A marketing allegory:
Joe and Andy wanted to pick their own apples. The harvest had been going on for some time when they made it to the orchard and the trees were offering slim pickings. The day was sunny but chilly.
Andy went straight to work. He saw that harvesting two pecks was going to take a while this late in the harvest. He wanted to finish the work and get a cup of hot cocoa. He picked the apples within reach as he wandered among the trees. Andy found one apple on this tree, two on that.
Joe studied the situation a little before he started picking. Although the apples within reach were few and far between he noticed that the apples were plentiful in the higher branches. He saw a couple of trees that would each yield a peck once he climbed into position on the fourth or fifth branch.
Joe started picking a few minutes after Andy but he was on his second cup of cocoa when Andy made it back to the orchard’s restaurant.
Is your financial services practice like Andy’s or like Joe’s? Has your practice been built gathering the low-hanging fruit so that each new client comes from a different source like Andy’s peck of apples? Or are you more like Joe, identifying a target market for your practice so that your best clients know the kind of clients you seek and can refer others who meet your target profile? Do your clients have similar interests and situations so that developing a solution for one client can be leveraged with the next client?