Work smarter, not necessarily harder

The following is based on one of The Covenant Group’s clients. All of the names and telling details have been changed.

Gord Malichek has been a client for many years. He is a successful, 45-year-old financial advisor who has been in the business for 16 years. Like almost everyone else, Gord struggled in his first year in the business. He made the rounds of friends and acquaintances, closed a number of small accounts, and, unfortunately, lost out on a lot of proposals. Gradually, however, he began to build his book of business. After a few years in the business, Gord was able to afford to do some marketing, so he began holding seminars. The seminars were a great success. Gord’s client list grew dramatically. Unfortunately, his marketing skills would later put his business and his home life in jeopardy.

When we first met Gord, he was making $400,000 a year in commissions from more than 1200 clients. Many advisors would love to be doing those kinds of numbers. Gord, however, was at his wit’s end. When we met, he looked haggard. He rushed in trailing his tie over his left shoulder and apologizing for being ten minutes late. He said he hated being late, but he was just run off his feet, trying to get from one client to the next. In fact, that’s why he had made time to see us. He had heard about our work from a friend. He realized he could use our help. As we talked, Gord painted a picture of his life. He worked five and a half days a week, saw at least three clients or prospects a day, and spent every spare minute on the phone. His wife and children were despairing. His clients were beginning to grumble that they weren’t getting the same level of service they once had, and he was scared that his business was going to topple like a house of cards. Not only was Gord unable to serve his current clients, but he had absolutely no time to talk to the prospects he really wanted. In fact, he had been working on a sale to Karel Gramaldy, who owned a large recycling business for more than four months. Unfortunately, Gord couldn’t find the time to properly prepare for Karel. It was a million-dollar deal that was falling through the cracks in Gord’s $400,000 business.

Fortunately for Gord, we had worked with a lot of financial advisors and entrepreneurs who found themselves in similar situations. We knew exactly what his problem was.

“Gord, before you can work on cases as large as Karel’s you have to clean up the business you have today,” we told him. “You need to work smarter not harder, in order to create the time you need to close cases with high net worth individuals.” Gord nodded, but a small grimace crossed his face. I probably wasn’t the first to tell him this. However, we knew a simple strategy that would solve his problem.

“Gord, there are two kinds of time,” we explained. “Chronological time, which is what we all normally think of when we think ‘time’. It’s the usual, day-to-day counting of our seconds, minutes, and hours. You do most of your work in chronological time. The hallmarks of this way of working are; a lack of a long-term vision for your business, a lack of free time, an inability to grow your practice, and a high degree of stress.”

Now Gord was nodding more forcefully - he suffered from all those problems. “However, there is another kind of time, Gord. The most successful business people and financial advisors, whether they know it or not, are working on a time scale called Kairos. When you think in Kairos time you are looking at least one year out. You let your long-term goals drive your short-term behaviour. You need to shift your perspective from the next 10 hours to the next 10 years.”

Gord still seemed a little confused, so we made the problem more personal for him. We asked him the three questions we ask all our clients: What do you want to be doing in ten years? How much income will you be making? And, what adjectives describe your life at that time?  Obviously, Gord had given those questions some thought before. He instantly told us he wanted to be a financial advisor, making $1 million dollars a year and living a more relaxed and satisfying life.

Next, we asked him if he thought his 1200 clients could take him to his $1million dollar goal. He shook his head sadly. He knew he had to work with higher quality clients, but that was his whole problem. He couldn’t find the time to work on complex, high revenue situations.

“Gord,” we explained, “It’s all a question of doing the highest value work possible. If you were to make a million dollars a year you would have to work 200 days at $5,000 a day. That’s about $700 an hour. Are you currently working at those levels?” Gord laughed and shook his head again.

“So instead of doing tasks that are worth $20 to $300 an hour tasks, how can you get to the $700 an hour work? You need to delegate. The only way you are going to breakthrough the plateau you are stuck at right now is to hire another producer. You need to train a sub-producer to take over all but the most profitable segment of your current business and then you can spend your time working in the high net worth market.”

Gord’s eyes bulged in his head. “Hire another producer? I can’t do that! What if they can’t sell? How much would that cost me?” He sputtered. “I don’t want to manage somebody else.”

We asked him, “Do you have administrative help right now?”

“Of course,” he replied. “Sheila.”

“So, it’s the same principle. You don’t want to and can’t afford to tie up your time in low revenue tasks like filling out forms and sending faxes. So, your admin person pays for herself by making you more productive. If you hire a junior producer, the same thing will happen. It’s the only way to achieve your goal.”

After a little more convincing Gord finally came around to the idea of hiring a junior advisor. In the next month, he interviewed 15 people and selected the best candidate. We continued to meet regularly and he kept us posted on how the experiment was working. In the beginning, he found it hard to adjust to not doing everything for himself. He found it slightly frustrating to have to educate his new advisor about how to deal with clients he had known for four years. But, as time passed, his new advisor learned to work more independently and Gord was freed up to go after his big game.

Six months after that first meeting Gord breezed into our office, ten minutes early for our meeting. A big smile was plastered across his face and he was waving a cheque in his hand. We could see six zeros stretching across its front. Gord said, “I just came from Karel Gramaldy, the deal is done.”

Lessons Learned

Gord’s case shows that if you think that working harder and harder, for more and more clients, is the key to success, you will find yourself on a treadmill. Instead, you need to use delegation and sound long-range planning to your advantage.

Breaking through to a new level of success requires that you look past tomorrow and plan for next year and beyond. When Gord realized his current clients wouldn’t allow him to reach his goals, he had to change the way he worked today. He had to delegate his smaller clients to a junior advisor. As we saw, Gord was initially reluctant to pursue this option - as are many advisors in his situation. Taking on a new hire is fraught with risk. It will increase your expenses and make short-term demands on your time. However, taking that risk is the only way to realize the gains Gord wanted. Hiring a sub-producer enabled Gord to stop doing lower-level work and concentrate his efforts to the highest level of his ability. Ultimately, his junior advisor enabled him to close the biggest case of his life.

The bottom-line is, if you learn to focus on long-term planning and delegate effectively, you will be more successful.

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The Covenant Group is referred to by many as the place entrepreneurs go to become Business Builders. They are considered to be thought leaders and have authored the best-selling books, The 8 Best Practices of High- Performing Salespeople, The Entrepreneurial Journey, and The Business Builder.