sales of competitors' products. On the other hand, if a financial advisor's sales history indicates that the advisor has a strong relationship with a competitor company, that advisor may be less responsive to a marketing campaign from the financial products company than an advisor without a strong relationship with any particular company. Furthermore, analysis of the products being sold can allow the financial products company to understand why certain competitors' products are popular and how the financial products company can adjust its own line of financial products to better meet demand.

A wholesaler terminal130, which is separate from the financial products company system104, allows a wholesaler to access information on financial advisors from the financial products company system104. For example, wholesalers may use a web or other client interface to connect through the communications network106to the financial products company system and obtain advisor scores and rankings when they are offsite. Such access to the system is password protected or requires other credentials to access information. Wholesaler terminal130may be any computing device known in the art, including for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, or a personal digital assistant. Handheld device132similarly allows wholesalers to access information the financial advisor rating system104through the communications network106. Handheld device132is depicted as a mobile wireless device such as a cell phone or smart phone. However, it may be any portable device, such as a laptop, notebook, tablet computer, palm-sized computer, or any electronic device with capability to receive wireless signals. Wholesaler terminal130and handheld device132may also allow their users to enter in data that is sent through the communications network106and inputted into the financial products company database116.

FIG. 2is a block diagram of the financial advisor rating system processor118used inFIG. 1for rating financial advisors, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The advisor rating system processor118comprises at least one central processing unit (CPU)202, system memory208, which includes at least one random access memory (RAM)210and at least one read-only memory (ROM)212, at least one network interface unit204, an input/output controller206, and one or more data storage devices214. All of these latter elements are in communication with the CPU202to facilitate the operation of the advisor rating system processor118. The advisor rating system processor118may be configured in many different ways. For example, the advisor rating system processor118may be a conventional standalone computer or alternatively, the function of advisor rating system processor118may be distributed across multiple computer systems and architectures. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 1, the advisor rating system processor118is linked, via network106or local network124(also described inFIG. 1), to other servers or systems housed by the financial products company system104, such as the load balancing server114, and the application servers112.

The advisor rating system processor118may be configured in a distributed architecture, wherein databases and processors are housed in separate units or locations. The advisor rating system processor118may also be seen as a server located either on site near the financial products company system104, or it may be accessed remotely by the financial products company system104. Some such units perform primary processing functions and contain at a minimum a general controller or a processor202and a system memory208. In such an embodiment, each of these units is attached via the network interface unit204to a communications hub or port (not shown) that serves as a primary communication link with other servers, client or user computers and other related devices. The communications hub or port may have minimal processing capability itself, serving primarily as a communications router. A variety of communications protocols may be part of the system, including, but not limited to: Ethernet, SAP, SAS™, ATP, BLUETOOTH™, GSM and TCP/IP.

The CPU202comprises a processor, such as one or more conventional microprocessors and one or more supplementary co-processors such as math co-processors for offloading workload from the CPU202. The CPU202is in communication with the network interface unit204and the input/output controller206, through which the CPU202communicates with other devices such as other servers, user terminals, or devices. The network interface unit204and/or the input/output controller206may include multiple communication channels for simultaneous communication with, for example, other processors, servers or client terminals. Devices in communication with each other need not be continually transmitting to each other. On the contrary, such devices need only transmit to each other as necessary, may actually refrain from exchanging data most of the time, and may require several steps to be performed to establish a communication link between the devices.

The CPU202is also in communication with the data storage device214. The data storage device214may comprise an appropriate combination of magnetic, optical and/or semiconductor memory, and may include, for example, RAM, ROM, flash drive, an optical disc such as a compact disc and/or a hard disk or drive. The CPU202and the data storage device214each may be, for example, located entirely within a single computer or other computing device; or connected to each other by a communication medium, such as a USB port, serial port cable, a coaxial cable, an Ethernet type cable, a telephone line, a radio frequency transceiver or other similar wireless or wired medium or combination of the foregoing. For example, the CPU202may be connected to the data storage device214via the network interface unit204.

