Creating Systems for Success

October 21, 2008 11:13 AM

by: Machen MacDonald

Most of us run our lives on a handful of systems. Between our cell phones, our planners and our e-mail inboxes, we have organized ourselves and our time. And if you ever doubt the importance of these systems, recall your panic the last time you lost your planner.

Yet as important as these systems are, most of us don’t take advantage of what systems can do to improve our businesses. Systems are simply ways of automating or structuring processes so that they can occur systematically without so much thought or attention and by more than just one person, so that the business can continue to run if the owner takes a vacation.

Figuring Out What to Systematize

For most of us, there are dozens of similar repetitive tasks, large and small, in our businesses or jobs that could be systematized. To identify where you can apply systems, step back from your enterprise and try to look at it objectively. Ask yourself questions such as below:

• Where are your frustrations? This is an important test for two reasons. First, you are more likely to be frustrated if you are redoing tasks that bring no particular satisfaction. Second, you are going to be frustrated if you have to relearn a task or "recreate the wheel" every time a specific need comes up.
• What is holding back your business? What are the choke points? Do you need to generate more prospects? Do you have prospects but a low rate of conversion? Do you convert customers but lose them through poor follow-through? Strategically focusing on your business this way is more likely to spot high-value opportunities for systemization.
• What causes you stress? Is it preparing for the quarterly performance reviews? Finalizing your printed catalog? Preparing for your annual make-or-break tradeshow? Even if you know the steps by heart, systematizing at least part of these stress-inducing activities could yield big benefits to your business and your well-being.

Start by Writing It Down

The first step in systematizing a process is to write it down. What exactly is the process you go through to handle a sales lead? Place a want ad for your shipping clerk? Train a new receptionist? If you are struggling to get all the steps down, try the "backwards" approach. Start with the end result and then determine what you did right before that, and so on, for each step.

Another valuable exercise is to document what everyone in your organization does. Forget job descriptions: You want to know what they actually do. This may highlight high-value opportunities to build systems that can be leveraged throughout the organization.

Often, the documentation you create in this process is all the system you require. The next time the task comes up, you can pull out the file and save the relearning. It also becomes the core of the training manual for new employees, which is often one of the most valuable systems you can build.

Do the Cost-Benefit Math

Here are some guidelines for figuring out which of the myriad choices are worth the effort of creating a system:

• What are the odds you will be doing this again? How often?
• How hard is it to automate? Creating paper checklists is easy; programming Outlook to sync your phone contacts and automatically generate follow up emails isn’t so easy. However, don’t give up if the software approach is too expensive or complicated. Productivity guru David Allen sells several slick software products, but his core recommendation for organizing tasks is to create a set of clearly labeled file folders. Again, a well-documented, step-by-step manual is the core of many highly successful systems.
• How painful is the task? And how painful is failing to execute it well? High-value tasks, such as annual trade-shows and the like, are good candidates for setting up systems in order to reduce risks and the associated stress.
• Can you hire it out? In some cases, the best system is to hand the documentation for the process to a junior employee. In particular, those stress-inducing tasks noted above can be partially off-loaded. But you will need to do the work up front of carefully recording the steps involved, and how to achieve and measure the necessary outcomes.

Get Out of the Box

As you go through this analysis, don't be afraid to start with the question: Why do we do this process in the first place?

For every process you find that could be automated with a new system, you may find another that can be eliminated altogether. Systematically reviewing your business this way may be the most valuable system of all.

Develop a Systems Dependent Business,
Not a People Dependent Business

October 17, 2008 12:56 PM

by: Andrea Bullard

The vast majority of financial reps have businesses that are "people-dependent." This is a huge problem because people make mistakes, people leave the business, and people do not always agree on priorities.

• The majority of financial reps have to continually ask their staff questions regarding customer service, underwriting, appointments, etc. because they have not created a concise communication system. Every time they ask a question, it costs them time and money.

• The majority of financial reps have not created an exact system for their paperwork, files, and paperwork flow. They and their staff lose papers, and files and spend time looking for information. Again, this costs them both time and money. In addition, it robs them of "peace of mind."

• We are in the Information Age. Therefore, staff are getting information from e-mails, voice-mails, phone calls, the U.S. Mail, and verbal requests from the rep. Most staff work from a tedious, long, "to do list" which is probably generated from a company chosen client management program. Therefore, they are working extremely inefficiently going from customer service to proposal work to underwriting in a course of one-half hour. Most staff need help in organizing and prioritizing their work so they can maximize productivity.

• Most financial reps do not have a system which allows one of their staff to take the responsibility of making certain all the case prep is finished 5 days before the next appointment. Most reps are personally handling this aspect of their business. Thus, cases are being prepped an hour before meetings and the rep continually feels "overwhelmed" because there is so much to manage in his practice. He does not have a system for delegation and management of case prep.

• Most financial reps do not have an accountability system for their assistants. Rather, they rely on trust. For example, assistants generally handle all the customer service work for a financial rep. I often ask reps how they know what customer service is needed and whether or not it is being completed and accurately recorded. Inevitably, the financial rep will respond by stating that the assistant handles customer service and does a good job. In our litigious world, trust is a dangerous way to run a business, especially when you are dealing with money and finance. If a client is going to sue, he will sue you, not your assistant.

