MIND THE PERFORMANCE GAP

Transcription

1 Business Advisor Report 2018 MIND THE PERFORMANCE GAP Building a high performing advisory business by bridging the gap between capability and success

2 2 Table of contents About the report 3 Key findings from the Mindshop Business Advisor Report Five business advisory phases 6 Ten business advisory capabilities for Ten high performance habits 13 Bringing it all together 16 About Mindshop 18

3 3 About the report Building new capabilities provides you a ticket to the game as an advisor but does not automatically guarantee your success. In this report, discover both the business advisory capabilities and high performance habits that will help bridge the gap to success in If your education is finished, you are finished. Dr Chris Mason, Founder, Mindshop Continuous improvement is critical when it comes to building business capabilities. While the capabilities a business advisor needs to learn or refine are similar each year, business advisors need to commit to lifelong learning to master their skills in order to keep up with ever evolving client needs and market changes. However, investing time building capabilities alone is not enough to guarantee success. What are the habits that successful business advisors display over and above just capability to translate them into success? How do they plug the performance gap? Mindshop surveyed over 160 business leaders and advisors in 9 countries providing valuable data and insights to highlight 10 capabilities and 10 high performance habits needed for business advisory success in 2018.

4 4 Key findings from the Mindshop Business Advisor Survey 2018 Figure 1: Advisors are focused on refining their business models in 2018 Q. What are the top 3 skills or capabilities you need to focus on improving during 2018 to succeed in your role? Business model refinement Marketing tools & techniques Sales conversion skills Understanding future trends Coaching and developing people Facilitation skills 13% 9% 11% 13% 10% 9% 9% 14% 8% 8% 8% 7% Figure 2: Strategic planning days are most likely to be offered as a service by advisors in 2018 Q. What advisory service lines are you currently offering in your advisory business in 2017 and what are you planning on offering in 2018? Top 3 service lines advisors plan to offer in Strategic planning days 2. Monthly / quarterly coaching 3. Initial business reviews / health checks Services more likely to be offered by advisors in 2018 than Virtual coaching 2. Growth and profit workshops Figure 3: Finding the time or capacity is the predominant concern for advisors in 2018 Q. What are your top 3 biggest concerns about doing business in 2018? Figure 4: 91% of advisors are seeking to grow in 2018 Q. As an advisor, what percentage of growth are you targeting for 2018? Finding the time or capacity Ability to implement Boosting client spend Ability to sell effectively Adoption of new technologies Lack of clarity of vision 16% 14% 14% 10% 11% 11% 9% 11% 9% 11% 8% 2% <-20% -20% to -10% -10% to 0% 0% 0% to 10% 10% to 20% 20% Figure 5: Referrals is the number one lead generation technique that advisors will use in 2018 Q. What are the top three sales initiatives you will adopt in 2018 to draw in new leads? Figure 6: Confidence in the business climate grows in line with level of capability Q. Please rate your level of confidence about the business climate in 2018 (on a scale of -5 to 5). External referrals 25% 28% Face to face keynote presentations 13% 16% Alliances Referrals from team members 11% 13% 10% 2% Social media 8% 8% Business Leader Advisors AMSF AMSF +

5 5 Key findings from the Mindshop Business Advisor Survey 2018 Figure 7: On average, 55% of respondents achieved or over-achieved their targets in 2017 Q. How did you perform against your targets in 2017? Figure 8: The majority of business advisors earn $101,000 - $200,000 AUS per annum from advisory services. Q. What was the annual income from business advisory achieved by you personally in 2017? Dramatically under-performed 10% Slightly under-performed 28% 26% $AUS earned per annum Achieved my targets 24% 17% 17% 15% Slightly over-achieved 20% 10% 9% Greatly over-achieved 11% 6% I didn't have any targets for % 0-20k 21-50k k k k k 400k + Figure 9: Advisors use a myriad of technologies to assist achieving their business goals Q. What technology do you currently use? Social Media Management CRM broadcasts Video conferencing or webinars Virtual coaching, support or training File management Notetaking Dashboards or financial analysis Pen & Paper 3. Insights from the Mindshop Business Leader Survey 2018 Figure 1: Clients want assistance with strategy implementation from their advisors Q. What topics or issues would you most value covering with your business advisor in 2018? 1. Implementation of strategies 2. Strategic planning 3. Sales Figure 2: Clients want to be challenged by their advisors Q. What trait do you value most in a business advisor? Strategic thinking Ability to challenge 3 Great coach 2 Ability to challenge Strategic thinking 3 Great coach

