#102 – Low-Cost Ways to Turn Client Satisfaction into Client Loyalty with Richard Weylman, CPAE

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: Top Advisor Podcast
Episode: #102 – Low-Cost Ways to Turn Client Satisfaction into Client Loyalty
Host: Bill Cates
Guest: Richard Weylman, CPAE
Date: November 19, 2025

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Episode Theme Overview

This episode dives into the critical distinction between client satisfaction and true client loyalty in the financial services industry. Bill Cates and guest Richard Weylman, acclaimed author and industry coach, discuss why “good service” is no longer a differentiator and explore actionable, low-cost strategies for financial advisors to deepen client relationships, foster loyalty, and ignite referrals. The conversation centers around elevating the client experience beyond the minimum expectations through everyday kindness, thoughtfulness, caring, and empathy—none of which cost money, but all of which require genuine intent.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The “Great Reevaluation” in Client Expectations

• Background: The pandemic caused people to step back and reassess every part of their lives—including whether they’re being “taken for granted” by their financial advisors. Consistent communication is a major factor in retaining clients.
  • Richard: “25% of 6,000 people surveyed switched financial advisors in three years due to lack of consistent communication.” (04:38)
• Service is NOT Enough:
  • Merely offering “good service” is now the bare minimum.
  • “What people really want is a great experience on the buying side and the service side.” (05:47)
  • Advisors need to be distinct, not just different.

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Tactical Ways to Elevate the Client Experience

1. Personalization Matters (08:52)

   • Use client-preferred names (Elizabeth, Liz, Beth, etc.)
   • Email sign-offs: Avoid “Best” or “Sincerely Yours.” Richard’s affluent clients dislike them; “Warm regards” is only marginally better.
   • Every interaction—no matter how small—contributes to perception.
     • Richard: “Number one dislike by affluent people is the use of ‘Best’ in email signatures.” (09:21)

2. The Four Pillars of ‘Experience’ That Build Loyalty (10:53)

   • Kindness, Thoughtfulness, Caring, Empathy
     • True experience is shown through everyday acts that demonstrate these traits.
     • Example: Bringing dog treats and a get-well card to a client who missed an appointment because their pet was injured. This act led to a $75 million opportunity.
     • Richard: “Three and a half weeks later, they got $75 million for a tin of cookies…what was the trigger? Kindness, thoughtfulness, caring.” (12:07)

3. Empathy—The Hardest, Most Valuable Skill (13:22)

   • Standard phrasing feels rote and unempathetic (e.g., “If you don’t mind me asking, how much money…”).
   • Flip the predicate: Ask your question, then add “if you don’t mind me asking” at the end. This reduces defensiveness and increases candor.
     • Richard: “Say it this way: ‘How much money are you planning on investing with us, if you don’t mind me asking?’ It gives psychological space for empathy.” (15:15)

4. Powerful Questions to Create Engagement (17:22)

   • “What else can we do for you today?”
   • “What are three things we can do to elevate your experience?”
   • Replace “How are you?” with “What are you most excited about in the next six months?” to drive deeper conversation and emotional engagement.
     • Richard: “When you elevate the experience, you get emotional engagement and people stay with you.” (19:35)

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Moving from Satisfaction to Advocacy

• Clients may say they’re “satisfied”—but that’s not the same as being delighted or willing to refer.
• True advocates are built through personal, memorable experiences, not through product delivery or generic service.
  • Richard: “People really become advocates for the experience they have; they don’t become advocates for the stuff they bought.” (21:22)
• Recommendation: Regularly sit down with top clients for in-depth conversations—not just surveys—to assess the emotional value and experience.

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Managing and Setting Expectations (Communication is Key)

• Don’t Overpromise – Only promise what you can deliver.

• Beware Generic Communications – Avoid sending irrelevant company newsletters (“how to write a resume” to retirees, for example). Tailor all communication to the client demographic.

  • Richard: “A million dollar household expects to hear from you a minimum of six times a year…two of which are reviews, one face-to-face.” (27:56)

• Proactive, Structured Communication Plans

  • Put your contact plan in writing and discuss it with the client at the outset.
  • If you’re getting a lot of inbound calls, you’re not being proactive enough in your outreach.

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Practice Management and Segmentation

• Segmentation is Essential (31:11)

  • Not all clients should receive the same level of service. Segment into A/B/C/D groups and tailor touch frequency and services accordingly.
  • Focus deeper resources and high-touch service on your “A” clients—your most valuable relationships.

