Building a Client-Centered Practice: Insights from Duncan MacPherson & Pareto Systems

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Rare Advisor, host Aaron Grady welcomes author, speaker, and founder of Pareto Systems, Duncan MacPherson, for an in-depth discussion about creating a client-centered financial advisory practice through what Duncan calls the “Always On” client experience. The conversation begins with Duncan explaining the origins of the concept, tracing it back to his early exposure to Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth and its central idea of the difference between working in your business and working on your business. That insight inspired Duncan to think about how financial advisors could move beyond being technicians trading time for money and instead build businesses that run on documented, repeatable processes. This realization led to his framework for systematizing and professionalizing every stage of the client relationship, which he calls “Always On.”

Duncan and Aaron explore how the “Always On” framework is designed to help advisors standardize, organize, and optimize their client experience so that their value becomes tangible, transferable, and ultimately scalable. Duncan explains that when advisors keep their methods and client interactions stored only in their heads, it’s a skill. But once those processes are documented—whether digitally or physically—they become intellectual property. That’s what elevates an advisor from having a book of business to having an actual business. Documented systems make an advisory firm fee-worthy, referable, and distinct from competitors because they create professional contrast and consistency. Aaron reinforces this by discussing the concept of moving “vapor to paper,” noting that advisors can only scale their business when others can replicate their processes.

They then explore the first of the four quadrants in the Always On model: “Onside.” This phase focuses on the first impression and establishing fit with potential clients. Duncan explains that every advisory team has some version of a fit process, but most have never formally documented it. He challenges advisors to map out exactly what happens from the moment a referral or introduction occurs through to the first meeting and eventual engagement. He notes that professional scarcity—the sense that not everyone will qualify to become a client—is an essential part of this phase. It creates belonging, exclusivity, and alignment without being exclusionary. Duncan contrasts this approach with the typical “sales encounter” many advisors have and explains that in a true fit process, it’s not about convincing the prospect to become a client. The goal is for the client to convince the advisor that they are the right fit. When this happens, value is bought, not sold.

Aaron agrees and emphasizes that the fit conversation is not about screening clients out but about creating exclusivity with purpose. It positions the advisor as a professional with a defined process rather than just another provider of financial services. He highlights how formalizing this phase can shift the entire perception of the relationship, transforming introductions into meaningful, advocacy-driven engagements. Duncan adds that the fit process is not only about onboarding new clients but also about influencing existing clients and centers of influence—accountants, attorneys, and other professionals—so they can clearly articulate the advisor’s process when referring others. When clients can describe an advisor’s process confidently, advocacy becomes natural and organic.

The discussion then transitions to the second quadrant, “Onboard,” where Duncan and Aaron dive into the importance of intentionally designing the client’s first 90 days after becoming a client. Duncan points out that most advisors underestimate how crucial this period is. It’s the moment when clients are most likely to experience buyer’s remorse, yet it’s also the moment when referability is at its peak because the client’s experience is fresh and they can easily contrast it with their previous advisor. He encourages advisors to build out a detailed, step-by-step onboarding process, which often involves 15 to 17 touchpoints, to ensure a seamless and affirming experience. By mapping this out, advisors can proactively transition clients into advocacy instead of leaving it to chance.

Duncan describes three distinct audiences for the onboarding process. The first is new clients, where the process sets expectations and accelerates trust. The second is existing clients who have become too familiar with their advisor, often drifting into what he calls “loyalty fatigue.” These clients can be “re-onboarded” to reinvigorate the relationship and remind them of the advisor’s full value. The third audience consists of acquired clients—those who come through a merger, acquisition, or succession plan. A strong onboarding process allows an acquiring advisor to quickly convert these new relationships into loyal advocates, often unlocking what Duncan calls a “vein of gold.”

Aaron shares his own experience working with teams going through acquisitions, noting that applying the Always On principles helps them see new potential in every relationship. He points out that many advisors miss the natural window of advocacy that happens right after onboarding, when clients are excited and eager to share their positive experience. Too often, advisors move from signing paperwork to silence, failing to stay present in that honeymoon phase. Duncan agrees and adds that when advisors align interests and maintain consistent communication, they can replace the traditional excitement-then-dropoff with a steady, long-term burn of client engagement.

