Don’t be a Hoarder

You probably have too many clients. I recently attended an industry conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. At dinner one evening, my wife and I sat at a table with a couple of other financial advisors and their wives. After a delightful political discussion (we were all cut from the same conservative cloth), the conversation finally came around to business. One advisor asked me how I marketed my practice. “I don’t,” I said. “Just referrals, that’s it.” Then, I asked him a question, “How many client families do you have?” He said “800.” I asked, “How many advisors help you manage your book?” He said, “None.” I said, “You have too many clients. You can’t possibly love that many families. You are mistreating a lot of people.” He agreed and sighed, “But, I just can’t stop marketing.”

The Mega Church Syndrome

I am always fascinated by, and not a little irritated with, large churches. (Some of this comes from my own injured pride, I’m sure, since I planted and bi-vocationally pastored  for 12 years a very small church, which never grew to more than about 50 families.) Studies indicate that the average full-time pastor can effectively minister to a maximum of about 150 families. If he visits with each family four times a year for just an hour, that works out to 600 hours, not counting any drive times. Add in sermon preparation for 2-3 weekly messages (another 500 hours), 2-3 weekly worship services (another 300 hours), evangelizing new prospects, weddings, funerals, hospital visits, business and committee meetings, speaking engagements, and community events, and the pastor is spent.

With some churches reaching weekly attendance levels of over 25,000, someone is getting lost in the shuffle. No one can pastor 25,000 people. Mega churches argue that they have additional pastoral staff members, deacons, lay church leaders, and volunteer servants who help with the work load. But, I say again, no one can pastor 25,000 people. In churches that large, it’s likely that the pastor isn’t pastoring anyone, or if he is, it is only a small select group of key leaders and perhaps his own family. But, there is little doubt that many, and maybe most, people are getting a superficial experience without any real spiritual growth. Mega churches are known for hemorrhaging church members.  Financial advisors do this all the time in their investment practices. They keep promoting, marketing, running seminars, advertising, and so on, until they burn out, retire, or die. Ultimately, a lot of their clients suffer from little or no contact, a poor advisor relationship, and a neglected investment portfolio. Sure, the money keeps rolling in as new clients are brought on board, but the older clients who are getting neglected eventually look for other homes for their portfolios where they will get the attention and nurture that they need.

Overmarketing

If you have more than 150 client families, you have too many. Get off the marketing treadmill. I didn’t recognize my problem until I was informed by my staff that clients were complaining about waiting weeks to get in to see me. Clients would complain to my face, “You’re a hard man to see.” I was embarrassed and ashamed. It occurred to me that I had overmarketed. In my zeal and determination to build a successful, thriving practice, I overlooked the fact that I had reached my goal two years earlier than I realized. In other words, I had overmarketed by two years. I sat down with the staff and divided my client book up into 3 categories: 1). the ones I would keep; 2). the ones I would pass along, but who needed a high level of sophistication and service; and 3). the ones I would pass along, but who were smaller, low maintenance clients. My right hand man and operations manager, Dustin Martin, got group two, and my tax manager, Larry Metivier, got group three.

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