• Profitability Mindset (27:56–32:42)

  • Avoid “growing yourself broke.” Too many clients, especially smaller ones, can drive up costs and dilute service quality for top clients.
  • Set minimums and be strategic about the client composition of your business.

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Low-Cost Tips to Deepen Relationships

• Celebrate Anniversaries and Special Days (33:27)

  • Example: Local donut shop (“Five-O Donuts”) texts customers on the anniversary of their first purchase—apply the same idea to investment anniversaries.
  • Recognize personal milestones: birthdays, honor roll, professional days—find creative ways to show you remember and care.
  • Richard: “If I do an investment with you…are you sending me a congratulations note on that anniversary?” (34:04)

• Amplify Word of Mouth through Kindness

  • Small, thoughtful gestures (sending a cake to the office, a blanket to a client dealing with illness) multiply referrals and cement reputation.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What people really want is a great experience on the buying side and on the service side…good service is a minimum expectation. It’s laughable.”
  – Richard Weylman (05:52)

• “Three and a half weeks later, they got $75 million for a tin of cookies.”
  – Richard Weylman (12:13)

• “The number one dislike by affluent people is the use of ‘Best’ in email signatures.”
  – Richard Weylman (09:21)

• “People really become advocates for the experience they have—they don’t become advocates for the stuff they bought.”
  – Richard Weylman (21:22)

• “When you elevate the experience, you get emotional engagement and people stay with you.”
  – Richard Weylman (19:35)

• “Look at your practice as having an airplane with 150 seats on it…You want every seat to be filled with all your A clients.”
  – Richard Weylman (28:37)

• “Time is your greatest currency in this business.”
  – Richard Weylman (31:50)

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Key Timestamps

• 04:38 – The “Great Reevaluation” and the heightened risk of client churn
• 06:46 – Why “great service” is no longer a differentiator
• 08:52 – Personalization, email best practices, and micro-actions
• 10:53 – The four keys clients seek: kindness, thoughtfulness, caring, empathy
• 12:07 – Anecdote: Kindness leads to a $75M referral
• 13:22 – Demonstrating empathy by changing how you phrase sensitive questions
• 19:35 – The Four E’s: Experience, Engagement, Emotional Connection, Elevation
• 21:22 – Satisfied vs. delighted: moving clients from neutral to advocates
• 23:01 – How to have real value discussions with core clients
• 27:56 – Setting clear expectations and communication frequency
• 31:11 – Client segmentation for efficient and effective service
• 33:27 – Low-cost loyalty builders: anniversaries, special days, thoughtful gestures

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Actionable Takeaways

• Ditch “Best”—Personalize every touchpoint.
• Show kindness in unexpected ways—small gestures pay big dividends.
• Flip “If you don’t mind me asking” to the end of sensitive questions for greater empathy.
• Structure and communicate your contact plan—put it in writing and discuss it.
• Prioritize segmentation—invest time and energy where it delivers the greatest loyalty and referrals.
• Track and celebrate client milestones—not just birthdays, but anniversaries and unique-to-them occasions.
• Schedule regular one-on-one value discussions with top clients to build advocacy.

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Further Resources

• Richard Weylman's book: 100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life — #1 on Amazon in relevant categories.
• Richard’s site: w-e-y-l-m-a-n.com for additional insights and videos.
• Bill Cates’ new book: The Hidden Heist: Stop Robbing Yourself of Lasting Wealth — thehiddenheist.com

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This summary captures the strategic and tactical guidance shared in the episode, arming advisors with practical ideas to foster true client loyalty that drives business growth—all without increasing overhead. Interviews are peppered with real-life stories, memorable quotes, and simple steps that, when executed, transform satisfied clients into loyal advocates.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the top advisor podcast brought to you by proudmouse podrocket academy i'm your host bill cates creator of the cates academy for relationship marketing in each episode i interview one of our industry's top performers getting them to pass on their secrets to success to you so that you can impact more lives and.

