I got all kinds of interesting answers to last week’s Time Out question, “How Do You Get to Wall Street?” One email said, “Take the Weehawken Ferry and then the subway.” The best answer I received was, “It depends on where you are.” This is also the best answer to the question, “How do you build your business?” Before you start planning seminars, client dinners or a mailing campaign, you should step back and take a close look at where your business is at now. You spend hours working in your business; now spend a few hours working on it. You know the value of profiling your top clients; now profile your business.

How to Begin

Have you ever tried to complete one of those 500-piece jigsaw puzzles? You start by dumping all the pieces on the table and turning them face-up. Then you look for easy matches and fits and find the straight-edge pieces and corners. You look for patterns to emerge and build on. Take this same approach with your business.

First, turn all the pieces face-up and find the edges and corners. This means sorting your household accounts by assets and doing a second sort by production. Compute the percentage of your book each quintile of clients represents in assets and production. Now you’ll see patterns emerge that tell you an important story. A close look at the first quintile of clients will show that approximately 80% of your assets and production come from this quintile. These are your best clients. The bottom three quintiles will show you where you’re losing money. On average, the bottom 60% contributes less than 8% to your production yet demand more than half your time. How does that imbalance affect your profitability?

The Completed Puzzle

When you’re done with this segmentation and analysis, you’ll draw some conclusions about how to develop rapid and profitable growth. You’ll know where you are so you can plot how to get where you want to take your business. (The answer won’t be a ferry and the subway.) You’ll be ready to write some goals, strategies and action plans that will guide you to your destination. You’ll also discover some things that might be holding you back. (Think bottom three quintiles.) All you need is your client data and a spreadsheet. I always ask my clients to begin our strategy coaching relationship with this basic analysis.

Bob Lodie is a speaker, business strategy coach and consultant to financial advisors. He is author of Three Steps to Million Dollar Production and Personal Success from the Inside Out, and he is President of CEO-Think, a 12 month program for independent service providers and professionals. He can be reached bob@boblodie.com or direct at 310-552-6064