When I built my wine cellar, I mentioned it to a colleague who also had one of his own.  He welcomed me to the ‘club,’ and imparted this interesting piece of advice:

“Terry,” he said, “now your first instinct is going to be to fill that wine cellar up as fast as you can.”

I nodded in what I thought was mutual agreement and acceptance, and imagined the rows of glistening bottles.
He then said after a dramatic pause: “Don’t do that.”
He went on to say that if I should do my homework, and methodically add ONLY superior bottles that are deserving of a space on my shelf.
 
“Be stingy with that space,” he said, “you only have so much capacity.”

I am reminded of this conversation often when working with my consulting clients.  An advisor’s capacity is not unlike that of a premium wine cellar.  Our experience shows us that an advisor’s capacity is about 100 clients.  Some advisors only want to work with 50, and I applaud them.  The point is, if you want to service these people properly, and build that exclusive club that people are trying to get into, be very selective about whom you bring on.  There is only so much space after all.

This is your show.  Raise the bar high. 

Build your clientele with precisely the kind of client that you want for the long haul.  Consider assets, attitude, and advocacy.  Map out your parameters on paper, and then never compromise.

I realize that the temptation is great to fill up that ‘cellar’ as fast as possible; however, you will get to where you want to, a lot faster, if you are selective from the get-go.  Plus, you won’t have to unravel that mess later when you realize that your wine cellar is full, you are burnt out, and if you have a whole lot of plonk in your cellar.

Oh one more thing:  What about those ‘B’ clients?  They are really nice to work with, they don’t cost a lot, they don’t take up much for your time, and they contribute to your revenue.

Consider those B clients your ‘easy drinkers.’ Everyone needs a case or two of those for Friday nights.  Space for this is OK.

By Terry Gronbeck-Jones, Senior Consultant, Pareto Platform

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.