THE RIGHT FIT ADVISOR PROCESS
Finding and securing the “right fit advisor” for your firm requires three important and well-planned phases:
- Hire
- Onboard
- Train
Advisors, who are part of C2P’s Rainmaker Multiplier Division, are given access to the proven Right Fit Advisor process, which includes training in each of these three phases and all the supporting templates, checklists, scripts, and other resources to help them execute the process in full.
HIRE
Having a good hiring process in place is important because you aren’t only looking for an advisor who’s a good fit for you, you’re looking for an advisor for whom you are a good fit as well.
For Don, hiring was the most critical part of the process. He was able to use C2P’s proven processes to articulate exactly what his company does and how they do it. Being able to explain and illustrate this to candidates provides them with the knowledge to decide if the company is right for them as well. This is a major element within the first step of a good hiring process – preparing for the hire – which includes things like determining the role and the qualifications needed, , developing a compensation package, and deciding what the interview process will look like.
Step 2 of the hiring process is evaluating candidates. Don worked with a partner to prepare and employ checklists, assessments, resume reviews, and more to ensure his candidates fit for the roles he was looking to fill.
The third phase of the hiring process is making the offer, which includes being prepared for negotiations that may occur once the offer is made.
ONBOARDING
Many advisors hire without an onboarding plan in place. The onboarding phase of C2P’s Right Fit Advisor process focuses on a clearly defined path to success. Without a clear understanding of what’s expected, new advisors can become frustrated – setting them up for failure or causing them to leave before they have a chance to succeed.
C2P’s Right Fit Advisor process has four steps within the onboarding phase:
- Document gathering/preparation
- Pre-operational logistics
- New hire onboarding schedule
- Post-operational logistics
Step one covers things like making sure you have a good employee handbook, benefits package, training manuals, and training schedules. Pre-operational logistics includes everything you need to do to prepare for your new hire before they actually begin working – background checks, fingerprinting, setting up their workspace, etc .
Steps three and four focus on everything that needs to be done once the new advisor begins, such as a first-day agenda, first week and first month strategies, 30-day review, ordering business cards, sending out a press release, and related activities.
TRAINING
Typically, training can take up to a year even when you do find a right fit advisor.
Training is about more than just products. New advisors need to be trained in technology, office systems and operations, salesmanship, sales process, financial knowledge, and products. Having a well-established infrastructure consisting of proven, duplicable processes in which everyone in the company is trained can help make this phase a lot more streamlined.
C2P’s Right Fit Advisor process provides training checklists and agendas you can use to make sure you are covering all the key training requirements and help schedule things like accountability checkpoints and other quality control measures.
Depending on the level at which the advisor is hired, quality control measures can be approached a few different ways. Don explains how he will join many of the first client calls his advisors have. He may even hold the calls himself, while an associate advisor observes and performs tasks such as completing fact finder templates.
He employs a similar process for seminars, in which he and his new advisor will start holding seminars together:
- At first, Don will present the whole seminar himself (beginning, middle, and end)
- Eventually, Don will handle the beginning and end, allowing the advisor to present the middle portion
- Don will present only at the end
- Finally, the advisor will present the complete seminar
CONCLUSION
There are a number of ways to approach finding right fit advisors for your firm. Don’s personal philosophy is to get them in front of people as soon as possible, get them as much activity as you can, and let them learn primarily through experience.
This kind of approach can be especially effective when you follow the Right Fit Advisor process to hire advisors who are rock stars already.