Summary

Not every touch carries the same weight. A text and a lunch both get filed under staying in touch in most advisors’ heads, and they are not the same thing. Not to the client, and not to the business. This one lays the ways you communicate out as a ladder, ten rungs, and makes the case that the art is not picking the most convenient rung. It is picking the right one for the person in front of you. This continues the 2026 teaching series inside Pillar 3, CRM and Relationship Management, and it is the practical half of the work. The database tells you who. The ladder tells you how.

It starts with an email from someone in the ecosystem, and the question is a fair one. He built his top 100 and came up light. Five names, maybe ten, maybe thirty-five that felt real. That is normal and it is not a problem. A healthy Top 100 runs roughly 20 percent platinum, 30 percent gold, and 50 percent silver, meaning prospects and the people who have not fully gelled with you yet. Most advisors who have been at this a while land between 35 and 75 and build toward 100 from there. I had 11 in 2009. His second question was whether ten reach outs a week would burn through the list too fast. It will not, because the next 10 was never only the top 100. Prospects, referral partners, vendors, transaction partners, and the rest of your sphere all live in that rotation.

The ladder itself runs from most human to most automated. Rung one is the one on one in person meeting. Two ears, one mouth, and no business talk unless they bring it up. Rung two is a phone call. Five minutes, no agenda, they simply crossed your mind. Rung three is FaceTime or Zoom, which costs you a scheduling step. Rung four is the handwritten note, and it lands the way it does because almost nobody receives more than a couple in a year. One shows up on a counter and stays there. Rungs five and six are the video note and the voice note. Rung seven is the text, which we all use constantly and which is exactly why it is not special. Rung eight is an email you actually wrote yourself. One human, one recipient, one reason. Rung nine is a segmented and tagged newsletter. Rung ten is the broadcast. Direct mail, the mass email, the social post to everybody. The middle rungs move around depending on the person, and social media DMs sit right in that range.

Here is the line to carry into your week. You cannot automate thoughtfulness. A newsletter is not a touch. A social post is not a touch. Neither one counts toward your next 10, no matter how good it looked going out the door. The work is to know how each person wants to hear from you, note it in the CRM so you stop guessing, and then get on the rung that matches. Your Platinum's should see your face in person once or twice a year. Everything else follows from that.

Listen for more. This is your coaching session.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the hierarchy of communication
01:58 Building your top 100 client list
05:49 The communication ladder explained
07:43 First rung: In-person one-on-one meetings
08:43 Second rung: Phone calls and personal check-ins
09:42 Using FaceTime, Zoom, and scheduled meetings
10:40 The power of handwritten notes and video messages
12:06 Text messages, voice notes, and social media interactions
14:02 Email, newsletters, and segmented communication
15:57 Broadcasting via direct mail, email, and social media
17:50 The art of personalized communication and CRM notes
19:48 Summary: Matching communication methods to individuals

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