[B]

Generate more income now onto the show welcome welcome have you ever noticed that most clients say they're satisfied with their advisor yet some of them still leave or refer very little in this episode of top advisor podcast we're going to challenge what you think you know about client satisfaction loyalty and what today's clients truly want from a financial professional we'll explore how to create a standout experience one that deepens relationships drives referrals and actually grows your business without spending more money and here's the kicker but first did you know my newest book has just come out this book is unlike anything i've written before it's a business parable authored or co authored i should say with jeff c west it's suspenseful it's insightful surprisingly fun kind of a twist that nobody expects coming at the end the title is the hidden heist stop robbing yourself of lasting wealth an irresistible tale of financial redemption and the story is set during a bumbled bank robbery so there's a mix of fun and tension and explores the beliefs and assumptions that keep many from building wealth or seeking financial guidance it shares essential financial lessons some of the basics without ever feeling like a textbook and you'll be pleased to know that the book makes a strong case for hiring a financial professional like you and while the hidden heist is especially geared towards adults age eighteen to forty five we believe everyone will find the story fascinating and the perspectives helpful i just got an email from a financial advisor read it on a plane plane ride loved it just bought seventy five copies for his clients so it's really good for just about anyone some advisors actually are using the hidden heist with their teams to create a conversation around everyone's money stories their story their their team stories making them healthier and then bring that empathy to their relationships with their clients so if you're curious just go to thehiddenheist dot com thehiddenheist dot com now on with today's show my guest for today's show is my colleague and friend richard wileman richard and i have known each other for years we're both members of the professional speakers hall of fame we've both dedicated a huge chunk of our lives to helping financial professionals acquire more right fit clients and serve those clients better now to say that richard came from humble beginnings and rose to a very high level of success would be an understatement orphaned at age six richard lived in nineteen foster homes and attended eleven different schools i can't even imagine that and rather than becoming a victim of those circumstances he overcame them and has had a remarkable business success including get this becoming an award winning general sales manager of rolls royce the heading sales and marketing for the rob report a magazine for the luxury lifestyle from its very inception until a record liquidity event i remember reading the rob report for many years richard is the author of three international bestsellers the latest of which one hundred proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life it's the number one new release in marketing and consumer behavior and number one in consumer relations on amazon and of course it is available on amazon or at your favorite bookstore and finally richard is a horatio alger nominee for his philanthropic work on behalf of orphans and widows i'd like to welcome richard wileman cpae zooming in from richard i know you have homes in hawaii and florida so where.

[C]

Are you today i'm in sunny florida today bill nice to see you thanks for having me i appreciate it thank.

[B]

You you bet i just read yesterday that hawaii is the rainbow capital of the world so i'm sure you'll love when you're in hawaii as well anyway i've heard you say that people are going through i think you call it great reevaluation what do you mean by that and what does this mean for financial advisors.

[C]

Well what it means is people and the pandemic really pushed this people began to step back and say am i doing the right thing am i with the right situation am i living in the right city am i living i mean all the evaluation we went through and the list is long and arduous to work through but as relates to financial services people have stepped back and say okay am i being taken for granted do i hear from my advisor frequently enough we did some work with salesforce twenty five percent of the people out of six thousand we surveyed said they switched financial advisors within a three year period because of the lack of consistent communication they felt like they were being taken for granted wow that's a big number as fifteen hundred people wow so what people are doing from the financial services perspective is they're asking themselves is this advisor really the right person for me and the way they're evaluating that is no longer on products and services it's really no longer on service i mean this whole messaging that the industry has tried to shall we say maximize is this idea we give good service today that's such a minimum expectation it's laughable and you know i'm in the us institute luxury board we support one hundred luxury brands as well there and i can tell you that good service is minimum expectation what people really want is a great experience on the buying side and on the service side et cetera you know i think difference and they're evaluating that thank.

[B]

You yeah i'm sorry to interrupt whenever i do my presentations did one last week in green bay wisconsin i said show of hands how many of you use the fact that you provide great service to your clients as something that as a differentiator that distinguishes you from your competition and about eighty percent of the hands went up so obviously now it doesn't mean you don't talk about it right i think you should talk about providing great service but it's not it's not a distinguisher it's not a.

[C]

Differentiator anymore well since supernova came out rob knapp who's passed away yes but since supernova came out i mean anybody that's not thinking about having a let's call it a schedule of service or at least a service plan that one could present to your clients you might have an a and a b we can contact you twelve times a year four of which are quarterly reviews two of which are face to face or six to one something to present to them instead of saying i give good service we'll be in touch regularly et cetera the top teams and as you know i coach a lot of large large teams and like you do and the reality is that the big teams the better advisors they have structured communication plans that they present on behalf of the client and the prospect and what that prospect immediately sees is this person is not trying to be different they're distinct from everybody else they put it in writing they actually have a process that i can rely on that they're going to communicate with me on an ongoing basis and so that what does that do that elevates the experience that they have i just finished some research with pwc and we found out that not a huge not a huge number there's a thousand people but eight hundred twelve of them said that it's at least fifty percent of the value they place with their financial advisor is the experience they have with him or her or the team so it's half the value let's just call it half for.