• Communication is a key to success in every business. Every business should have an Employee Manual communicating rules, vacation days, sick days, etc. Very few financial reps have an office manual written specifically for their business.

• Every business owner should have hiring procedures that will lead to great employees. Again, most financial reps have no hiring systems. Hiring, therefore, is not strategic and can lead to selecting the wrong individuals for your team.

• Lastly, most financial reps will not take the time to create office systems because they do not know how to organize and systematize their business or are not willing to spend years on creating these systems.

Our office systems will help both the new and veteran financial rep. Once you have implemented these you will have more time, exact order, paper and files flowing away from you to your staff, a paperless desk, exact communication among your staff and finally, more peace to do what you love to do---just see people.

Stay Upbeat in a Down Market

September 23, 2008 11:08 AM

The headlines paint a gloomy picture these days. Volatile markets, bank bailouts, tumbling stocks and falling confidence. While the economy is struggling, many advisors opt to cut back on marketing expenses to weather the storm. You may be tempted to do the same. Don’t. If you’re serious about sustaining and growing your company, the last thing you want to do is slow things down. You don’t bail out. You look for ways to overcome the obstacles. You keep marketing.

Spending wisely, and cutting unnecessary expenses is always a wise strategy. Now may be a very good time to review your overall business expenditures and make some cuts. The trick is, which ones? Expenses that do not give a good return on investment should be the first to be scrutinized. Take a look at your operational efficiencies, such as reducing employee turnover. Review you systems and processes to see how your team can function more productively. Consider things like seminar venue expenses and scale back a bit. But, don’t cut back on the marketing.

Marketing is All About Momentum
A short moratorium on advertising may not hurt sales too much and it will cut costs and improve profitability for the short-term. However, is it worth saving a few dollars now if it puts your sustainability and growth at risk? The answer is no. The trouble is that stopping advertising may be a ticking time bomb. Marketing is all about momentum. A doctoral thesis on milk advertising in the United States revealed the delayed nature of the time bomb. Nothing happened to sales in the short term after ceasing advertising. Nothing, that is, for 12 months. But after 12 months there was a sharp decline. The milk industry started advertising again. However, it took 18 months to get back to previous sales figures. What kind of profits do you think the industry lost in that 18 months?

The same holds true for financial advisors. Here’s a story about a senior financial advisor (Sue) who stopped advertising in her local paper, hoping to maintain profitability in an economic downturn. There was no immediate difference in revenue. A year later, Sue ran into an ideal customer she had been prospecting for years. The prospect greeted her and congratulated her on her retirement, assuming she had closed her business when she no longer saw the ad in the newspaper. This prospect continued by noting her current advisor had left the business after 30 years and that she had been looking for a new one. Thinking Sue wasn’t in business any longer, this prospect had already moved to someone else.

And so, years of faithful business building and visibility went right down the drain. This story reinforces a key principle of marketing: protect what you have already built. This is particularly important in economic downturns. Clients and prospects will remember that when times are tough, you're still around. They'll be more loyal, and they'll be more apt to trust you if they know they can rely on you in good times and bad.

Keep On Keepin’ On In Economic Downturns
Being in the right place at the right time can yield opportunities. To keep your client base healthy and your business successful, you need to be in the right place all the time, so that when your buyers are ready, you’re right there, ready to take care of their needs—that’s how you build a business.

If you think marketing and advertising is a faucet you can turn on and off, think again. One of the challenges of marketing is getting recognized in the sea of sameness and having your message stand out from the crowd. Imagine that the crowd disappears for awhile and you're one of the few players out there. Now, breaking through the clutter and getting attention isn't so tough. Keeping your business visible in a time when most prefer to hide says something that matters.

Your challenge is to navigate the course during this period of adversity and turn it into a time of opportunity. Go ahead. Execute your marketing and make the call. If you don’t, someone else will.

If you think you’re not getting a good return on your marketing investment, you need to ask yourself why. Are you making frivolous expenditures? Are you targeting the right customers with the right message? Are you sporadic with your marketing, or steady? Are you working to your plan? Most importantly, do you have plan? Think long term, and focus on how you want to grow your company. If you’re not happy with the answers to the questions above, call us. We can help you devise and follow a plan to build and sustain your success.

Are We There Yet?

August 15, 2008 12:17 PM

Four simple words that have frustrated and entertained us along many voyages. If you are a parent, you’ve probably heard that line a hundred times from you children as you venture out on road trips or vacations. As children get older they continue to ask the same question – somewhat tongue and cheek to get a laugh. As adults, the joke continues and this time when we ask “Are We There Yet?” it really isn’t a question anymore. It is a statement that the journey has been long and there is an anxiety about reaching our destination.

As business owners and entrepreneurs, we often ask ourselves the same question. This time the question relates to how much more time, money and energy must we put into our endeavour before we achieve our goal.

Often, the question may seem rhetorical. Are we there yet! It doesn’t have to be. Let’s deal with the question one word at a time.

ARE:

“Are” speaks to measurement. You cannot know if you “are” without some form of comparison, yardstick, benchmark or measurement. Ensure that your progress towards your target is measurable and tracked. Track your progress in every way that makes sense. Just as in a road trip you might measure average speed, to calculate your probable arrival time, use milestones to calculate your progress towards your goals.

Communicate these goals to your team. Ensure accountabilities are understood and being met. Use your team and business coach to assist in making tactical moves where necessary.