From there, they move to the third quadrant, “Ongoing,” which deals with maintaining relationships through structured communication and consistent service. Duncan explains that an advisor’s referability is not simply a function of competence or performance—it’s tied to service. The word “deserve,” he reminds listeners, comes from the Latin root “to serve.” Advisors who have a defined service model deserve referrals because they deliver predictability, transparency, and value beyond investment management. He introduces the 12-4-2 model as a baseline: 12 touchpoints per year, 4 scheduled meetings (one per quarter), and 2 major reviews. For top-tier clients, those touchpoints might increase to 30 or more. This structure competitor-proofs relationships by keeping the advisor top of mind and reinforcing value throughout the year.

Aaron discusses how helping teams define their service model often reveals blind spots. Many advisors treat all clients the same, which risks their best clients feeling undervalued. The key, he says, is to segment clients and deliver higher-touch experiences to the top tier, aligning with the Pareto Principle—focusing 80 percent of your energy on the 20 percent of clients who drive most of the business. He and Duncan agree that transparency in the service model builds trust and reinforces fee-worthiness, as clients can see what they’re paying for and how it differs from other service levels.

Finally, the conversation shifts to the fourth quadrant, “Onward,” which centers on how advisors respond to critical life events—both positive and negative. Duncan explains that being “Always On” means noticing and responding intentionally to these moments, from major achievements like retirement or buying a vacation home to hardships like illness or loss. Advisors who operationalize empathy and create a plan for how their team will respond to these life events deepen loyalty and build emotional equity. He shares examples of advisory teams that have turned authentic gestures—such as sending personalized notes or meaningful gifts—into lasting memories that strengthen relationships.

Aaron adds that documenting these potential life events and planning responses allows advisors to act with authenticity while remaining efficient and consistent. It helps teams be proactive instead of reactive, ensuring no milestone or hardship goes unnoticed. They discuss how even as AI and automation become more prominent, it’s the human touch—being thoughtful, personal, and intentional—that differentiates great advisors from good ones.

The episode concludes with Duncan encouraging advisors to start small and simply begin documenting one process at a time. Building an “Always On” practice doesn’t happen overnight, but incremental progress compounds over time. The payoff, he says, is immense—greater scalability, deeper client advocacy, higher enterprise value, and a business that truly operates beyond the advisor themselves. Aaron closes the discussion by echoing Duncan’s mantra: “When the why is clear, the how becomes easy,” reminding advisors that every system and process should serve a larger purpose—creating meaningful, enduring client relationships that drive both professional fulfillment and long-term success.

TRANSCRIPT

Aaron Grady, Advisor Consulting Director at USA Financial -  Welcome back to another edition of the Rare Advisor. I'm your host, Aaron Grady. And today joining me is speaker, author, founder of Pareto Systems, Duncan MacPherson. Thank you, Duncan, for joining me today.

Duncan MacPherson, CEO of Pareto Systems - Thanks for inviting me, Aaron. I appreciate it.

Aaron Grady - So I asked you to join today, Duncan, we were having this conversation about building a client-centered practice. And through that concept, I know through your work in both your books, you're always talking about building a practice designed around the client experience. But there's one concept that you really lean into, especially in the Blue Square Method, and that's the idea around the always on client experience. Talking about what happens from the very first introduction. through onboarding, through the ongoing relationship and all those little critical moments throughout that are designed to define trust and advocacy. quite frankly Duncan, nobody really explains it as well as you do. So thank you so much for coming today and I'm really excited about the chance to really kind of delve into this topic. So start by, Can you describe Always On? This is the difference between a business that's personality driven versus one that's process driven. Can you start by explaining what does that really look like? The documenting, the refining, the optimizing, the process. What are the levers that allow an advisory practice to scale just beyond the advisor themselves?

