Better Business
How to evaluate your business
It is important that what you do is perceived as interesting and worthwhile in the eyes of consumers. Business consultant Steve Billingham presents a checklist.
Many advisers seem to struggle to create a high value client proposition that they can deliver on anything approaching a consistent basis.
The starting point is often to take a step back and think long and hard about what you already do for your clients and how much value those things add from the client’s perspective.
Here are some quick questions to get you thinking about what you do, how you do it and whether it might be perceived as compelling by clients (and introducers).
• What do you currently do for clients and how consistently is it delivered?
• What degree of variation is there across the business?
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• What is said to clients at the point of sale/advice?
• What would your administrators say about the variation in what is being offered/promised/said to clients?
• As a client, would my experience be the same irrespective of which adviser I happened to be working with?
• Do clients understand your proposition and what they can expect from you?
• Do you have the infrastructure (people/processes/resources) to deliver your proposition consistently and profitably?
• Could an informed third party easily and readily identify a potential “ideal client”?
• Can you (and do you) communicate the specific problems, frustrations, worries, challenges and concerns that your target clients experience and the impact that these have on their lives?
• Do you provide some “value” in advance by providing assessment tools, that assis clients and potential clients to pinpoint their core problems?
• Is your proposition compelling to you? Do you believe in it even on the days when others don’t?
• How are you investing to make sure that you stay ahead of client needs and requirements in order to ensure that you continue to provide outstanding service and fantastic value for money?
Answering these questions will at least help you to identify where the gaps are in your proposition and your ability to deliver it time after time after time.
Steve Billingham is owner of Steve Billingham Consulting, the business and marketing consultancy for advisory businesses.