CHRISISM #86 - What You Can Measure You Can Manage

05 March 2019

This Chrisism is primarily aimed at those of you who are relatively new in the business and who are finding their way in what is an ever changing environment. However I suspect it may also be a worthwhile refresher or reminder for those of you who are more seasoned campaigners and for whom from time to time it may not be a bad idea to get back to the basics

As I have said in previous Chrisisms, I was extremely fortunate to have entered the industry with a company that was incredibly structured in every aspect of its business. New recruits were certainly not left to fend for themselves – every minute of the day was allocated to a particular activity and this was called the Daily Bible. The Daily Bible included four hours a day for prospecting – these were between 10.00am and 12.00pm and between 2.00pm and 4.00pm.

Before 10.00am in the morning was for admin, preparing recommendations or seeing clients, as was between 12.00pm and 2.00pm and after 4.00pm. Lunch was from 2.00pm to 2.30pm. So nobody was ever sitting and twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do.

Can you believe it – in those days we were expected to make 40 prospecting calls a day! This was based on the assumption that, worst case scenario, 40 calls would result in a minimum of 4 first appointments made, which would mean that you would get to see a minimum of 3 first appointments (provided you waterproofed the appointments (see Chrisism#12), which would in turn result in a minimum of 2 second appointments, which would in turn result in a minimum of one sale – therefore 40 calls a day = 1 sale a day. How times have changed!
So keeping a record of all prospecting calls on the “Telephone Sheet” was just the start. How many advisers when starting out in the business complain that they are “working really hard but just not getting the results” and, when asked why they think that is, they don’t have an answer? This also makes it harder for their manager to improve their performance, because they don’t have a handle on what their strengths and weaknesses are. This is where the saying “What you can measure you can manage” comes from.

So as well as a Telephone Sheet that kept a record of all prospecting calls on a daily basis, we had to fill out a Daily Activity Chart as well. This kept a record of 11 separate activities on a daily basis! These activities were:- calls made, appointments made, first appointments in the diary, first appointments seen, first appointments rescheduled, first appointments cancelled, second appointments created, second appointments in the diary, second appointments seen, sales made & referrals obtained.

What this did was it enabled the adviser (and their manager) to identify their strengths and weaknesses throughout the client engagement process and thereby presented a clear picture of those areas in the engagement process that needed fine tuning in order to improve the conversion rate at that stage of the process. It also made the adviser more accountable for their day to day activity.

Getting back to basics, regaining trust and building stronger client relationships is exactly what my upcoming face to face workshops in all 5 major capitals are all about. Check out the details of this workshop in your capital city by clicking on the link below and treat yourself to a kick start to 2019.

Full Day Workshop: How To Gain Trust & Build Stronger Client Relationships

The Risk Workshop by Chris Unwin

Are you a financial adviser who would like all of your clients to have appropriate types and levels of personal protection? But perhaps you feel you need a more structured and client friendly engagement process?