Duncan MacPherson - Well, I'll start with just a bit of the backstory. I'm not sure if anybody finds this interesting, but it was in the early to mid 90s. I had another business, a marketing business, and I was actually in British Columbia on Vancouver Island doing some work there. And I had rented a brand new Mazda Miata. Weather was beautiful. I was zipping around and I happened to buy a book on tape, like cassette. That's how far back this goes. And it was the E-Myth by Michael Gerber, the entrepreneurial myth. And I was just starting, Aaron, to get into the financial services space. And I had an entrepreneurial mindset. I never really wanted to have a job. I just wanted to create a job and create other jobs. So I put on this cassette and Michael Gerber says very early on, he said, there's a big difference between working in a business and working on a business. When you work in a business, you are trading time for money. You're exchanging your technical ability for a payment. It's transactional. You're not really building anything aside from maybe reputational equity. When you work on a business, you're really building something. And the analogy he used was he talked about the difference between being a baker and having a successful bakery. Okay. So that's what launched this for me. Very early on, I was really focused on the difference between having a book of business and having an actual business. So I was telling advisors, You you think for a living. It's, you know, you're in the knowledge for profit business. You're not selling things. You're promoting the promise of the future. I said, you have to work through your knowledge and your expertise and start building intellectual property. And the way you do that is you get everything out of your head. And that evolved over time to this framework called Always On.

Aaron Grady - You

Duncan MacPherson - So you're always working on the business. And this framework is just basically a placeholder for where to standardize and organize and professionalize your client experience. Now that's what it is. Let's talk about for a second, what it does. What it does is gives you professional contrast. So you differentiate yourself from the pack. It makes you fee worthy. So clients focus on what you're worth, not what you cost. And ultimately, it makes you referable. So that's the backstory and it just slowly but surely came together as this very well optimized framework for almost like a checklist of what advisors can do to get things out of their heads and out of the heads of their team members. Because remember Aaron, and you know this, you're Pareto certified, you know this as well as anybody. If what you know resides in your head, it's a skill. The moment it's documented digitally, physically. Now it's intellectual property. Now you can really get serious and the benefits are immense. So I'll let you chime in on that. That's the backstory. I know I find it more interesting than anybody else, but I wanted to hear it again because I love the origins, but that's where it starts. And we talk about it all the time.

Aaron Grady - I love the anytime we get to have these conversations, you know, I hear all these great sound bites. can't tell you how many times I've, I've been working with a, an advisory client and I'm reciting the, all the analogies that you use or the little sound bites are like, Hey, can I get a list of those? You know, there's the Duncan isms. And then I always have to remind them the thing that you always say that is, you know, it's the, it's always been said. You know, or as it was always said, as I always, know, the whole, eventually it becomes mine, right? So it's my phrase and my saying now. But I love the concept of vapor to paper. It is so important, I think, for advisors to understand that scaling a business and growing a business has to live beyond them. And the only way you can do that is really creating processes, but then documenting those processes so that others can follow it.

Duncan MacPherson - Not there.

Aaron Grady - So I love that you touched on that. So let's talk about kind of the very first place we usually start with advisors in this concept of always on. And it's really the idea of the onside, kind of engineering those first impressions. You talk about the onside stage involving usually typically eight to 10 defining steps, everything from the moment that someone's first introduced to you. For many advisors that we work with, and you know this to be true as well, introductions are still pretty informal and reactive. What would you say are some of the most important steps in the onsite process that are designed to create contrast and really establish alignment with a prospect or client early?

Duncan MacPherson - Well, first thing I just want to acknowledge that, yes, you want to have all of this outlined digitally, but there's something about the Procedures Manual, the Playbook, the Physical Binder. Now, a lot of people think of that as being a little horse and buggy. There's something about just having your way in your hands. And I always say to advisors, I want you to imagine taking that binder your way and putting it in somebody else's hands and saying, just add water. This is our way. Just do this. That is the moment you become scalable because you're not at the mercy of maverick talent being left to their own devices they have predictability from that playbook. So I'm glad you brought that up. Now, getting granular. And I'll just sort of set the stage for everybody. There's four quadrants in Always On. Onside, Onboard, Ongoing, and Onward. So I think we'll have time to touch on all four. Onside, this is such a great place to start. Onside is

Aaron Grady - Yes.

Duncan MacPherson - The fit process. Okay, so here's the scenario. You get a phone call from a great advocate and they say, hey look, you gotta do me a favor. My buddy just sold his business. He's a little overwhelmed. He thinks he's done with his current advisor. I explained your process. He wants to talk to you. Okay, so you're a financial professional. You get that phone call. What happens the moment you hang up the phone? What sequence of events, like how do you thank the rainmaker for the introduction? How do you connect with the prospective client to schedule the first meeting or even just have that initial phone call? How do you prepare yourself to create professional contrast, right? You know the old saying, for you to get hired, someone's got to get fired. There's a very good chance that...