WE:

Speaking of team; as with the “are we there yet” car trip, in business, it is important to remember that everyone is in the car together. One person can not arrive alone – it’s an all or nothing deal.

To the entrepreneur, this means building a strong team and trusted alliances. With clear directions (your vision and mission), you can “share the driving”. In order for people to share the driving, the destination and map to follow to get there needs to be clearly drawn out ahead of time. Each person on the team needs accountability for their tasks or leg of trip. They need to understand the purpose of that task to reaching the destination. Use your business plan to align tasks with business values and objectives. A clear understanding of why you are asking people to do things will build a stronger more effective team. Ultimately, a stronger “We”.

THERE:

A colleague recently related a business challenge he was faced with. He took on a new role accountable for overall customer service in a 150 year old risk averse company. Customer satisfaction was non-existent, moral was low, systems were inadequate and there was an overwhelming resistance to change. “That’s not how we do things” was a mantra.

Large changes were necessary and there were challenges. A technology implementation created process inefficiencies as the technology team and the workforce learned how to use it properly. Where a cash infusion was needed to centralize and mobilize the customer service front line, not enough money was available. The short term results were predictable. Instead of customer service increasing – it decreased.

At a management meeting my colleague outlined the challenges and stated he was confident the business could get there. One astute team member in the audience spoke up and said: “we are buried so deep in this mess that we don’t even know where ‘There’ is!” That was his “Ah ha” moment.

Although he personally understood the issues and was confident about what needed to get done, he had not laid out the roadmap and destination for everyone else to see, understand and believe. He needed a clear and concise business plan that others could see and embrace. He needed to define the “There” in a way that meant something to those who needed to share the driving.

To succeed, “There” needs to be clearly articulated in a way that will have meaning to others. One way to accomplish that is through a concise business plan that includes a vision, mission, performance targets, strategies and action plans.

If you have ambitious goals, one of the first steps in achieving them is to articulate them in a way that will have meaning to others. Clearly define your “There”.

YET:

The “Yet” is the amount of time it takes you to reach your destination. One key difference between the “are we there yet” on a road trip and the “are we there yet” in business is the control over time. In the car, you are limited to speed limits and rules of the road. The only real control you have is the amount of time you might spend in rest stops. The only way to get faster is to drive more, rest less and maybe alter your route slightly. That is not true for business. With your business, the “Yet” timeline can be anything you want it to be. Make sure it is reasonable and that all possible routes are considered.

One common mistake is to try and do everything in the first month or quarter of a business plan. Spread the effort out over the entire year. Choose the highest gain or highest priority objectives first. Make your timeline aggressive but realistic and ensure everyone on the team understands the purpose, the timeline, the objective and the importance of their specific role.

So, the next time you hear “Are We There Yet?” think about:

Happy travels.

Package Your Differentiator

July 31, 2008 11:59 AM

When we ask most Broker Dealers how they are different, how they are attractive to existing and potential advisors we generally get the answer that they Partner with their advisors. The fact that this is the most common answer should be a pretty clear indicator that this is not a differentiator. It’s a bare bones price of admission in a competitive market.

Second answer: our culture.
Third answer: we allow them to be independent and run their own practices.

If this is sounding familiar we have a solution that can truly help you rise above the sea of sameness. If you are interested in attracting and retaining more ideal advisors – read on.

As a group, Broker dealers generally struggle with the issue of trying to build their brands in a sea of sameness. They need to position themselves in a very competitive market with:

• Similar companies
• Employing similar people
• With similar educational backgrounds
• Working similar jobs
• Coming up with similar ideas
• Producing similar things
• Offering similar services
• With similar prices
• And similar quality

Broker Dealers need to position the things that are truly unique about their offerings in a way that is compelling and valuable to their advisors.

One such strategy is to develop and bring to life tangible evidence that you do indeed support and live by the idea of Partnership.

Here is how you accomplish that:

Brand it! Package your brand in an appealing way so that it breathes credibility. Create an iconic identity for your program or brand that makes your program easily identifiable to your audience.

Describe it! Demonstrate through professionally designed examples that you make it easy for your advisors to communicate with their clients.

Communicate it! Put all this together in a concise and powerful information sheet for mailing or downloading and then post this on your web site for easy access.

The investment is minimal ($2,500 - $5,000) and the return is exponential.

However you decide to be different, make sure that it has clear value to your audience and that it is credible, visible and accessible.

Seven Mindsets of Mediocrity

July 15, 2008 9:43 AM

A mindset is a predisposed way of thinking that is so strong in a specific outlook that if affects a person’s attitudes and responses to circumstances as well as their ability to make decisions. Your mindset can determine how you interpret events and take action (or not) in situations. In the book, The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck proposes that people use two fundamental mindsets: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. With a fixed mindset, the person believes that the situation cannot be improved through any means. The growth mindset on the other hand comes with beliefs that obstacles can be overcome and challenges are opportunities for personal growth.

We would like to introduce you to some specific financial advisor mindsets we’ve experienced in our business and how we have created success by assisting in moving the mindsets from fixed to growth.

1) I want to act like a business I just don't have the time or resources to do so.

We'll show you how to make more time for yourself, so you can focus on what you do best, and we'll be the resource you never had to explode your business. That’s what we do best.

2) I want to be seen as professional but I don't have the budget or cash flow to do it properly.