The data storage device214may store, for example, (i) an operating system216for the advisor rating system processor118; (ii) one or more applications218(e.g., computer program code and/or a computer program product) adapted to direct the CPU202in accordance with the present invention, and particularly in accordance with the processes described in detail with regard to the CPU202; and/or (iii) database(s)220adapted to store information that may be utilized to store information required by the program. In some embodiments, the database(s)220includes a database storing financial advisors' information relevant to rating the financial advisors, including all or a subset of data stored in external financial products company database116described above with respect toFIG. 1, as well as additional data, such as formulas or manual adjustments, used in rating the advisors.

The operating system216and/or applications218may be stored, for example, in a compressed, an uncompiled and/or an encrypted format, and may include computer program code. The instructions of the program may be read into a main memory of the processor from a computer-readable medium other than the data storage device214, such as from the ROM212or from the RAM210. While execution of sequences of instructions in the program causes the processor202to perform the process steps described herein, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with, software instructions for implementation of the processes of the present invention. Thus, embodiments of the present invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

Suitable computer program code may be provided for performing numerous functions used to rate financial advisors as described in relation toFIGS. 5-9. The program also may include program elements such as an operating system, a database management system and “device drivers” that allow the processor to interface with computer peripheral devices (e.g., a video display, a keyboard, a computer mouse, etc.) via the input/output controller206.

Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor202(or any other processor of a device described herein) for execution. For example, the instructions may initially be borne on a magnetic disk of a remote computer (not shown). The remote computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over an Ethernet connection, cable line, or even telephone line using a modem. A communications device local to a computing device (e.g., a server) can receive the data on the respective communications line and place the data on a system bus for the processor. The system bus carries the data to main memory, from which the processor retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by main memory may optionally be stored in memory either before or after execution by the processor. In addition, instructions may be received via a communication port as electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals, which are exemplary forms of wireless communications or data streams that carry various types of information.

FIG. 3depicts an interactive graphical user interface configured to allow a user to view on a mobile device300a map of financial advisors and their ratings as determined by the advisor rating system software application. As shown, the mobile device can launch one or more applications by selecting an icon associated with an application program. As depicted, the mobile device300has several primary application programs320including a phone application (launched by selecting icon322), an email program (launched by selecting324), a web browser application (launched by selecting icon326), and a media player application (launched by selecting326). Those skilled in the art will recognize that mobile device300may have a number of additional icons and applications, and that applications may be launched in other manners as well. In the embodiment shown, an application, such as an advisor rating application330, is launched by the user tapping or touching an icon displayed on the touch screen340interface of the mobile device300.

Once advisor rating system application330is launched, the user may interact with advisor rating application330, and mobile device300may function pursuant to the program instructions associated with the application. During operation, mobile device300is in communication with remote systems, such as the financial products company's computer system that includes a database on financial advisors. Graphical display350allows the user to view information about rated financial advisors. As depicted, financial advisors' office locations are marked on a map using symbols that represent the advisors' ratings or rankings. As shown, some advisors are marked on the map with stars310, others with triangles312, and others with circles314. These shapes represent which category or ranking the advisors belong to; for example, stars310may sell the most of a certain financial product, triangles312may sell a lesser amount of that financial product, and circles314may sell little or none of that financial product. Display settings can be changed by selection of the “Options” button332. These display settings are discussed in greater detail with respect toFIG. 4.

The user may click on one of the symbols310-314on the map to display a pop-up with the contact information, such as email address, telephone number, and address, of the advisor at that location. From this contact information pop-up, the user can initiate a communication with the selected financial advisor. Selecting the advisor's email address causes an email program on the mobile phone to open and automatically create a blank email addressed to the advisor on the user's computer. Selecting the advisor's telephone number brings up another pop-up, from which the user can choose to either call the advisor's phone number or send an SMS text message. Selecting the advisor's address causes a routing component in the application to determine a route to that address from the phone's current location. Alternatively, selecting the address causes the application to send the address to a different application that determines and displays the route to the address.

