I want to win a million pound client but I’m not sure how to do it
Introduction
One of the greatest joys of working with people is seeing someone grow, develop and succeed in front of your eyes. One of our proudest career moments was working with Gareth at a mid-sized wealth manager.
Gareth had worked for the firm for many years. He’d started as an administrator before moving to a paraplanner role where he provided support to financial planners. Eventually, he became a fully qualified adviser himself and was given a large book of clients. Things were going well – and then lockdown hit.
Challenge:
When we began working with Gareth our first impressions of him were very positive. He was obviously very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of his role, and showed great care and diligence in his approach.
In our initial conversation with Gareth, he shared with us that his typical client had approximately £350,000 in an investment portfolio with the firm. Gareth was pleased that without having to ask, clients regularly introduced him to their friends and family. Some of those introductions turned into new clients for him and their value was often close to his average portfolio size. All was good, but Gareth knew that his average client size limited the scope for him to use all his financial planning skills.
Given his technical expertise, his ambition was to attract new clients with £1 million to invest. But, he told us, when it came to proactively asking his larger clients for referrals he was worried about their reactions. He also admitted he didn’t know what to say or how to say it. So, to build his confidence he needed a process to follow and an approach that made sense to him.
Solution:
Over the course of the programme we set him a series of achievable assignments. Initially, Gareth was nervous of approaching clients and asking them what they liked about working with him. But when they shared how much they valued him and the care he took looking after them, his confidence started to grow.
As his belief in himself increased he then felt more comfortable using some of our suggested referral approaches and processes. He started asking more clients for introductions to people they knew in a way that didn’t make him feel awkward. And the more he asked, the more he won. Gareth quickly became a star pupil.
Outcome:
The specific approach that Gareth followed paid off. While still on the programme he asked one of his larger clients for a referral and they readily introduced him to a friend who had £1 million in cash that they wanted to invest. Before the end of the programme this particular prospect became a client and is still being diligently looked after by Gareth today. Gareth continues to apply what he learned and now there’s no stopping him.
Tagged as: Finance
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