“If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Let’s talk about planning. Business planning specifically. No matter how you define the success of your practice (i.e. revenue, client satisfaction, assets under management, etc.), one truth remains, you can only determine if you are winning or losing in a given year if you have set some sort of goal. There are a few fundamental rules for goal setting.
- A written and defined goal
- Goal should be specific and quantifiable (for example: rather than saying “grow FIA premium,” say “grow FIA premium by 20%, which would be $8 million in premium.”)
- Tell people about your goal
- Track progress towards your goal
These four rules will give you a better probability of reaching the goal you set. Let’s quickly go through why each rule is important. Rule 1: You need to define your goal and then write it down because it will help you commit it to memory and helps you keep yourself accountable. Rule 2: When you make a goal, it needs to be specific and quantifiable because otherwise you won’t be able to measure the progress you made and may sell yourself short. For example, if you just said I want to grow my FIA premium, and you grew it by $1, you would accomplish you goal; however, I’d be willing to bet that isn’t the growth you had in mind when you set the goal. Rule 3: You must tell people about your goals so they can help hold you accountable. It is especially important to communicate your goal to your staff. There was a study done in 2013 with U.S. financial advisors that found 32% of the firms did not communicate their goals with at least 50% of their staff. The 68% that did communicate their goals to at least 50% of their staff increased their revenue by 41%. And lastly, Rule 4: You have to track the progress towards your goal so that you can know if you are winning or losing before it is too late to make changes.
Setting the goal is the easy part. The tougher part is planning on how to reach that goal. At Tarkenton Financial, we have built a tool to make the planning process easier for you. We have a Marketing Calendar Builder that is live on our website, behind the login. If you are contracted with us you have access to this tool. Below is a video on how it works and how to use it. Go ahead, watch the video and try it out. If you have any questions or to schedule your first marketing event, give us a call at 800-659-4942. It is important to know that between scheduling a marketing event and hosting you need at least 6 weeks. So, if you scheduled an event today you would host it until early September. Use the Marketing Calendar Builder now to finish 2019 strong.
Thanks for reading,
Dustin Casebolt
Director of Advisor Development