[B]

Most people yeah it's not just the numbers not just the performance it's the overall experience right yeah so i've the listeners of this show know that my my favorite topic always centers around client acquisition you know a classic book that i've probably read several times was your book was opening opening closed doors open.

[C]

Closed doors in my first one yeah.

[B]

Yeah great great book classic in the industry as far as i'm concerned so talk to us a little bit about what what do you see are the the key the main key or keys to acquiring and retaining clients i guess you've touched on it around experience is there more to more to say about.

[C]

That yeah yeah and experience is an easy word why you need to give them a better experience well right thank you let me make a note of that and then you go and say i wonder what that it's like i was at a conference recently and it's i mean not disparaging but listened the individual that was on in the morning i went down to just kind of you know like how you do i try to weave and i was on i was closing keynote and but he talked for forty five minutes on focus but i went in the hall later and afterwards and people were standing it was really good but you know it wasn't really clear what they were supposed to focus on and therein lies the point of experience you know so let's talk reality let's talk about tactical yeah right number one do you have their name is david dave or dave is a doctor john wilson does he like doctor wilson or john okay is elizabeth liz betty or beth or do you know or you don't know okay t boone pickens was a friend of mine he never went by t my first initial is c as you know c richard i get lots of emails dear c i don't open those as an illustration all right another thing do you sign your emails how do you send your emails you sign the best that's the number one dislike by the affluent people the number one dislike they an affluent i can't even say i can but i won't say some of the words they've told my interns in our research you know i have a research division as you know and some of the words that these women will say why would they ever say best for what best are they so let's not use best they don't like sincerely yours they think it's institutional warm regards kind regards best regards was the third but warm regards so i mean these are little things but they're important in the psychology of them another thing is that fundamentally what they're really looking for when you talk about experience are four things they're looking for kindness thoughtfulness caring and empathy those are the four things they.

[B]

Look for give this again kindness that.

[C]

You somehow demonstrate kind then we you know i've written one hundred proven ways and throughout the entire book which is very tactical as you know bill you've read it yes of all kinds of ways to be kind but kindness thoughtfulness they want you to be thoughtful give you a quick illustration young gal that four years in the business here she has a client elderly client they were supposed to come in to sign paperwork for an annuity they couldn't they called and said their dog broke its leg we're not going to be able to come okay well fine she could say i'll send you the paperwork she said i'll be right over but she didn't just go right over she stopped at petco bought a tin of cookies for the dog and a get well card took it to the dog and the household they signed it everybody goes oh that was nice but what was really nice is a week later she got a call from their son who's a neurosurgeon on the west coast he said i want to thank you for taking care of my mom my mom and my dad we've been trying to get them to move out here they don't want to they live in missouri they wanted they're very conservative they want to stay there and they said she said i just want to thank you you really took care of them and i'm just so grateful they all he could talk about is how you took care of them and the dog and how thoughtful you were he said listen i have five partners here in our neurosurgeon we're a private practice and we're with i won't mention the name of the hair here but we're with a major investment house and we're pretty unhappy because we really don't feel like we're getting our money's worth do you know anything about investments he said well i have a partner who's licensed there and i'm licensed there he said it's not big he said we got forty five million dollars in our four hundred one k account but would you be willing to look at that and their steps got thirty million in it would you look at would you be willing to at least look at that maybe we'd move everything anyway long story short three and a half weeks later they got seventy five million dollars for a tin of cookies i mean let's let's be clear here what the trigger was okay the trigger was kindness thoughtfulness caring she demonstrated that also show people that you care it's like when you're going put your shopping cart away that's a way to demonstrate your care i mean it's that mindset it's holding the door for the guy or the gal behind you or coming in with you and then the last one is empathy and empathy is the hardest one to demonstrate because either you are you're not now i'll give you an illustration of how to be empathetic real quick yeah it's one of.

[B]

The biggest words that i talk about all the time so go for it.

[C]

Yeah empathy is a problem for most and it really was a problem for me because i understand it and you understand it but it's very very hard illustrated for someone i mean you can give them a story and as well a nice story thank you very much but i'm thinking but we ask really sensitive questions in the financial community i mean we have some tough questions like how long have you been married how much money do you have what are you planning on getting divorced i mean there's a lot of stuff when are.

[B]

You planning on getting so i mean.