6 6 Five Business Advisory Phases Where to prioritise time developing capabilities will depend on where an advisor is focused in the five phases of business advisory services. These five phases start with data then insights, problem solving, strategy and finally implementation. Each provides greater value to the end customer as you move through the phases but also requires a much greater level of capability to deliver successfully. Not all advisors need or want to progress through all phases so this should be taken into context when reflecting on what capabilities to build in

7 7 Ten Business Advisory Capabilities for 2018 The Mindshop Business Advisor Survey 2018 revealed ten capabilities advisors need to focus on as a foundation for success. Whilst these fundamental capabilities don t substantially change from year to year, advisors should embrace lifelong learning to hone their skills and stay ahead of evolving client and target market industry needs.

8 8 Ten Business Advisory Capabilities for 2018 Clear Business Advisory Model Business model refinement was the leading factor identified by advisors to focus on for success in the Mindshop Advisor Survey Advisors need a clear business advisory offering and pricing structure that describes in layman s terms solutions to help customers achieve their profit and growth objectives. Without a clear offer and positioning, internal colleagues and external networks will find it difficult to explain your solution with confidence to potential referrals. Business models should be augmented with new technologies to improve the value to customers and provide leverage to allow advisors to help more customers more often. One-to-many support models should also be embraced. 1. Create a clearly defined list of business advisory offerings and pricing 2. Determine which technologies you need to embrace to allow greater leverage to help more customers in 2018 Strategic Marketing With 91% of advisor respondents wanting to grow their business in 2018 and 45% not achieving or even having targets in 2017, a different approach is required to marketing advisory services for most to get cut through. A quality contact program should form the core of any marketing strategy, demonstrating your proof of capability to target markets via appropriate online and offline mediums. Your messaging should be authentic to resonate with the challenges of the target market. A contact program is an action plan to move a prospect through the sales cycle or build customer lifetime value - extending tenure or increasing spend. Any number of activities can be classified as a contact an , invitation to an event, or just a coffee. 1. Define your target market and their challenges 2. Build a quality foundation - brand, website and social presence 3. Build a contact program that demonstrates your proof of capability and authentic views on key challenges of your target market 4. Implement different intensities of contact as a prospect moves along your contact program towards a purchase 5. Measure what works, and what doesn t. Adapt quickly

9 9 Ten Business Advisory Capabilities for 2018 Referral System Advisors identified external referrals as the predominant method of sourcing new business in 2018, but most don t have a referral system in place. Asking internal colleagues or members of your network for referrals is not enough. You need to be able to clearly demonstrate capability to deliver successful outcomes to give them the confidence to refer you. Provide potential referrers information about your desired target customers, capacity, your capabilities and evidence of your success. Finally, be wary of giving the impression you re just too busy, this will push away referrals without you knowing it. 1. Develop a referrers reference sheet outlining your target customers, offering and evidence of your success 2. Ensure you self-promote your desired growth goals 3. Demonstrate capability to referrers Ability to Convert Advisors with terrific problem-solving, listening skills and the ability to challenge are getting cut -through with potential clients. Double down on your ability to problem solve to accelerate your sales conversions and avoid getting caught up in your own pitch. The Challenger Sale book by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson talks about taking control of the conversation, pushing customers out of their comfort zone and challenging the status quo. To take a more value-based sales approach, you need to be able to listen effectively then demonstrate how you are the best problem solver in the room, assisting in the achievement of clients goals or objectives. 1. Develop mastery in problem solving skills to drive a conversation to action 2. Learn how to run a meeting effectively. Structure it using Now-Where-How 3. Be a very effective listener 4. Challenge customers and ask questions but only after understanding their goals 5.