FIG. 4depicts another interactive graphical user interface configured to allow a user to adjust on the mobile device300settings and options of the advisor rating system software application330on the options screen, accessed through “Options” button332onFIG. 3. Table/Map view setting box402allows the user to choose whether to view the advisors on a map, as depicted inFIG. 3, or on a table, implementations of which are shown inFIG. 7andFIG. 9. Location box404allows the user to select the region; advisors from the selected region will be rated by the software application. As shown inFIG. 4, the user selects a state, a county within that state, and a city within that county to focus on. Alternatively, the user can click the button “Select Region on a Map” to bring up another screen showing a map, though which a user can select a region by zooming, clicking on cities, bounding off an area, or through other means. In one embodiment, the advisor rating application330automatically determines the geographic region to display using the mobile device's location, obtained through GPS data, cell phone tower triangulation, or other means. In this case, the size of the area displayed may be based on the density of financial advisors in a region. In a region dense with financial advisors, the area shown is smaller than a region in which financial advisors are sparse. This way, the number of advisors shown on the map at one time is reasonable for the viewer to look at. For example, displaying twenty advisors on the screen is reasonable for a viewer to process. In a large city, there may be twenty financial advisors within a four-block area, so only this small area would be shown. On the other hand, in a rural region, the application would need to display many square miles to show twenty financial advisors.

Advisor selection boxes406and408allow the user to choose a subset of all advisors in a region to view. Rating selection box406allows the user to determine which grades of advisors he wants to look at. For example, if he only wants to target the very best advisors, he would select only “A: Best Sellers.” Product selection box408allows the user to see users who specialize in particular financial products, as determined by sales figures, certifications, or other criteria. The user can select any combination of advisors or all advisors. Other desired output settings that do not fit on a single options screen can be shown by clicking on the “More Output Settings” button410. Further output settings could include display settings, such colors and fonts, or settings related the types of information displayed.

Once the advisor rating software application330has rated a set of financial advisors, a routing component of the advisor rating application330can generate a route to one or more financial advisors so that the user may drive from his current location to a first financial advisor's offices, and possibly one or more financial advisor's offices after the first. The user may enter preferred starting and ending points, enabling the routing component to build the most efficient route with regard to the starting and ending points. The routing component may determine the most efficient route based on shortest distance, shortest time, lowest gasoline consumption, avoiding tolls, or any other rules or combination of rules. The user may also enter appointments with time and/or location constraints that the routing component must work around when planning the route. The user may enter the length of time that he plans to spend visiting each financial advisor, the suggested time may be determined by the application rating application330, or the suggested time may be retrieved from the financial products company's computer system. Some of these options may be set in the “More Output Settings” button410. The application may send records of the user's travels back to the financial products company's computer system so that the company can track its employees' activities. Rather than including the routing ability in the application itself, the advisor rating application330may send the advisors' locations to another application on the mobile device, for example GOOGLE MAPS, to perform the routing and/or display the route to the user.

FIG. 5is a block diagram that shows the relationships between financial products companies and financial advisors. As defined above, a financial products company502is an investment or insurance company whose products are sold by financial advisors. A financial products company502sells, underwrites, or manages a financial product, such as an insurance plan, annuity plan, mutual fund, or retirement fund. Financial advisors sell one or more financial products provided by the financial products company502to individual or business clients. Some financial advisors508work for a financial services firm or brokerage506. Independent financial advisors510are not associated with a firm or brokerage. The financial products company502employs one or more wholesalers504to market its products to financial services firms or directly to individual financial advisors. These wholesalers504or other employees of the financial products company502that work with the wholesaling staff are the intended users of the financial advisor rating system, which uses data on the financial services firms506and financial advisors508. Wholesalers are typically assigned to a particular product line and/or a geographic region.

FIG. 6is a flowchart for a method of rating financial advisors performed by a financial advisor software application, according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The method600begins with receiving data on financial advisors508and/or510(step602). The financial products company402maintains data on at least the advisors that sell their products, and may also acquire data on other financial advisors that do not sell their products. Advisor data is housed in and retrieved from financial products company database116. This includes sales data and basic information on the advisors, such as their office locations and employers as applicable, and may also include customer relationship management (CRM) system records, touchpoint response data, total sales figures of all companies' products, or any other data relating to the financial advisors. Data sources are discussed in greater detail with respect toFIG. 10.

The financial advisor application may only retrieve data related to a subset of all financial advisors. For example, the application may only collect data on financial advisors that sell a particular product line or work for a certain firm or brokerage. The application may only collect data on financial advisors that have offices or customers in a specified geographic region. Alternatively, the application may collect data on all financial advisors, but then select only a subset of the advisors based on the same type of guidelines mentioned above on which to perform the rest of the rating method.

