Develop a systematic approach to become more productive and ultimately more successful!

Benefits Plans Plus, LLC submitted an edited version of the original worksheet, updating it to more closely meet their needs. Take a peek, you may find this version to be more applicable to your business.

Over the past couple of decades, I have had the opportunity to lead a variety of wholesaling teams at major Wirehouse's. I have witnessed best and not so best practices by TPAs as they work on building lasting relationships with Advisors in Wirehouse branch offices.

You want to grow your business or meet a sales goal...do you just take any "opportunity" that comes across your desk?

A business development plan is like a road map. It provides you with direction and becomes your guide as you move through the year(s). You begin by looking back in order to understand where you have been and what will be required to move forward. It would be considered a best practice to have one, to document it, and then review and monitor it on a regular basis.

In the last article we discussed developing a plan, taking stock of your history and putting a road map in place for the future by considering what has worked and has not worked. This article is about the next step, the importance of a focused strategy and the consistency of execution.

In the last two articles, we covered developing a business development plan and the importance of a strategy and consistency of execution. This article will focus on your referral network: identifying the right partner and establishing service models that work.

The first step in the development of a strategy is to fully understand where your new business came from in the past and what you did to get it. This will require you to gather a few years of data, because many times what we think happened may be a bit different than what actually occurred.

Best practice dictates that companies have a business development policy in place. It provides the guidance needed to ensure successful growth of the company. It also helps to mitigate risk. Once a policy is established a process for implantation is the next step to drive consistency in execution and messaging. The following are some of the questions you should be asking and answering as you put your plan into place.

This worksheet was developed to assist with your decision in adding a dedicated sales position to your staff.