Fox teaches advisors how to add a financial planning component to their business so clients aren't so focused on performance all the time.
"I only work four days a week with the support of my systems," says Fox, adding she has identified lots of advisors who'd love to offer more comprehensive services but can't make time to develop the expertise and a step-by-step process.

That's where the Fox Network comes into play. "We have a step-by-step process advisors can drop into their practice and begin to be more efficient," she says.

Unlike advisors attracted to the Sestina Network, Fox's group are often more experienced advisors who simply lack the systems to be efficient and profitable.

What happens when you join the Fox Network?  "I teach each of the eight sessions live over the Internet," says Fox. "I go through my documents and process with them. In between sessions they get individual coaching to help implement the lessons in their particular practices."

The sessions are broken down by topic. The first step is sales training that teaches advisors the difference between traditional and consultative selling. They next learn the philosophy of her network in terms of how services should be delivered to clients and, most important, how to delegate and look at their workflow to decide who in the office will handle the tasks that they, themselves, shouldn't be doing.

Another lesson covers her "script" of how that first prospect meeting should go.  "We discuss the questions they'll ask at the meeting, technical recommendations, and the workflow needed to accomplish it all," says Fox, adding there are about 150 workflow points from start to finish of financial planning for a client. "If the advisor is using Redtail's CRM, they can copy what we have exactly. Otherwise, they can program their workflow points into whatever CRM they're using."

Part of Fox's training includes technical areas that many advisors are already familiar with but might not have enough depth in. After six months, says Fox, the advisors have everything they need in place. Hopefully, they've been implementing her advice along the way.

The Fox Network has two price plans-participate in the live training with online videos for $6,900, or buy a recorded version for $4,595.

Hanson McClain Retirement Network
If you haven't heard of the Hanson McClain Retirement Network (www.hmrn.com), which has been around since 1998, perhaps that's because it's somewhat more specialized than either the Sestina or Fox networks. The Hanson McClain Retirement Network is a nationwide network of financial advisors specializing in retirement planning that provides marketing and practice management tools for advisors who want to work with retirees from the telecommunications and utilities industries.

Hanson McClain, an advisory firm with three offices in the Sacramento area, began to work with Pac Bell personnel in 1991 and developed a program that brought a stream of qualified clients through the door. "We built our business off of that," says Scott Hanson, a senior partner and founding principal at the firm.