The fact is, it takes money to make money. So if you're not prepared to invest in your business, you shouldn't be in business.

"An entrepreneur who doesn't invest in their business doesn't own a business, they own a job." - Michael Gerber

We help successful professionals achieve even greater success. We do our best to accommodate cashflow needs.

3) My experience has been that we haven't had a great ROI from marketing.

Marketing  ROI can be guaranteed if the five following steps are followed: 

• a concise business planning,
• synergistic marketing strategy,
• outstanding brand,
• powerful marketing arsenal, and
• masterful execution.   

4) I don't like prospecting, I just want to meet with my clients and help them with their financial planning.

Great marketing makes prospecting simple and fun. When you're the best at what you do and you have great marketing support, your clients will become advocates and they will do the prospecting for you.  We have been successful at setting up marketing strategies that have made this happen.

5) How much is it going to cost me and how much effort will it take? And what's the payoff?

If you build and implement your plan with our certified coaches and marketing experts and it doesn't produce at least a 30% increase in your business, we'll refund 100% of your investment. How’s that for confidence?

6) I don't need a coach. I don't need a plan. I don't need marketing. What I need to do is just focus on making money, meeting with people, building relationships.

Having a coach, a business plan and great marketing is the KEY that will allow you to focus on doing what you're passionate about in your business. A certified coach will walk you through the process of understanding your personal and business values and ensuring a plan is put into place based on your strength and ability to execute.

Thinking back to the introduction of this article, we can say with confidence that the most successful “growth mindset” advisors:

• Have a coach
• Have a business plan
• Have great marketing

7) I have too much going on right now to think about marketing my business. 

Marketing is the ONLY way to get more customers and if the future of your business depends on having customers, then you MUST focus on being great at marketing. Period.

Talk to us and let us help you move from a “fixed” mindset to a “growth” mindset. You truly have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

You can reach us by calling (905)579-7724 or through the “contact” area of our website at http://freedomarketing.com

Branding and ROI

June 12, 2008 12:15 PM

As a business planning and marketing company we frequently get the question about measuring return on investment for branding. On the surface, it sounds like a relatively simple question and as such, one would expect it should receive a relatively simple answer. Unfortunately, no simple answer exists. The reason for that lies in the definition of Branding.

Branding re-defined

Now that you are scratching your head, let me explain. There is a general misconception about the very definition of “Brand”. The Dictionary of Business and Management defines a brand as: “a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of sellers and to differentiate them from goods of competitors.” Wikipedia defines brand as “a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme.” We believe these to be classic but dated definitions.

The meaning of “Brand” has evolved significantly over the last decade or so to mean much more than a logo, symbol or design. Brand has evolved to represent your company in a much more holistic view. Today, your brand means the message you deliver. Brand is about the overall customer experience. Taking that point one step further; your brand is not what you say you are, your brand is what your clients say you are. Your brand is the reputation you build with your clients and potential clients on every contact; whether that contact be direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional.

Here is an example that many of you may associate with. Vonage, a leading supplier of broadband telephone service, position themselves as feature rich, easy to do business with and cost effective. That is what they say they are… that is their brand. On the other hand, the Better Business Bureau reports 8,155 complaints about this company in the last 36 months with the majority being billing, service and refund issues. Firstly, consider what percentage of actual complaints get escalated formally with the Better Business Bureau, then, to the question of brand, ask yourself what a Vonage client is likely saying about them. Although Vonage’s marketing and logo and graphics are exceptional, how strong is their brand?

The question of ROI

Instead of asking to define ROI on branding expenditures, we should reframe the question and ask how branding affects the value of a business. The answer to that question is simple. Branding represents the value of your business. Your value proposition is your brand. Brand is a multiplier that contributes to your balance sheet positively if your brand is positive, and negatively if your brand is negative. The stronger your brand resonates with your target clients as being unique and valuable, the larger the multiplier on your bottom line. Unfortunately, as with the above example, the converse is also true as Vonage continues unnecessarily to operate at a loss.

Exceptional logos, images and tag lines should be considered as investments in infrastructure. On their own, they produce no return on investment. They can help position awareness and intention but they alone do not create sales or retain clients. That is why there is no ROI on the creation of these.

For instance, a dozen firms of roughly the same size with roughly the same service offering could spend $20,000 on branding and each achieve significantly different results.

The result they achieve will depend on:
• their awareness of their business priorities,
• their business plan and marketing strategy,
• their ability to solidify action plans,
• their ability to track, report and implement,
• and lastly, the “multiplier” of their brand.

Here is another key point. A branding exercise never ends. Branding is not a project or a one-time campaign. Branding enables and supports current and future business capabilities. Your brand message needs to resonate at every touch point – from what the piece looks like to the tone of the message to the exuberance or professionalism of your service people to the service offering itself.

For the beancounters:

If you started reading this article in the hopes of finding a worksheet to help you build a business case around the return on a specific branding initiative, I apologise if I’ve misled you. Here is a bit of help for the analytical reader. Consider Branding expenditures as expenditures in infrastructure as you would for technology. The technology, in and of itself will not add value to the bottom line. It is the implementation of the technology into current or future processes that will produce value.