Once the necessary data has been obtained, the financial advisor application calculates scores for the financial advisors (step604) based on the data retrieved in step602. The advisor scores can be based on a number of factors, such as financial products sale revenue and sales frequency, trends in sales over time, percentage of total sales that are the financial products company's products, data from a CRM system, and advisors' responses to various touchpoints, such as phone or email campaigns, seminars, and visits from wholesalers. The types of data sources are discussed on greater detail with respect toFIG. 10. The score may be calculated from just one of the aforementioned factors or from a weighted combination of components. The scoring may be along a scale, such as from 0 to 50. The score calculation is discussed in greater detail with respect toFIGS. 7-8.

Once the scores are calculated, the financial advisor application ranks the advisors (step606). The application may break the financial advisors into groups. These groups may be based on the absolute score, for example, assigning all advisors with a score between 40 and 50 to Group A, all advisors with a score between 30 and 40 to group B, and so forth. Alternatively, the top twenty percent highest scores may be assigned to Group A, the next twenty percent to Group B, or so forth. The groups may follow a bell curve or other curving method, or other group formation strategies may be used. If the advisors are scored in this fashion, they may be given rankings or broken into subgroups within their groups. Alternatively, the advisors may be individually ranked in a list. The user of the application could then select to focus on only advisors whose scores are within a certain range.

Finally, the application generates a report on the financial advisors. The report can take various forms, but in its most basic form it is a ranked list of financial advisors' names or other identifiers and their scores. If addresses of the financial advisors are known, the report may be a map with the financial advisors marked. Symbols, colors, or numbers may be used on the map to indicate each financial advisor's ranking or to which group each advisor was assigned based on his score, as shown inFIG. 3. In one embodiment, the report is a list including advisor names and addresses, telephone numbers, and/or email addresses for wholesalers or other representatives from the financial products company to contact. In another embodiment, the report is sent directly to the customer relationship management (CRM) system, which automatically processes the report and carries out actions based on the scores. For example, the CRM system may automatically send emails to financial advisors based on their scores. The CRM system may send emails to only a subset of the financial advisors, and it may compile different emails for different advisors based on their score and other factors, such as results of past marketing strategies. The CRM system may alternatively prepare physical mailings or marketing material to mail to financial advisors. In one embodiment, the financial advisors' score relates to the advisors' sales trends over time, and the application compares the scores to past marketing strategies. In this embodiment, the application determines if the past marketing strategies have been successful and determines strategies for future marketing. These marketing strategy suggestions are included in the report generated by the software application.

FIG. 7is a screenshot of a software implementation of the advisor rating system. This screenshot shows a table of rated and graded financial advisors702. The scrollbar to the right of the table allows the user to navigate the list and view more table entries. In this illustration, the list is grouped according to the firm that the advisors work for. The individual advisors at those firms are ranked in the output table. Other arrangements are possible, and the arrangement of output listings can be changed using the “Output Settings” button described in more detail below. The listing for each advisor includes his sales tier for the past five years, his overall rating based on the sales tiers, and his grade assigned based on the rating. The sales tier is determined using the advisors' sales revenue in the financial product(s) of interest that year. The application can determine the sales tier by ranking all advisors and assigning the tiers based on their revenues relative to each other, or the application can assign a sales tier based on falling within a predetermined revenue range, regardless of how other advisors score. To determine each advisor's rating, the yearly tiers are combined by simply adding them or by weighing and adding them. Years in which the financial advisor has not made any sales of the financial product(s) of interest, marked “-” in the table702, are assigned sales tier 0 for computing the sales rating. In the embodiment illustrated inFIG. 7, the sales rating is computed with the following formula:
Sales Rating=(0.5*STY-4)+(1.0*STY-3)+(2.0*STY-2)+(4.0*STY-1)+(6.0*STY)
In the above formula, STYis the advisors' sales tier for the current year, and STY-Nis the sales tier the advisor was in N years before the current year. The above formula creates a sales rating between 0 and 67.5, and it weighs more recent years more heavily. This rating can be normalized to fall between 0 and 1, 0 and 50, 0 and 100, or any other convenient scale. InFIG. 7, the rating has been normalized to fall between 0 and 50, and a higher value for the rating indicates higher sales revenue. This rating is then given a letter grade. In table702, the letter grade is assigned using a fixed scale, but the letter grade could alternatively be determined using a curve.

