Windy Road

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 experience to help them transform their “practices” into sound business enterprises. The SWOOP® Jeff alludes to is our proprietary gap analysis and business plan program we have been doing 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, where by we analyze the gaps in an advisor’s business and lay-out 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::

  1. TOMA - Top of Mind Awareness (our term for Marketing)
  2. Administration and Mid-Office Support
  3. Fiscal and Asset Management (Your company’s Money)
  4. Human Resources, including a Kolbe® team analysis
  5. Technology
  6. Client Experience (our term for Sales Process)
  7. Strategic Planning

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 SWOOPs for advisors who are presently generating less than $750,000 per year.

The SWOOP Process

Our process begins by having the advisor, or firm’s principal, complete our web-based SWOOP® Data gathering Tool, which 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 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 & minimum of $750,000 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 3 years, when everything is working correctly. For some it can take longer.

Learn More

If you feel you and your practice can benefit from a SWOOP, 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 Chris O’Meara, Director or Programs, at 952-401-1045 or chris@vestmentadvisors.com.