Aaron Grady - He he he.

Duncan MacPherson - Client already has a financial advisor and they're vetting others. So how do you stand out from all of that? Literally to the point where your value is bought, not sold. Which means, it's not a sales encounter when you meet this person. You're not trying to convince them to become a client. They're going to convince you. The dream scenario is when a financial professional meets a prospective client for the first time and halfway through the meeting, the prospective client says, hey, you know what? I've heard enough. I just want to work with you. Would you accept me as a client? Like, you're not closing them. They're closing you. Okay, that's on-site. So to your point, how many steps are in the fit process that the advisor currently has? If you're an advisor listening, how many prospective clients have you met over the years? Probably hundreds. Okay, where's that process? How many steps are in it? Is it intellectual property, which means it's standardized, organized, optimized, professionalized, literally to the point where you could put it in the hands of a temp and say, just add water. This is how we do it. Many advisors, I mean all advisors have a fit process, but it's generally up here. We want to just turn it into IP. And as you said, there's often eight, 10, 12 steps in that process. And that would encompass the agenda, the preparation in terms of studying the prospective client and just getting organized to bring them all the way up to the signing ceremony.

Aaron Grady - Mm-hmm.

Duncan MacPherson - Okay, so I'll just give that as some context and feel free to elaborate.

Aaron Grady - Okay. You know, it's, it's, you know, I, of all the, of all the elements in the onside part of the process, the idea and the concept around the fit and the concept of fit and establishing fit. You're right. I can't tell you how many times an advisor has told me, well, hey, look, I know within the first five minutes of whether or not I, you know, I'm going to take this person on as a client. It's not the point. The idea of you know, understanding and projecting and using messaging that talks about fit creates exclusivity without excluding anyone. It creates something special and it allows you to use purpose and intent to build relationships. And like you say, to use the fishing analogy, it's when the fish start jumping in the boat, when people are selling you on why you need to bring them on. I think this whole, that initial process of the onside making that great first impression but engineering it purposefully for a very specific purpose to drive client advocacy and build an advocate for the very first moment I think is so crucial. So with that in mind Duncan, what would you say were probably, what would you say are probably the most, in the first 48 to 72 hours of being introduced to a prospect, what do you think most advisors get wrong?

Duncan MacPherson - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - in that timeframe? What are the one or two things you think they get wrong?

Duncan MacPherson - Yeah, well... First of all, I like to say to advisors, there's probably nothing wrong. There's probably just some tweaks and some gaps in what you do. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Call that positioning, diplomacy, whatever you want to call it, but it's usually the case. now backing up a little bit, mean, professional scarcity?

Aaron Grady - Opportunity.

Duncan MacPherson - That's engineered. Like if you go right to Maslow's hierarchy, right in the core is belonging. Like if I'm a client, I want to feel like I belong to something that's even bigger than just safe harbor in terms of how you manage my money. But it's just like, I'm part of something very meaningful, very unique. And having a fit process instead of a sales encounter activates that professional scarcity.

Aaron Grady - Yes.

Duncan MacPherson - Okay, so I'll just start there. The other thing is, and again, I just want advisors to expand their thinking around how they're perceived and how they're described. The fit process impacts referability because if I'm a client, it's easy for me to refer a friend. It's just easier not to. It's just easier not to get involved. But the moment I understand how introducing a friend to my advisor will ultimately come back to reflect on me,

Aaron Grady - Yeah.

Duncan MacPherson - I feel compelled. You see, advocacy, philosophically, is not about me just being an advocate for the advisor. I have to get to the point where I feel I'm doing my friend a disservice by not introducing them to my advisor. With everything that's going on in the world, there's a lot that's topical in the world of money. Now here's my point And you know this, when an advisor builds out their fit process, they then go back as part of their reframing exercise and they show it to their clients. They show it to accountants and lawyers and other influencers. And they say, hey, I just want to let you know that, you know, we're going through an exercise right now where we're elevating the client experience. We're working with a coach. We're adopting best practices. And we just built out our fit process. And what I mean by that is, you know, we've made a decision. We're not going to be all things to all people. We're going to be all things to some people. But I just want you to know, we only accept new clients who are introduced to us. But if you ever felt compelled to introduce someone to us, I want you to know what they're going to go through, what their experience is like, because there's no expectation. If somebody is introduced to us that they need to become a client. It's all about fit and the alignment of interests. So let me just show you our process. This is like magic. It's like poetry. When an advisor says, here's what you can expect, here's what your friend can expect, the better I can verbalize that, the more my client can internalize it and then socialize it with persuasive impact. Because it's not about my client saying, oh yeah, I talked to my advisor. He made me a lot of money. Like the last couple of statements have been off the hook.

