GETTING CONTINGENCY PLANNING RIGHT

This is the second in an ongoing series on transition planning for advisors, distributors and carriers.

As we saw in the first installment, transition is a broader subject than just succession and it encompasses all types of changes in an advisor’s business. It doesn’t just deal with illness, death, or retirement, but also with the changes associated with selling or buying a block of business, taking on associates/subordinates, or partnering with other agents.

This week we’ll take a look at contingency planning.

Getting Contingency Planning Right

A year ago, at a conference in London, I delivered a presentation on transition planning. I’d expected to get through twenty slides in my allotted 45 minutes and give the audience a solid overview of what was involved in creating a good plan.

Trouble was, I didn’t get past slide three—all the advisors in the audience wanted to talk about was contingency planning. They were top producers, mostly with more than fifteen years experience—and many of them were at a stage where they were starting to ask, “What if something happens to me? Who will service my clients? Who will keep the business going? How can I make sure my family doesn’t lose everything?”

The contingency conversation

At the break I got talking with two agents, Samantha and Margaret, who have known each other for years. Both have built significant businesses over their twenty-year-careers and have children in high school.

Samantha told me that recently her father had been very ill and the experience had really made her think about what would happen to her business, her clients and her family if something similar were to happen to her.

Several weeks ago, over coffee, she’d asked Margaret, “If something happened to me, could you step in and help?”

Of course, Margaret offered to do anything she could. Which is great—but as I’d pointed out in the session there’s more to successful contingency planning than a quick conversation.

Turning the conversation into a contingency plan

Talking to another agent and reaching an informal agreement to help each other out is a good start—and will certainly make you feel better about the future. But too often contingency planning ends there. In fact, that conversation should be only the beginning.

In a way, a contingency plan is like a living will for your business. It involves asking questions about the risks that threaten each area of your practice if you are no longer able to work because of an ‘involuntary transition.’

With that in mind, Samantha and Margaret and I agreed to meet the following week to map out the issues their contingency plans should cover. A good plan covers off the risks associated with things like:

• Sales Strategies (pending business, in-force business, new opportunities)
• Service Agreements (client segmentation, service strategies)
• Resourcing Plans (staff, roles, accountabilities)
• Legal (contracts, supplier, distributor and carrier agreements, buy/sell agreement)
• Financial (P & L)

In particular, Margaret and Samantha had to work through a lot of questions around what Margaret’s role would be if she had to step into Samantha’s practice in an emergency. For instance, Margaret needed to consider:

• If something happens to Samantha, what am I stepping into?
• Am I going to manage her clients?
• Does she want me to finish sales and/or make new sales?
• Do I get commission? What does that look like?
• Do I manage her staff?
• Do I work with companies on her behalf?

The importance of technology in reducing risk

Margaret understood that these were all important risk areas that needed to be addressed. But she was concerned about how she’d be able to find the information she needed to make good decisions.

Her question hit on a key issue in all contingency planning…technology. To properly identify risks and explore potential solutions you need data—real time, accurate data about the book of business in question. You need a comprehensive view of the entire book of business and the clients who will need to be serviced. Only from that data can you start to understand the service and sales activities required and put in place the plans for taking care of them.

Having a good technology platform enables someone to step in and immediately see what’s going on in your practice.

The way forward

Using the back-office technology their MGA provided made it easy for Samantha and Margaret to collect the accurate and up to date data on their books of business that was essential to identify the risks they faced and put in place concrete contingency plans. In Margaret’s case that technology meant that if she had to step in to Samantha’s practice she wouldn’t have to start calling companies to ask what’s going on with Samantha’s policies and clients. She’d be able to see at a glance what was pending to be underwritten and exactly what the in-force business looked like.

A couple of weeks after we first got together, Margaret and Samantha had transformed that initial informal conversation into contingency plans that covered off exactly what would happen in the unfortunate event that one of them had to step away from their business. They found a new peace of mind knowing that their businesses, clients and families were protected in the event of problems down the road. And that freed them up to focus on making their practices more effective today.

