Globaleye.com

Globaleye is in focus in the latest issue of the International Adviser.

 

 

Farewell to bad practices
The Middle East financial industry is relatively unburdened by legal requirements but this can sometimes lead to questionable business practices. Globaleye is one company that is making efforts to take advantage of the light regulation to the benefit of its client base – without resorting to underhanded methods.

To some, the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) oversees one of the most well regulated financial sectors in the world, whether its capital markets, general insurance or financial advice. To others, the UK is over-regulated to the extent where certain sectors cannot function freely.

Where financial advice is concerned, what is beyond dispute is that many places outside the UK are not as tightly regulated. Among these international markets, the Middle East has a long-held, though little discussed, reputation as a kind of Wild West for financial advisers, particularly where expats are concerned.

There are tales of boiler room operations where ‘coordinators’ cold-call the global staff of businesses with a scripted sales patter, churning through reams of phone numbers, often gained through illicit or underhand means such as bribing security staff to hand over details or placing vases in hotel lobbies to get people’s business cards under the pretence of a prize draw.

It is hard to establish fact from fiction where such stories are concerned but cold-calling is certainly a common practice among financial advisory firms in the Middle East. In many cases, detailed regulation governing the sector is nonexistent. By contrast, cold-calling is permitted only in very limited and specific circumstances in the UK.


Changing approach
One firm that claims to be trying to eradicate such a practice from its operations is UAE-based Globaleye.  The business has been going for more than a decade and is run by Tim Searle, whose financial services career spanning more than 15 years has been spent entirely in the Middle East.

Unlike the bosses of many Anglo-Saxon firms operating internationally, Searle, a Canadian-born Briton, has never actually experienced doing business under the watchful gaze of the UK’s FSA. It is refreshing then that he claims to be trying to shake off some of the practices that have earned some firms operating in the Middle East a bad name.

“We set up this organization to take a more modern approach to financial services. Nothing had really changed since I had started in financial services in the early ’90s, nothing wowed me and I decided it was important to try to be innovative and different.”


IT to the rescue
One of the main ways Searle is trying to differentiate Globaleye is through the use of technology. A four-year project to design and install a database that operates across Globaleye’s office network, which spans several countries and continents, was completed this year. Searle will not reveal the exact cost but says it runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is no small beer, particularly when he claims IT spend in competitors is virtually nil.

“No one was using IT and I thought: ‘There must be something in this computer game,’ so I decided to look into it,” he says.  “We are really trying to change things, to bring value to the clients but also to help the guys that work within the organization. We are becoming a large company and have big aspirations, and bringing this IT system in is an example of that.  Our guys might at first be thinking: ‘This is going to complicate our lives,’ but now they are realizing they do not have to bring out a dusty file for each client and sort through loads of paperwork; it is all there on a laptop and a database for them.”


Goodbye cold-calling
Globaleye’s database is designed to do away with cold-calling by ensuring contact details obtained for a potential client are followed up with an email introducing them to the firm. Depending on the individual’s interest in any products or services, a call may then be made to discuss Globaleye’s offering further and make an appointment to see a consultant.

“Typically, most IFAs have the age-old problem of finding people to speak to and then ensuring that none of their colleagues are speaking to the same person. I have yet to witness any of my competitors use a computer for this task,” explains Searle.

It is apparently common for expat workers in Dubai and the wider UAE to receive unsolicited calls from advisory firms on a regular basis, sometimes from businesses they are already clients of, according to Searle.

“I have yet to see any of my competitors adopt anything near to the sort of systems we have installed. For instance, I am confident none of them have a system where a consultant could enter a name and be told for sure they had never been called by the firm or, even worse, call them and find they are an existing client.”

People on the database also receive regular email updates on products, services and news.

“At the moment, when we send out our email bulletins, they are quite generic but it would nice – and this is something we will do – to send out something specific to different audiences and client groups,” explains Searle.  “We intend to get more strategic and clever in our e-marketing strategy. When someone uses the website to find out more about this or that service we will know about it and it becomes a lead generation system for our advisers.”

 
Beyond sales
Searle says that other innovations being championed by Globaleye include clients receiving regular non-sales calls from relationship management staff.

“The client relationship management team are not commission-oriented and do not sell anything – they are just checking that clients are happy,” he explains.

Globaleye also sends clients birthday cards signed by their personal adviser, and even branded cakes and gifts for their most valued customers.  While this may appear gimmicky, Searle says it is part of a holistic service which makes clients feel valued.

“Our core proposition will always be financial planning, but these little touches help you stand out,” he adds.

Importantly, they also generate new leads and referral business, the latter accounting for around 50% of new business.

“What do you do in an office when you get a cake? You share it with your colleagues. People will see that their colleague’s financial adviser sends them a cake and card on their birthday.  It is a great and cost-effective way of creating brand awareness.”

Another feature of Globaleye’s proposition is its Portfolio Service.  Monthly bulletins are sent to clients tracking the performance of the underlying funds in their savings and investment products.  The service will also recommend portfolio changes.


Caring corporate
Many advisory firms in the Middle East also offer little or no employee benefits but Searle has recently established a company pension scheme and private medical insurance.

“Having corporate employee packages in place means you are a caring corporate and you can differentiate yourself from some of the competition,” he explains.

Employees, from consultants down to administration, are also ‘encouraged’, though not compelled, to sit the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) exam, in addition to being given in-house training.  But there is no regulatory requirement for staff to be qualified, and Searle says the generally light touch of regulation is a good thing.

“There is nothing anywhere near like the FSA here. Everyone that comes to see me and talks about what the FSA is doing in the UK says it is stifling the industry to the point it is almost strangled.”


Good advice
Searle also knows the value of treating his customers well by providing professional, high-quality advice.

“We do not just want to sell our clients one thing and walk away. We want to have a relationship with them and sell them lots of things. And you can only do that by offering proper financial planning and a standout service,” he says.

In the UK, where fee-based advice – or at least a business model based on trail commission – is becoming the modus operandi of choice and upfront commission is a dirty word, such sales-driven talk may appear brazen. But Searle is simply being honest about the way the industry works in the Middle East and, whether a paragon of virtue or not, Globaleye appears to be trying to create a level of professionalism in its ranks that would arguably be hard to find in many local competitors.