Bringing commissions out of chaos

For the most part, you, as an advisor, are a bottom line person, right? Too many details overwhelm you, and too little details don’t give you the full picture.

Where is the line when it comes to figuring out return on investment and data tracking within your company? Can it be done without making you want to pull your hair out because it’s just too many numbers? Yes, yes it can. 

Here are a few tips to help you get started to making sense of all the data. 

1. Start from the bottom

This process begins with your team. Designate which team member will track what types of data. It will be important to create a system each team member is comfortable with and understands well enough to enter the data without constant help. 

A few ideas of what you can begin to track:

• • Seminar Marketing: Number of seminar attendees, how many came in for an appointment, how many became clients, how much mailing and food costs per seminar 

  • Radio Marketing: 

    • Number of prospects who called in after hearing an ad, number of prospects who called in after hearing your program.

    • Number of those prospects that set and kept an appointment, the number of those prospects who became clients.  

    • Monthly cost for ads and/or radio program to the station and to your program host.

  • Office Production: Name of the person who became a client, how much was written for annuity business and how much came in-house under AUM, where that people came from (marketing source) 

  • Income: Record your own commissions and quarterly fees. Record where each of those clients came from

2. Think it through

Once your team is tracking all of these numbers, think through what data you would like to know about your company. 

A few ideas on why types of data would be helpful for you to know:

• • Total cost of seminar (food and invitations) compared to total commission/AUM made from clients gained from seminars.

  • Total number of radio leads versus how many set and kept their first appointment, and then how many became clients. This will determine the quality of the leads you are getting from radio. 

  • Return on Investment for every marketing source. Total made minus total spent. This will show which marketing category was your highest money making effort and can help you determine if it may be time to put more money towards one over another.