Want to know more about contingency? Just drop me a line…

Ray Adamson
Chief Customer Officer
BlueSun Inc.

ray.adamson@wealthserv.com
www.wealthserv.com

TRANSITION, NOT SUCCESSION, PLANNING

The Transition away from Succession Planning

Recently, I was approached by an adviser I’ve known for years who wanted to pick my brain about how to handle his succession planning.

Walt is in his mid-fifties and has been in the business for more than twenty years. With three staff and a little over a thousand clients, business was good, but Walt had reached the stage where he thought he needed to start thinking about retirement.

The thing was, although the business as he was currently running it wasn’t as satisfying for him as it used to be, he didn’t feel like he was ready to walk away just yet. That’s why he came to me. He wanted to know what others in his shoes were doing about succession.

What I shared with him was a lesson I’d learned over the last ten years—something that has changed the way advisors address their future.

A new way of thinking

I told Walt that succession was a dead concept. Like Walt, most advisers, when they talk about succession, are really talking about retirement. That mindset greatly narrows their options.

In fact, at age 55 and with a thriving business, Walt was right not to just walk away. He needed to look at his future through a different lens—he needed to start thinking Transition.

To explain why, I shared with Walt a little history…

Lots of talk little action

In 2004, I coauthored a Succession Planning study with LIMRA. Here’s what we found:

• Most advisors don’t have a plan in place.
• The most common circumstances under which a succession plan would be implemented are the adviser’s death and the adviser’s retirement.
• And yet, like Walt, when most advisers thought about their future, they wanted an option other than death or retirement!
• In fact, more than 80 percent of respondents to that LIMRA survey wanted to continue working in the business.

Ten years later not much has changed—except the people involved are a little older. In fact, a follow-up study done by LIMRA in 2008 produced much the same results. Advisers still struggle to create plans. And I think part of the reason is that traditional succession planning almost forces you to make a no-win choice: business-as-usual versus retirement or death.

Neither option may sound appealing (especially the latter!)—and the reality is that there is no need to settle when there are so many more desirable futures that are not only possible, but completely doable.

That’s why I talk about transition instead of succession.

Transition is all about embracing change

Transition is a much broader category of planning. It has more to do with anticipating, planning for and executing any kind of change in your life and business.

Transition could be voluntary or involuntary. Transition might mean looking to hire a sub- adviser or a licensed assistant. It might involve an adviser’s desire to sell off part of their book of business. Or it might involve giving away part of the book. It could mean selling a book of business, but staying on for five years to help with the transition to new ownership, and continuing to sell and serve a segment of clients.

Rather than restricting your options to the ‘either/or’ choices, transition planning opens up new possibilities for your future. And it can impact the future of advisers at any stage in their career.

Creating a transition plan helps you think about issues like:

• How do I want to work?
• What do I want my role to be?
• Do I want to manage a staff or juniors or associates?
• Should I partner? How would that look?
• Should I sell some or all of my book of business, and if so, do I stay involved?

A new vision of your future

Ultimately, for advisers of all ages and stages, a good transition plan should start with your vision for your future. It starts with you giving yourself permission to dream. In a perfect world,  what will your life look like in five years, and how will your business enable this?

As Walt told me, he’s not looking to retire, but would rather change how he works. He wants to get away from being bogged down in the management of the business he’s built over the years, and refocus on the things that attracted him to the industry in the first place—selling and serving his clients.

After we talked Walt sat down and, with the new lens of transition rather than succession to evaluate his future, he came up with a compelling vision for his next five years. He got excited about the thought of selling his business, but staying on to help the buyer with the transition and, most importantly, to continue working with the clients he’d been helping for more than twenty years.

The new plan gave him a new energy. With this new vision he felt the burden of having to manage staff and the business lifting. And he got excited about spending more time with his family and with the great clients he’d developed relationships with over the years. He couldn’t wait to begin the process of developing a transition strategy for his business.

