Welcome to the October issue of ActiFi's People, Process, and Technology newsletter. Each issue features stories, news items, and ideas to help financial advisors improve their business. Please share this E-Newsletter with colleagues and friends.
Table of Contents
ActiFi in the News
Case Study
News You Can Use
Solution of the Month
Spenser's Thoughts
Web Resource of the Month
ActiFi in the News:
In the July 2008 issue of Financial Advisor magazine, noted columnist Andrew Gluck discussed the value of process and planning as it pertains to investment advisory practices. Andrew found it ironic that many advisors in the financial planning industry do a poor job of planning for their own businesses. Even the most successful practices find that with growth comes complexity, inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and owner frustration. Although assets under management may increase, profitability decreases and ultimately, the one who suffers most is the client because of poor service. Gluck then noted that ActiFi is on the cutting edge of solving these issues. View the full article, available at www.actifi.com/gluck.
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ActiFi Case Study - JNBA
In 2007, Richard Brown, CEO of JNBA Financial Advisors made a decision—he wanted to be more proactive in pursuing new business opportunities for his 30 year-old firm.
"Our firm was growing from a small, family-owned business into a nationally recognized RIA," says Richard. "I'm competitive and I want to be the best. I want every single client to have a consistent, exceptional experience when they work with JNBA."
Richard soon realized that the current systems he had in place simply would not be good enough to support his vision. He needed innovative ideas and a close to fail-proof system that would allow his advisors to spend more time with clients and less time on administrative tasks.
In his journey to build a better mouse trap, Richard realized that bringing in outside help could provide him new ideas, and could probably enable him to solve the firm's issues more quickly than trying to do it on his own. At the same time, Richard also knew that he didn't want just a consultant. Rather, he wanted a partner that would roll up their sleeves and help him on strategy AND implementation.
When Richard met ActiFi CEO Spenser Segal he realized he had found just that. And after a few meetings, he was confident that ActiFi's people, process, and technology solutions and execution team could help provide the solutions he was looking for. In April of 2007, ActiFi and JNBA began their partnership.
ActiFi and the JNBA executive team met and jointly crafted the JNBA vision story—what did JNBA want to look like in one, five, ten and twenty years? One thing became quite clear during these discussions. Richard and his team wanted a firm that was built on a standardized system of doing things, from the way clients were treated when visiting the office, to investment policy decisions, to the way material was presented to clients. To reach their growth objectives and simultaneously maintain an exceptional level of client-service, JNBA needed to document each process, eliminate inefficiencies and bottlenecks, and create a system so that every task was done the same way, by everybody, every time.
With the team aligned to the vision, JNBA re-wrote their annual plan and with ActiFi's help, implemented S.M.A.R.T. goal tracking, providing transparency into the firm's goals, and providing accountability for each person's role in achieving objectives. ActiFi documented the key processes related to the business, and with the JNBA team, optimized tasks and created a streamlined system. Workflow and tasks were embedded into JNBA's CRM program, creating enormous efficiencies, providing task consistency, and increasing overall quality.
With the new insight Richard had regarding his business, he was able to step back out of the day-to-day tasks of running the firm and instead, he was able to work on the business and implement many of the ideas that for years, he had been unable to get done. He created a Wealth Management Team for ultra-high-net worth clients. He implemented an aggressive marketing program. And because he wasn't bogged down in the tasks of running the business, he spent more time with his top clients.
One of the key objectives the JNBA team had was increasing client referrals and probing existing clients about assets they may have that were not currently managed at JNBA. With ActiFi's help, JNBA re-wrote job descriptions and compensation plans and literally embedded client referrals and total asset questions into the CRM system. This not only ensured that referrals and asset discussions happened, but it provided a visual dashboard so everyone could see how the team was performing against goals.
"Transforming JNBA was one of the most challenging, exciting, and rewarding things I've ever done," says Richard. "It was also the most valuable. Today, our team is fully aligned with our vision, with each person knowing their role in helping us reach our goals. As CEO, I now can focus my energies on big-picture issues like succession planning, employee-coaching, spending time with clients, new business and being involved in the community. I can do this because I fully trust that my team is conducting business the JNBA way, and that our systematized business produces exceptional client results every time."
The bottom line? JNBA has not only increased its net-new assets, but assets from existing clients have grown substantially. "The company's AUM growth from existing client net-new assets is a win in every way. Our numbers not only go up, but the relationship we have with our clients deepens as we begin to play an even bigger role for them," says Richard.
What does the industry think of these impressive results? JNBA was recently named the #1 financial services firm in the Twin Cities by Barron's and The Winner's Circle, and the firm ranked #70 nationally.
