Principal^® Business Needs Assessment

Process

It’s easy to get started with this holistic approach that can help your clients identify concerns and options to help them protect the financial well-being of their business and prepare for the future.

Before contacting clients and prospects, you should do the following:

Familiarize yourself by running through the Business Needs Assessment tool to better understand the questions asked and the types of reports provided.

Learn about the two ways you can work with your clients and prospects to create a personalized assessment.  View the guided assessment process and email assessment process approaches below. Many financial professionals prefer using a combination of these two approaches.

Guided assessment process

Step 1. Send the Business Needs Assessment (OFT) email to business owners you’d like to meet with to get them thinking about financial planning needs they may have.

Step 2. Follow up with them within 7-10 days and schedule a meeting—in person or virtually.

Step 3. On the day of the meeting, prior to the start of your meeting, go to the Business Needs Assessment tool, and click on the “Start Assessment Now” button in the Guided Assessment section to share with your client/prospect.

Step 4. Gather feedback along the way:

• What are their thoughts/expectations about the process?
• What are their thoughts about the results?
• Was it what they expected? If not, what did they expect?
• What could be improved with the tool to make a better experience and/or results?

Step 5. Review the results with them and determine the next steps.

Email assessment process

Step 1. Send the Business Needs Assessment email to your targeted clients and prospects. Note that you may send your own personalized email, but make sure to include a new, unique link in each email you send.

Step 2. After you’ve received email notice of the client’s completed assessment(s), follow up with them to schedule a meeting—in person or virtually.

Step 3. On the day of the meeting, access the email you sent the client that contained the customized link. Click on the link, share your screen, and walk the client through each assessment. It should only take about 10-15 minutes.

Step 4. Gather feedback along the way:

• What are their thoughts/expectations about the process?
• What are their thoughts about the results?
• Was it what they expected? If not, what did they expect?
• What could be improved with the tool to make a better experience and/or results?

Step 5. Review the results with them and determine the next steps.

Considerations for completed assessments

If they’ve completed the “Protecting your business” assessment, consider the following:

• What are their pain points?
• Have they recently had their business valued? Are they interested in a complimentary informal business valuation? Complete this RFP.
• Do they have a buy-sell agreement in place? If they don’t, are they interested in a business continuation report? Complete this RFP.
• If they have a buy-sell agreement, when was it last reviewed/updated? Would they benefit from a complimentary review? Complete this RFP.
• Do they need to review their key person insurance? Use this Key Person Calculator.

If they’ve completed the “Protecting your employees” assessment, consider the following:

• What are their pain points?
• Do they have existing benefits they aren’t happy with? Are they curious about how they “stack up” against other similar companies? Help them evaluate their benefits package.
• Do they have key employee retention and retirement solutions in place? If yes, are they happy with them? Would they like to add or review their existing plans? If they have existing plans, complete this RFP (PDF).
• If they don’t have a current plan, would they consider adding one? Complete this RFP (PDF).
• Or, if they’re just interested in learning more about key employee benefits, share this concepts guide (PDF).

If they’ve completed the “Protecting your lifestyle” assessment, consider the following:

• What are their pain points?
• Do they have a life insurance need? Help them evaluate their new or changing insurance needs (DOC).
• Do they have existing life insurance that needs to be reviewed? If yes, use this checklist (PDF).
• What about estate planning? Is their estate in order—wills, trusts, gifting strategies, inheritance equalization? Share this estate planning questionnaire (PDF) and this financial and estate planning documentation workbook (PDF) for their use.

Sample reports

What will your client get?

• A personalized report with an analysis of how they’re doing and feedback to help them reach their business goals
• Next steps to help secure their financial well-being
• Information on topics relevant to helping protect their business—from things like buy-sell planning and funding, to plans for recruiting, retaining, rewarding, and retiring their key employees

Use these samples to see what each report includes:

• Protecting your business (PDF)
• Protecting your employees (PDF)
• Protecting your lifestyle (PDF)