The Power of Practice Management

A top wealth management advisory expert reveals her firm's 4-quadrant discipline for building best practices The Power of Practice Management is not a book about practice management theory; instead it offers advisors a definitive guide to running a successful, satisfying, and sell-able advisory business. Based on fifteen years of consulting and the development of a proprietary methodology of measuring success, The Power of Practice Management brings best practices proven to work in top advisory firms in the country to every financial advisor. Dispelling the myth that there is one model for success, the book focuses instead on the best practices that build better, more profitable businesses. Running a successful advisory business is about more than how you do one thing, it is about how well you do everything. The many moving parts of a business, and how they work together, play a significant role in success. Working in the trenches with advisors led author Stephanie Bogan to identify four essential business disciplines that comprise the fundamentals required to build a successful business. Moves beyond popular theories of practice management to provide the nuts-and-bolts of industry best practices and how they can be applied to help advisors achieve greater success Covers four business disciplines essential to business success: Business Planning; Human Capital; Business Development; and Operations Optimization Based on author's extensive experience working in business consulting and developing a proprietary methodology for measuring success The Power of Practice Management describes four business disciplines and details what a firm must do and have within each discipline to be successful.Foreword ix Introduction xi PART I: BUSINESS STRATEGY AND PLANNING CHAPTER 1 A Look at the Landscape 3 CHAPTER 2 A View into Top-Performing Firms 13 CHAPTER 3 New Thinking for New Results 23 CHAPTER 4 The Four Essential Disciplines 25 CHAPTER 5 Business Strategy and Planning 37 CHAPTER 6 Living the Vision 45 CHAPTER 7 Building a Business Blueprint 53 CHAPTER 8 Managing Business Performance 67 CHAPTER 9 Benchmarking: Are You Making Progress? 77 PART II: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 10 The Business Development Landscape 87 CHAPTER 11 Target Clients and Niche Markets 97 CHAPTER 12 Landing Your Brand 105 CHAPTER 13 The Elevator Speech 111 CHAPTER 14 A Marketing Plan 115 CHAPTER 15 Referrals: An Untapped Opportunity 127 CHAPTER 16 The Referral Management Process 139 CHAPTER 17 Unlocking Client Feedback 149 PART III: HARNESSING HUMAN CAPITAL CHAPTER 18 The Value of Human Capital 157 CHAPTER 19 Making the Successful Hire 161 CHAPTER 20 Tapping into Training 171 CHAPTER 21 Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews 177 CHAPTER 22 Climbing the Ladder 187 CHAPTER 23 The Role and Value of Compensation Planning 193 CHAPTER 24 Components of Compensation 201 CHAPTER 25 Creating a Compensation Plan, Step by Step 215 CHAPTER 26 Owner Compensation 223 PART IV: OPTIMIZING OPERATIONS CHAPTER 27 Operations Optimization 233 CHAPTER 28 Client-Facing Processes 245 CHAPTER 29 The Client Model 263 PART V: BUILDING AND REALIZING VALUE CHAPTER 30 Preparing for the Future 279 CHAPTER 31 The State of the Industry 281 CHAPTER 32 External Sales 283 CHAPTER 33 Internal Succession 289 Notes 295 About the Author 297 About Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Inc. 299 Index 301