Find and keep clients by being 1% better

To stand out from the crowd of other financial professionals in your area, you don’t need to drastically overhaul everything in your practice overnight. That’s overwhelming and likely not practical. Instead, think about continuous and small improvements, or kaizen. Who couldn’t improve just 1% in our profession, incrementally moving forward to better processes and client experiences every year?

If you truly excel in a single area, you may wonder if you’re still the leader in that area. Because of your focus on a single aspect of your business, your performance in other parts of your practice tends to fall off and might be 1% or 2%, or even 5% below your competition. That’s why we have made a conscious decision to continually be 1% better all across our business rather than trying to be extremely good in just one area.

Simplify the complex

One process and system we improved by 1% is the way we explain complex situations to clients. We develop a one-page written summary of the situation and then turn that summary into a picture.

Find out how Top of the Table qualifier John Enright successfully works with high-net-worth clients in his video.

More than 80% of people are visual learners. The picture we create supports the conversation we have with the client or prospective client and helps them understand the complexities of their position.

One complex discussion we face repeatedly is when we meet with a prospective client for the first time and introduce them to our work. New clients often have a difficult time envisioning what their relationship with an advisor will be and how it works. We have improved that conversation, perhaps by just 1%, by turning it into a visual that demonstrates the five phases of our relationship with clients and shows exactly how it will work for them. Hear about his five phases and see some of the forms he uses in “Reach Top of the Table by being 1% better.”

We have taken a broad brush to improving the way we perform for our clients. Our clients see our quality and attention to detail in everything we do for them.

John P. Enright has been an MDRT member since 2000 and is a Top of the Table qualifier. He’s the president of Custom Wealth Management in Syracuse, New York. He specializes in high-net-worth clients in the construction industry.

Find more ideas for advising clients on MDRT’s Resource Zone.