who do your referrals come from?
by russ alan prince
moving upmarket refers to working with wealthier clients. the desire to move upmarket is becoming more pervasive and stronger because of many factors, such as economic volatility, increased competition and fee compression. for many accountants to do well going forward, they need to work with wealthier clients. they need to move upmarket.
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for a substantial percentage of accountants with high-net-worth practices, they likely have to change their business model to move upmarket. for example, the ultrawealthy – individuals and families with a net worth of us $30 million or greater – commonly require accountants to have a different business model than clients of lesser affluence.
yes, the ultrawealthy regularly need accounting and administrative expertise, but how to best work with them is often vastly different from clients of lesser wealth. more specifically, the ultrawealthy are choosing to work with family office practices over all other types of professionals.
putting the accountant’s business models aside, the biggest obstacle to moving upmarket is connecting with wealthier clients, especially if the objective is to connect with them on a preferential basis. without question, there are various ways to connect with the wealthy, with the most common being client referrals. however, as the client’s level of wealth increases, client referrals prove less and less effective.
so, what is the most effective way to move upmarket? the predominant answer is referrals from other professionals, specifically wealth managers, and lawyers. this conclusion is familiar to most accountants with high-net-worth practices.
the complication for most accountants wanting to move upmarket is that they are either not focused on getting wealthy client referrals from other professionals or, if they are focused on doing so, they are not getting any substantial traction. while accountants with high-net-worth practices advisors do indeed get referrals from other professionals, it is an almost random failure rare event.
there are methodologies accountants can implement to not only ensure they are introduced to wealthier clients from other professionals but also create a steady stream of these higher-net-worth clients. there are different approaches to building strategic arrangements with other professionals, and one such approach is ultimate rainmaker.
ultimate rainmaker is an empirically derived, time-tested methodology for building a pipeline of new wealthier clients. it is not about “trading” clients. with ultimate rainmaker, for example, accountants with high-net-worth practices never have to introduce professionals to their clients but will still be referred by other professionals to their wealthiest clients.
ultimate rainmaker is, first and foremost, about delivering greater value to the wealthy. secondarily, it is about helping other professionals, such as wealth managers and attorneys, become more successful. lastly, ultimate rainmaker is about accountants with high-net-worth practices generating significantly more revenues by working with much wealthier clients than they are working with presently, and these much wealthier clients are referred by other professionals. with ultimate rainmaker, everyone wins and wins big.