Aaron Grady - So you

Duncan MacPherson - It's not about products and pricing and performance. It's about the people and the practice and the process. So the addressable audience for the FIT process is not just prospective clients. It's potential advocates.

Aaron Grady - You know, you brought up the reframing process and I know that gets a little far afield from what we're talking about, but it does connect. We could actually have a whole conversation on the reframing process. Myself and a couple of the other Pareto coaches have actually started using. I have this great graphic that shows all these different chocolate chip cookies and they all look different and it's all about.

Duncan MacPherson - No doubt.

Aaron Grady - The subtle differences in the recipe that were, you you use cold butter versus, you know, melted butter, use brown sugar versus granulated sugar, and how it affects the outcome. And I bring this up because, you know, we talk about these steps in the process, and even in the reframing process, there's oftentimes where people try to shortcut to the outcome.  And if you change the recipe, you change the outcome. And so I love the thought process that having even a simplified version of the always on, know, the, you know, looking at this through this lens of helping even four different quadrants where you can actually say, okay, as long as I try to follow this recipe, when I'm building my client experience, I have a better assurance of creating professional contrast and getting the outcomes I'm seeking. So I love.

Duncan MacPherson - Yeah. Well, a consultant's version of recipe is the word process. You know, I've had so many advisors, I'm sure you have too, who have said, you know,

Aaron Grady - Yes.

Duncan MacPherson - I started imprinting the word process in my conversations with clients, just imprint, imprint, just let's stick to the process. That's the next step in the process. We've got a process in place. Just imprinting it over and over again. That my clients started internalizing that. Is that part of the process? That type of thing. And then the advisor would get a referral. And the advisor would call up the rainmaker and say, I really appreciate the introduction. I'd love meeting your friend, such a great guy. And I'm curious, like, what did you say? What kickstarted the whole conversation? When a client mirrors your value back on you and says, well, you know, I was at a barbecue and my friend went off on a rant about his advisor and I just explained your process. And he said, I've got to meet your advisor.

Aaron Grady - Mm-hmm.

Duncan MacPherson - They don't even realize what they're saying, but they've internalized it. It's so incredibly powerful. recipe, process, it's just so, it's not what it is, it's what I think it is. It's a thing. It's not just that you're a good person and you try hard and you're smart. It's you've got this thing. And I want to be able to transfer that to somebody else.

Aaron Grady - I love it. So let's talk about the next quadrant in the process, the onboard side, the idea of trying to reduce the buyer's remorse or even fast tracking advocacy. In the onboard stage, looking back to the book, The Blue Square Method, you emphasize that advisors are at their highest level of referability, or we would say introducibility, early in the relationship. Can you talk about the onboarding, how this process can be intentionally designed to reduce buyer's remorse and accelerate to client advocate status?