[C]

You know how many wives i mean you know all these conversations so that's funny i woke up in the middle of the night i was home in honolulu and i sat up in the middle of the night and i shouted it's the predicate and woke my wife up she was like honey predator is there a predator and of course rolex my wonder dog he woke up he thought i said predator so he's at the door barking ready get the nine millimeter let's go get him and i said no it's the predicate the predicate's in the wrong place and she said you you've got honey you you really got to start writing this this i mean this is twice a week now you're waking up shouting something tonight but it's the predicate was the problem because here's what we say bill if you don't mind me asking how much money are you planning on invest bill if you don't mind me asking how long how long how long before you think you're going to retire if you don't mind me asking what are you unhappy about with your current advisor if you don't we all go with the if you don't mind me asking and i focus group this right after this and i ask people if i i'm going to ask you a question i'm going to say this if you don't mind me asking i'm going to give you two different ways so i would say okay i'm going to ask a question now i started push the left button if it's rude right button is empathetic everybody got it got it great twenty people in a room if you don't mind me asking and they push rude i said no no folks you need to let me finish the question i said you ready everybody ready everybody got it now i'm going to ask the question and then you press the button okay everybody got it here we go if you don't mind me asking i'm like okay folks one more time i have to finish and they said there's no reason to finish the question it's rude and it hit me like a bat the predicate's in the wrong place say it this way bill how much money are you planning on investing with us if you don't mind me asking and what it does it gives people so i talked to my psychology buddy and you know i do a lot of business with a lot of research through harvard business review and he said it's the psychological break that people need it gives them this psychological space to consider your empathy.

[B]

Got it so by.

[C]

Putting hundreds of emails from advisors who have read the book and they're just stunned at how open people become when you just flip the predicate is that.

[B]

Helpful yeah is it so is putting the empathetic statement on the back end it's kind of like like the punchline of a joke i guess in a sense that you want to end with the right word the right words is that is right is that where i'm headed with that and that little bit.

[C]

Of a pause right gets them to realize that you're trying to frame it in a way that's empathetic but by saying you know how much money are you planning investing if you don't mind me asking bill right and i mean i've had people i have a group of pittsburgh they said we actually practice that in a sales meeting how to put and it was like crazy they would go out and ask questions what have i not explained to you properly if you don't mind me asking and they close more business.

[B]

And that's what i love about your book one hundred proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life it is very tactical it's strategic and tactical and we know that people you and i have seen this for years right people said tell me what to say tell me how to say it and i'll do it i just i get the concept but i need the words and that's that's one of the things you do you're extremely.

[C]

And those are the four things you're looking for kindness thoughtfulness caring and empathy but you know another thing like when you meet with somebody say okay well thanks very much thanks for ask this question what else can we do for you today that's another way to elevate the experience at least twice a year advisors listening to this broadcast i would encourage you to say to your clients what are three things we can do to elevate your experience further with our team they might say well there's really nothing well you know i'll tell you one thing and here it comes i've got a guy up in pennsylvania eastern pennsylvania and started asking the question and sure enough this widow said well i hate coming out here in the wintertime in the snow so he's got a client that owns a limo service so what do you think happened next they all get limoed in and out and guess what he's picked up another forty million dollars worth of business through word of mouth because today people share good and bad it used to be if i had a bad experience bill i'd call you and complain because you're the boss but now i go online and say we need to boycott the business and if anybody's got a cocktail burn the building down i mean that's just how people are wired today so it's crazy and another thing to help elevate the experience stop asking people you know when you come on the line like today when you and i came together i didn't say how you doing i just said hey bill good to see you and you said yep been busy had my daughter's wedding i said how was the wedding all right now think about this from a client perspective the next time you talk to a client don't start off with how are you or even a prospect you're talking to maybe two months or three months later when bill comes on i'm going to say hey bill good to see you what are you most excited about in the next six months or what are you excited about this fall or what are you excited about for the holiday season i want to get them to tell me their story why because it builds an emotional connection and if i get the four e's going emotional connect elevated experience emotional connection it's amazing what happens when you elevate the experience you get emotional engagement and people stay with you so these things all matter in the sense of the way you build relationships because relationships build revenue that's it we're in the middle of a relationship revolution right now yeah i'm writing an article for forbes right now on the on the relationship revolution because we live in an experienced economy something i i.

[B]

Picked up years ago i think it was you remember lou heckler yeah colleague at national speakers association he says our business grows at the speed of relationships yeah i just i love that and i don't think we've covered this i got a question prepared i don't think we've hit it yet so let me if i if we have just let me know i want to talk about the difference between clients saying they are satisfied with their advisor but not fine with the experience that distinction right that's.

