The first thing internals need to do is quit acting like Sales 1.0 companies and begin to incorporate Sales 2.0 techniques and approaches into their relationship-building strategies. After all, isn’t this what advisors are asking for? They want to do business with internals who make it easier to do business with them by recognizing their needs, preferences and priorities. Advisors are looking for relationships with internals whose firms have service models that allow them to work better and more effectively with their customers.

For internal wholesalers, they first need to identify the advisor’s preferred method of communication. With communication preferences for advisors and their clients changing rapidly, an internal not communicating with an advisor in their preferred manner greatly inhibits the beginning or expansion of a relationship.

Once an advisor’s communication preference is established, the internal should then strive to develop a true rapport with that advisor. True rapport isn’t developed by asking questions like: What’s your biggest challenge; or how can I help you with your investment matrix? Surprise telephone calls, trying to maneuver around gatekeepers and spamming advisors with e-mails doesn’t work either. Always remember that internals who are reactive with their advisors aren’t building and won’t build rapport. Internals who deliver personalized, relevant and timely information to their advisors before they reach out to them drive advisor satisfaction and rapport levels up.

Further, internals should use online research tools to learn something about their advisors and their businesses. It’s not uncommon for an advisor to have a website which goes into great detail about them, their team, their business philosophy, investment policy and the type of client they specialize in working with. If the advisor you are working with doesn’t have a website and is allowed by their firm to have one, you might develop a “Five Reasons Why Advisors Need a Web Presence” strategy and have a few trusted Web designers’ names available as a way of building rapport.

LinkedIn provides an opportunity to not only research business practice information but also to glean educational background, professional credentials, community interests, charitable organizations and people you may know in common. Armed with this information, internals can now craft personalized e-mails regarding organizations or people they may know in common. Internals skilled in providing personalized communiqués with their advisors are truly differentiating themselves in the marketplace.

Further, those sales professionals who can provide “The Five Reasons Why a LinkedIn Presence Leads to Enhanced Client Acquisition and Retention” will have a distinct advantage over their competition in developing rapport with their advisors. Additionally, they will be providing advisors with the communication tools necessary to communicate with the next generation of clients.

Remember, too, that understanding an advisor’s investment policy allows internals to provide their advisors with timely and focused articles which demonstrate the internals’ understanding of the policy. When an advisor passes on those articles to clients, it will help enhance the advisors’ relationship with those clients.

Jim Tracy, Citigroup’s director of investment advisory services mentioned the Return to Relationship Alpha at the recent MMI Conference in Philadelphia and Fund Fire’s Tom Stabile is writing about it. While there may be a “Return to Relationship Alpha” for some, sadly it is the “Beginning of Relationship Alpha” for most in the financial services world.

Recently, Scott McKain, good friend, world-class speaker and author of several best-selling books (his latest is the just-published “The Collapse of Distinction – Stand out and move up while your competition fails.”), met with me to discuss this “the importance of the Return to Relationship Alpha.

Through the Value Added Institute and McKain Performance Group, Scott makes his living teaching Fortune 500 companies and leading financial services firms how to bridge the gap between what their organization offers and what clients crave. This is what Scott had to say:

“At the hundreds of meetings — well, literally, thousands by this point — I’ve attended and participated in for the financial services industry, I have heard endless presentations on the importance of attaining “Alpha in investing. Wikipedia defines Alpha as, ‘a risk-adjusted measure of the so-called active return on an investment. It is the return in excess of the compensation for the risk.’

“The challenge is that we tend to think of Alpha solely as a return on financial investment. And, that’s the problem…for financial firms…for any kind of business…for every professional. Today’s customer is focused on more than just the active return on his or her financial investment. They also require an active return on their effort, emotion, and engagement. They are focused on ‘relationship Alpha’ as well.”

Have you ever asked yourself, “What will be the client’s active return on their investment of their personal and professional resources — such as their energy and time — as a result of their consideration of my firm as a business partner?”

My guess is that the answer is, “No.” Don’t feel alone. Very few professionals or organizations ever have this kind of thinking on their radar screen.

Think of it this way: the features that sold a car in the ’60’s won’t close any sales for dealers any longer. Customers enhanced their demands from cruise control to anti-lock brakes. Auto manufacturers understand a car for today’s marketplace has to deliver more. The computer you wanted just five years ago is antiquated now. Our clients — just like the customers in every industry — are now also seeking “relationship Alpha.” They expect…they demand…a return on the investment of non-renewable resources like time, energy, and engagement that they are making individually and organizationally.

So, why would you ever believe that your customers are thinking in the same manner? Here’s a clue: They aren’t. If you presume that all they expect from your products and services is “investment Alpha” — in other words, a return measured solely in financial gain — you are stuck in a manner of thinking that is obsolete.

And, here’s the bright spot: No matter what is happening in the economy, we can ensure they achieve significant relationship Alpha based upon the experiences that we are creating for them. Deliver the Ultimate Customer ExperienceTM and you deliver distinct relationship Alpha.

Scott summarized his thoughts by asking: “As a financial intermediary you have to ask yourself if you are delivering an extraordinary return on your customer’s investment?” I commented that if financial intermediaries are, their practices will have evolved from information sources to solution sources distinguished by their ability to leverage Investment Alpha and Relationship Alpha to deliver the Ultimate Customer Experience.

In an industry that as late as February, 2009 still reports in excess of 60% of their customers haven’t been contacted since the market began it downward spiral, Relationship Alpha needs to be driven by means other than punitive measures – yes, firms are still holding back incentive pay until a specified percentage of customers are contacted.

Successful Relationship Alpha will be enjoyed by those firms and financial intermediaries who shift their communication styles to complement the next generation of investors who will view the telephone and e-mail as outdated. MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter will become the communications tools of preference. Relationship Alpha will truly begin when firms and financial intermediaries begin communicating with their customers the way the customer wants to be communicated with, not the other way around, as it is today.