How To Lose A Client In 10 Days

Being in the advice business, I’m always interested in hearing hall of fame/wall of shame stories about professional advisors. This time, the story is mine: meet my soon-to-be ex-insurance agent and learn how to lose a client (me) in 10 days.

1. Spend several hours of valuable time listening to your client. And then slap something together that meets 70% of her needs—that’s better than nothing, right? (If you can’t help me, don’t waste my time. Refer me to someone who can.)

2. When your client asks how you how to fix this, don’t return her call. And then, when your client calls you again to follow-up, lose her number. (Make me feel important to you.)

3. Spell her name wrong on key documents. And her address. And then, when you’ve been corrected, invent another creative spelling. (Yes, the little things matter.)

4. When you need additional information, arrange a robo call instead of calling her yourself. (Are you kidding me? Talk to me. Win me over after your mistakes.)

We all have these stories—and I’d love to hear yours. You can post them here or drop me a note and I’ll share the best ones in a future post.

Finding a Good Mentor

The recent public rash of incivility reminds me how important it is to find good mentors—people who will guide you when you make a mistake and, better still, help you avoid some!

Consultants and advisors—especially those running busy practices— sometimes have difficulty finding and nurturing good mentors. Being “the expert” may make it hard for you to put yourself in learning mode. And time is precious.

But there are still ways to connect with—or serve as—a mentor. Some ideas:

➢ Identify a few people who resonate with you and with whom you feel mutual admiration and respect. Discount age as a factor—you can learn from and teach to folks of any age.

➢ Reach out to them. Invite them to coffee if they are close, conversation (yes, a real live phone call!) if they are not. Don’t worry—you don’t have to ask them to be your mentor—this is about results, not titles.

➢ Make a commitment to developing a relationship. That means it’s not all about you, but about how you can help each other. For some special mentors, their joy will be in watching you succeed.

➢ Pay it forward. There is someone out there who will treasure your mentorship and support. Seek them out—I’ll bet you’ve already got some ideas who they are.

Ever Watch an Ant Farm?

I just spent one of the more interesting days of my career. Not with a client, but on a movie set. An alliance partner—Bruce Caulk, a talented director who makes corporate videos—is filming an indy feature and invited me to spend the day on-set as an extra.

While I could wax poetic about the experience (Armand Assante was a joy to watch), it was something more basic that captured my imagination: the symphony of multiple experts perfecting their craft in tandem.

All the crew—plus the actors—were focused on doing their own job well, but seemed to keep the bigger vision firmly in mind. The expert who donned a wetsuit to rig the pool lighting. The “Best Boy” on the roof slinging cable. The costumer making sure an extra (me) had just the right jewelry. It was a bit like watching an ant farm in action.

Confined in a small space, there was little room for error or ego. It was quite refreshing (and entertaining) to watch them deal with the inevitable technical frustrations with good-natured ribbing and quick wit.

How many times have you been part of a team like that? What do you most fondly remember? Are those your favorite stories to tell?

I know this will be one of mine—I would have done anything to help that team make it work. But I won’t be quitting my day job.

To Niche or Not To Niche?

That is the question many consultants and professional advisors wrestle with. Truly it’s an easy answer—to rise above everyone else, you MUST have a niche.

Take this example from a recent event where I met two tax attorneys. One introduced himself with “I’m a tax attorney” while the second countered with “I’m an ex-IRS attorney who founded a firm of former IRS attorneys. We help people solve big IRS issues.” Who do you think I remembered longer?

Ready to make yourself unforgettable? Some tips:

➢ Define yourself uniquely based on who you are and how you serve clients. Be specific, real and memorable.

➢ Don’t make it all about you or your process—make it about results. Real, measurable outcomes. Tell stories that show how you’ve helped others in similar situations. Clients love stories when they are short, on-point and compelling.

➢ Clients choose their advisors because they like them. So don’t waste time with people who don’t seem to resonate with you—they won’t hire or refer you and you’ll waste valuable time.

➢ With those who do strike a chord, be the first to give. Helping someone get what they want makes them want to know you and work with you. It also let’s them see you in action, in service mode.

➢ Align the externals—your website, blog, social media pages, leave-behinds, even your person—with your overall message, your niche.

In the end, it’s all about being real and naturally drawing the right clients, prospects and referral sources to you.