Avoiding the black hole of business planning
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November 24th, 2009 by Dan Richards, ClientInsights.ca
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This month, many advisors are working on next year’s business plans.
For many advisors, these business plans will end up like a black hole in space – lots of energy will go in and little or nothing will come out.
Causes of the “black hole” effect
There are number of things that cause business planning to fail to translate into results.
First is underestimating the impact of entrenched habits – and failing to build in routines around new initiatives emerging from the business planning process.
Second is a lack of process to follow up on commitments made during the business planning process – and lack of consequences for failure to follow through.
Third is being overly optimistic and trying to do too much – with the all too familiar result that nothing changes.
Finally is lack of absolute commitment to new initiatives coming out of the business planning exercise – seeing them as “nice to do” rather than “need to do.”
Start by reviewing where you’ve been
Any successful planning exercise starts by clearly identifying where you’d like to be in the mid term (say three years) and then translating that into your goals for the coming year.
You then need to look at everything you’ve done in the past year in context of those goals, dividing activity into three categories:
- Existing clients – Activity to build loyalty, communicate effectively and maximize revenue
- Prospective clients – The things you’ve done to cultivate new clients
- Team and practice efficiency – Activity to maximize overall efficiency
For each major activity you’re doing now, ask yourself and your team:
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how effective is this?
- Is this something we should do more of?
- How can we make it work better?
- Do we need to fundamentally change or eliminate this?
A formula for new activity
Once you’ve reviewed what you’re already doing, you then move into new initiatives – where the black hole effect typically kicks in.
From talking to successful advisors, here ’s a success formula to overcome the black hole effect:
A Limited number
Of high impact initiatives
With the highest level of commitment
Executed one at a time
Let’s look at each of these:
1. A limited number :
Trying to do too much is a sure prescription for failure. You need the discipline to introduce only a few key programs.
2. Highest impact initiatives
If you’re only going to do a few new things, you have to be sure they’re going to be high impact.
3. With the highest level of commitment
In a post this summer, I talked about rating your commitment to any new idea from 1 to 10. If it doesn’t get a 10 then drop it – only ideas with the highest level of commitment have a chance.
4. Executed one at a time
One successful tactic that I’ve seen used is “one new idea per quarter.”
Every 90 days, an advisor meets with his team to review progress – and to pick one new idea to focus on in the next quarter.
Two final steps to consider:
First, block off time in your week to make these initiatives happen – Thursday mornings could by your time every week to focus on new initiatives, for example.
And second, ensure that you build regular review of progress against new initiatives into your weekly team meetings and progress reviews.
This year, resolve to make your business planning efforts pay off with real change – consider using some of these ideas to avoid the black hole effect.
About ClientInsights.ca A breakthrough in client communication Not long ago, clients read what you sent them. Today that's changed. In the You Tube world we live in, many investors would prefer to hear from a portfolio manager directly. And instead of reading an article on tax saving or estate planning strategies, more and more Canadians would rather watch an expert discuss the topic. Clientinsights.ca was developed in response to these changes - to deliver information in the form that investors want to receive it. It provides over 150 short video interviews, each about 4 to 6 minutes - you can email them or watch a video along with clients to start a meeting. No matter how you use it, Clientinsights.ca is designed to help you take client communication to a higher level. Dan Richards Founder and CEO, Clientinsights.ca Read more from the author/contributor here.
Tags: Absolute Commitment, Advertisement, Black Business, Black Hole In Space, Business Planning, Business Plans, Business Process, Cause Business, Commitments, Consequences, Exercise, Failure, Goals, Initiatives, Loyalty, Mid Term, Practice Efficiency, Prospective ClientsPosted in My Practice | No Comments »
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