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November 04, 2001 at 07:00 PM
Bump Up Production Big Time–And Reap The Rewards
Let’s say you’re a Top of the Table or an International Forum level producer. Wouldn’t it be gratifying to increase production 20%, 50%, or even 100% next year (with the consequent increase in your revenues)?
Even better, let’s say you also manage your affairs in such a way that you are able to keep a larger slice of that revenue than you do today. At the end of the year, you would be considerably wealthier.
What about producers who have not yet qualified for Top of the Table or the International Forum? Wouldn’t they like to bump up production by those proportions? Wouldn’t they also want to boost revenues? And most of all, wouldn’t they like to have the personal wealth that results?
It is our experience that improvements on this scale are not as exceptional as they might sound. They are clearly achievable.
Regardless of where a producer is, he or she can achieve what some would consider stunning improvements in production, in revenue and in personal income-all in a relatively short time frame.
Of course, it is not easy; there are challenges. The obstacles to reaching the next meaningful level in production and revenue fall into two categories. The first category of obstacles is psychological in nature, having to do with such things as producers’ motivation, their personal goals and their drive to make the effort to succeed.
The second category of obstacles is technical in nature, having to do with such things as the training in what to do, deploying the right support systems and the like.
The Desire
In financial advisory industry, there is a lot of lip service given to the desire to succeed. In our view, however, it is painfully clear that there are very few producers who really want to snatch the brass ring. That is to say, there are very few producers whose overarching goal is to create serious personal wealth.
A lot of producers say they want to become affluent or even wealthy, but scratch beneath the surface and you will find that they really think a lot of things are more important than serious personal wealth.
For some producers, family and little league games are more important. For others, physical fitness or sailing or other interests are more important. Still other producers may have different priorities.
Family, leisure time, charitable activities and the like can be more important than merely becoming exceptionally wealthy or just plain rich. However, we have found that high-end producers can “have it all.” They can have the personal wealth as well as the time for a great many non-business meaningful activities such as family, charity and themselves.
While the elite can scale the heights both personally and professionally, it is clear that the most successful producers share a drive for reaching ever-higher levels of professional accomplishment. Producers with this drive are motivated by the need to be technically cutting-edge. They also share an obsession with client service. Additionally, these producers share the drive for personal, serious, wealth.
Many people ask us whether this kind of drive is innate or whether it is something that can be evoked in producers. We have discovered the hard way is that this particular sort of drive is not something that can be artificially induced. Producers either have it or they don’t.
Our best coaching successes have always come from those producers who already have the drive, but who have been blocked by the second obstacle-knowing what to do and being able to put the systems and processes in place to excel.
All producers can do better knowing what to do and how to do it. Whether or not their personal drive is for serious personal wealth, all can live a better financial life by being more effective producers. We have spent our professional careers studying and working with top producers and their work-styles. We have spent many years coaching and facilitating many producers to reach ever-higher levels of production, revenue and income.
One way to understand a “living strategic plan” is to compare it to a corporate strategic plan (See chart).
Additionally, the “living strategic plan” is predicated on “running the numbers”-creating simple to complex pro formas that, if actualized, will result in significant revenue and, more important, profit.