SWOOP®

“Although we have strived for excellence, I can see how we will be able to go to a whole new level of excellence with your help! We really enjoyed the Bumper to Bumper Workshop with you in Phoenix, but the SWOOP® is really going to accelerate the process and completeness of our integration of the eight disciplines you teach. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m looking forward to it. Vestment Advisors is a gift from God!”

-Jeff Rogers Stewardship Advisory Group Ocoee, FL

For many years, Vestment Advisors has worked hard to have a profound impact on the businesses financial advisors are running across the country with comprehensive tools and useful gap analysis for the Investment Industry and beyond. People like Jeff Rogers have leaned on our more than two decades of practice management experience to help them transform their “practices” into sound business enterprises. The SWOOP® Jeff mentions is our proprietary gap analysis and business plan program we have integrated with advisors and advisory firms from coast-to-coast.

Probably the single biggest way to get a practice to the next level in the shortest amount of time is through a SWOOP®. We analyze the gaps in an advisor’s business (or a broker dealer) and layout a comprehensive, written, business plan. Each SWOOP looks at the firm/advisors’ Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Obstacles and then provides a written action Plan. Every report covers these critical areas:

The WOW Client Experience (our term for Sales Process)—We look at every area of interaction with clients and prospects to see if there are ways you can improve your process, identify better clients and close more business.
Marketing—including a detailed assessment of what is working of your firm and how to improve it to generate a steady stream of Derrières in Chairs®
Administration and Mid-Office Support—are you getting the kind of support you need to leverage your business, reduce your stress and increase valuation? Is it operating efficiently? What roadblocks are in your mid-office/back-office operations? Get your practice running at a “Six Sigma” level.
Fiscal and Asset Management (Your company’s Money). Are you as effective at leveraging the return on assets of your practice as you are at leveraging the return on your client’s assets? We run world-class analytics on your finances to spot ways you can increase valuation and profitability.
Human Resources: Are the right people on the bus in the right seat? Is the bus moving in the right direction? How about morale, and the culture of your practice? Assessing your team along with Kolbe® team analytics is always a critical part of a SWOOP. We will review your entire team and build specific strategies and tactic to create great synergy and great morale. Having the right people on the right seats in a bus moving in the right direction is worth everything it takes!
Technology. As the founder of ProfitSee Inc., a SaaS software company Peter brings knowledge of hardware, communications, security, and network rarely seen in the industry. Katherine’s “hands-on” familiarty with industry software and analytics. Combined, they bring a vast level of experience to assessing your technology.
Strategic Planning—Peter’s unique approach to strategic planning has been used by large companies and small. Find out how to create the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals and, more important, to reach them to raise valuation, increase profitability, and realize your dreams.

SWOOPs make the most sense for three groups: Managing Directors, Elite Advisors, and certain departments in Home Offices. Because SWOOPs are designed to help organizations that are successful, but hit a wall in terms of growth, we rarely engage in Full SWOOPs for advisors who are presently generating less than $500,000 per year. We do modified SWOOPs for advisors who are making $250,000 or more.

Note we only take on a few SWOOP engagements every year. So please apply and we will talk to you personally before we determine if you are a good fit for this process.

The SWOOP Process

Our process begins by having the advisor, or firm’s principal, complete our web-based SWOOP® Data gathering Tool. Not to worry! It takes about 30 minutes to complete. This tool delves into all of the critical areas of the advisor’s business, including the seven critical areas outlined above. Once this is finished, we ask the advisor to send us important information about the practice, including financials, marketing materials, a sample plan, and a number of other items. These materials help us prepare for the on-site visit our team makes to their office.

We then take two or more members of the Vestment Team to do an on-site visit, where we:

Interview the principal at length about goals, vision, issues, hot spots and pain factors
We interview the rest of the staff and occasionally some clients
We deliver a Kolbe® presentation to the staff
We review the facility
We review a mock first client meeting (unless a real client meeting is possible)
We provide ongoing feedback to the principal as issues/insights unfold during the visit
Delve into other areas as they present themselves

Once the on-site visit is complete, we take the information back to our home office and the Vestment Team dissects it as a group, creating a personalized report. The report is detailed, usually at least 20 pages, and customized to you and your team.

We then host the principal and key staff at our offices for a full-day presentation. This meeting allows us to deliver the SWOOP Report and provides us time to craft a customized business plan to address their most pressing needs and gaps. Once the plan is created, some advisors engage Vestment Advisors to provide telephone-based coaching or on-site consulting. We limit further consulting to four advisors every year.

Who Can Benefit From A SWOOP®?

The following is a typical profile of a SWOOP client:

A financial advisor with a high level of success and minimum of $500,000 in production
They have some staff in place
They are not adverse to adding staff if needed
They have the right attitude. In other words, they are humble enough to check their egos at the door and admit that they might be in pain.
They are in so much pain they are willing to make the changes necessary to create the business of their dreams
They are patient. This process can take 18 months to 2 years, for everything to reach the “new normal” in the practice. For some it can take longer.

Learn More

If you feel you and your practice can benefit from a SWOOP, and you would like to be considered as one of a few clients this year, please let us know. We can also send you a copy of a sample SWOOP Report so you can see first-hand the detail that is involved. Please contact us via email at info@vestmentadvisors.com or 952-401-1045.