Fortis Law are a relatively new business when it comes to our brand but we’re made up of 19 experienced industry professionals.
Many members of our team have been involved in estate planning for many years and between the management team alone we have nearly 100 years’ experience. We’ve joined forces at Fortis to grow a recognisable brand with a customer centric approach, to support estate planners with a suite of transparent and profitable services and to ensure that we are continually driving innovation.
When you consider that 54% of UK adults don’t have a valid Will, there is plenty of opportunity to build a sustainable business but to give it the best chance of succeeding then you have to get a few key things right. These tips apply whether you are a one man band, or whether you have a team of professionals working with you. Here are some tips from the team at Fortis Law:
- Understand your vision and identify your objectives
- Know your USP
- Put a plan in place with measurable targets
- Operate using a CRM system
- Measure and track outcomes
- Build your digital footprint
- Spend time on your business and not just in the business
Understand your vision and identify your objectives
What do you want to achieve? What targets and objectives have you set yourself? Do you want to achieve £60k per year? Do you want to see 5 new clients per week? Are you building your business to grow a storage income? Do you ultimately want to build and then sell your business?
These are some of the questions that might inform your objectives. At Fortis Law, our Business Development Manager – Tom Stansfield has supported hundreds of business with their growth plans, and would be happy to talk through yours giving ideas and feedback. There is no cost to this, just give him a call on 07780114186. During the call he will discuss your product portfolio, your average customer spend, your client journey and how Fortis may have solutions to help you set your targets. He’ll talk about what is stopping your business from growing and how to kickstart growth. One of the main problems businesses face is not being able to get in front of enough clients. We’ve solved this by being able to provide FREE leads to our partners. Tom can talk to you about becoming a partner and the available opportunities open to you.
Know your USP
Whilst there is plenty of business to go around, it’s important to understand what makes you different or what the benefit of someone coming to you is. It might be that you specialise in working with vulnerable clients, that the network of professionals around you sets you apart, or it might be that you offer appointments at any time to suit the needs of your clients. What ever your USP is, is it clearly identifiable on your marketing material?
Planning
When it comes to planning, you don’t have to write the sort of business plan that you’d submit to a bank, just ensure that you’ve got some targets, written down, that are measurable. Then you’ll be able to create a simple marketing strategy which will work towards these targets and then revisit it every month, 3 months, or 6 months to ensure you’re on track. For example – I want to increase web traffic by 100% and drive traffic to my ‘contact us’ page. It might even be as simple as – ‘I want to understand why people are coming to my website’. Knowing what your objectives are, and then planning will allow you to take a step forward with your business.
CRM
A Client Relationship Management system (CRM) allows you to track the interaction you have with clients, record progress, update case files, plan when to contact clients, and manage leads. Whilst there are lots of off the shelf packages, what we would suggest is just having a system in place to ensure that you’re meeting your obligations to your clients. Fortis Law support our Partners with a portal*. This means that any work submitted to us is trackable. You can see how cases are progressing, raise tickets to ask questions and book appointments (telephone or physical) with our team. Our Portal is under development* so that you can also submit cases, and track what commission you’ve earnt through things like the Fortis Law Funeral Plan. Combining our Portal with a good case management system or CRM will help you to keep on top of your customer base meaning you’ll be able to spend more time on the business and not working in it.
Analysis
At Fortis Law we value the feedback from our Partners, staff and customers. During our regular meetings we use this feedback to inform future planning. Some of the recent feedback we received praised a member of our drafting team for their helpfulness and speed of response. This information helps us because we know that we’re succeeding in our objective to deliver excellent service through great communication and timely document production. When it comes to analyzing your business this is where the initial target or objective setting is key.
Digital Footprint
Expanding your digital footprint means making it as easy as possible for prospective clients to find you. This means having platforms like a Facebook page, a google my business page with client reviews, and making sure your website is optimized. Solve Legal (the team behind Today’s Wills and Probate) can assist with helping you to market your business.
Work on your business
Getting all of your ducks in a row will mean that you have more time to spend ‘on’ your business. Whilst it’s key to be able to manage the administrative functions within your business, the more time you spend drafting, looking for records, chasing the client, tracking and chasing payments etc. the less time you’ll have to build and market your business.
Whilst this is a high level overview of some of the simple tips you could use to grow your business, we are more than happy to support estate planners with business growth. We have lots of opportunities for estate planning professionals to develop themselves and their business. These opportunities come in the form of our monthly Partner Training Days, self-employed opportunities within Fortis, free leads, document drafting and administrative support or simply by offering great commissions on products like our probate or funeral plan.
Our Partner Training days take place at our offices in Burntwood (WS7 3GL) between 10am and 3pm. There is free parking, we provide refreshments and sandwiches as well as host of tips to help you better proposition your sales messages. We provide an introduction to Fortis, detail how we work with our Partners and then there is plenty of time for questions.
Fortis Law – Let’s work together
This article was submitted to be published by Fortis Law as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