10 10 Ten Business Advisory Capabilities for 2018 Strategic Planning Survey results show that 17% of business leaders placed implementation of strategies in the top three issues they would most value covering with a business advisor in 2018, closely followed by strategic planning with 12% of respondents. So it s no surprise that strategic planning was ranked first of the services most likely to be offered by advisors in 2018, making it essential for advisors to have the fundamental skills to deliver core business advisory tools that make up a typical strategic planning workshop. Leaders seek greater focus to drive their businesses forward and advisors need to be able to deliver specific workshops (over and above a strategic planning workshop) to assist in areas such as leadership, growth and profit, resulting in actionable one page plans. 1. Master key business advisory tools required to deliver a strategic planning workshop 2. Become fluent in other workshop topics that would be required on a regular basis by your target market Solving any issue Having quality conversations and asking great questions to better understand clients opportunities and challenges is a good starting point for business advisors. However questions will only get you so far when clients surprise you with ad-hoc meeting requests or off agenda topics, when seeking assistance on specific actions and strategies. Page Plan. Use these same tools in your own business to build confidence in a safe environment so they become part of your natural style of doing business. In these situations, the ability to display agility using problem-solving skills drives confidence (for clients and the advisor) and is a fantastic starting point for any advisor to win more advisory work. Keep it simple, complex tools take longer to achieve fluency, so focus on a tool sequence such as Mindmap, Pareto, Force Field and One 1. Become adept at 5-10 key problem solving tools 2. Ensure you use them on your own business first to build fluency 3. Build the capability to ask powerful questions 5.

11 11 Ten Business Advisory Capabilities for 2018 Agile facilitation Advisors with great facilitation skills are able to get more buy-in to the planning process and ownership of outcomes than those who merely consult with clients or deliver a scripted program. Jumping on a whiteboard to work through a client challenge or opportunity is a powerful skill when coupled with a high level of competence in both strategic and problem solving tools. The resulting confidence from having these fundamentals means advisors can address any client challenge, with any sized group and drive plans into actions. The ability to stay agile and keep a workshop to time with clear actions only comes through a wealth of practice in the field. There is no short-cut to success. 1. Complete the Mindshop facilitation skills online course 2. Practice, practice, practice 3. Review tool training videos before and after facilitating to review your performance Time management Time management is hinged closely with your personal brand, it shows the ability to meet deadlines and be responsive. Being perceived as too busy impacts your ability to grow. Your network is much less likely to refer you to others if they perceive you to lack the capacity to complete the work. Being able to successfully prioritise high value activities not only in your work, but also in your personal life will guard your valuable time carefully and make the most of every day. Ensure you are utilizing the latest technologies, surrounding yourself with a quality team, embedding great systems and processes and outsourcing to trusted partners any appropriate tasks. These techniques will leave time and energy to focus on delivering value for clients and in your own business. 1. Avoid ground-hog years by repeating poor time management habits and making excuses 2. Stop surrounding yourself with energy vampires whether staff, clients or friends 3. Adopt new technologies to provide you greater leverage 4. Attract and retain quality team members and partners for support 5. Document systems and processes across the business 6. Create a stop-doing list of low value tasks 5.

