The Checklist Solution

My experience with checklists goes back to my days in grad school when I scrounged together some money to take flying lessons. My flight instructor pounded into my head, "Do your pre-flight checklist or you might die." I got the message. In many respects the entire marketing system I built has a series of checklists as its foundation. These checklists enable team members to:

1. Avoid mistakes due to interruptions. You can pick up where you left off.
2. Give a uniform standard of good service.
3. Ensure new team members follow the same procedure.
4. Perhaps most importantly, using a checklist you should be able to capture, and then implement, a best practice you read or hear about.

What would a checklist look like?

First of all, you don't have to call it a checklist. You could call it, as does Ritz Carlton, "The Three Steps of Service."

1. A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest's name.
2. Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest's needs.
3. Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest's name.

Few would argue that the Ritz Carlton "Three Steps of Service" constitutes a best practice. Perhaps the best practice for implementing a best practice is: embed it in a checklist.

So a best practice could, or even should, be in checklist form.

Let's consider some other characteristics of a checklist.

A checklist would ideally be simple.

It would be thorough.

It would provide the best way to handle a recurring problem or opportunity.

Consider something you do every day: talk to clients. Do you always get the information you need? Are you prepared?

Here is a vital best practice. I call it "The Law": "Every contact and contact attempt with a client or prospect produces an updated record in the computer."

The Law will save you. It is the foundation of the marketing system I created. Hardly a month goes by that I don't get an e-mail or call thanking me for teaching the discipline inherent in The Law.

Just consider: You can be right. Your investments can be suitable. Your service can be impeccable. But all it takes is one bad-apple client alleging unsuitability to destroy a career built over a lifetime. Unless you can prove you followed the four principles for suitability in FINRA 2310, you could have followed them and still have your goose cooked.

To implement The Law you need a checklist. To implement FINRA 2310, you need a checklist. I have written several checklists for you. Consider one I recommend for preparing for a client call:
__ Review client account.
__ Review last few notes. Outstanding issues?
__ Review profile. Am I up-to-date on __financial status __tax status __investment objectives __other reasonable information needed.
__ Decide on an objective for the call ___________.

Now set an agenda:
__ Check how their family is doing.
__ Ask the client what's on their mind.
__ Agree on an agenda.
__ Check for additional funds.
__ Check for outside investments.
__ Promote referrals.

Then you should have a place to write:
__ Notes (what did happen).
__ Actions (what will happen).
__ Opportunities (investments or events that will result in cash available in the future).
__ Outside investments discovered.
__ Service issues.
__ Referrals received.
__ Message to send.

At the end of the call, your notes are done. Ideally you have someone who can properly process them. If not, you're it. Our recommendation is: you set aside time each day to process your notes — part of yet another checklist, the Model Day.

I've gone back through some past articles I've written for Research. Based on these, I've created some "Best Practices Checklists." You will find them at www.billgood.com/bestpractices, on subjects ranging from getting published to evaluating wholesalers to surviving in tough times.

Bill Good is chairman of Bill Good Marketing. His Gorilla CRM System helps advisors double their production or work half as much. Visit his website.