Advisor Network Monthly Call

Building Your BrandMay 2013

Kris FuehrMarketing DirectorCorelyticswww.corelytics.comkris@corelytics.com425-830-0867

Frank CokerCEO

CoreConnex, Inc.www.corelytics.com

frank@corelytics.com425-454-5006

Agenda

News & Housekeeping: • Meet our new team member, Sean Ostrander• Leads from Corelytics• Four 1-min conversation starter vids now available• Call for stories for upcoming book: “Pulse: The

Heartbeat of Your Company” (5 mins)

Building your Brand

Corelytics Advisor Program Overview (for newbies)

Meet Sean Ostrander, Advisor Account Manager

• Sean is more support for you • Keep you moving along your path• Help you set up or close deals

Leads

• Get 3 clients• Commit to

follow-up & report activity(example)

1-Minute Conversation Starters now available

1. Value to Advisors WITH Customers2. Unlock your data3. Trends4. Projecting your Performance

Access them from www.corelytics.com/vidshorts

Request more topics from: kris@corelytics.com

Call for Stories!Seeking interviews with customers for book (not necessarily Dashboard users)

Publish date: Nov/Dec 2013

BUILDING YOUR BRAND

Randy Pozniak, CPALessons from a Lake Wobegone CPA– Big community supporter– Known to speak in laymen’s terms– Shared his learning freely– Lunched w/ local Radio Station owner– Full of ideas and proposals– Remote clients calling

from feeder cities

Brand Building• KNOW: What are you about?

– What do you believe in? – When/where are you best?

• Industry expertise no one else has:– Aggregate data– Trends

• Consistency & commitment to sharing your ideas

• Collect credentials (quarterly/annually?)

• Write or Record but pick and stick• Proactively offer your expertise• Propose ideas• Partner, make others successful with you

Recommended reading: Daniel Pink: “Free Agent Nation”

William Arruda, Deb Dib “Ditch, Dare, Do”

Write and maintain a great bio on your site that search engines can find and convey that you are available to present

Get 3 professional photo poses and use them consistently everywhere

Own a small HD camera and record imperfectly! (don’t wait for perfection)

Industry

• Industry updates/reporting

• Expert analysis• Webinars/speaking

opptys

You?

Our Endorsement & Support

• Personal referral from Corelytics• Your own page & Directory (soon)• Industry speaking engagements

DASHBOARD EXERCISE

Top 10 Areas to Investigate w/ClientsCorelytics top 10 things to investigate each month

1. Revenue trends – look at the leading indicator (6 month trend) and at the 24 month trend to see “where the curve is bending.” Whatever the long term growth trend is, the leading indicator is bending that curve up or down. Taken together these curves tell you a lot about where the company is headed. Caution: the goal can’t be to only increase revenue. Increasing revenue can drive a company into the ground if everything else is not working correctly. More companies die from increased sales than from flat or even slowly declining sales. Solutions must be holistic.

2. Expense to revenue trend – compare the 24 month revenue growth rate to the 24 month expense growth rate; if expenses are growing faster than revenues the company is not sustainable in the long-term.

3. Revenue / expense forecast – on the revenue forecast screen click on expenses (red box) and see how the expense trend lines up with the high and low performance scenarios. If these lines cross, that is a highly important clue that expenses and revenues trends are on a potential collision course.

4. Short-term cash trend – go to the cash leading indicator to see where cash is headed in the short-term. The cash leading indicator shows your average cash balance at the end of the month compared with average monthly revenue in the past 3 months. Ideally a company should have the equivalent of more than one month of revenue in cash. The Cash leading indicator should ideally show a number greater than 100% under “actual”, but all too often companies operate close to the line. If they are nearly out of gas, nothing else matters.

5. Long-term cash trend – go to balances, cash and look at the 24 month trend line to see how cash is tracking with revenue and expense. If the long-term cash growth percent is less than the long-term revenue growth trend, you are looking at a company that is not healthy. It means that the company is not building cash. If a company can’t build cash over time, there is a clue that they are not managing their resources and they are putting their company at risk by not conserving cash.

