PLANADVISER - May/June 2018 - 25

retirement plan industry? " " What measurement processes
and techniques do you use to monitor asset allocations and
riskiness of investments? " And " How do you provide assistance
with employee enrollment, investment education and
ongoing plan communication materials? "
As to the actual plotting out of answers, advisers offered
these tips on how to write an effective response:
Differentiate your practice. Asked what in its RFP
responses most often advances Plan Sponsor Consultants
into the finalist round, Kane says discussing how the firm
uses 12 scoring criteria to produce clients' quarterly investment
reports. Sponsors also see its Centre for Fiduciary
Excellence (CEFEX) investment adviser certification as a
differentiator, he says. And mentioning the firm's industry
awards helps, too, because " that establishes your credibility, "
he says.
As noted, many RFPs contain mostly boilerplate questions
covering the routine aspects of advisory work. However,
Francis Investment Counsel LLC,
looks for opportunities to explain its value proposition
compared with advisory peers'. " How do we get to the finals?
It's when we get a chance to clearly articulate the focus of
our firm, " says Joseph Topp, a Francis principal. " One thing
that differentiates us in our marketplace is that qualified
plan consulting is all we do-we do no other institutional
consulting, and we don't offer wealth management services.
" The other component of our business we stress is that
we expend a great deal of resources on participant education,
and it is fee-for-service, " Topp says. " So there's no threat
to the sponsor of us trying to garner retail relationships or
capture rollover dollars from participants. "
Speak their language. Respond in a way that demonstrates
understanding of that employer's industry and that
industry's work force dynamics. " We're in Houston, and
there are many energy companies here, so I learned 'energy
speak,' " Massa says. He knows enough about the nuances
of that business to be able to distinguish the challenges of
in Brookfield, Wisconsin,
an employer in energy services from one that does offshore
drilling, for instance. " You need to understand this stuff and
be able to speak to that world, " he says. " Figuring out what
they do as a business-and speaking their language-really
can help you. That's key. "
Show how you will achieve success. If you say you
can perform a service, you should be able to illustrate how
you can perform it for the potential client, Massa says. " If the
plan has low participation, you may say, 'Here's what we're
going to do' [and list a few places to start]. Show them goals
for their plan and how you'll get there. It's easy to say, 'Yes,
we can do this.' It's harder to say how you're going to do it. "
Discuss comparable experience. Sponsors doing a
search want to know the extent of an adviser's experience
with similar types of companies, Itzoe says. So he uses his
firm's Salesforce CRM [customer relationship management]
software to pull statistics on work Greenspring has done
with plans similar to a current prospect.
" What's even more compelling is using case studies of
work we've done with similar clients, whether that's [based
on] the industry or the plan size, " he says. " If a sponsor has
low participation, we can say, 'Here's an example of a similar
plan where we implemented automatic enrollment and
automatic escalation, and here's the data on the increase in
participant deferrals in that plan after three years.' "
Find ways to make an impact virtually. Responses
once were done on paper, but sponsors increasingly handle
the RFP process online. According to Ludwig, the tightly
formatted response forms make it harder to personalize an
advisory firm's submission. " It's becoming more electronic,
and, as advisers, we've got to figure out little ways to garner
more attention with our responses, " he notes.
" We're looking at having video clips of members of our
team that we would send with the RFP, " he continues. " We
need creative ideas to help us get to the finalist stage-and
that's where you have a greater chance to show them your
passion and your value. " -Judy Ward
RFP Timing
HOW long does the RFP process take?
" Depending on how long the questionnaire
is, we normally spend anywhere
from 20 to 40 hours on our response, "
says Francis Investment Counsel's
Joseph Topp.
That time includes a conversation
with the sponsor to learn, for example,
how it decided to include Francis in
its search, and about its plan's demographics
and challenges. The advisory
firm's
business-development
team
also tries to garner insights from
background information it requests -
anything from the plan's investment
policy statement (IPS) to its healthmetrics
reporting.
If Francis becomes a finalist, it
generally spends a couple of weeks
creating a customized presentation.
The team prepares the structure and
outline of what it wants to present; if it
intends to recommend plan changes,
it will confer with Francis' in-house
investment consultants, research
analysts and/or education specialists.
" Then we script it, and we meet to
practice our presentation, " Topp says.
" We also spend time trying to anticipate
questions we might get from the
plan sponsor. "
Topp says the timing on the
potential client's end during the RFP
process varies, depending on the
particular sponsor's sophistication
level and infrastructure, the scope of
the questionnaire and the number of
advisory firms being considered.
" For a sophisticated sponsor, it may
take two to six weeks to evaluate the
RFP responses and call people in for
finalist presentations, " he says. " Then
it may take them a couple of weeks to
make their selection and notify candidates
of where they stand. " -JW
planadviser.com may-june 2018 | 25
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