The power of transition planning

For Walt, the concept of transition opened up a brand new idea of his future. And for other advisers I’ve worked with the idea has been just as transformative. I’ve seen young advisors energized by plans to buy blocks of business and dramatically increase the scope of their business. I’ve seen parents excited by the opportunity to bring their kids into the game and give them the same rich experience that made their own careers so satisfying.

When you think transition your options are wide open.

In up-coming posts in this series I’ll look more closely at those possibilities.

If you want to know more…just ask…drop me a line with your questions.

Ray Adamson
Chief Customer Officer
BlueSun Inc.

ray.adamson@wealthserv.com
www.wealthserv.com

Is your social media strategy making you anti-social?

Recently I’ve noticed in my face-to-face conversations with friends a lot of comments about my “presence” on social media. Most of the time it’s something like “You certainly pop up a lot on my LinkedIn feed” or “Don’t you work?” or “Why do you do it”? All good questions/comments and confirmation that I’m “connecting”. What they’re also saying, indirectly, is “Don’t you have a life?!”

Before answering that last question I stopped to ask myself “At what level am I connecting?” And, most importantly for me, “Am I adding value?” Now I don’t profess to be an expert, or even that my content is that good. To be honest I don’t have an over-arching social media strategy or end-game in mind when I post. I’ve simply been passing on thoughts (my own and others), articles (my own and others) and news that I hope will be of interest to my connections. From the feedback I’ve received it seems that for the most part I am accomplishing this, and I don’t take this for granted. I appreciate and value the people who have chosen to connect with me and I don’t want to abuse this relationship.

On to the question a lot of my contacts have asked, “How do I manage the posting, tweeting, retweeting etc. of my content?” (I do have a full-time job!). To make this process more efficient I use a number of tools to support my social media strategy and I thought I would share what’s working for me in the hope it may help you.

Pocket – an amazing app that saves me a ton of time. In the old days when I found content that interested me I would paste the URL of the site into an email to myself. With Pocket I save articles, videos or pretty much anything into Pocket directly from my browser or from apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse and Zite. I then view the content when I’m ready – If it’s in Pocket, it’s on my iPhone, iPad or Mac. You don’t even need an Internet connection. Pocket now has over 4.5 million registered users and integrates into over 300 apps and is available for major devices and platforms including iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android, Google Chrome, and Firefox.

Buffer – When reviewing the content I’ve saved in Pocket I can pick out what I would like to send out to my network. This is where I leverage another very cool app, Buffer. With the click of my Buffer button in my browser a pop-up window appears where I can write my message with the content link already embedded. The really cool part of this is I can choose to share the post immediately or drop it into my Buffer queue which sends out my postings at specific times during the day/week. Essentially I build an inventory of postings that get sent out to my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts at different times.

IFTTT – is the last tool I use for my social media posting. I can’t profess to understand how this program works (I consider it magic) but essentially it lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement, “If This Then That”. There are 68 “channels” and each Channel has its own Triggers and Actions. I’ve chosen different apps to link with IFTTT and have picked recipes linking these apps. For example when I finished this post and uploaded it a tweet and LinkedIn share went out automatically. Once a recipe is set you can forget about it and it does its work in the background (until I change the recipe or turn it off).

I’m using the free versions of all these tools because they’re working for me. I would love to hear what tools you’re using, and how you’re optimizing your social media strategy.

 

 

 

I Don’t Have Time!

Recently I had a very interesting conversation with a good friend of mine, Carol, who has been running her own business for the last 12 years. From all external perspectives Carol is successful and her business is thriving. She has 4 full-time staff along with some key external relationships that help her operate the business. Carol is one of those people who seems to be doing everything from running the business to managing her family (she has 3 kids) and she is involved as a board member for a non-profit and volunteers at her church regularly.

I say our conversation was interesting because I asked a seemingly innocuous question that had a surprising result, “How are you doing Carol?”

When I asked this question Carol’s shoulders visibly slumped. She sat back in her chair and rubbed her eyes and then her temples. She paused for a minute before answering. “I’m overwhelmed! I don’t feel like I have a minute for myself – I feel like I am constantly being pulled in 4 directions at once”.

