No matter how big or small your advisory firm is, if you want to develop a successful executive services offering it is prudent to start with a pilot project and a documented plan. Here is a list of items that should be included in the plan. Keep in mind that project stakeholders need to be involved in the development of the pilot plan and once completed, a project manager will be needed to implement it.
- Pilot Objectives and Procedures to Capture the Results:
- New clients?
- Assets under management?
- Number of Cases?
- Positive survey feedback?
- Pilot Scope:
- Length of Pilot?
- People involved in the pilot and their roles?
- Budget (e.g. training, promotion, setup, system usage, etc.)?
- Equity Compensation Management Offering Description (required for promotion and training):
- Workshops or seminars?
- Periodic consultations (using reports and what-if dashboards)?
- Nightly decision criteria monitoring?
- Participant system usage?
- Target Market Definition:
- Type of executives (e.g. Officers)?
- Specific companies, departments or locations?
- Event driven (e.g. education, seminar, marketing program)?
- Resources and Logistics:
- Identify pilot project manager and system administrator
- Setup system access for users
- Customize deliverables (e.g. report templates, monitoring alerts, participant communications, etc.)
- Create sample case for training and marketing
- Training:
- Administrator (manages the system)
- Planning Advisors (creates the cases)
- Relationship Advisors (delivers reports and receives monitor alerts)
- Corporate Approvals:
- Compliance
- Legal
- Vendor management
- Data privacy and security
Bill Dillhoefer is the CEO of Net Worth Strategies, Inc. a service firm specializing in equity compensation risk analysis and tax planning tools for financial advisors. Their tools (StockOpter.com & StockOpter Pro) are used by many well known financial service firms to generate business by assisting clients to diversify their company stock and options. Bill is the editor of the StockOpter University Blog which is dedicated to the topic of when to exercise employee stock options and diversify company stock holdings. He has spoken at the NASPP conference and to numerous advisor groups. Connect with him via email at bdillhoefer@networthstrategies.com, on LinkedIn or follow him @StockOpter.