The aforementioned weights and formula are merely illustrative in nature. Weights and variables used in the rating could be entered manually or automatically determined. In one embodiment, the weights are selected by processing the stored advisor data using a computerized predictive model. Data on past sales as well as the history of marketing efforts can be input into a predictive model that can automatically process the data to better refine the weights. Predictive modeling techniques and training methods are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/961,380, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein in its entirety.

The user may click on any entry in this table to display a pop-up with the advisor's contact information. Alternatively, the contact information may be found in additional columns in the table. In either embodiment, the advisor rating software is integrated with the company's communication system, allowing the user to initialize contact with the financial advisor. Clicking on the advisor's email address causes an email program, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, to open and automatically create a blank email addressed to the advisor on the user's computer. If the company's computer system is integrated with the company's phone system, clicking on an advisor's phone number causes the user's telephone to dial that financial advisor's telephone number.

In Options panel710, clicking the “Select Region” button714causes the application to display another window that allows the user to select a geographic region. The advisor rating software application scores and ranks only financial advisors who work within the selected geographic region. Determining whether or not a financial advisor works within a geographic region may be based on where his office is located, where his current customers are located, or by another location-based rule. The application may allow a user to select a geographic region on a map. Alternatively, the application may allow a user to select a location using a menu or list system in which the user selects a state, province, city, metro area, or other type of geographic region. A user may be permitted to select more than one geographic region.

In Options panel710, The “Table View” and “Map View” radio buttons712allow the user to select to view the output of the advisor ranking either in a table or on a map. Clicking the “Output Settings” button716causes the application to display another window in which the user can select further options for the output. Output settings may include whether to separate advisors into groups based on their score and how these groups should be defined. They may include the order in which to list the advisors, e.g. by firm, by score, or by alphabetical order of advisors' names. The output settings may include visual options, such as colors, font style, and font size. Other ways in which to customize the output can be included in the “Output Settings” window.

The “New Rating” button allows the user to start over and run a different rating, choosing different options, such as how to score and rank advisors and which advisors to rank. As will be further detailed with respect toFIG. 7, there are many more ways to rank advisors than on sales revenue data alone.

The four buttons740-746in the lower left hand corner of the screen are used to further control the application. Button740is the “Home” button, and clicking it makes a home or welcome page appear. Button742is the “Save” button, and clicking it brings up a screen from which a user can select a location and file name for storing the output report. Button744is the “Help” button, and clicking it brings up a help screen from which the user can receive assistance in using the software application. Button746is the “Back” button, and clicking it returns the screen to the previous screen. If any settings or options were adjusted after the rating was run, the “Back” button returns to the previous settings or options.

FIG. 8is another screenshot of the software implementation of the advisor rating system. Whereas the screenshot ofFIG. 7showed the results of scoring a single component, in that case sales revenue, this screenshot depicts an input screen allowing the user to choose multiple components and enter weights for those components. When the rating is calculated, each component score is calculated in a manner similar to how the sales revenue rating was calculated above, preferably using data over multiple years. Then, the overall rating is calculated according to the weights assigned in the Weights column808. The output of this scoring process is shown inFIG. 9. The component entry pane802includes drop-down menus804for the possible scoring components. If the user would like to include more factors in the score than are currently available, he may click the “Add Component” button806to display another drop-down menu and weight entry. If the number of components becomes too large to fit in the component entry pane, a scroll bar (not shown) will appear at the right-hand side of the component entry pane802, allowing the user to navigate and view all components.

For each component, the user must enter a weight. For guidance, the total of all the weights the user has entered is shown at the bottom of weight column808. The user need not make the weights add up to one; the software application can normalize the weights the user has entered. The options pane710is identical to the options pane710inFIG. 7. The four buttons along the left840-846are identical to the four buttons740-746inFIG. 7. “New Rating!” button720has been replaced in this screen by the “Run Rating!” button820. Clicking the “Run Rating!” button820causes the application to calculate the financial advisor ratings according to the selected components and weights and display the output according to the user's specifications in the Options panel810. The output of the components and weights inFIG. 8is shown in and described with respect toFIG. 9.

