#116: What Do You Look For In People You Hire? The Power of Roadshows, Financial Advisors Industry Scorecard
One vSaaS breakdown. One biz story. One 'how to'. In your inbox once a week.
Todays newsletter is sponsored by Check, the leading payroll infrastructure provider and pioneer of embedded payroll.
Check makes it easy for any SaaS platform to build a payroll business, and already powers 60+ popular platforms supporting 20M+ employees such as Wave, Homebase, and HousecallPro .
Alright, let’s get to it…
One ‘How-To’:
What Do You Look For In People You Hire?
Whenever I ask someone this question, they give me this long/drawn out answer and list off like 20 basic values...
Hardworking. Loyal. Trustworthy. Empathetic. Blah blah blah.
Such a horrible way to approach hiring.
You know what I recommend?
Pick 2 things you care about. No more. Just two.
Actually ensure that the people you hire exhibit those things. Make every hire by any other team member do the EXACT same thing.
The two I look for?
Relentlessness
Do you grind it out and stop at nothing to achieve your goal?
Chip on shoulder
Have you failed big time before and plan on proving yourself with this at bat / opportunity?
If I can hire someone with those two things strongly validated by historical people they worked with (not by references) then I am good.
Can teach them the rest.
One vSaaS Breakdown:
The Power of Roadshows
I’ve been an advocate of sales roadshows for a longggg time. Founders don’t do roadshows enough. Every single time I’ve done one I’ve added a minimum of $1M in ARR. I had another founder friend shoot me a text recently validating my thesis so I thought I’d re-post my roadshow playbook for you all:
Let’s talk about the little-used tactic to drive millions of ARR.
Roadshows.
What is it? When you spending 1-3 months traveling to meet prospects to drive more bookings. It’s not as simple as getting on the road, though. DESIGN is the most important part of the roadshow. Let’s start there…
Your roadshow needs a purpose. “I’m going to be in [City], will you meet with me?” doesn’t count. That’s BS.
2 examples of a strong purpose:
You’re launching a new product
You’re established in a space and you’re entering an adjacent market
Who should go on the road?
It’s usually handled by a CEO or leader at the company, but seasoned AEs can do it too. The higher the rank, the more successful it will likely be. If a CEO owns it, they’ll have a much higher meeting attainment rate than an AE.
Who should you visit?
I target 80% prospects + 20% existing customers. It also depends on the purpose/intent, but if it’s a new product launch the more net new customers you can get on board the better.
Which accounts should you target?
Marquee ones. The goal of the roadshow is to get face-to-face meetings with top prospects. If you’re launching a new product—the better accounts you can ‘launch’ it with, the more opportunity you’ll have to create a domino effect post-launch.
How should you reach out?
Warm introductions. Never do cold outreach to attain these meetings. Ensure you have a great introduction into the account. This is hyper-critical.
What gets people to take the meeting?
Besides the warm intro, what’s in it for the customer? Why would they want to meet with you? It’s not enough to say you’ll fly out to see them. Here’s an example:
“We’re launching a new product and will be investing millions into it. We want to ensure we’re building the right thing for the space and so we’re willing to get on a plane to come see you, bring you lunch, and get your feedback.”
That one usually works pretty well.
How much work is it? A lot. If you don’t spend the proper time designing every little step, it WILL NOT be successful. You’ll be living out of a suitcase for a while. Take the time in advance to make it pay off.
What’s next?
Go for it. Spend the proper time & energy setting it up. I incorporate one a year for our business & ensure it’s in my annual planning work ahead of a new year.
Every time I’ve planned a roadshow it has worked IF I included every member of the executive team in the design. Marketing, Sales, Success, and Product. Everyone needs to be bought in. By ‘it worked’ I mean it generated millions in new bookings. And customers loved it.
Highly. Highly. Recommend.
One Vertical SaaS Breakdown:
Financial Advisors Industry Scorecard
Thinking about building a software business?
Here's an industry scorecard on building or investing in vSaaS for Financial Advisors ⬇
Market Overview:
The financial advisory industry is a robust and rapidly evolving ecosystem, currently valued at approximately 59.2 billion in revenue and projected to reach over 70 billion by 2028. With 218,000 financial advisory firms and roughly 325,000 financial advisors in the United States, this market represents a significant opportunity for innovative software solutions.
Market Composition Breakdown:
Traditional Financial Advisory Firms (Wealth Management, Retirement Planning)
Robo-Advisors and Digital Platforms
Bank-Affiliated Advisors
Independent Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs)
Existing Software Providers:
Morningstar
Founded: 1984
Annual Revenue: $1.7 billion
Employees: 9,000
Competitive Edge: Comprehensive investment research tools
Envestnet
Founded: 1999
Annual Revenue: $1 billion
Employees: 4,500
Competitive Edge: Integrated portfolio and practice management solutions
Wealthfront
Founded: 2008
Annual Revenue: $150 million
Competitive Edge: Advanced robo-advisory services
Betterment
Founded: 2010
Annual Revenue: $200 million
Competitive Edge: Goal-based investing platform
One of the key challenges here is competiiton, there is a massive long tail of SaaS solutions, specifically on the b2b side that have just gotten beaten up. Go-To-Market seems BRUTAL here.
Where are the vertical SaaS opportunities?
AI-Powered Solutions: Client interaction automation, portfolio management optimization, compliance monitoring, personalized financial planning
Digitization Platforms: Streamlined client onboarding, digital document management, real-time performance reporting, interactive client portals
Consolidation Tools: Unified client management platforms, integrated as a service systems, comprehensive/all-in-one business operation tools
Investment Scorecard for VCs:
Market Size: 9/10
Growth Rate: 7/10
Regulatory Complexity: 6/10
Customer Acquisition: 5/10
My take for founders:
If you’re going to build for the space, bootstrap. Focuse on finding a niche solution with lower capital requirements
GTM is too painful to attack a traditional vSaaS VC-backed opportunity here (IMO)
Focus on AI that can do everything for the Financial Advisors. They just want to sell and add more clients. My take is many of them masquerade as smart finance guys but, in reality, they are just sales/relationship people.
That’s my breakdown on the Financial Advisor Market. I use VSG Research to run my reports. Run your own report on any industry below:
Have a product or service that would be great for our audience of vertical SaaS founders/operators/investors? Reply to this email or shoot us a note at ls@lukesophinos.com