For example: if you intent to spend $15,000 to “re-brand” your business, include the costs or integrating that brand into the heart of you business. That means including the cost of integrating the brand message in your organization in a long-term sustainable way. That might (and probably should) include changing the way you do things. For the sake of keeping the numbers simple, let’s assume that is another $15,000. Only then, can you estimate the impact of the exercise. Building a business case on the hard costs of “branding” alone is a sure way to have nothing to measure and as a result a sure way to fail. On the other hand, when you build the branding exercise in an integrated, sustainable and long term implementation, the returns should reproduce themselves year after year with no additional cost. The returns will have become part of who you are and how you do business. You will reap the rewards through ongoing differentiated value you add to your target clients.

One final note:

Brand is like trust. Think of trust as a bucket that you fill for your ideal clients one drop at a time. At every touch point, you add another drop of trust. The trust bucket can take 10 to 15 years to completely fill. We all know that this same trust bucket takes only a moment, one incident, to spill. The same is true for your brand. Build it slowly and consistently, drop by drop. Eliminate everything from your organization that conflicts with your brand – less you risk spilling the bucket.

The Value of a TWO-PAGE Business Plan

May 7, 2008 4:12 PM

The most successful financial advisors have clear visions and articulated goals in a formal written business plan. They don't try to write a 20+ page plan. Their plans are more focused and succinct. They can quickly reference them on an ongoing basis; whether that be monthly, weekly or even daily as needed.

Imagine having a well articulated plan that was brief enough to quickly review whenever you felt the need to stay focused and inspired. What would that be like - to be focused, to know that every activity you do every day has a purpose in the big plan for you and your business? Sometimes the hectic pace makes it difficult to remember what we're doing and why? When you're in your business every day, plugging away, it's easy to get lost or side tracked. And what about your team? If you have trouble staying focused and on purpose, how will they keep focused? Or do they even share your vision?

Often, the first reaction we get when we talk about Freedomarketing’s SuccessQuest business planning process is, “How the heck can we possibly build a business plan that outlines what our business needs to accomplish on just two pages?” After a brief overview of the power of a pointed, direct, succinct, shareable document that clearly identifies targets and trajectories towards those targets, the question changes slightly to, “How do we get started?”

A TWO-PAGE business plan should contain:
• Vision – What will you be doing in a 3 – 5 year horizon?
• Mission – Why is it you want to achieve that? What passions to you have that will be achieved?
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI) – What specific, measurable performance targets (indicators) do you want to set for the next 12 months?
• Strategies – What high level strategies will you employ to achieve these?
• Action Plans – Who is accountable for doing specifically what by when?

In addition to this, your TWO-PAGE business plan should assign KPIs and associated strategies and action plans to specific business priorities such as financial viability, client service and operational effectiveness.

The Result:

The SuccessQuest process creates a concise document that can be shared with your team and other stakeholders that clearly articulates your values, your intentions and the path you will take to achieve success. Painting a clear picture of the future is the first step towards achieving it. Aligning all your resources towards a common goal is a common challenge that is facilitated by clear unequivocal direction in your plan.

Working towards a TWO-PAGE business plan allows you to avoid the common trap of trying to accomplish “too many” things at the expense of achieving few of them well. The objective in any business planning process should be to ensure that the tasks that are being performed add value to the business priorities. The Action Plans should be manageable and strategically tied to Key Performance Indicators. The challenge most business leaders face is generally that there is an overabundance of good ideas – of things that should get done. We like to think of this as an “all you can eat smorgasbord” of good ideas. The challenge becomes particularly prevalent when there are several people within an organization that have sensitivities or preferences (maybe even turf) towards certain business priorities or objectives. A succinct document that clearly outlines business priorities and action plans assists greatly in ensuring people are doing the “right” things.

The extremes:

A TWO-PAGE business is a great enabler that sits comfortably between two extremes. On the one end is the entrepreneur who has a lot of things to accomplish and aggressive plans to accomplish them but no clear direction on priorities, timelines, budgets, accountabilities and deliverables. On the opposite end is the organization that has 200 or 300 “things” they need to achieve in the next 12 months and no holistic view of interrelated priorities or work efforts.

The Solution:

A concise, shareable, understandable report that clearly states what will get done, the reason it will get done and who will do it solves both problems. Whether it be the SuccessQuest TWO_PAGE business plan or some other mechanism to define business values, establish objectives and assign accountabilities, the rewards will clearly outweigh the effort.
Having a concise, meaningful and manageable business plan that stands prominently on your desk and the desks of your team is a key ingredient to getting and staying focused. It can take as little as 4 - 1 hour coaching sessions to develop a business plan for your business and your team.

There are plenty of coaches who can assist you with this. We welcome you and your coach to explore our business planning software or we can help you find a certified business coach. Visit www.freedomarketing.com/successquest to get started.

How to Make Lasting Impressions with Clients

May 1, 2008 4:31 PM

First impression are important, but for most professional businesses, a first impression may actually be a series of impressions that collectively make a lasting impression. For many financial advisors, there are holes in their impression strategies. And for people looking for any reason not to make a change in their already hectic lives and the multitude of relationships they manage, prospective clients can be a tough crowd to impress.

In some areas of life, making a great first impression may be as simple as the clothes you wear, the style of your hair, your shoes or the decor of your office. But making a great first impression as a financial advisor might take 5-10 impressions or instances before prospects are truly comfortable enough to listen to your story. That means for most financial advisors you need a strategy to make a lasting impression through a series of first impressions. It's complicated, but let me simplify it for you.