Duncan MacPherson - Well, and yeah, you're right. mean, the referability is so high because by virtue of contrast, what they just left, that bar was low. But it's also like my experience is so fresh. Like I just went through it. So I feel compelled now to share it because I'm like, wow, this is so superior. Okay, so just backing up. I'll ask an advisor, say, how many clients have you onboarded in your career? And of course it's hundreds. And I'll say, okay, how many steps are in your onboarding process?  And they'll say, you know, I don't know, like probably 10, I don't know, six, I don't know. I say, you need to know. Because you have to turn it into intellectual property. You've got to do your inventory, you've got to know your number.  And so I'll just say to the advisor, sit down with your team, lock yourself in a room, turn off the phones and say, okay, what happens at the moment of the signing ceremony? Like the moment a client, a prospective client says, yes, I want to work with you. What happens? Sequentially, step by step by step, how many steps, what happens? Get it standardized, organized, and professionalized. And it's common, know, to transition somebody from a, you know, their soon to be former environment to yours and to fast track them to advocate status, build it out. Now we provide the sequence in the Blue Square Method and through our coaching process, but it's not uncommon. It's 15 steps, 17 steps. And there's something so powerful to just knowing the number, having it all built out, and then, and I'm jumping ahead again, but here there are three addressable audiences. Brand new clients. Number one. Number two, existing clients who have maybe drifted into this pattern of familiarity, you know, where they really like and trust their advisor, but they're not really fully aware of all their value. There might be a little bit of loyalty fatigue setting in. So there's an opportunity to go back and basically rejuvenate a long-term relationship by re-onboarding them, to remove the mystery and to start activating the future pacing. So, not just where we are today, but directionally, where is this all going? That is such a powerful exercise. When a long-term client says to a financial advisor after a reframe, they say, man, I had no idea you could do all this. This is very impressive. That's code for you are fee worthy. You are referable. Okay? I'm now on the verge of advocacy. But the third addressable audience, this is so exciting is when a financial professional decides, okay, I am going to pivot from a B2C organic growth model to a B2B scalable growth model, I'm going to go out and buy a business. I'm going to go out and attract an advisor who's maybe underperforming to adopt and draft in behind my process. And when we transition his or her clients and onboard them into our environment, there's going to be a vein of gold. I see it all the time where an advisor buys an $80 million business from an advisor who's sort of on the way out over the next couple of years. And in 12 months, they turn that into a hundred million just by tapping into the vein of gold through the onboarding process. The value of this IP is enormous.

Aaron Grady - I actually have several teams that I'm working with that are going through that very scenario right now, the opportunity for &A or acquisition and helping them see what the potential of a advisory client relationship can look like through this type of process. It is eye-opening. It energizes them to another level that they didn't. You know, as opposed to being in more of a transactional relationship, they understand that now there's so much more to be had. So I absolutely love the concept. I also, you know, we talked about or I mentioned, you know, the concept that, you know, there's two times in a client relationship that an advisor is at the peak of advocacy. And one of those times is when they first get, you know, when they come on board, you know, it's the idea of like, it's the brand new restaurant you just ate out that you want to go tell somebody about or. You just opened a new bottle of wine and you want to tell somebody or watching some show on Netflix and it's the best thing ever and you want to go tell somebody. Advisors, think sometimes miss the mark with this point in their process where there's this natural moment where the client has the opportunity to jump into advocacy and oftentimes advisors will sign the paperwork and then usher them on and we'll see you in six months.

Duncan MacPherson - Yeah.

Aaron Grady - By having this high touch approach, you get to stay in that honeymoon phase. You can stay in that golden moment longer. And so I love how thoughtful you were when you were designing the process to put these top of mind steps to continue to stay in front of the client during those moments to extend that honeymoon phase with a client. So I absolutely love this part of the process.

Duncan MacPherson - Well, you, you said it. mean, buyer's remorse is just basically a by-product of, well, it could be a by-product of bait and switch. Right? Because there's this fascinating dynamic between caveat emptor and vendor. Like the caveat, then D door caveat emptor caveat, then D door that's vendor beware buyer beware.

Aaron Grady - Right.

Duncan MacPherson - When you're fixated on alignment of interests, it removes any anti-climax because it's not the shooting star where it's all, you know, exciting and then it just falls off. It's the steady burner. Like it just keeps going. That's powerful. It just builds on its own momentum and energy. So, you know. When an advisor becomes franchise ready,

Aaron Grady - Mm.

Duncan MacPherson - Their enterprise value goes through the roof. The fulfillment skyrockets because they're like, wow, I'm harnessing my life's work and having scale without dilution and without wearing yourself out because you've got this IP. It's very, very cool.

Aaron Grady - I love it. So we've talked about the on-site quadrant, which is really kind of focused around the initial engagement with a prospective client, the fit process, which there's so many different elements in there too, the introduction kit and the messaging and setting yourself apart and building and laying those foundation stones for advocacy. We've talked about the onboarding, which is, all right, now we've signed all the paperwork, but now how do we... We tailor an experience through the lens of the onboarding that continues to promote advocacy and right in that honeymoon phase when there's a really unique natural opportunity there. Let's talk about the next quadrant of this process, the ongoing. How do you competitor proof through recurring and repeatable events, which that's what Rare stands for is reoccurring and repeatable events. So you outline the 1242 model. kind of as the baseline of the client experience, and in some cases up to 34 touches for AAA type of clients. How should advisors be designing a recurring and repeatable ongoing experience that both builds a firewall around the relationships and continually earns full empowerment?