[C]

A wonderful distinction you're making talk about that yeah often people will be satisfied with the product or service they're satisfied but they don't feel like it's a personalized humanized relationship they have so it's not it's good and i mean we i won't get in but i mean we we've had a massive year with the people we've coached we've taken out over a billion dollars our teams that we're coaching in new business this year and i keep telling them remember they might be satisfied with the way the phone is answered and the service that they're getting from the staff they might even be satisfied with their returns but they're not really delighted advocates because they have no real relationship there and i said we just remember this that people people really become advocates for the experience they have they don't become advocates for the stuff they bought and that's how people think today people today it's all about the personal relationship they have with them when i said we're in the middle of a relationship revolution so i might be satisfied bill that you sold me a wonderful something that increased in value or protected my family or whatever the case may and i'm grateful you put together a great plan that's good i'm really satisfied with this service but if i had to rate the experience i mean it's good i mean i have to call you most of the time i mean you do reach out to me occasionally but it's usually just to tell me either something i ought to buy or do and i don't hear from you often enough and i mean i would say that you know you're a good advisor would i say that i'm a delighted advocate i no i don't i don't know that i could use that phrase right and i've done a lot as you know we do a ton of branding interviews and we hear that we'll have somebody give us your top ten clients we do branding interviews and these are top ten clients for a firm for an advisor and we'll have some of those top ten relationships say yeah i wouldn't say i'm delighted and yet the advisor thinks.

[B]

They are so do you recommend that advisors or members of their team actually get into this you know i mean it's one thing to do a an anonymous survey or a survey with email through the mail it's another is to have i call this a value discussion you probably have your own version of this i mean at some point you want to sit in front of this client or zoom if you have to and say let's let's talk about this right let's let's you know are we providing you with an experience worth sharing maybe you don't use those words but talk about that what does that conversation.

[C]

Sound like yeah it's exactly we have you're right we have a proprietary process we use and you know i've got my the other division of my company the branding division in fact we've got two right now we're doing and we have them go out and we have the advisor actually interview his or her top clients okay it depends on the size of the team we've got a team now it's got two point five billion they're interviewing twenty two clients then that all gets can put into a report but the questions we ask is how would you characterize our service and we give them multiple choice just to get them in the flow you know good we have anywhere delighted satisfied et cetera and then as we get a little deeper in how familiar are with the products and services we offer we give them a list i can tell you that the average consumer of goods for the advisors listening to this call might know about five or six products or services that an advisor offers and he or she might offer fifteen huge gap there and a wonderful gap for guys like you and i that are trying to help somebody take the business away you know just remember your best client is our best prospect that's right let's not be confused how this works here all right so your best client is our best prospect that's the way we teach teams to think so go after their best clients because if they're satisfied we're going to get them and we just took one point seven billion out of one organization because the guy was satisfied but he wasn't delighted and we were happy about that as soon as he said well i'm happy but i mean i'm not delighted that's for damn sure oh so we ask questions around that we ask questions around how would you describe the value we deliver we ask questions around if you were going to complete the following sentences how would you complete them and then we give them a preface such as i feel that my team does i feel my team can improve upon i feel and it is amazing if you have a relationship now again i got to back this up this isn't some random you know phone room phone call this is take them out to lunch and have an hour conversation right not at the end of a review or some other crap you're there to have a conversation about we want to improve our business and we'd really like to hear.

[B]

From you is that helpful yeah absolutely real quick i know i just going to remind people of the book one hundred proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life for someone to reach out to you what what's what's the best place for them to go website linkedin just give us a sure yeah.

[C]

You can go on linkedin richard wyleman w e y l m a n or you can go to my website richard wyleman w dash e dash y dash l dash m dash and dot com there's all kinds of resources there for you podcasts you can listen to like well bill does here then he can go over a couple and i post videos all the time i don't know how many are up there they're not i have a youtube channel but these are off youtube so you don't have to listen to the ads and all that crap you can just go there i don't know how many are there thirty or four i put them up all the time i get thoughts and i put them up and you can subscribe to my performance tip you just scroll down the page you'll see it i got about sixty about sixty thousand people to get it and i send it i'm writing another one today before i was talking about every ten days or so a piece of research that we find out something i can help you with and then you can respond back and i'll answer your questions.

[B]

Too so anyway so let's talk about expectations this is something i always talk about in my work with advisors and yeah we know that mismatch expectations can damage kill relationships so speak to that a little bit.

