everyone wins… here’s how.
by anthony glomski and russ alan prince
your $5-million high-net-worth practice
when it comes to working with the wealthy, all your expertise and all your firm’s capabilities and all the other top-notch experts you can bring to the table are “givens.” put another way … they are table stakes, and you must have table stakes to play. you absolutely need a top-of-the-line high-net-worth practice.
more: building a high-net-worth practice during covid-19 | the essential process for building a high-net-worth practice | what the wealthy need | setting financial and practice goals during covid-19 | 4 components of a high-net-worth practice | life insurance as part of wealth management | mistresses, mister-esses and accountants | the coming boom in tax services for the super-rich
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as for your expertise, if you have a wealthy entrepreneur who wants to sell her business in a couple of years, there are some ways to mitigate capital gains and estate taxes. tax mitigation could come from the use of selected trusts or establishment of an offshore pension plan. the fact that you can do all these things does not inherently differentiate you from another quality accountant and many other high-caliber professionals. it most likely will separate you from many possible competitors, but they are not really the competition.
your knowledge and ability to implement becomes less and less a factor to your success as you move up the wealth spectrum. why? because as you move up the wealth spectrum, the portability of competitors being just as technically competent goes up exponentially.
no question: expertise without process is often no business.
we work with some of the wealthiest families throughout the world. there is not a service, strategy or financial product we can provide that another high-end professional has not already suggested. our success is predicated on …
- connecting with these astronomically wealthy families on a very preferential basis
- developing a deep understanding of their world – the beautiful, the ugly and everything in between
- leveraging our deep understanding of their self-interests to deliver solutions, strategies and financial products that – as precisely as possible – enable them to achieve their agendas
- making sure we are always abreast of what matters to them and what does not, and always providing the appropriate optionality
so, for the moment, let us say you have the table stakes:
- you have a high-functioning high-net-worth practice.
- tied to your high-net-worth practice, you can access talent from within and outside your firm.
- you have conviction.
if this is the case, your success with the wealthy and your ability to build a $5 million high-net-worth practice all comes down to the quality of your relationships. you will likely quickly realize that what we are addressing is not new. on the contrary, it is ancient and universal wisdom. it is all about human nature.
learning from leading ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs
we would like you not only to consider if you are doing what we are talking about but also just how systematic you are using what we call the everyone wins process.
some background …
the everyone wins process was derived by ethnologically and empirically studying the best practices of leading ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs. some of these entrepreneurs are wealthier than croesus.
while we are discussing the everyone wins process to build a $5 million high-net-worth practice, it is applicable for most everyone in business. again, many components of the process are likely something you do, but you may not be all that methodical about it. now is your chance to become much more systematic and, consequently, much more successful.
in the same way top ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs build great companies and substantial fortunes, your ability to create a tremendous high-net-worth practice is commonly predicated on your ability to strengthen and enhance chosen business relationships. this approach results in you most effectively working with the wealthy and creating a consistent flow of new wealthy clients.
the fact is, enhancing business relationships translates into much greater professional and personal success for nearly all entrepreneurs, nearly all professionals, nearly all corporate executives, nearly anyone and everyone. for instance, we have seen and helped some entrepreneurs achieve net worth multiples of 10x or more – often much more. the same can be said for the range of professionals catering to the wealthy.
there are a couple of core concepts to the everyone wins process. they are …
people behave in accordance to their self-interests.
people are not going to do what you want them to. they are going to do what they want to do.
you need to make just about all your conversations and actions all about them and their self-interests.
by making it all about them, you uncover their self-interest, and you then know how you can help them achieve their agendas. when you do help them achieve their self-interest, they will most times reciprocate.
in sum, to truly excel with the wealthy, you must deeply understand them and customize everything you do to help them accomplish their self-interests. when you do this well, you will find that you win bigger, more consistently and in ways you never predicted.
the four-step everyone wins process
there is no magic to the everyone wins process. as we said, you are likely doing many of the things we will be advocating. the big difference is probably the extent to which you are business-oriented, very thoughtful and extremely systematic. we repeatedly find that few professionals or business owners or anyone else are business-oriented, very thoughtful and extremely systematic.
the everyone wins process, for instance, is essential in all forms of personal wealth creation coaching.
it consists of four main steps.
step 1: your self-interests: while you are intent on helping other people achieve their self-interests so they win, you also have to achieve your self-interest so you win. only then does everyone win. therefore, you start by determining your own self-interests such as your most important goals, issues and concerns.
put another way, you need to know what winning means to you. you have to specify the outcomes you want to achieve. winning is reaching your financial end-goal (provided you do not raise it). winning is about achieving the milestones you have set that lead to your financial end-goal. as for one of those milestones, winning is about building a $5 million high-net-worth practice.
your self-interests are also very tactical. a tactical goal, for instance, is having a conversation with a wealthy entrepreneur client and walking away with a list of possible future referrals.
by being clear about your self-interests, you can put all your energies into determining the other person’s self-interests.