Duncan MacPherson -Well, the first thing I just want to remind everybody about around advocacy. advisors have been asking me for years, how do I get more referrals? The first question I'll always ask them back is, are you referable? And they'll always say, well, yeah, I mean, some people get offended that I would even ask them. They're like, of course I'm referable. The Enlightened will say, well, I'd like to think so. They're a little bit more understated.

Aaron Grady - Yeah

Duncan MacPherson - But I just remind them, if you look at the word deserve, like do you deserve referrals? It stems from the Latin words to serve, deserve, to serve, from service, derived from service. Okay. Which means your referability is not just tied to your technical ability and core competency around how you manage money. It's how you manage the relationship through best practices. So having a service model ensures that you deserve referrals. So it's not just reactive, it's predictive. It's client facing. You're like, you're saying, this is what you can expect from us in the next 12 months. Like literally on the onboard, it's like, this is what the next 12 months look like. These are our touch points. Predictive, proactive. Now, of course, you've got to tie that to the classification of the client. I mean, if you think about the Pareto principle, you've got to invest 80 % of your time on the 20 % of the clients who generate 80 % of the business. If plateau avoidance and leveling up is part of the aspiration, you've only got 24 hours in the day. You can't be all things to all people. So.

Aaron Grady - Yes.

Duncan MacPherson - You're not being disrespectful to a group of people. You're just elevating. And Aaron, I've seen teams, they've done 80-20 on their business. I've seen teams with 500 clients. They'll say, okay, we have hundred clients that make up 81 % of our business. Then they'll do 80-20 on the 20, those hundred. They'll have 20 clients that are just colossal. And assuming that it's not just assets, but there's attitudinal elements and potential for advocacy, which makes AAA. I've seen teams that have had 50 touches for the 20 in 12 months. Like, so it's not just the red phone under the glass jar reactive when that phone rings, the world stops. The predictive elements around content and what they're invited to and the amount of scheduled communication is incredible. But as you said, it starts 12-4-2. 12 touches, one a month at a minimum, like minimum requirement, one touch a month. Four scheduled meetings, prompted on the client's birthday and then on a 90-day rotation and two scheduled meetings. Minimum requirement. Now, of course, for the 80%, those can be virtual meetings. You can scale that back a little bit. But just having it all organized is so incredible. And what it does, and I'll just finish with this. It gives you the gift of time where you get out of this mode of firefighting and being just reactive. You trust the plan, you stick to the process, and things build on themselves.

Aaron Grady - You know, some of the most meaningful work we've done with advisory clients is helping them redefine or even define what their service models look like. And there's times, Duncan, where I'll be on calls with an advisory team and we're talking about this concept. And there's the other element to it. You've mentioned it several times, is setting clear expectations of what the relationship looks like. You know, bringing stuff from the dark and bringing it into the light and truly being transparent with clients and saying, hey, this is our commitment to you. There's times where it almost feels like I've walked an advisory team to the edge of a building and I'm saying, okay, now, because the idea of putting this all out in front of their clients and being transparent and saying, we're going to commit to doing this sometimes is a lot to take into. But I love what you said. Having a process and understanding that this high touch approach is not for everyone. It's for a tailored group of your best client relationships. You can do more for a smaller group. If you're trying to continue to do everything for the world, it's not scalable, but you can for this group. And so I love when those light bulbs go on with advisors and they really understand, wait a second, now we can create something special. Something that's always a moment that we reflect on too is I always tell advisors, we ask that question. like, well, what does your current service model look like? And they're, well, everybody gets the same stuff. And that's a slippery slope in and of itself because the worst possible thing that could happen is your best clients ever to feel like they get treated just like your least client relationships. There is some benefit to membership having its privileges. So I love having these conversations around the ongoing part of the process of divining a service matrix. We also, I always talk about like a stewardship framework, you how you're stewarding the relationships, but I love this part of the conversation of how do you continue to nurture those relationships ongoing.