12 12 Ten Business Advisory Capabilities for 2018 Implementation & coaching Don t pay me for the plan, pay me for the implementation. Russell Cummings, Mindshop advisor Often development of a strategic plan is the easy part of working with customers. Driving implementation on the other hand can be challenging. Advisors need to have a flexible enough methodology to vary the pace of change when coaching during the implementation phase to ensure they don t burn out clients by pushing too much change, too quickly. Understanding the key factors contributing to successful change is critical for an advisor. Momentum is often more important than wasting time on the perfect plan to ensure that as an engagement progresses real barriers and issues can be identified and addressed. 1. Build fluency in delivery of Dr Chris Mason s Change Success Model 2. Have a consistent approach using proven models to assist implementation of change with a client 3. Evolve your coaching abilities Technology early adoption Being an early adopter of technology means you re never one to risk all by being the first to do something, but instead you look at the technology emerging around you and review how effectively it could make your life more efficient and more valuable to your customers. With the rapid rate of change, you can not avoid being an technology early adopter and still hope to grow your advisory business. Which technologies will help provide you a competitive advantage in 2018? 1. Review what technologies to adopt and add leverage and efficiency to your business 2. Identify how you can use technologies to augment and improve the way you work with customers What technologies will allow you to support and add value to more customers, more often from anywhere in the world? 5.

13 13 Ten high performance habits to translate capability into success Investing time in generating capability alone is no guarantee of success. Capabilities, whilst forming a solid foundation, then require an additional layering of ten high performance habits to achieve success. Gathered from the results of the Mindshop Business Advisor Survey 2018 and from Mindshop s 20 years experience in the industry, these high performance habits can make all the difference to the achievement of goals for a business advisor. Reflect on how you rate in these high performance habits to determine gaps for improvement in 2018.

14 14 Ten high performance habits to translate capability into success Strategic mental models Intuitive decision maker High performers tap into the power of tools and models to shape their philosophy as leaders, when developing strategy, working with teams and working with customers. They avoid relying solely on their business acumen, conversational skills and questioning skills. Using mental models like Now-Where- How helps communicate a path to a solution, lifts retained learning, focuses strategic thought and simplifies the complexity on any matter in a business. All of us have the ability to be intuitive, to tap into the knowledge and experience gathered over many, many years but which is no longer in our conscious mind. If business intuition is leveraged well it will speed up and facilitate more robust decision making. In fact, the latest thinking shows that successful entrepreneurs use a 50/50 mix of intuitive and rational decision making. Reduce the noise around yourself to tap into your intuition as much as your rational thoughts. Efficient tenacity Change ready Tenacity is a key trait of high performers in an increasingly cluttered and time poor business environment. You can t help all the people all the time. It s not just the hard work that delivers success; it s about efficiently applying energy in the right place by being strategic as to where to place focus and hanging in there when the going gets tough. Clarity of purpose and their why guides this journey. Empowers great teams When change readiness is high, successful implementation of any project becomes much more likely. Relying purely on the trial and error approach results in only a 30% probability of success. Focusing on a high level of the key elements of change success: 1. Readiness 2. Capability & 3. Beliefs will ensure high performers are change ready before embarking on growing the business or a new initiative. Surrounding yourself with a great team, great suppliers and great customers provides the right environment for growth. Avoid the temptation to micro-manage. Identify those in the team with a high level of enthusiasm and skill level to trust and challenge with special projects. Don t be distracted by politics and quickly move on those in the team that don t fit your values or culture to avoid distraction.

