If you sell into the RIA channel, you already know how hard it is to get time with an advisor. When you do get that meeting, whether it's a scheduled call, a conference sit-down, or a brief introduction at an industry event, the window is short, and the competition for their attention is real. ETF issuers, asset managers, fintechs, and professional services firms are all fighting for the same calendar space. So we went straight to the source.
We surveyed advisors at Future Proof Citywide in Miami about what actually makes someone stand out in these conversations. What earns the follow-up? What falls flat. And what separates the handful of meetings they remember from the ones they forget the same day? The findings apply well beyond the conference floor.
Here's what they told us.
When we asked advisors how personalized most pitches feel to their firm's investment approach, client base, and portfolio needs, 41% said "somewhat personalized" and 18% said "mostly generic." Only 6% said "highly personalized."
That gap is expensive. Advisors can tell within the first two minutes whether the person across the table has done their homework or is running a recycled pitch. When they can tell, they disengage. And they don't book the follow-up.
The good news is that the bar is low. Most people aren't personalizing. The ones who do stand out immediately.
We asked advisors to tell us what makes a meeting memorable, and two signals tied at the top: interactive conversation over a presentation, and thoughtful questions about their business, each cited by 53% of advisor respondents. Close behind were sharing relevant social proof like case studies and client names (35%), evidence of preparation and research on their firm specifically (29%), and data-backed insights (29%).
The pattern is clear. Advisors don't want to be pitched at. They want to be engaged. And they want to feel like you actually know who they are before you sit down.
When we asked advisors how often the people they meet with arrive with a real understanding of their firm, only 29% said "often." Another 29% said "sometimes," and 6% said "rarely." Over a third didn't feel the question applied at all, which may be the most telling data point of all.
Most advisors have simply stopped expecting preparation. That's a problem for the industry, but it's an opening for anyone willing to close the gap. Walking into a meeting having researched a firm's AUM, investment focus, allocation trends, and key personnel is enough to put you in the top tier of people that advisor has spoken with all month. That's how low the bar is. And that's how much it matters.
Advisors who described a strong meeting were decisive about follow-up: 53% said they were "very likely" to take a follow-up meeting after a genuinely good conversation, and another 35% said, "somewhat likely." Only 12% were neutral. No one said unlikely. The format works when the meeting is good. The bottleneck is the quality of the prep going in.
The ETF issuers, asset managers, and fintechs we surveyed were candid about what holds them back. Limited time for research was the most commonly cited challenge, named by 44% of respondents. After that: difficulty identifying the right contact or decision-maker at each firm (19%) and incomplete or outdated data (12%). Creating tailored messaging at scale and internal coordination logistics rounded out the list.
When you're managing a full pipeline of advisor meetings across calls, conferences, and events, whether that's Future Proof Citywide, Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, or the newly launched ETF.com Breakthru Connect (a virtual meetings-only event launching June 23-24 with over 20,000 pre-scheduled meetings across the ETF and wealth management ecosystem), deep firm-by-firm research becomes nearly impossible without the right tools.
Among those who said they are not currently using AI to help with meeting prep, the desired use cases were consistent: summarizing firm research and profiles, generating personalized talking points, identifying product-fit opportunities, and drafting follow-up emails. The appetite is clearly there. For teams already using a platform like FINTRX, many of these workflows are already built in.
This is the gap FINTRX is built to close. Whether you're an asset manager, ETF issuer, fintech, or professional services firm selling into the RIA channel, FINTRX gives your team the intelligence it needs to walk into every meeting prepared.
Before any call or meeting, you can pull a complete profile on any RIA firm you're scheduled to connect with: AUM, custodians, investment philosophy, ETF and fund holdings, active versus passive allocation breakdown, alternatives exposure, client demographics, and recent changes in advisor headcount or firm structure. You know who they are, how they invest, and whether your product or service is actually relevant to them before the conversation starts.
That changes the entire tenor of the meeting. Instead of walking in and explaining what your firm does, you can open with something specific: "I noticed you've been increasing active ETF allocation and your client base skews toward high-net-worth households. Here's why firms with that profile have found this valuable." Advisors said they almost never hear that. When they do, they pay attention.
FINTRX also helps you identify the right contacts at each firm, so you're not spending time with someone who does not influence the decisions you're trying to affect. Contact-level data includes direct information, role, tenure, and relationship history, so your team can prioritize the right people across a full pipeline of meetings.
After the meeting, FINTRX supports follow-up by giving your team a shared intelligence layer to log outcomes, track next steps, and build on the research you did before the conversation. The prep compounds, rather than disappearing after each interaction.
Whether you're meeting advisors at Future Proof Citywide, Future Proof Festival, ETF.com Breakthru Connect, or simply working through your pipeline on a Tuesday afternoon, the dynamic is the same. Advisors want to talk to people who know their firm. Most don't come prepared. The ones who do get the follow-up.
The data from Future Proof Citywide makes it plain: 88% of advisors are willing to take a follow-up after a strong meeting. The bar to have a strong meeting is lower than most people think. Show up prepared, ask real questions, and treat the conversation as a dialogue rather than a presentation.
Firms that invest in the right data and intelligence infrastructure before their meetings will have a measurable edge over those that don't. The advisors told us exactly what they want. Now it's a question of who shows up ready to deliver it.