Let’s presume you want to do more business with wealthier private clients. To start building your high-caliber clientele, you will need access.
Let me put this in perspective: I often ask professionals who attend my workshops and conferences where they rank among their peers. Almost without fail, they are all in the top 10%. The fact that the people who come to my programs are at the top of their professional hierarchies makes me feel real good. Evidently, I attract only the very best.
In fact, the best professionals do more than attend my events. They also spend a lot of time answering surveys, because the trend of only the highest-caliber professionals answering surveys has been going on for decades.
Let’s consider the matter from a different perspective: Have professionals ever told you they weren’t good at what they do? Has a professional ever explained that they’re not very capable, but are working hard to improve? The point is that professionals will try to present themselves as topflight experts, whether or not they believe it themselves. They are all in the top 10%—according to them.
The hyper-competitive quest for affluent clients further complicates things.
Now, your peers aren’t just sensational (just ask them); they’re also multiplying. Furthermore, the lines between the various types of professional have blurred. As a money manager, for example, you’re no longer just competing with other money managers. You’re also tangling with accountants, insurance agents and a list of other professionals that goes on and on. If you’re a trusts and estates lawyer, you’re facing a drove of professionals who claim to be adept estate planners.
So what’s the answer? It’s very simple: Preferential access is everything.
Your ability to connect with affluent prospects on a most-favored basis is likely to be a foundation for building significant business with wealthy clients. This doesn’t negate the importance of providing your clients with exceptional results. However, with the affluent being unable to properly judge most deliverables, and you being able to strategically outsource exceptional expertise, business success is most solidly tied to connecting with affluent clients.
