The 8 Most Productive Things You Can Do For Your Business  

 The following steps were originally designed as a roadmap to success as we began a challenging 2009.  Much has changed since January but these same eight steps are just as critical to your success now as they were then.  Revisit them and finish the year strong. 

1. Segment your book using my quick and easy point system. This approach not only quantifies assets and revenue but also the important intangibles necessary for a comprehensive segmentation of your book. It is critical that you are very clear on precisely who's who in your book and allocate your time accordingly.  E-mail: erin@executivetransformations.com for the 3 Easy Steps to Superior Client Service article on segmenting your book.  Follow this up with a demographic segmentation and a ROA analysis. Advisors are always surprised by what they discover about their book during this process. 

2. Establish a structured client contact schedule and work it every day. It sounds so basic but you'd be surprised how many advisors do not have one.  This is the essential first step to leveraging your book for referrals and introductions.  E-mail: erin@executivetransformations.com for the 3 Easy Steps to Superior Client Service article for guidelines on an effective client contact schedule.  Stagger your calls so that the schedule is doable and then automate your schedule by setting recurring calls with no end date.  As you work it consistently, you'll find you have far fewer incoming calls because you are initiating the calls.  Clients love it and you will too because you've taken a proactive step toward cementing client relationships and leveraging your book.

3.  Get rid of the lower end of your book. Decide on your parameters for assets, revenue or points and get rid of the non-productive end of your book. You've heard it many times before. The lower end of your book takes up valuable time for very little money. Consider your time the currency of your business. Spend it wisely. Another factor to consider if you're hesitant about purging the lower end of your book is the liability factor. These clients have lost money like everyone else but probably don't get a high level of service from you. Therefore, they represent a huge liability to you. 

4.  Develop a client and prospect e-mail distribution list. This allows you to touch clients and prospects regularly even if you can't always call. E-mail distribution lists are also an essential component of any long-term drip process. I suggest you formulate at least two separate lists initially. It's easier than trying to separate the lists later. E-mailing the same information to clients and prospects may not always be appropriate.

5.  Develop a systematic long-term drip process for prospects and stick to it.  A long-term drip system should consist of a monthly e-mail and a phone call every four to six weeks.  Make it a habit to set these two recurring activities for all new prospects.  If possible, set your drip e-mail to be sent on the second Monday of every month.  This will coincide with the arrival of statements each month.   

Remember, assets will be won and lost in the client contact/service arena.  Your long-term drip process gives prospects a taste of what your client service will look like.  Your long-term drip process, if executed consistently, is in many cases better than the level of service they are receiving from their current advisor.  When you have a consistent long-term drip process, it's not a question of if you'll get them but when. Be consistent in everything you do.  It’s the standard of all great businesses. 

6.  Develop a 10 Most Wanted List of prospects. These are the people you'd most like to have as clients. These can be people you know, people you've talked to before and never became clients or people you just know of. Formulate a 12 month strategy for landing these prospects within the next year or sooner. If they are front and center throughout the year and this is coupled with a well-thought out prospecting/drip program, it's been my experience as an advisor, manager and coach that you will land roughly half of them. I guarantee these people are not receiving the volume of calls and/or correspondence from advisors that they receive in a more typical market. E-mail: erin@executivetransformations.com for my Transitioning from Social Contact to Business Prospect article for a drip process that can be tailored to special prospects. 

7.  Formulate a comprehensive warm list of people who would recognize your name if you sent a letter to them. These could be people you know, you write a check to regularly and/or people in your existing prospect database. Send my Crisis Prospect Letter to them. E-mail: erin@executivetransformations.com for a copy of the letter. If they say yes, great. If they say no, they go into your long-term drip process.  This letter combined with a consistent long-term drip system is having tremendous success in setting appointments and bringing in substantial assets right now! 

8.  Brush up on your firm's financial planning program. Run a financial plan on yourself to become better acquainted with it. Put together a list of clients who you will target for financial plans in the fourth quarter. This is a great way to take client's attention off of the short-term and refocus them on the long-term. It also forges a stronger bond between you and your client. It will more than likely uncover additional assets and it can open the door for estate planning conversations. Make it your goal to land one or two estate planning cases over the next year. These can easily add an additional $100K to your gross production for the year. 

We all have our battle scars from the market's turmoil over the last 12 months.  There are things we did well and things we could have done better.  Valuable lessons were learned.  Take the knowledge that can only come from experience and forge a new beginning for your business beginning this quarter. Finish 2009 strong!   

Executive Transformations

304 Williamsburg Dr.

Gulf Breeze, FL

850-934-7227

erin@executivetransformations.com