Chapter 1
Segment Your Clients
In our view, the three keys to high performance in any profession are talent, skills, and capacity.
Transcript
In our view, the three keys to high performance in any profession are talent, skills, and capacity. You can have a remarkably talented and experienced team, but if they're too busy trying to serve too many clients, your service will suffer. In fact, according to surly associates, the leading challenge to financial professional productivity is serving too many non-ideal clients. The solution to this is quite simple, it's what we like to call the four S's, which are segment, streamline, stratify, and systematize. The first step in this process is to segment your clients. We'd ask you to think about those clients who leave you feeling energized, excited, positive, the ones you just love working with. Now, if you were to take a step back and try to define the characteristics of these clients, we'd ask you to consider the following criteria, both quantitatively and qualitatively. First up, current revenue. This one's quite simple. How much current revenue do these clients generate for your business? Next, we'd ask you to think about the future potential revenue. This is designed to help you project the lifetime value of this client. This could include their asset growth potential and the client's future income potential. Always keep in mind that today's intern could become tomorrow's chief of surgery. Next up, time consumption. Now we're talking about the amount of time clients take relative to the income that they generate for your practice. Then we'd ask you to assess their attitude, which is the attitude towards working with you. How likely are they to follow your advice? How coachable are these individuals? And finally, their center of influence. How often do they refer qualified prospects to you in a way that helps you grow your business? This framework provides a quantitative assessment of the client, along with the qualitative elements that come along with managing relationships and their long-term sustainability for you and your business.