I gave Carol a minute to recover and asked her what is probably my most annoying question, “Tell me more about that”!

Carol proceeded to share with me her challenges in business; the fact that she is the engine driving her business forward and, while her staff are good, she feels she has to be involved in everything in order to make sure things go right. With her family Carol felt she had to be there for everyone, all of time and felt guilty when she couldn’t make this a reality. And the volunteer work, while tremendously rewarding emotionally, took up a lot of time for her. She confessed she didn’t know what to do, and felt that she couldn’t continue at the pace she was currently maintaining.

I thanked Carol for sharing this information. As I thought about her situation I recognized that Carol had fallen into the trap encountered by many entrepreneurs. Carol didn’t understand the value of her time. She was making choices every day, some consciously and others sub-consciously, that were impacting her ability to optimize.

I asked Carol what she felt she could do and her answer was telling, “I don’t know if there is anything I can do as I don’t want to let anyone down”. Unfortunately this meant that the one person that was for sure being let down was Carol. I decided to walk Carol through a quick exercise to help Carol understand the value of her time. I asked Carol to work through the following steps:

1. Write down her revenue goal for this year.
2. Write down the number of weeks she wants to work this year.
3. Write down the number of hours she wants to work per week (not necessarily what she is working today but what she would like to work).
4. Multiply the number of weeks by the number of hours
5. Divide this number into her revenue goal for the year.

In working through these 5 steps Carol arrived at a dollar amount an hour of her time was worth. Carol looked at the number for a minute and I asked her what she was thinking. “I’m surprised at the number”. I asked her if it was higher or lower than she expected and she replied it was considerably higher. Before I could say anything else Carol shared that a lot of what she was involved in with her business was “costing her money”. She was beginning to realize the cost of not delegating effectively.

“For many entrepreneurs not measuring the value of their time inevitably leads to them being involved in things they shouldn’t be. We all exercise choice every day but often our choices are made at the subconscious level. Knowing our value allows us to make conscious choice as to what we will be involved with at any given time.” As I shared this Cathy was nodding her head, “As I’m thinking about this I am starting to see how I can get more control of my time and focus in the business, and how this is going to affect the time I spend with my family as well as the time I choose to use with my non-profit work. To be honest I am feeling a little relieved!”

Carol was taking the first step toward managing her time more proactively through making her choices more conscious. Taking control will allow her to be more confident in her decisions, and will help make this change for her sustainable. Over time not only will Carol be happier, but so will her family and staff.

Take a few minutes and work through the 5 steps above to figure out what your time is worth. What are the activities you need to focus on, and what do you need to let go?

Everything Old is New Again!

I was packing up after speaking at a corporate event on Championship Selling when a member of the audience, Dale, approached me asking if I had a few minutes to answer some questions.

Dale was in sales and had been with the company for about 6 months. Prior to this Dale had been in a sales role with another company for 9 years. As we talked about my presentation I could sense that there was something else on Dale’s mind so I asked, “Dale, what is it that’s troubling you?”

Almost without thinking Dales responded, “I am having a really tough time. I have a lot of experience and have had success in the past but these past 6 months have been a challenge. I’m working hard, and trying to emulate some of the other successful salespeople in this company, but my results just aren’t where they need to be. I’m not sure what the problem is and I’m getting concerned for my job”.

I thanked Dale for being candid and took a minute to respond. “Dale, have you been involved in sales training in your career?”

Dale looked at me and laughed. “Of course I have. It seems that as a salesperson I am always getting exposed to sales training. It really helped me early in my career but I don’t think I need it now. I’m tired of sitting through the latest and greatest training course. I would rather be spending that time out selling. No offense of course!”

It was my turn to laugh. “No offense taken and in fact, I agree with you.” This really took Dale by surprise so I went on to explain myself in detail.

