Professionals who lack expertise and professional brands are the Incompetents. They can scrounge out a living, but it's unlikely they'll be working with very many of the ultra-affluent.
Lastly, we come to the Incompetent Leading Authority. This is a professional with a solid brand among the very wealthy and other types of professionals. The fact that they're not very competent need not prevent tremendous professional success. A lack of real expertise is rarely an obstacle to sourcing new ultra-affluent clients if they believe you're a leading authority. For advisors in this group, being perceived as an expert is the key-regardless of their skill level.
Talented Leading Authorities and Incompetent Leading Authorities are actually on the same playing field. The reason is really quite simple. When it comes to choosing professionals in complex, specialized and unfamiliar fields, the ultra-affluent and their advisors are usually incapable of making proper evaluations.
It's the rare investment advisor, for instance, who can determine if a life insurance program put together by an insurance specialist is truly optimal. Along the same lines, few P&C providers understand the components and mechanics that go into a loan. Professionals more often depend on a professional's reputation when making referrals than a critical evaluation of the professional's background and skills.
A Leading Authority?
Because perception is so important, you will have a hard time cultivating wealthy clients without an effective professional brand. Developing a brand over time is actually easy. Creating a brand that will enhance your ability to source wealthy clients takes work.
After more than a quarter century working in the private wealth industry, examining the mindsets, behaviors and decision-making processes of the very wealthy and the best practices of professionals, we can conclude that there are more Incompetent Leading Authorities than Talented Leading Authorities. There are also many more Hidden Talents than both types of Leading Authorities, and even a greater number of Incompetents.
When it comes to building a book of wealthy clients, Leading Authorities dominate. Incompetents are rarely successful except for the rare wealthy client or two-often relatives. Hidden Talents tend to stay hidden. Hence, the competition is among the Leading Authorities-and, as we've stated, they're on equal footing.
When we've run conferences and workshops, and we've asked who in the audience is in the top 10% of their profession, nearly everyone, if not everyone, raises their hands. It's that easy to say you're an expert. But, if you tout yourself as an expert, you need to ask yourself a question: Who believes you?
Your positioning as an expert is dependent on what potential clients and other professionals believe. The following exercise can help you clarify whether you're perceived as an expert.
Write down how you describe yourself to prospects and professionals. Describe your expertise.
Identify five clients who can refer their peers to you and five professionals who can refer their clients to you.
Write down how you think each of these individuals would describe you to a prospect. What would each one say is your area of expertise? Do you have proof to back up your assumptions?
If your description of your expertise differs from your clients' and your professional network's, you're probably a Hidden Talent.
Like the greater majority of professionals focusing on the ultra-affluent, your professional brand can probably use some polishing. Being an unknown expert-a Hidden Talent-might result in a good living, but it does little if your goal is to build a business with the ultra-affluent.
Russ Alan Prince is Private Wealth magazine editor-at-large.
Bruce H. Rogers is chief insights officer for Forbes Media's newly reorganized Forbes Insights division and CMO Practice.