[C]

Well the sad truth is when you don't have and we talked about this at the front end if you really don't well let me start off with don't make promises you can't keep okay y that's the most important thing second most important thing is that the whole expectation of communication people don't let people are really sensitive today about the lack of communication or communication that's inappropriate okay so if you got a company sending out a newsletter and it's your client base is let's say whatever let's say somebody in your fifties or somebody in their sixties and you got a lot of people that are retired already and they're sending out newsletters about how to write a good resume i'd probably shut that off and wouldn't have that sent out i do my own even if you only did it three times a year far better you did something simple a one sheet than them sending crap that nobody's going to read just pisses people off because it fills up their inbox that's and company hate it when i say that i've had you know i get i get emails richard shouldn't say that that's that's a very costly enterprise we have well fine but it doesn't work but we're.

[B]

Happy for well it's not relevant it's got to be relevant right it's not.

[C]

Relevant but keep blowing the cash we're happy for you so anyhow it's just how their brain is but i think that's the one thing and the other thing is on expectations is really do have a clear communication plan people want to know and when i say communication plan a million dollar household today expects to hear from you a minimum of six times a year and probably six times a year two of which are reviews one of which is face to face and you should communicate that right up front calendar it right up front so that you don't fall down a flight of stairs and because people leave because they don't hear from you and i'll tell you this if you're getting a lot of incoming calls the reason they're calling you because you're not in touch with them enough that's the problem and i'm okay i'll say a couple more things here bill that important stop this whole idea these firms keep pushing grow bring in more business bring in more business you're growing yourself broke you've got to figure out what it's costing you to run your practice we have a whole matrix that we put people through and they're stunned i've got teams now we've had to raise their minimum to ten million because the cost to run the business is so high they got too much they got a lot of staff all of which are important maybe in some cases too many staff but what happens is we keep adding staff we keep adding staff keep well that drives up overhead so you're working harder and how are the companies doing it well they're raising the minimums they're going to pay you on but that's not really helpful for you because you keep bringing in assets and as a result of that and households and the households end up needing more and more service and what ends up happening is the bottom households are the ones that file a complaint against you and the top households are the ones that leave and cost you the revenue that's paying your bills so really set expectations on yourself about what's going to be your minimum who's going to be your client have the ideal client mapped out in your business everybody aware of it and move forward if you get i look at it this way look at your practice as having an airplane with one hundred fifty seats on it and let's i'm just going to give you an illustration and you want every seat to be filled with all your a clients then you got about maybe forty ground crew those are family members the rest of the people build a second relationship somewhere and insert them into someone else's practice and do a split number if you can because otherwise you're going to grow your i mean i've got so i get so many companies that call me these guys are growing like crazy but they're running out of money they keep adding the staff they're dissatisfied yeah and then we look at the numbers and then no kidding okay you're giving the guy you know eight thousand dollars worth of service and he's paying you four thousand dollars no wonder you're going broke so these are important topics is.

[B]

That helpful bill yeah what do you think about the idea of segmentation so that i mean for instance i was working with one advisor a while ago and she was trying to give everybody the same high level of service even though there were different levels in terms of what they needed and profitability etcetera so i mean you kind of described the rob knapp supernova model in the sense of let someone else serve them but is it possible have you seen groups that will segment and then different clients will get a different level of.

[C]

Service and experience what we do in our coaching is we have we have you segment a because i'll make it simple a b c hopefully no d's but there's always d's okay and and those are households okay then we decide how often are we going to be in contact with them obviously the a's more frequently than the bees less frequently by the time you get down to d's it may be essentially once a year if that it just depends on the business and and what type of business you're in let's put it that way but absolutely you can't run a business treating everybody the same you've got to segment the business based on the revenue you're getting in and the services that you provide and that's one of the areas we spend a lot of time on with teams and the nice thing is it's freeing because then you can start making much better strategic decisions and you start bringing in shall we say clients that have larger financial needs larger assets you're getting paid more you're getting rewarded for your behavior and this is how we get this exponential growth that these teams are getting because they can focus on the a client and they have a structure for the b's and the c's and hopefully no d's but some days and that are not sucking up their time you treat everybody the same look time's your greatest currency in this business so you're going to run out of it when you do that so what's next throughout time and.

[B]

Resources she had more staff than she needed because she was trying to serve everybody at the same level and it just it just didn't make sense right.

[C]

Now we're at nineteen billion i just finished their plan to thirty we're getting the whole thing done with seventeen people right printing money i mean the assistants are all making over a quarter i mean it's just because we got it structured that the right people are talking to the right people at the right time about the right things for the right reasons there you go two rainmakers are out there just bringing in money.

[B]

There you go so at the top of the show we i kind of teased ways to connect and grow with without that that won't cost you more money as one of your promises you've already touched on a bunch of that part of it just attitude and little actions as we wind this up any other two or three tips of things.