step 2: their self-interests: developing a deep understanding of the wealthy and other professionals who can refer them to you is critical to your success. we are talking about a deep understanding as opposed to a surface understanding.
determining what is extremely important, as well as what is not important to these people, can sometimes be challenging. and, because it can be challenging, so many professionals fail to develop the insights that produce the level of success we are talking about. the everyone wins process is very learnable, so if you are not presently adept or need to fine-tune your knowledge and skills, you readily can. then you will be able to adroitly unearth what is positively (e.g., aspirations) and negatively (e.g., fears) meaningful to the wealthy and any of your business associates.
central to determining the self-interests of others is the discovery process and being empathetic. the discovery process artfully uses open-ended questions and probes to uncover the self-interests of others. empathy is intertwined with discovery. it is the way to confirm your understanding of their self-interest as well as let them know you understand.
step 3: appeal to their self-interests: knowing your self-interest and their self-interests permits you to help them achieve their agenda and lets you move forward with your agenda. there are two basic approaches you can take to help other people achieve their self-interests: direct alignment and adding value.
many times, there will be overlap between your self-interests and the self-interests of a wealthy individual or professional. this overlap occurs whenever one of them comes to you with a specific request. for example, if a wealthy celebrity needs to create a set of contingency plans for a possible future crisis or a wealthy entrepreneur wants to sell his company, there are likely a multitude of ways you can help both of them and get compensated along the way. in these scenarios, you are bringing value through your expertise.
direct alignment tends to be quite common between an accounting firm’s high-net-worth practice and the wealthy. however, it is often not the best approach to sourcing new wealthy clients – especially in sourcing them from other professionals. here is where adding value becomes the preferred approach. you are using your capabilities, insights and connections to help other professionals achieve their self-interests. there are many, many ways to add value, and it all depends on what you have learned about their self-interests.
it is essential to recognize that appealing to someone’s self-interest is not about persuasion, sales or influence. sales, for instance, is where you have a service such as bill paying, and you are trying to get a wealthy individual to buy it. this approach is precisely what we do not advise. when the wealthy individual tells you they need help in coordinating their finances and making sure people get paid correctly and on time, then bill paying may be part of the solution.
the everyone wins process is so much more effective and so much easier than selling. you are identifying ways you can be sincerely and meaningfully helpful. you are detecting the opportunities that exist and bringing real value because of your technical proficiencies, your relationships with other professionals or in other ways. it is about making determined efforts to help other people accomplish their objectives, mitigate their concerns and make their dreams real.
step 4: track results: leading ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs are all about results, and so is the everyone wins process. when using the process, you can markedly accelerate your success by being aware of how things are going. unless you are tracking results, you do not know if you are helping the wealthy or other professionals achieve their self-interests. at the same time, you need to know if your efforts are going to get you the results you are looking to achieve.
when you track results, you will know which relationships are getting you where you want to go, and what you need to do to refine your approach to be more successful. while tracking some results, such as the work you are doing for wealthy clients, you might not be tracking other possible results, such as the number of new referrals they are making and what you can do to facilitate getting more referrals.
client-focused business development
the everyone wins process is the quintessential approach to client-focused business development. unlike many professionals who concentrate on selling their expertise, the everyone wins process is all about the client. as we said, the everyone wins process …
- is not selling or persuasion or influence
- is about caring and helping
- is all about results
it is easy to spot professionals who take a firm-focused approach to business development. their conversations are all about what they can do and how good they are. keep in mind that no one (we ever met) did not tell us that they were really good, that they were exceptional at what they did, if not one of the best in their field. these professionals often have very pretty powerpoints and brochures to go along with their proclamations, which are all about them and their firms.
client-focused business development is focused intently on the client. you can easily spot client-focused professionals because they are spending much of their time listening. there is little to no emphasis in paraphernalia such as powerpoints or brochures. client-focused business development is all about human connections.
considering the multitude of pretenders, predators and exploiters, mastering the everyone wins process will give you a considerable advantage over any competitors, including other true professionals. one of the reasons client-focused business development is so effective is because most professionals want to sell their services and work quite hard to make their offerings fit, even when they do not fit well. consequently, most of the wealthy need high-quality advice that will help them reach their goals and mitigate their concerns.
you are looking for ways to help the wealthy as well as other professionals who work with them to achieve their self-interests. as you find a way to be a hero to them, there will be times when you do not financially benefit. however, because most of the wealthy and other professionals are looking for answers, solutions and often direction, by helping them achieve their self-interests, you will usually massively benefit.
conclusion
many true professionals, while aiming and able to do an excellent job for the wealthy, are often thinking mainly about themselves and their practices. by using the everyone wins process, you can connect in ways most other professionals simply cannot. this shift in thinking means much more business for your high-net-worth practice and other practices at your firm.
the everyone wins process is a cornerstone and infused in just about all aspects of client-focused business development. we are not going to go into the mechanics of the process per se. we are going to explain applications of the everyone wins process in the form of maximizing wealthy client relationships and sourcing the wealthy from other professionals.