As we progress in experience and maturity in a role our confidence naturally grows. We are continually looking to “take things to the next level” and look for tips and tricks to help us achieve success. In our hunt for the next big thing we get exposed to lots of different approaches and ideas. The risk in this is that, over time, we forget about the fundamentals. When I agreed with Dale that sitting through the latest and greatest training course wouldn’t be of value I wasn’t saying that training wasn’t necessary. The key is on what are we training?

Like any stable house, sales excellence is based on a strong foundation. As salespeople mature they sometimes forget to focus on the fundamentals that made them successful. There is an urge to skip over key steps in the sales process to “make it my own”. Following a process ensures that results are consistent and repeatable. At Optimé our Championship Selling process is designed to focus on the fundamentals of sales to drive disciplined, winning sales execution.

Dale and many other salespeople don’t need to be trained on more content. They just need help refocusing on the fundamentals of selling. As I shared my thoughts with Dale I could see the light bulb turn on. Dale thanked me and said, “I’m going to head home and pull out some of my first sales training manuals to review them. And I’m going to recommend to my manager that they should bring you guys in to run a program for all of our salespeople. I know we could all use it!”

8 months later, after running our Champions Edge Selling Program for the entire company, I received a phone call from Dale, “I just want to say thanks for shoring up my selling foundation! My sales numbers have increased significantly and I’m feeling a lot more confident using my sales process. Thank you.”

 Lessons learned

Many organizations tend to look at the development of their people tactically, that is they run events or courses based on “what’s hot” in training. While there can be value in this the challenge is always in how to sustain the value over the long-term. Many people we speak with can talk about training they have been involved in yet a majority of them have a hard time explaining the long-term impact that training has had on them. In our opinion it takes a program approach to truly effect change, and content built on fundamental skills to support this.

Capability – how do we measure this?

Have you ever been in a role where you aren’t happy? Do you have staff that “just don’t get it” or who aren’t performing at the level you need them to be at? When assessing ourselves, our staff, or even a role for which we are hiring there are three components of capability to consider:

1. Skills & Knowledge – experience
2. Values – internal motivation
3. Mental horsepower – how “bright” are they

We tend to focus on Skills & Knowledge when evaluating fit for a role. But the other two components are equally, if not more, important in our evaluation. The reality is that if someone has the right values and mental horsepower they can be trained with the appropriate skills and knowledge. Unfortunately you cannot train for internal motivation or mental horsepower.

An entrepreneur I worked with (let’s call him Dave) had an outstanding assistant in his business named Heather. Heather had a several years of experience with the firm, was excellent interacting with clients and other staff and had tremendous product knowledge. In their regular coaching sessions she shared that she would like to make more money. Dave agreed to think about it and that he would get back to her shortly. When Dave had some time to review the situation he listed a number of points:

• he couldn’t afford, or justify, paying Heather more in her existing role
• he didn’t want to lose her as she was a valuable employee
• he could use another salesperson but these roles weren’t salaried, they were straight commission

Dave decided to sit down with Heather and explain the situation so that they could make a decision together. Heather understood the ceiling in her current role and when Dave began describing the sales role she became more and more excited. She really liked the idea of commission income as “it had no ceiling!”. Dave was comfortable that Heather would be successful in sales because of her experience, product knowledge and relationship skills.

Fast forward six months. Dave is calling me to update the situation and to get my help. Unfortunately in the six month span Heather had only generated commissions equal to about 25% of her earlier salary. Dave was really feeling badly for her and Heather was beside herself. I asked Dave what happened and where he thought Heather was struggling. Dave explained to me that Heather was really struggling getting in front of prospects. He felt he had tried everything – from coaching to observing a top salesperson in the firm. In their progress meetings Dave set out specific actions she needed to follow but nothing seemed to work. He was upset that he was going to lose a key employee and Heather was equally upset that she might have to leave to take another job.

I asked Dave if he felt Heather had the skills and knowledge and he said most definitely. I asked if she was bright enough and again he answered in the affirmative. I then asked if Heather seemed motivated to get out and meet new people, to find prospects on her own? He quickly answered that this seemed to be her biggest issue. This was a classic example of a person in a role in which they weren’t internally motivated to do the things they needed to do to achieve success. No amount of training can change this.