15 15 Ten high performance habits to translate capability into success Self-aware & authentic Business people with a high level of self-awareness about their strengths and weaknesses and the impact of their behaviour on others (having high emotional intelligence) are able to adjust their approach to best suit a situation or personality. Authenticity is a highly valued trait of business leaders and advisors so that those around you have a feeling of what you see is what you get. Don t be afraid to challenge the status quo and ask the difficult questions. Leverages technology High performers don t have to be at the bleeding edge of innovation but certainly in the early adopter or early majority stage. They understand you can t move quickly in the current world without leveraging technology effectively. You can transform the way you use technology by reflecting on the SAMR model (which stands for substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition). How can you use technology to modify or redefine what you do for the better, rather than just use it to substitute a specific task you used to do without technology? Simplifies complexity Taking complex or detailed concepts and communicating them in a way that s relevant and easily understood by an audience, whether that be a team member or customer is a key habit of successful business leaders and advisors. Adaptable & agile Being adaptable means having the ability to change approach and style to suit the situation. By having multiple speeds when implementing change with teams and customers, advisors can adjust to changing circumstances to avoid change burn out. High self-awareness is a critical trait in this situation, allowing advisors to recognise the need to adapt early to stay relevant and in touch. Life-long learning mindset Success is not a destination, but a journey and this is the same with the capability and habits of successful business leaders and advisors who have a mindset of life-long learning, bringing their A game on a consistent basis. They recognise the importance of investing in continuous learning and mastery of their skills. If your education is finished, you are finished.

16 16 Bringing it all together On the tables below, rate yourself for each capability and high performance habit out of ten where zero is very low and ten is very high. Add up the scores and plot them on the graph overleaf. Capability Score 1. Clear business advisory model 2. Strategic marketing 3. Referral system 4. Ability to convert 5. Strategic planning 6. Solving any issue 7. Agile facilitation 8. Time management 9. Implementation and coaching 10. Technology early adoption Total /100 High Performance Habits Score 1. Strategic mental models 2. Efficient tenacity 3. Empowers great teams 4. Intuitive decision maker 5. Change ready 6. Self aware and authentic 7. Leverages technology 8. Life-long learning mindset 9. Simplifies complexity 10. Adaptable and agile Total /100

17 17 Are you ready for success? You may display a high level of capability in the ten areas outlined earlier in this report but still not be achieving the success you desire. Those achieving success are characterised by the high performance habits consistently applied in the field and with internal teams, layered on top of a strong foundation of continuously evolving capabilities. How do you rate out of ten for each capability and high performance habit? Where are your gaps? Plot yourself on the grid below to guide the strategies you should implement in 2018 to improve your probability of business advisory success. Good luck! 1. Stagnation: low capability and low performance leads to stagnation and groundhog years. Often leading to people giving up and going back to old habits and processes. 2. Frustration: investing heavily in building capability without seeing results leads to increasing frustration and confusion because high performance habits are needed to translate capabilities into success. 3. Rising Star: existing high performance habits lay strong foundations for success, but without a continuous investment in building the right capabilities, opportunities are often lost, time wasted and confidence is diminished. 4. Success: high capability combined with high performance habits significantly boosts the probability of success, a continuous investment in evolving habits and capabilities, aligned with customer and market demands avoids sliding back to stagnation. Key actions What are your top three key actions to achieve greater success in 2018?

18 18 About Mindshop Mindshop delivers everything business advisors need to successfully build, grow, sell and deliver advisory services to any sized customer, anywhere in the world. Founded in 1994 in Melbourne, Australia by leading management consultant, Dr Chris Mason, Mindshop has now grown to support over 1,000 business advisors and leaders in 9 countries. Mindshop supports advisors by providing: Experienced coaching support Regular face-to-face and online business advisory skills training Hundreds of pre-built advisory solutions Global community of business advisors sharing best practice Innovative coaching and training technology to leverage with customers Australia, New Zealand & International James Mason Managing Director jmason@mindshop.com North America Dr Chris Mason Founder cmason@mindshop.com Europe Gill Burn Regional Director gburn@mindshop.com Mindshop International 2018 Terminology Accredited Mindshop Facilitator (AMSF) status is an indication of an advisor s superior level of mastery of the Mindshop tools and methodologies. The requirement to reach each accreditation tier is as follows: Advisor default for all Mindshop members. AMSF - Completion of 10 of the 19 Mindshop Online training courses, an active member of the community and is approved by a Mindshop Director. AMSF+ - Meets the requirement for AMSF status and has delivered Mindshop content via a Business Leader or Academy group for over 12 months