Four possible scoring components are shown inFIG. 8: Sales revenue, Sales frequency, Sales momentum, and Multi-line production. Sales revenue is a measure of the financial advisor's sales levels. Sales frequency is a measure of how often a financial advisor sells financial products, measured in number of sales during a time period. Sales momentum is a measure of how a financial advisor's sales levels are increasing or decreasing over time. Multi-line production is a measure of a financial advisor's loyalty to a financial products company, determined by whether a financial advisor sells multiple product lines from the same financial products company. In all cases, it is helpful to have this type of data over a period of time, with data broken down into segments such as years or quarters, for use in determining subscores as was shown in the calculation described above with respect toFIG. 6.

In addition to overall sales measures, additional scoring components could be sales revenue, sales frequency, and sales momentum of particular products or types of products, such as variable annuities, mutual funds, and retirement plans. For example, if a financial products company is interested in selling a new variable annuity, they may only care about financial advisors' sales data on variable annuities. In this case, components of interest would include variable annuity sales revenue, variable annuity sales frequency, and variable annuity sales momentum, and the user may not be concerned with financial advisors' total sales data of all financial products.

For variable annuity products in particular, the features sold by financial advisors can be used in rating the advisors. Types of features and investments chosen, such as annuity chassis, death benefit elections, fund selection, and living benefit elections and utilizations, that a financial advisor is typically able to sell can be used to determine what similar features the advisor would be able to sell in the future. For example, if a wholesaler wants to target advisors who sell variable annuities with funds tailored for equity growth, rather than just looking at variable annuity fund sales data, the rating system would score an advisor who often sells variable annuities with equity growth funds and similar funds more highly than an advisor who mainly sells variable annuities with fixed income funds. On the other hand, if a financial advisor sells only variable annuities for equity growth and these funds are no longer supplied by the financial products company, that advisor should rank low for future targeting as he would be unlikely to sell the current product line. Weighting certain product features or options can be similarly used in ratings in products other than variable annuities as well.

The advisor rating application can also factor the advisors' profile characteristics, such as their territory, firm they work for, overall production levels, and experience, into the rating. Territory can be compared to a listing of income, housing prices, or other measures of wealth for a region, defined for example by zip code or municipality. This allows the application to associate the wealth of a region, which correlates to the amount of money spent on financial plans and policies, with advisors in that region. A high level of income in an advisor's territory increases the advisor's score, as he would likely be able to attain higher sales figures. More directly, a financial advisor's overall sales figures indicate whether the advisor would likely have higher future sales figures, with a high sales figure reflecting positively in his score. On the other hand, even if a financial advisor's overall sales figure is high but the amount of the product the financial products company intends to market is relatively low, this financial advisor may not be a good advisor to target as the financial product is not one of his specialties, and this would reflect negatively in his score. These types of scores related to demographic and overall sales data can be based on third party data126, discussed in relation toFIG. 1. The firm an advisor works for may also positively or negatively impact his score. If a financial services firm has a strong relationship with the financial products company, this would reflect positively in its advisors score, and vice versa.

Other components not based on sales data are useful in rating financial advisors. Information from the customer relationship management (CRM) system120is especially valuable in tracking all marketing attempts, or touchpoints, and other contact made between the financial products company and financial advisors, including but not limited to email marketing, print mail, internal sales desk calls, and wholesaler visits. For email marketing, the CRM system maintains data on how many emails from the financial products company the financial advisor opens, how many links embedded in an email the financial advisor clicks, and/or how often the advisor opens emails or clicks on embedded links. Similarly, employees of the financial products company or an automated system can track financial advisors' responses to other marketing communications. CRM data can also include record a financial advisor's meeting attendance, seminar attendance, webinar attendance, and requests and usage of illustrations provided by the financial products company. The advisor's rating can be either positively or negatively affected by the financial advisor's response to previous marketing attempts.

If an advisor has received a lot of marketing outreach but has not responded to the marketing or, more importantly, has not increased sales of the financial products company's products, the advisor's score is negatively impacted. However, if past marketing has proven to be a success, then this is seen as evidence that the marketing is working, and the financial advisor is given a high score for the touchpoint component. This touchpoint data is especially useful in generating recommendations for future marketing approaches toward financial advisors. If a particular tactic has proven useful, the financial advisor report can recommend that the same type of marketing strategy be used to reach out to the financial advisor. On the other hand, if a financial advisor is not responding to a tactic, the rating application suggests a different form of marketing in the automatically generated report. Automated actions to taken by the CRM system based on the report are discussed with respect toFIG. 10.

