As long as the phones keep ringing, most RIA businesses are perfectly content to stick with tried and true tactics—the ones that brought them success in the first place. Do a good job. Build customer relationships. Introduce yourself to local attorneys. Then, watch your business grow.

But now, we are in the midst of massive changes in market dynamics, technology and consumer behavior across the industry. Traditional growth strategies yield diminishing returns, while new online engagement methods are exploding.

If you're a fast mover in this environment, you can seize a once-in-a-decade opportunity to build scalable future growth. But if you stay still, you may find it impossible to catch up later. Let's examine why.

The changing balance of power between growth drivers

GVA growth has consistently come from a handful of sources:

• capital markets (THE the main driver of growth for a decade until the Fed rate hike);
• Mergers and acquisitions;
• Traditional referrals from clients and centers of influence, such as attorneys and mortgage brokers;
• Caretaker referral programs (the basket where some firms currently put all their eggs); AND
• Business expansion—adding new offerings, such as tax planning, or developing technology-based areas or specific service experiences.

The fact is that traditional channels are losing effectiveness. Asset growth and M&A activity have cooled. Referrals still provide the most important stream of new customers, but they no longer seem like an inexhaustible source. This is especially true given the firm's reliance on several founders and rainmakers despite an impending succession crisis.

At the same time, many new channels are still not living up to their promise. Acquired customers are not converting well. The younger demographic is still not generating income. And most firms haven't even dipped their toe into digital channels.

Bright, self-reflective firms have thought a lot about this situation. And most have reached the same conclusion.

The engine that brought RIAs here is still running. But there's just no steam to get up the next hill. For that, they will need a new growth engine. One that is repeatable, scalable and sustainable in the future.

What does an engine of sustainable growth look like?

A new, more sustainable growth engine is not compounded by random search ads and LinkedIn posts. It is purpose built from the inside out.

Start at the core of your business, starting with fanatical alignment of vision, values ​​and target markets. Discover your firm's true differentiation in your story, the why and the core of what makes you unique. What is your mission to accomplish and for whom? Bring that same fanaticism to an ideal customer profile and corresponding customer experience.

Building and stretching your core is essential to building a growth engine that will propel you up and over all mountains ahead.

Reorient your organization to leverage each individual's unique abilities to drive growth. Whether a team member is an internal consultant, a sales executive, an operations employee, or a potential thought leader, each has a role to play—and must be held accountable for results.

Then, you'll need an infrastructure to support your team with built-in training, marketing resources, and accountability tools.

Only then are you ready to focus on the external parts of your growth engine. Look at the ways you engage your targets. Are you delivering compelling value to your customers, prospects and community? How can you optimize the path from the top of the funnel to closing the deal? Can you create digital content that matters to your target market and place it in the right places to improve reach? Are you running paid ads to drive more attention to content that converts?

When the inside and outside work together synergistically, you have a powerful and resilient engine for growth.

Who will withdraw from the front?

Some firms will take the lead in engineering a new growth machine. In my experience, there are three distinct groups among RIAs:

• Large national RIAs with sophisticated marketing departments and dedicated digital teams that are highly successful at generating leads. These include names like Fisher, Mercer, Edelman and Brighton-Jones (whom I interviewed as part of FiComm Growth Series).
• Smaller local or regional RIAs you may not have heard of are crushing digital lead generation – like Adam Cmejla in Integrated Planning and Wealth Management.
• The other 90% of the industry that includes RIAs have never dabbled in digital marketing and have no idea where to start.

The great national VNRs are true professionals. Like large companies in most industries today, they may be facing rising digital cost per lead and lower conversion rates. But they are sophisticated enough and have the scale to figure things out.

However, local and regional VNRs are driving growth at a transformative pace. They are doing digital right: they are clear on their true differentiators, focusing on specific target markets, creating online influence, building online relationships and only then trying to convert online.

What about the remaining 90%, the digital innocents? They may start further back, but they also have the greatest opportunity to optimize their engines from the start. If your business falls into this category, now is your chance to shine.

The end of the line – and a new beginning

I understand that RIAs are reluctant to abandon the methods that got them this far. But this may be the only way forward.

That's because consumers are in the driver's seat now. They want to search for information and develop relationships online. The trend applies to age, income, net worth, and any other demographic you can name. Customers no longer rely solely on traditional sales channels – and neither do the advisors who serve them. The engine that brought you here cannot take you where you need to go now.

The good news is that your next trip is already here. And it promises to take your business much further.

Megan Carpenter is the founder and CEO of FiComm Partners