6. Margin growth – compare the 24 month margin growth rate with the 24 month revenue growth rate. If revenue is growing faster than gross margin, the company is actually losing ground as it grows. Companies in this condition should stop revenue growth and should focus on underlying costs (specifically on COGS) and figure out if costs are too high or prices are too low. The underlying problem should be fixed before the company pushes for growth.

7. COGS validation – be sure that all direct costs are mapped to COGS, if not, you will not know if your pricing is correct and you will not know where to make adjustments to improve net profit.

8. Profit growth – if revenue is increasing faster than profit, your company is working harder and you are getting smaller profits as you grow and basically have a business that is going downhill. This is generally a big clue that the business is fundamentally unhealthy. This problem should have been noticed in one of the earlier steps, but, if not, this is the final proof that the company is either healthy or unhealthy. if your COGS are accurate and your gross margin is increasing faster than revenue, then the only thing left that will improve profits is a reduction to overheads.

9. Progress against goals – and big problems are going to be discovered in the prior 8 steps. The big problem areas need to have goals. Then each month, review progress against the most important goals. Only focus on 2 or 3 goals per month. The charts showing progress toward goals should be copied to a word document or a slide and shared with the broader management team. They need to see the gap between actual and goal and they need to participate in closing the gap. The gap should be monitored every month until progress is made and the gap is on a track to close.[Recommendation – set the start date for growth goals to at least 6 months in the past; 12 months is better. That way you can see much more clearly how trends compare with goals over the long term. Goals are not the same as a budget. They are there to show desired direction.]

10. LOB performance – don’t dig too deep into LOB performance until the company is comfortable with the combined view of their financials. The goal of LOB analysis is to find the LOB that is contributing the most to profitability and the one that is performing the worst. Thought should then be given to maximizing winners and minimizing losers.

CORELYTICS ADVISOR NETWORK OVERVIEW

NextGen Accountants• Subscription-based services• Compares client performance• Offers diagnostic services• Supports strategic decisions• Serves clients year-long• Aides in sharing performance

with client’s staff• Often works remotely• Gives clients an owner-view

Advisor Value

• More value• Less time data-wrangling• New value-added services• Marketing, sales & tech support

30 clients, 1 hour/month, $300/mo each client =

$100K supplemental annual revenue

Typical Advisor Offerings• Subscription-based pricing, usually $300-500/month whereby the advisor

remotely consults through monthly or quarterly recurring meetings by logging into the dashboard, reviewing trends for a few minutes before the call, then jointly logging in and reviewing with the client for an hour. This is a 2-hour/month investment of your time at most per client. When client needs rescuing or more help, standard consulting rates apply.

• Promotional offer, typically a free initial consultation (phone or in person) and often coupled with a custom “Financial Report” derived from the numbers you get from the dashboard. For a time (until we hit capacity), we can run these for you on request.

• Reports and Summaries: Sometimes as simple as a blog, others do webinars with the findings from their industry. We’re doing an Advisor Call Wed this week to talk about “Building your Brand” and this is a key component.

+ an industry affiliation AND a relationship with the top 2 or 3 associations in your industry.

Getting Started Decide if you pay or client pays for dashboard Get your dashboard set up. Certify for logo. Set up your offerings and pricing Co-market/sell.

$79/mo $60/mo

$99/mo retail direct

Meet Others, Share the Ride

Join Gina Fridays with other Dashboard AdvisorsGina Rodkey ginasvbook@gmail.com for Google Hang-out instructions.

Thanks!

Kris FuehrMarketing DirectorCorelytics, Inc.www.corelytics.comkris@corelytics.com425-830-0867

Frank CokerCEO

CoreConnex, Inc.www.corelytics.com

frank@corelytics.com425-454-5006