In addition to calculating scores based on the aforementioned data sources, scores or ratings can be manually adjusted based on knowledge that cannot be captured by the data sources. For example, a wholesaler knows that an advisor recently had a bad experience with the financial products company and has decided to no longer carry the company's products. For a period of time, that financial advisor may still have high scores in one or more scoring components. To prevent a misleading rating or ranking, the wholesaler should manually lower this financial advisor's score to reflect his poor potential for selling the company's products.

FIG. 9shows the output of the advisor rating software application that was run using the configuration fromFIG. 8. Each component score (sales revenue, sales frequency, sales momentum, and multi-line production) was calculated for each advisor using the data for the past five years, in the same manner that the sales revenue ratings were calculated inFIG. 7. Then, the scores were weighted using the weights inputted inFIG. 8, calculated as follows:
Total Score=(0.5*Sales Revenue)+(0.2*Sales Frequency)+(0.1*Sales Momentum)+(0.3*Multi-line Production)
This formula created a score between 0 and 35.5. The scores could be normalized to fall between 0 and 1, 0 and 50, 0 and 100, or any other scale. The advisors were then ranked from highest score to lowest score and displayed in the table according to their rank, without regard to what firm the advisors were employed by. The selection of components and the weights chosen inFIG. 8andFIG. 9are merely illustrative in nature; different components can be chosen and the weights can be adjusted by the user of the software.

The options pane910is identical to the options pane710inFIG. 7. The four buttons along the left940-946are identical to the four buttons740-746inFIG. 7. “New Rating!” button920is identical to the “New Rating!” button720.

FIG. 10is a diagram of inputs and automated outputs of the financial advisor rating application. In addition to producing list or map reports as previously discussed, the advisor rating system can feed the report to a customer relationship management (CRM) system, dynamic email system, or similar system that can produce automated communication. In this embodiment, the input to the financial advisor management system includes data on financial advisors' receipt and response to touchpoint data1010including the various elements1012-1022discussed above, which may have been gathered by and stored on the CRM system. Any additional data from the CRM system, as well as sales data, are also inputs in this embodiment.

The report generated by the advisor rating system1040includes an electronic list of financial advisors, their contact information, and a recommended action to take. The CRM software, dynamic email system, or dynamic mailing system receives this electronic report and generates marketing material directed to financial advisors based on the output of the rating system. If a financial advisor is rated highly as a good advisor to target with marketing, and it appears that he may be receptive to email marketing, than an email1044is produced automatically tailored to him. The email may be personalized with the advisor's name and contact information, firm name, specialty areas, and topics of interest to the financial advisor. Similarly, if a financial advisor has a high rating and it appears that he may be receptive to a mailing, a physical mailing1042is similarly automatically prepared, printed, and sent to the advisor. Alternatively, if a financial advisor has a low rating, it may be preferable to reach out to this advisor using an automated communication, allowing a wholesaler to spend time personally marketing to higher ranked financial advisors. The automatic marketing suggestions and records of the mailings or emails are stored in the CRM database1030.

The electronic report may also be a list1046sent to an external locator service which is accessible by customers through, for example, a website or a call center. When a customer or potential customer calls the call center or visits the website, he may use the external locator service to get a recommendation of one or more financial advisors based on the customer's location, demographic data such as income level, financial needs or interests, or other factors. The external locator service may use data from the list1046, which includes advisor contact information and/or an advisor identification string along with advisor ratings or grades, as a factor in their own database or rankings of financial advisors. For example, the website may recommend advisors to the user based the ratings described above or based on an automatically generated rating that is different from the financial advisor rating discussed herein, but which may be based in part on the financial advisor rating discussed herein. The website may be searchable by advisor location, and may also provide a listing of all or a subset of all financial advisors known by the financial products company. A call center can be equipped to similarly recommend advisors to customers and provide them with the advisors' contact information, wherein the recommendation is partially based on the financial advisor rating.