Jennifer Goldman on How to Say ‘Good-Bye’ to the Wrong Clients

Show Timeline: 

1:47 Overview of the work Jen is doing with advisors
4:55 What is involved in off-boarding clients
7:50 Benefits of off-boarding clients and effects on your brand
13:03 Signs that it’s time to consider off-boarding
16:00 Off-boarding as a solution to working with the wrong clients
18:40 An example of a great off-boarding experience
25:40 Obstacles advisors might encounter during the off-boarding process
29:10 The importance of focusing on the right clients

Links:

Website:              https://www.jennifergoldmanconsulting.com
Blog:                   https://www.jennifergoldmanconsulting.com/blog/facetwealthstory/
LinkedIn:            https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferagoldman/

Want more?

Stephen Wershing: www.TheClientDrivenPractice.com/checklistblog
Julie Littlechild: www.absoluteengagement.com/blog

Episode Transcript:

Julie Littlechild: 
Welcome to Becoming Referable. The podcast that helps you become the kind of advisor clients can’t stop talking about.

I’m Julie Littlechild and in this episode, Steve and I speak with Jen Goldman, who is a coach who has helped hundreds of advisors transform into profitable, higher growth business.

Now in the work that she does, Jen focuses on a number of things: strategic planning, recalibrating staff and resources, and creating operational efficiencies. And she brings that very broad range of experience into this conversation. And we tackle a really interesting topic with Jen. It’s one that we don’t often discuss, which is how to think about offboarding clients intentionally, either because you’re working with some of the wrong clients or with too many clients. She walks us through a way to think about when offboarding makes sense, the impact it can have and what really gets in the way. And once you’re over any of those internal hurdles, how to make it happen.

And with that, let’s get straight to the conversation with Jen.

Jennifer Goldman, welcome to the Becoming Referable podcast.

Steve Wershing: 
Welcome Jennifer.

Jennifer Goldman: 
Thank you guys. Glad to be on with you guys.

Julie Littlechild:  
Absolutely. Well we talk so much that I’m happy to just talk to you officially on the podcast. So I am, well we both are, have worked with you in different ways or shared ideas with you for so many years. So really excited to have you here today.

And there was an area that I wanted to focus on and it’s actually triggered by one of your recent blogs. But before we dive in on some of those specifics, can you just give us an overview of the kind of work that you’re doing with advisors right now?

Jennifer Goldman:
Absolutely. So in a nutshell, as much as I can explain this, within a year, I work with advisory firms that really are looking to improve and expand their client base and their staff. And the trick is, they want to do this while also improving their profitability, their work/life balance, and impossible in some cases, their valuation. So it’s about guiding firms through a series of what I call prioritized changes. And while I’m guiding them through and the team, I’m also teaching them how to manage change along the way so that when I’m no longer around, they can continue to keep expanding and growing in what I would call a very sane way versus the insane way.

Steve Wershing: 
That’s the next book. That’s the next book, the insane growth question.

Jennifer Goldman:
Yeah. So, yep. So that’s basically what I did.

Steve Wershing:
And so just to focus on that a little bit, Jen, are there particular kinds of firms that you do that with? Cause I’m wondering if it’s, if this is appropriate for everybody or if you need to be at a certain level before you’re really in a position to do this.

Jennifer Goldman:
Yeah, I’ve found that over the years and working with so many firms that really, the firms that are really ready for this, with healthy pace of change and so forth, they’ve got to be around 1.5 to 2 million gross revenue. And in terms of the split between reoccurring and non-reoccurring revenue, you’ve got to be over the 50% mark on reoccurring revenue.

Julie Littlechild:
And that’s just because those are the firms that are ready for the kind of work you do. Is that?

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