Helping Investment Advisors Find Their Best Leads 20X Faster with AI

Carson Group Holdings LLC helps investment advisors grow their businesses. It provides advisory coaching, marketing, compliance, investment strategies, and customer acquisition support to advisor firms nationwide. Carson manages over $57 billion in assets. It has since expanded into AI-powered tools for its advisor network. That includes an AI assistant for visibility into client households.

01 The Challenge

Advisors spending time on leads that would never convert

Customer acquisition is the top growth opportunity for 61% of financial professionals. Yet half of all advisors say it remains their biggest challenge. The economics explain why: conversion rates on purchased leads average just 1-2%. An advisor might work through 50 to 100 leads to acquire a single client. The difference between a good lead and a dead end is invisible until hours of follow-up are spent.

Carson’s value to its advisor clients depends in part on the quality of customer acquisition support it provides. The company had a wealth of lead data in Salesforce: conversion histories, engagement metrics, and campaign performance. The information needed to predict which leads were worth pursuing was already in the system.

At the time, lead scoring relied on manual processes and rule-based logic. An advisor or sales team member would review incoming leads, apply fixed criteria, and make a judgment call. This worked when lead volumes were manageable. As Carson’s client base grew, the team realized that AI could help evaluate leads faster, adapt to new patterns on the fly, and identify signals static rules miss.

Carson wanted advisors spending their time building relationships with high-potential prospects instead of sorting through lists. Provectus, an AI-first systems integrator and solutions provider, worked with Carson to build a new lead scoring model powered by machine learning. It connects directly to Salesforce and delivers scores advisors can act on immediately.

02 The Approach

Three phases in five weeks: understand the data, build the model, deploy to production

Provectus structured the engagement as three focused phases, each completed in sequence within a five-week window.

The first phase

Provectus worked with Carson’s team to understand the available data. Labeled lead records, conversion metrics, campaign spend, and existing scoring rules. The team evaluated which signals were most predictive of conversion. They designed a classification model that could score leads with high accuracy.

The second phase

The model was prepared for production. Provectus built an automated training system that could process new data, retrain the model, and release updated versions. This ensured the model would keep improving as more lead data accumulated, rather than going stale after launch.

The third phase

Provectus deployed the model into Carson’s production environment. They connected it to Salesforce and validated that scores flowed to teams in an actionable format. The integration fit Carson’s existing workflows. Adoption required minimal change to how advisors and teams already worked.

03 The Build

A new model, automated retraining, and direct Salesforce integration

The core deliverable was a classification model that scores every incoming lead by its likelihood of converting. The model reads lead attributes from Salesforce and returns a conversion probability score. Inputs include engagement history, demographic data, campaign source, and behavioral signals.

The build included:

• A classification model trained on Carson’s historical lead and conversion data, reaching 96% accuracy on the test dataset
• An automated training pipeline that retrains the model as new lead data flows in, keeping predictions current
• Direct integration with Salesforce, so scores appear alongside lead records without requiring manual export or lookup
• Output formats designed for both sales teams (individual lead prioritization) and marketing teams (campaign performance analysis)

The model was built to evolve. As lead data grows and market conditions change, the retraining pipeline keeps the model aligned with current reality.

04 The Results

From manual lead review to AI-scored prioritization in five weeks

Provectus delivered the complete lead scoring model in five weeks from discovery to production. Carson adopted it immediately. Within days, advisors could see a conversion probability score alongside each lead in Salesforce.

96%

Lead conversion prediction accuracy

Deployed in 5 weeks

The impact showed up in how advisors and sales teams spend their time. Instead of working through lead lists sequentially, teams now start with the leads most likely to convert. Time previously spent evaluating low-potential prospects gets redirected toward building relationships with high-probability clients. Acquiring a single client can cost $2,000 to $5,000 in lead spend. Better lead filtering at the top of the funnel cuts acquisition costs directly.

Marketing teams gained a new lens on campaign performance. By comparing conversion scores across campaigns, Carson can see which channels produce leads with the highest predicted value. They adjust spend accordingly.

05 What’s Next

Lead scoring as the first step in a broader AI strategy

The lead scoring model was Carson’s entry point into production AI. Since this initial deployment, the company has expanded its AI capabilities. Carson launched an AI assistant for its advisor network and built tools for instant visibility into client households. Provectus works with Carson on identifying additional use cases where AI can strengthen the services Carson provides.