Let's start by thinking of all the ways or opportunities you have with a prospective client to make an impression.
1. Advertising including web site, post card, brochures, letter, radio ad or billboard ad.
2. Client communication such as logo, stationery, thank you cards, birthday cards, and more.
3. Public seminar or event hosted by you.
4. Telemarketing calls to get their attention.
5. Guest at Private Client Event.
6. Personal Introduction by friend, family or peer.
7. Initial consultation in your office or their office.
8. Call or letter from your office, from your team.
9. Arrival in your reception area then your office for first meeting, or any meeting for that matter.
10. The first time you explain what you do and how they will benefit.
11. The first time you explain your financial planning process.
12. The first time they see a deliverable from you, a financial plan for instance.
13. The first time they meet you outside of your office, perhaps at the golf course or a local restaurant.

It's fairly overwhelming to think of how many opportunities and instances there are for prospective clients to form an impression of who you are, what you do and how you can help them. But if you don't have a strategy, you risk having gaps in your approach that will leave the wrong impression. If you had to rate how well you'd do on a scale of 1-5 (1 means "Needs Work", 5 means "I've got it going on") for in each of these areas, would you score a 4-5 in all areas?

Everything is about image and perceived value. People will tell themselves what they need to make the decision to work with you. Great marketing is all about finding out how to make a series of great impressions that forge powerful lasting impressions, creating clients and advocates for your business.

Mastering Client Communication

April 19, 2008 7:22 PM

How often do you communicate with your clients and how do you communicate with them?

Client communication can be broken into 3 categories: hits, touches and moments.

If you HIT clients too much it will hurt, if you reach out and TOUCH them enough you will gain their respect, and if you have MOMENTS with them you will create long-lasting relationships, advocates and friendships. A balanced communication approach works best.

HITS are communications that have little perceived value to your clients, but things you are obligated to send such as statements, forms, and service reminders; things that are mandatory but don`t do much towards building a relationship with your client. HITS may also include self promotion such as newsletter that appears to reflect your interests, not necessarily the interests of your client. It may also include a change in personnel, a new policy or procedure that makes your job easier and requires your client to perform a task or follow your new protocol.

Hits can't be avoided, they are necessary but too many of them will hurt your relationship. Be sure not to bombard your clients with administration and promotional communications. Freedomarketing recommends no more than 18-24 HITS a year - not more than 6-8 that should be seen as interruptions to the client - you asking them for something.

TOUCHES are when you go beyond the regular expectations of the client-advisor relationship by providing extra value to the relationship on a personal and professional level. An example of a touch might be emailing select clients and reminding them of an upcoming local gardening show because you know they like gardening. Another example of a touch is sending out a quarterly newsletter. You can keep your clients aware of local events, important dates, interesting articles and more.

As their financial advisor you have opportunities to send pertinent and meaningful information to your clients. Touches are only defined as such by your client if they are seen as relevant, timely and beyond the scope of their expectations of a typical advisor relationship. An example of a touch might be emailing select clients and reminding them of an upcoming local gardening show because you know they like gardening. Another example of a touch is sending out a newsletter. You can keep your clients aware of local events, important dates, interesting articles and more. Keep in mind that a newsletter that has articles about "Living life after 55" might be a perfect fit for baby boomer clients, but wouldn't have much relevance to 40 something clients. An effort to address each of your target audiences will show you care about them. You should have articles that reflect each segment of your target audience or articles that reach most of them. We recommend 8-12 TOUCHES a year.

MOMENTS are any direct communication, either face-to-face, voice-to-voice or a timely personalized note. A moment would involve the advisor going outside of their clients’ expectations to provide exceptional or personal service, to show that you care personally for them and that you appreciate their business and/or friendship. It would include mastering relationship building skills such as listening, discussing and understanding their wants, needs and concerns. This is best demonstrated by you making appropriate financial planning recommendations that are in their best interests. This shows you care and understand what's important to them. Moments can be planned for by scheduling regular client appreciation events, spending one-on-one time with your clients outside the office, remembering important moments in their lives such as anniversaries, birthdays, retirement, births - really any life event or goal that is important to the client. Moments can also be spontaneous and are often the best kind. Try to do something spontaneous and thoughtful for each of your 'A' clients on an annual basis. We recommend 1-4 moments a year.

In summary:

Hits are necessary and have little client value. Be gentle and plan your hits to minimize the impact. Touches are relevant and potentially valuable communications for your clients. Moments are individual communications that build rapport and ongoing commitment.

Use all three wisely.

Your 4-QTR Marketing Plan

April 17, 2008 4:29 PM

Successful entrepreneurs and financial advisors share a variety of qualities that contribute to their success. One of the more common attributes is that they are marketers and they are action oriented, they always have something on the go. They promote themselves as frequently as possible, often times it's second nature, they don't even realize they are doing it - marketing and selling.

You can argue that less successful entrepreneurs and financial advisors are marketers too. They may conduct seminars from time to time, send out a direct mail campaign, call COIs to establish professional referral relationships, submit an ad to their local newspaper, get quoted in an article, hire a telemarketer for a month, start a new turn-key referral program, invest in an expensive Client Relationship Management program, join a peer advisory council, try a fancy business card, or attend a marketing boot camp. So why and how are just a few advisors so much more successful than the rest? It's simple, they plan and coordinate to stay focused and consistent, then they execute daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. And then they do it all over again. Sure, there's always a few exceptions to the rule, but truth be told, successful advisors are planners and doers, it's as simple as that.

