Why I offer a condo where clients can stay

I was in Naples, Florida, attending the Top of the Table Annual Meeting, and I recognized the guy next to me on the beach from the meeting. We shot the breeze for 40 minutes walking up and down the beach, and he told me how he puts up very wealthy clientele in a luxury hotel to get massages, go to the spa and play golf before review meetings.

That’s not my thing; I deal with Middle America.

Instead, I secured a condo near the office for clients. It’s mostly used by clients coming in from out of town, and we run it like an Airbnb: clients drop by the office to collect keys, get a map of our downtown area and a list of local restaurants, and they “check out” when returning to the office the next morning for their periodic review meeting.

You can walk to our office from the condo; it’s an old ship captain’s house.

We also advocate using the condo for “family financial planning retreats” to stay there and work on an agenda of goals and other “soft tissue” concepts before coming to our office to discuss.

Long-distance clients sometimes make use of the residence for several days at a time when coming to town to see their kids, grandkids and friends in the community. We had a situation where a client had a death in the family and used it; another time someone stayed there while coming to say goodbye to a sick friend.

Regardless of the need, we welcome any of our clients to make use of the place — we keep a schedule, just like reserving a conference room — and it happens in every part of the client relationship, from introductory meetings to seasoned clients. We’re not big on segmentation; all of our clients are equal and benefit from all services.

Andrew C. Lord, CLU, ChFC, is a 31-year MDRT member from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Hear more from Lord: