How Much Love Should Wholesalers Give To Top Producers?

I had a boss that always used to say, “Your best clients are your competitors best prospects.”

Which means you need to guard the relationship you have with your top producers – closely.

That said, have you ever wondered how much is too much when catering to needs of your very best clients?

Is it possible to love your top producers too much?

How do you draw the line between relationship building and pandering?

Great wholesalers are mindful of this line and are able to navigate the subtleties.

The “right” advisor relationships are built on partnership, not an awkward sense of servitude that gets compounded by the producers ability to drop tickets, and the wholesaler’s need to exceed their production/income goals.

Every wholesaler I know has been at the crossroads of the ‘whale’ who can/does put up huge numbers but is also a slime bag.

These are the advisors that have the gall to demand outrageous sums of marketing support (often even before a trade is done), expect (versus graciously accept) invitations to high profile events, and even have a tendency to be abusive to home office partners.

Years ago I began to call this the ‘seamy underbelly’ of our business, and based on my conversations with wholesalers every day that underbelly is still very much alive and well.

In a recent email to our subscribers (get on that list by signing up in the box right after this post) I wrote about a due diligence attendee I was entertaining who started belligerently mouthing off to strangers on the streets of Manhattan after drinking way too much.

Was his $2 million a year in production worth it to me?

Have you compromised any of your beliefs or personal ethics in pursuit of the “right” relationships with huge producers?

flickr credit