I asked Dave if he had ever thought of a hybrid role in his organization that could support the sales team. He hadn’t and was intrigued. I went on to explain that salespeople aren’t always the best relationship managers and that perhaps if he had a role focusing on this area he would increase his retention rate as well as have a support role for his salespeople, potentially increasing his close rate. This role could have a base salary with some variable compensation built-in based on sales.

Dave took the idea and ran with it. He quickly transitioned Heather into this role and she was thrilled. Fast forward six months and Dave shared with me that Heather was having an incredible impact on his organization. Client retention was up to 96%. New sales were up 15% YOY and his salespeople were thrilled to have a resource like Heather. Best of all Heather was happier than she had been ion months and was on track to earn more than her old salary in this new role. Dave learned a tough lesson in all of this and assured me he would look at all 3 components the next time he was hiring for a role.

Time is on our side

Yes it is! While the immortal words of The Rolling Stones don’t always ring true in our day-to-day activities we really do have the power to control time. Well maybe control is too strong a word. What we do have is the ability to optimize. The challenge is that to optimize we need to take some time to assess where we are spending our time. But what if we don’t have time for that?!!

It won’t take as much time as you think. Start by reflecting on how you spend your time. Think about what you did yesterday, the day before, and last week. What percentage of your time is spent productively? How effective was your work/life balance? Are you making choices consciously or sub-consciously?

Awareness of where we are spending our time is the key to effectiveness. I have a saying that I try to remember (not always successfully!) to help me judge how I spend my time:

“You are defined by what you say NO to”.

Have you ever been in a situation where you ask yourself why did I ever you agree to do this?! Have you ever had opportunities you had to turn down because you were too busy doing other “stuff”? I know how hard it is to say no when called upon but we need to weigh the consequences of saying yes as there are only so many hours in a day. Here’s a quick exercise to figure out what an hour of your time is worth:

Step 1  Write down your income goal for this year.   i.e. $200,000

Step 2  Write down how many weeks you are going to work this year. (Take into account vacation, statutory holidays, sick days, etc.)  i.e. 40 weeks

Step 3  Write down how many hours a week working you would like to average. i.e. 40 hours

Step 4  Multiply the # of weeks by the # of hours      40 weeks X 40 hours = 1,600

Step 5  Divide your income goal by the answer in step 4       $200,000/1,600 = $125 per hour of work

If every hour of your time is worth $125 are there things you should delegate? What activities should you be focusing on that give you the biggest ROE (return on effort)?

We have the power to optimize. Everything we do is a choice, whether conscious or sub-conscious. We have to be aware of the things we are choosing to do, and the cost of our time to do them. Increasing our awareness of where we choose to spend our time allows us to make better choices. Hopefully choosing to read this blog didn’t cost you too much!!

Help! I need somebody…

Not just anybody. I’m sure John Lennon and Paul McCartney weren’t thinking about business when they wrote this famous song but their words are great guidance for business today. A common refrain in my conversations with many business leaders is their challenge in finding “good people”. When I ask about their hiring process I usually find that they use the warm body approach – they realize they need someone ASAP and put the word out to everyone they know. The candidate that often ends up with the job is the one that they “connected” with the best in the interview. The employer has found a warm body to fill the role and their problem is solved. Unfortunately this may just be the beginning of their problems!

To really assess what role(s) you need, and then find the right person to fill that role, there are a number of questions worth answering:

• What is the organizational structure of the business?
• Who reports to whom?
• How clear are everyone’s role and how their role relates to others?
• Who is accountable for what?
• How are people managed?
• Do we have good managers?
• Are we holding people accountable?
• What are the consequences for doing, or not doing, our job effectively?
• Are our people “at capacity” from a workload perspective?
• How do we know?
• What is your process for assessing the type of person needed in order to be successful in a role?
• For what is this role accountable?
• What are our expectations for activity?
• What are our expectations for results?
• What is your hiring process for a role?
• How do we find candidates?
• Who interviews the candidates?
• Do we have a set list of interview questions to be as objective as possible?
• Once hired, what is your performance management process?
• How is staff “on-boarded” to the business?
• How do we train new staff?
• How are performance reviews conducted, and when?