[C]

That advisors and their teams special days give you an example right down not far from my house here in sarasota is a police station okay next door is a place called five o donuts very smart that is smart and their their tagline is arrestingly good donuts now i bought my first notice there august fourth twenty nineteen now the reason i know that because every august fourth i get a text from them it says congratulations squad member another year of loyal service to the community five dollars off your next bunch of donuts not dozen bunch of donuts now they open at five thirty and you can't if you're not there by seven thirty forget it they they usually close by seven thirty they just the line every morning seven days a week now it's not just cops i've had people flying from out of town because they read this story or i told it and and they went and i got a guy in san diego fact i talked to him a few weeks ago and he said god five donuts every year i get a text from them and i'm in san diego california they stay in touch with me so let me ask you a question if i do an investment with you mister or misses advisor are you sending me a congratulations another successful year as your advisor note on that anniversary to remind me of that which it is you do it on my behalf are you sending me a birthday cards we're happy for you but how about if the kid makes the honor roll how about a professional day i don't know what the day is today's columbus day indigenous people all these different titles they throw out today but every day you got registered nurses day grandparents day doctor's day so find out what these people do who they are and send them a congratulatory note another thing you can do is when somebody gives you a referral or a warm introduction or maybe instead of sending congratulations another successful year of beer in business i have a team i'm coaching in their first year i said the first year you sent them a cake to the house and i said they said we're sending a cake to the house i said why are you sending a cake to the house they said well because we want to salute them i said don't do that then the cake to the office why i said because it'll end up in the break room and everybody's going to be asking about the cake and sure enough they did and guess what this woman comes in what's the cake for you at your birthday no our financial advisor sent to us as on our anniversary of an investment she said you know my husband died seven months ago i'm really struggling here should i he dialed it and handed the phone said talk to misty he said it's on the phone one point two million dollars thank you very much.

[B]

Yeah yeah if those little things really do mean a lot and it goes back to that kindness thoughtfulness caring and empathy right it's that's a mindset that doesn't cost you anything to adopt you may have to work on it if you weren't born into a mindset like that but so my feet one of.

[C]

The reasons i wrote the book because yeah you know in all of the work that i've had the privilege of doing and all the wonderful people over the years i would ask them how would someone demonstrate kindness i would and so they and i started writing them down and so there's a hundred of them there and and what's amazing is the way people respond you're so thoughtful you're so and they tell their friends yeah so i mean i've got a team right now that we're working i mean they just had a union boss call him he's got four hundred million dollars he wants to move the whole thing to the number one reason because my friend jerry told me how kind and thoughtful you were when his wife got cancer yeah they sent him a sent them a dollar thirty nine blanket.

[B]

That human connection is i richard i remember this was years ago i was doing a a presentation for a large company we won't name kind of newer folks and i was talking about similar things about building the relationship the business friendship this or all this and one of the young guys in the back says what's all this stuff about relationship aren't we out there just to sell the product i mean we need to get people to buy this life insurance i said well no you don't have to pay attention to this unless you want to be successful in this business and stay in this business for a long time otherwise no just go out and sell property it's like okay well.

[C]

You'Re absolutely right bill and transactional the whole transactional mindset is it's not just.

[B]

Obsolete and it's still alive today unfortunately i think it's better than it used to be but it's still alive anyway look my featured guest on today's show has been richard wileman which is a great speaker i have to say that because we're both members of the speaker hall of fame so i just got to put my plug in there and his newest book is one hundred proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life richard thanks a billion for being our featured guest and for all your contribution to our industry appreciate you i.

[C]

Appreciate you billing you're a good friend and god bless you and congratulations on the hidden heist i'm excited about it's great read i'd encourage everybody to put some eyeballs on or at least by the audiobook and listen to it when you're on that treadmill and a wonderful gift for your clients too because it really gets them to understand how they really waste their fortunes yeah thank you.

[B]

With the subtitle is stop robbing yourself of lasting wealth so it is the mindset the hidden heist so don't forget per richard's prompt to go to thehiddenheist dot com also a lot of i'd say free but valuable resources at referralcoach dot com resources referralcoach dot com resources this is bill cates reminding you that ideas do not make you more successful only acting on those ideas will bring you the success you desire hey thanks for stopping by thank you for listening.

[A]

To the top advisor podcast brought to you by proudmouth's pod rocket academy i encourage you to visit my website referralcoach dot com for links to my books online course courses and to register for the kat's academy.