Successful advisors have a process for how they approach their business, how they synchronize their marketing and sales efforts. It doesn't need to be a beautiful symphony to yield results, a simple but focused plan and ongoing execution will work - does work.

They know what they'll be doing in the year ahead. They commit significant resources on an ongoing basis and they don't falter. They analyze what works and what doesn't, knowing that results are not simply numbers but impact and image. A professionally designed web site with a strong brand will not fill your pipeline, but it will set you apart as a professional with a clear, focused message; a successful professional with clear and instant credibility.

We highly recommend advisors work with a certified coach and trainer to assist them in developing a 4-QTR or 12-Month Marketing Plan. Naturally, you'll want to have gone through the Business Planning process first so that you have a clear focus, direction and objectives for what your strategy needs to help you achieve.

Coping with competing devotions

April 11, 2008 7:57 AM

These days, the ultimate question may not be “What is the meaning of life?”, but simply, “Where do I find the time?”

Between our work and personal lives (family, friends, exercise, sports, hobbies, community commitments), most of us have seriously overbooked ourselves. We strive so hard to “have it all”—fantastic work and other service that we’re passionate about, and passionate home lives that we work hard to nurture.

But with so many competing devotions, so many passions we must feed, we most often find ourselves just plain pooped. The stress can lead to health problems, poor sleep and fatigue, which means we get even less done (or take less pleasure in what we do accomplish). Ultimately, frustration mounts, our relationships suffer, and we wonder what went wrong.

To break out of the out-of-balance cycle and achieve better balance between our competing devotions, consider some of the following techniques, from the spiritual to the eminently practical.

Know Your Priorities
The near universal advice on creating life balance is to start with some process of getting in touch with your priorities, which reflect your values. What are you about? What is really important to you? Without some sense of these priorities as an anchor, it is almost impossibly difficult to battle the buffeting of daily life that fractures your time.

Take Care of Yourself
This is not a paean to the “me generation,” but a simple reality. Your ability to devote time and energy to the rest of your life ultimately depends upon your inner resources. A common trap is to feel selfish about taking time for yourself—to exercise, relax, enjoy a hobby, cook a special meal and, of course, to get enough sleep. So to avoid that feeling, we often place those activities lower in priority than taking care of the other obligations of our lives. But the low priority items often don’t happen and we end up feeling somewhere on the spectrum between self-righteousness and martyrdom. Either way, we aren’t taking care of ourselves.

Schedule Creatively
In her book Coming Up for Air: How to Build a Balanced Life in a Workaholic World, author Beth Sawi offers numerous pragmatic approaches for building balance into your life when your job is absorbing every waking minute, and then some. Again, she starts with understanding your priorities to help arm yourself with the fortitude to make difficult changes. But to shore up that fortitude, Sawi, an expert on workaholism (and working for workaholic bosses) from her own life experience, recommends several scheduling techniques as a way of controlling your time at work.

One of these, for example, she calls “pulsing,” which is scheduling late nights at work on fixed days—say, Tuesdays and Thursdays—so that you protect the other nights. When a special assignment comes up, you already know you have extra time blocked out and can better resist the temptation to tackle it on an ad hoc basis. The “off” nights can also be pre-scheduled—for a weekly dinner out with your spouse, for example—to help build in the balance for the rest of what’s important to your life.

Start With Your “To-Do” List
Productivity guru David Allen is one of the few writers in the field who takes a fundamentally different view of the “priorities first” approach. Instead of starting with priorities, he recommends in his book Getting Things Done that you start with your “in box”—by which he means everything on your current list of things to do. Everything. He says people typically have 200-300 tasks floating around in their lives—in their head, on little slips of paper squirreled away in various places, in their organizer (or backed up in their email inbox), on Post-It notes stuck to their computer screen, and so on. This backlog of tasks uses up too much of your brain—which is poorly equipped to organize this kind of list—and creates unnecessary stress.

But Allen doesn’t suggest that you prioritize these to-dos at all: Fixing the dripping faucet goes on the list right next to planning for the kids’ college education. The key to Allen’s system is getting all the to-dos out of your head and into some trusted system so you don’t have to worry about forgetting them. With your head clear, your instincts take over and you find that the right things are getting done.

Allen definitely recommends reviewing your life from various “altitudes”—from your vision for the coming year to your vision for your whole life—to get in touch with your priorities and your goals for balance in your life…but only after you have control of that in-box.

With your mind clear, you can step back and take stock of your life. Your creative juices will be flowing to help you find that delicious state of grace in which your devotions at work and at home actually enhance each other, not deplete each other.

Making "Impossible" Thinking Possible

April 4, 2008 8:15 AM

"For the world is full of zanies and fools who don’t believe in sensible rules, and don’t believe what sensible people say,” wrote Rodgers & Hammerstein, in their lyrics to the 1964 movie Cinderella. “And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening everyday!”

While most of us are not concerned with turning pumpkins into carriages, our businesses and our lives could be transformed just as powerfully by thinking “impossible” thoughts.

Think about it: How can things ever change—how can business, science or society innovate solutions to world dilemmas; how can our personal lives change trajectories—if we can only imagine what has been possible up to now? We might try to fix problems through automation, motivation and process improvement. But ultimately these efforts will stagnate until we change our mental models.