These questions, and their answers, make sure we are assessing a true need for our business, allowing for the better design of the role(s) in our business and for what they will be accountable. We can develop a profile of key attributes that a prospective employee should have to make sure they succeed in the role. For instance if the role requires a highly detailed person to be on their own completing paperwork and filing most of the day you probably don’t want to hire a real people person with a love for sales. It’s not to say that a people person couldn’t do the role; just that they will have to work harder at it and may need a different level of management and coaching to make sure they are both  effective and successful.

A great way to assess roles and candidates is to use a behavioural assessment profile. There are many in the marketplace that are effective and I have used one over the past few years that has been extremely accurate and helpful. If you would like to know more about it drop me an email.

Strategic Direction – moving to where you want to be

We’re in the home stretch for the calendar year, a time when many entrepreneurs are assessing their business results and, for some, thinking about making a change in their business. In my work over the years with entrepreneurs there are key steps that, when focused on, can take a business to the next level of success.

The first step is clarifying your vision of your business. As the owner you are able, some say obligated, to choose the path for your business. Unfortunately many entrepreneurs don’t make the time, or the effort, to truly define what they want their business to look like. Step out of the noise of your everyday and take a 2-hour break from work, the office, email, phone calls, everything. Give yourself permission to dream and think about what success looks like for you. What do you want your role to be in the business? How will the business allow you to meet your personal goals? Remember that this exercise is for you, not for your marketing material. Make it real. Believe it. I honestly don’t care if you write it down. The reality is that this vision needs to be carried around in your head, and in your heart, so that it influences decisions you are making everyday.

The second step is clarifying your financial objectives. Ensure they are specific and measurable. Don’t give yourself “wiggle room” and use ranges of numbers – commit to something specific. Some examples of key objectives that can work well are:

• gross revenue
• profit
• expenses
• guaranteed recurring revenue
• new sales revenue
• gross revenue by product line
• gross revenue by salesperson

Ensure your objectives support you in achieving your vision for the business. Another thing to consider when reviewing your vision is how your business goals support your personal goals. The two aren’t independent and need to be aligned. You need clarity on what you want to achieve and by when. You also have to truly believe in your goals. Your belief, in your heart and your head, will keep the vision top of mind and impact activity.

A third step is to clarify what is your value proposition.? A great way to get some insight into this is to ask existing clients with whom you have a good relationship the following two questions:

1. Why did you originally choose to do business with me/our firm?
2. Why do you continue to do business with me/our firm?

The answers to these questions are often powerful and will help illuminate the aspects of your business that people truly value.

Don’t just make a wish list every year of what you want to see happen in your future. And don’t settle for a statement goal such as 10% over what we did last year. Remember – it’s not where you’re at, it’s where you could be!

Matching your message to your market

How consistent is your branding? How do you know? Recently I met with two good friends, Martin Traub-Werner and Bob Beckerman so they could take me through their new tool called SalesLink (www.mysaleslink.com). These two are passionate about helping you build successful relationships with your customers and prospects.

What impressed me in my review of SalesLink was the ease of use and the email output. Believe it or not but I was able to produce a full HTML email, including content, in under a minute. I immediately saw how this tool could be of benefit to businesses. Raybec helps transfer your existing brand (like your web page) into an email template. You can take your existing content (brochures, video, white papers, articles, case studies – the list goes on) and upload them into SalesLink. Once loaded you can choose what content to include in each email. True 1 to 1 marketing! For an organization SalesLink ensures that everyone sending email to clients and prospects has a consistent message, look and feel while still being able to customize each message sent.

Take a minute and check out the SalesLink video (it’s about 2 minutes long and the narrator isn’t too annoying!) at http://www.mysaleslink.com/advisors.

One to one or one to many marketing. SalesLink is a flexible tool to build your business!