Figuring out your firm’s focus

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

Darren thought his company was successful because of the products offered, but he was looking in the wrong area.

Businesses stand on three legs: product leadership, operational excellence, and client intimacy. To be successful you have to be as strong as your competitors in two of these areas, and superior in one. Your success largely depends on which one of the three areas you choose to focus on and how well you achieve superiority in that area. Focusing your energy on the wrong area will limit your growth potential and leave you vulnerable to your competition. To determine what to focus on, you must take a long look at your own business, the industry, and the marketplace. Which area is going to give you the most leverage and help you put a wall up between your clients and the competition? 

This case study is a clear example of how one of our clients profited from putting their focus on the right area.

When we first met Darren Asper of the Jarvis Agency, at the Million Dollar Round Table, he was a successful twenty-year veteran of the insurance business. Darren had been making his rounds of the exhibition centre when he stopped by our booth. He glanced at our array of materials, introduced himself and then asked if we could explain what we do. We briefly explained that we are a training company focusing on marketing and sales and then asked him to tell me more about himself.

Darren entered the life insurance industry as a second career in his mid-30s. He’d wanted to be his own boss and work in an area with unlimited potential; he felt the insurance industry offered both. After struggling in his first few years, he eventually managed to establish a client base that generated a significant revenue stream.

Darren is a cerebral type and prides himself on developing expert financial solutions for his clients’ unique problems. As his clients grew in their careers and businesses, Darren benefited by being able to develop solutions for more complex problems. His business was healthy, but he worried he was leaving business on the table with some of his clients. Furthermore, there was a whole level of high-net-worth individuals he wasn’t reaching. At the booth, we exchanged ideas about how he might be able to raise his business to the next level. He was excited about our program s and immediately bought a book.

The next afternoon, Darren came by with a fellow named John Kirby. Darren told us he’d already read the first six chapters of our book and loved it. He encouraged John to buy a book and we talked for a while. On this visit, Darren also purchased another one of our books on business planning. Over the next few days, Darren introduced us to half a dozen of his colleagues, selling them on our books and tapes and buying the rest of our product portfolio for himself. On the last day of the show, Darren introduced us to his manager, Rick Sargent. Darren and John were eager to implement our training program in their company, and together with their manager, Rick, we talked about how to proceed.

We arranged to come out in the Fall and make a presentation to their top producers. The presentation was a big hit and we initiated a program for twenty producers to begin right away. As an incentive, Rick Sargent developed a co-payment schedule for the program. If the agent managed to increase production 15%, Rick would pay for 25% of the program. For a 25% increase, 50% was covered, and for a 50% rise, Rick would pay the entire freight.

In a coaching session with Darren early in the program, we talked further about his plan to expand his work with his current clientele and begin working in the high-net-worth market. We explained to Darren that businesses succeed by establishing superiority in one of three areas: product, operations, or client intimacy. And, while successful companies are superior in one area, they are at parity with their competitors in the other two. You can’t get away with being lax in any area, but you absolutely have to establish yourself as a leader in one. We asked Darren to tell us in which area he considered himself to have an edge. After pondering for a few moments, Darren said, “Product.” When we asked him why he told us that his expertise was developing solutions that his competitors couldn’t; which was why his clients stood with him. Exactly the answer we expected.

We told Darren that it was his perspective on his business that was holding him back from greater success. This surprised him. The reason his clients work with him isn’t the solutions he develops or the products he offers, we explained. It’s his intimate knowledge of their problems. And by focusing his energy on the product side of his business, he limited how far he could go. If Darren didn’t capitalize on the potential that lay in his business soon, one of his competitors would.

We asked Darren to tell us why he chose to work with The Covenant Group. He outlined the history of how our relationship began; the encounters at the booth, the books, the presentation in the Fall. He said that he wanted to work with our company because he felt we could help him. That’s what we wanted to hear.

Darren began working with us because of a strategic decision we had made about positioning ourselves in the marketplace; the same decision that he faced himself. We focus squarely on client intimacy. In fact, our strategy is captured in a phrase we developed: Learning Relationships. Our Learning Relationship strategy means that we focus on developing meaningful, deep relationships with our clients, beginning with the first contact. From the moment we met Darren, we gave him ideas he could use immediately to help build his business. The Learning Relationship expanded through the products Darren purchased, further conversations, the Fall presentation, Darren’s enrolment in the program, and the monthly coaching sessions he began taking. And it wouldn’t end there; our company and Darren were engaged in a continuing Learning Relationship, a relationship from which we are both benefiting. We asked Darren to consider the impact a client intimacy focus would have on his business. What were the things he should be doing in the marketplace to initiate Learning Relationships with prospects and clients? And what were the things he should be doing with his current clientele to foster and perpetuate long-term Learning Relationships?

Over the next few months, we helped Darren develop strategies around client intimacy that changed the way he thought about his business. In the past, he had focused on developing expert solutions for specific client needs, but he hadn’t used that expertise to solve the rest of his clients’ problems. Nor had he promoted his expertise in the marketplace. The strategies he identified for growing his business include such things as concept lunches, newsletters, radio interviews, and a client service plan that ensured regular contact with his clientele.

Lessons Learned

Darren’s client intimacy focus did indeed change his business. He found it much easier to deepen relationships with his current clients, gaining more and more of their business. But more than that, he discovered a way into the high-net-worth market. His Learning Relationship approach ensured that he was constantly offering value to the marketplace, and the marketplace responded by giving him their business. He took seriously the idea that the first contact with a client was where Learning Relationships began. He ensured that both he and his prospects were learning: they were learning how Darren could help them solve problems, and he was learning what their problems were. At the end of The Program, Darren’s revenue was up over 60%. In fact, the average increase for the twenty participants was 53%, and this was compared to an increase of 20% for the rest of the agency. Rick was more than thrilled to cover the cost of the program.

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