A well-managed pipeline is the difference between a firm that grows predictably and one that lurches from month to month. Yet many UK advice firms either don't have a formal pipeline process or rely on informal systems that only work when things are quiet.
This guide covers the fundamentals of pipeline management for financial advisers, with practical steps you can apply regardless of your firm's size.
Want to see pipeline management in practice? Book a demo to see how Glimzer's Pipeline module works for advice firms.
Define your stages clearly
The first step is mapping out the stages a prospect moves through in your firm. A generic sales funnel won't work here. Your stages should reflect the reality of your advice process.
A typical pipeline for a financial advice firm might look like:
- Initial enquiry — first contact, basic information captured
- Discovery meeting — fact-finding, understanding the client's situation
- Research and analysis — adviser and paraplanner work
- Recommendation — suitability report presented to client
- Implementation — application submitted, provider liaison
- Onboarded — client is live, handed to ongoing servicing
Every firm is different. The key is that your stages are specific enough to be useful and agreed upon by everyone in the team.
Glimzer's Pipeline module is built around the stages that advice firms actually use, so the system reflects your process rather than imposing a generic sales funnel.
Set clear ownership
Every prospect in your pipeline should have a clear owner, the person responsible for moving that prospect to the next stage. Without ownership, prospects stall and nobody notices.
This is especially important in firms with multiple advisers or where paraplanners handle parts of the process. Everyone should know what they're responsible for at each stage.
Follow up consistently
The most common reason prospects fall out of a pipeline is simple: nobody followed up. Life gets busy, and without a system prompting you, it's easy to let weeks pass.
Best practices for follow-up:
- Set a task with a due date every time you complete an interaction
- Review your pipeline weekly to catch anything that's gone quiet
- Automate reminders where possible so nothing depends solely on memory
A CRM with built-in task management and automated reminders makes this much easier than relying on calendar entries or sticky notes.
Track the right metrics
You can't improve what you don't measure. The metrics that matter most for advice firms are:
- Conversion rate — what percentage of enquiries become clients?
- Average time in stage — where do prospects get stuck?
- Pipeline coverage — do you have enough prospects at each stage to meet your targets?
- Follow-up compliance — are tasks being completed on time?
These numbers tell you where your process works and where it breaks down.
Keep your pipeline clean
A pipeline full of stale prospects is worse than an empty one. It gives you a false sense of security and makes it harder to spot the opportunities that actually need attention.
Set a policy for when a prospect is moved to lost or archived. If someone hasn't responded in 60 days despite multiple follow-ups, they're not in your pipeline anymore, they're on a re-engagement list.
Apply this to different advice types
These principles apply whether you're managing a financial advice pipeline or tracking mortgage and protection cases. The stages will differ, but the discipline of clear ownership, consistent follow-up, and regular review is the same.
Mortgage advisers often deal with higher volumes and shorter timelines, making pipeline hygiene even more critical. Protection cases frequently run in parallel with mortgage applications and need their own tracking to avoid being overlooked.
Use the right tools
Pipeline management is only as good as the tools supporting it. A purpose-built system should give you:
- Visual pipeline view — see everything at a glance
- Drag-and-drop stage management — move prospects through stages easily
- Task management with reminders — never miss a follow-up
- Reporting — understand your conversion rates and bottlenecks
- Audit trails — maintain records of all actions for compliance purposes
All of this needs to sit on a foundation of strong data security, especially when handling sensitive financial information.
Pipeline management isn't complicated, but it does require discipline and the right system to support it. The firms that get this right convert more prospects, deliver a better client experience, and have the data to prove it.
Ready to improve your pipeline management? Book a demo and see how Glimzer helps UK advice firms track and convert prospects.