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News You Can Use
Profits Rise, but Struggles Remain
Assets, revenues and net profits reached all-time highs at financial advisory firms in 2007, according to a new study by Rydex. Expenses, however, also rose while client retention and time management issues still remain. Here are some highlights from the Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking 2008 Annual Survey.
How to Eat an Elephant
There’s an old joke that goes: How do you eat an elephant? Well, one bite at a time of course! Maybe you've heard that in relation to business ownership too: “Having a business is like eating an elephant.” This article from the folks at E-Myth provides some practical ideas you can use to help you focus on the business issues that matter.
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ActiFi Solution of the Month
ActiFi recently released a new version of its popular Roadmap online planning program. Roadmap is an easy-to-use tool that helps you take high-level business objectives and turn them into executable S.M.A.R.T. goals. If you're a firm owner, you can use Roadmap to help craft your plan, assign tasks, and track progress. If you're a firm that serves financial advisors, ActiFi can create a completely custom Roadmap integrating your content and brand, that your key account managers can use to provide business coaching services. Learn more about Roadmap and request your free Roadmap trial today.
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Spenser's Thoughts
My new CRM system is up and running...now what?
After many months of consideration and research, you purchased a new CRM system. You were optimistic that many of the operational issues your firm had been facing would disappear and things would never fall through the cracks again. However, six months into the deployment you’re not receiving the benefits you had desired. Sure, you have noticed some improvements, but the workflow efficiencies have not materialized. Did you just spend thousands of dollars in out-of pocket expenses and opportunity cost for what seems to be a glorified Rolodex?
This is a common scenario that we see all the time with advisors. Let’s start with the basics. What is CRM? CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. CRM is not a technology or a piece of software; rather, it is a business strategy that can be enabled or assisted by adopting technology. Like any business strategy, the results are only as good as the quality of the execution.
In the financial advisory space, CRM is a strategy to deliver a consistent and high-quality financial advisory experience to all of your clients. It is also designed to deliver an effective relationship development experience to prospects. However, in order to drive a CRM-based business strategy, you need to have a well-defined client service model or models. The operative phrase is “well-defined.”
I have yet to find two advisors that have the exact same definition of
"well-defined." For the purpose of CRM, well-defined means that the processes and tasks are defined at a level of specificity and granularity that when specific tasks or meetings are triggered, everyone involved in completing the tasks is totally clear on what they need to do and when, and they understand the dependencies within the overall process.
Following are four basic (but not easy) steps you can use to effectively implement a CRM business strategy:
Step One:
Develop a clear purpose and vision as to why you want to deliver a consistent client experience to your clients, and why using technology tools will assist in enabling that. If you don’t know the results you’re hoping to achieve, then it is impossible to create a plan that will take you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. Create a “vision story.” Actually write a story on what your client service model will look like with the perfect CRM strategy fully implemented. Envision how your clients will benefit. Imagine how you and your staff will use CRM to increase efficiencies, eliminate bottlenecks, automate tasks, and free up time to spend with clients.
Step Two:
Define your client service models. Conduct a workshop where you gather all of the relevant employees in your practice together to discuss what the client service experience is today and what it should be tomorrow. Share your vision and make sure to ask questions of your staff so you clearly understand their vision. Use a large wall chart to diagram how the client experience should flow and what the specific meetings, processes, and tasks are that will enable this experience to occur.
Step Three:
Refine, validate, and detail the content from the workshop. Make sure that everyone is in general agreement on what meetings, processes and tasks should occur for each service model. For example, when you bring on a new client, does everyone in the firm do the same thing, every time? When preparing for a client annual review meeting, does every advisor follow the same process and produce a consistent and timely report, meeting agenda, and summary letter? Spend time with the people who are responsible for each task and understand what triggers each element.
Step Four:
Once you have clearly defined the business strategy and what it will look like on paper (or the computer screen) you are ready to implement it using your CRM technology. The important point is not to put the CRM technology in front of the business strategy or assume that because everyone is trained on the new CRM system that they understand how to use it to deliver the practice’s client service model. Remember—people first! Make sure everyone on your team is fully trained on how to use the workflow capabilities of your CRM system. Then make sure everyone understands their role in performing workflow-related tasks in CRM, and how it will help the firm achieve its objectives.
Placing your emphasis on improving your processes, and getting all of the key users’ input, greatly increases the probability that your CRM system will yield the business benefits you intended.
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Web Resource of the Month
There's still a month or so left in the golf season up here in Minnesota. So if you're planning on spending time out on the links yet this year, make sure you know how good your golf partner is before you hit the course (especially if you're playing with a prospect or client). Visit GHIN.com and enter in your playing partner's name. If they have a handicap at a registered course, you'll find it, plus, you can see their 2008 score history.
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