Our perspectives—the lenses through which we perceive and understand the world—affect all that we see and do. Problems occur when those perspectives become rigid and function more like prison bars, keeping us locked in set mental models, routines and behaviors.

What would happen if we broke out of the prison of those perspectives? What new patterns and relationships would we notice? What new actions would we take?

“What we perceive as ‘the world’ is as much inside our heads as outside,” write the authors of The Power of Impossible Thinking, Jerry Wind and Colin Crook. “By realizing this and making choices about how we see things, we can become much more effective.”

Thinking impossible thoughts is not just the realm of fairy godmothers or eccentric inventors. We can all zoom in or out of our previous mindsets with a little practice. Wind and Crook suggest a variety of ways to begin to see differently—before a crisis or failure of the old model has made it too late. Here are a few:

Listen to the radicals. What wisdom and opportunities are there in the sometimes “bizarre” ideas of the radical thinkers around you?

Embark on journeys of discovery. Where can you travel—mentally or physically—to gain fresh perspectives on your organization? Your life?

Look across disciplines. Often, “impossible” solutions develop at the intersection of several fields or departments. Crossing borders and moving into unfamiliar territory can help you see your situation from fresh perspectives.

Question the routine. While routines create needed structure, they can sometimes lull us to sleep. Disrupting the routine, even in small ways, can help us awaken to new possibilities.

Recognize the barriers. Becoming aware of the obstacles or fences that keep us from seeing new models is the first step to overcoming them.

Practice flying upside down. Like commercial airline pilots, who are trained in how to react to unusual emergencies (such as flying upside down!), we can look for ways to prepare for outrageous scenarios.

“Destroy” the old model. For example, imagining you will live only six more months can immediately obliterate all previous models of thought about how you would spend your days.

Envision multiple futures. What are some potential scenarios for the future, and what will you need to succeed in each one?

Broker/Dealer Web Site Checklist

March 29, 2008 10:12 PM

Is your web site a reflection of your company's offering? Is it the first impression you'd like to make with coveted advisors? Is it the impression you need to make to equal or better the playing field with your competition?

Your web site needs to be many things to make the impression you truly desire. Why then do so many BDs have unimpressionable sites? Below is a checklist ideas and questions you'll want to consider.

• Is it consistent with other marketing material you market?
• Did you approach it as an expense or an investment?
• Does it offer enough information to captivate your audience but not so much that they don't need to call with questions?
• Is there a compelling call-to-action?
• Does your message/brand resonate with your audience and does your site effectively convey this message?
• Does it have a recognizable message or brand?
• Is it visually appealing, professional looking? Or is bland and simple your style?
• Is it easy to navigate? Is it laden with content and tools that are insignificant to the sales process?
• Is the content professionally written or drafted by your in-house marketing intern?
• Does it paint a picture of what it would be like to work with your organization?
• Does it say 'success'?
• Does it leave the exact impression you'd like it to?

This is the way it should be! It can be everything you need it to be. It can be an investment in your business or it can continue to be an expense.

Be Your Brand, Then Communicate It

March 27, 2008 7:38 PM

Branding is a hot topic among marketing coaches who work with financial advisors. Branding can help you grow your business by creating a name for yourself-an image of who you are, what you do, why you’re different and what that difference means to your target audience. Good branding appropriately positions you in the minds’ of your target audience. It helps you and your clients simply describe (sell) that image to others.

The secret to a successful brand

Most advisors focus their initial branding efforts and budget on marketing material such as brochures that document their image, and strengths in this profession, but that’s STEP 2. There’s a more important place they should focus their initial efforts.

Before trying to market your image-your brand-you must ensure that your current and future clients will, in fact, experience the brand that you’ve presented to them. Therefore, STEP 1 should focus on ensuring that your clients’ personal experiences are in line with your brand.
Your brand is the reality of what your client experiences with you at every touch point.

Being your brand is the most important part of your brand. Your clients and future clients need to understand and experience your brand, first hand. No marketing, including your brochure, will ever make up for poor experiences or lack of value in your practice.

It’s also important to build a brand that has longevity and can be fulfilled both now and in the future. That’s why, when Freedomarketing works through the branding process with financial advisors, we first establish what the advisors’ strengths and vulnerabilities are. Naturally, you will evolve professionally, but your brand should consider your long-term strengths as opposed to short term opportunities or short term niche markets. Our experience demonstrates that branding works best for advisors who are well established and can support their brand.

Once you’ve established your long-term strengths, you can begin to ensure you have experiences with your clients that effectively build on your strengths and your brand.

As an example: If a firm’s brand proposes “Maximizing Your Life from Real Wealth®” they had better ensure that they visibly relate their clients’ lives to their wealth.

If you preach building relationships and getting to know your clients well before you prepare their financial plan, it’s crucial that you follow a thorough process that accomplishes these objectives. A one-hour meeting is not “getting to know” your clients. You need to define a process that differentiates you from others, and then stick to it to prove the value of your process to your clients.

Step 1 is building a brand you can deliver on; one that you live by day-to-day.

Step 2 is creating marketing to bring your brand to life.

GOOD marketing will help you convey a brief and powerful message that sums up all that you are to your clients.

GREAT marketing will send them away as advocates for you.