Duncan MacPherson - Well, Aaron, was just, I spent a few days with Chris Jepson, as you know, he co-wrote the two books with me and he's a legend in the space over at First Trust in the best practices department there. And he shared this story with me where an advisor had a really substantial client and the fees. Based on this relationship, we're in the neighborhood of about $100,000 a year, like significant revenue, significant assets, big relationship. This client, as the story goes, referred his sister to the team who was going through some things apparently and choose a much smaller client. Like let's just say that the revenue was 10,000. And after the dust had settled, the advisor and the client were talking. And if I'm getting this right, the client, the significant client said, hey, you I really appreciate you taking on my sister. And I know you mentioned to me that she can expect the same level of service I get, which I appreciate, but I'm just curious because you know, what is it that I get that she doesn't get? Because, you know, from what you've told me, you you earn this much money from our relationship and this much money from that relationship. You know, help me understand this. It was a defining moment. And I'm oversimplifying the dynamics here, but everything's transparent. Everything's here I am. Fee worthiness. You have to be mindful of this. Fee worthiness. If you want a client to focus on what you're worth, you want to deserve those fees. There's got to be this dynamic where you convey that this is what you get and this is what this client gets, you know, based on referability and things like that. So anyway, it's a great point.

Aaron Grady - I, you know, there's a really poor analogy that I use all the time. I bought a new truck two years ago and I'm not going to besmirch any organizations, but there's been well-known issues with the engines on these vehicles. And so I always use the automotive side of things as an analogy, the idea that if I take my vehicle in And I'm paying for service. I'm paying to have the transmission worked on. I'm paying to have the oil changed. And the organization does exactly what I pay them for. I'm not doing back clips down the street to tell everybody with an earshot about this enterprise or this experience. It's when everybody goes, when they go above and beyond what is expected, those experiences they create, which is everything you're talking about, that's where advocacy really lives. And so  I think that's a key takeaway from this idea is how do advisory teams systematize their service model so that they can continue to stay top of mind and continue to drive client advocacy year round and do it for their best clients. it's a fundamental and foundational part of what we coach to. so I really get excited about that part of the coaching when we do it with teams, because it's very revealing in and of itself.

Duncan MacPherson - Truly.

Aaron Grady - Let's step onto the last quadrant, Duncan. Let's talk about the onward side. We've talked about onside, we've talked about onboard, we've talked about ongoing, but let's talk about onwards. The idea of responding to critical life events. We mentioned earlier that one of the two times in a client relationship that their peak of advocacy is when they first onboard as a new client. But the other time that we always talk about and you mentioned is during the moments of crisis, either personal or financial and how the advisory team responds. That's the other moment where you're really at a place of advocacy with a client. talk about how an advisor can define and operationalize a response model so that these critical life events never go unrecognized. instead of becoming defining moments in a relationship, getting missed, how can an advisor systematize or operationalize this kind of response?

Duncan MacPherson - Yeah, well, and first of all, I just want to point out in the spirit of pattern recognition, everybody can probably notice that it's on side, on board, ongoing, on words, on, on, on, on. That's always on. Okay, so self evident. You know, it's interesting. Every advisor at a minimum to be fee worthy and referable focuses on being needs based, which means they understand a client's needs, they identify unmet needs, and they try to get out in front of evolving needs. Okay, it's great. We want you to bookend that with being goals-based. Like understanding why financial independence is important to a client. What matters to the client? What do they aspire to? Their appreciation for you will increase when you acknowledge what their aspirations are. It's not just that you care, you care specifically about what they care about. And when something meaningful happens, when they achieve a goal, they hit their number, they buy the second home. You know, they become empty nesters and all of their kids are high functioning. They've gone through school and they're debt free and whatever, whatever they've told you is important to them. And then it happens. That is a moment of truth. That is a milestone. That is a critical life event. And the more somebody pays attention to that in a meaningful way that has impact and shelf life, it becomes this defining moment that's etched in someone's mind and in their heart. And as you said, it's not always flowery and happy high notes. Things happen. You look at the last five years, I mean, Advisors have told me stories about clients who have just bared their souls about what's keeping them up at night and what's going on in their lives and what's happened that's been an incredible setback. How the advisory team responds. You know, we're at a point now where we're having advisory teams set up chief noticing officers, right? So it's your job to know, but it's also your job to notice and take action. So everybody on the team who's client facing is now empowered. You know, if a client service associate's talking to a client,

Aaron Grady - Mmm.

Duncan MacPherson - And the client said, you know, this happened, or we're excited about this event. At the next meeting, it's like come together. like, Hey, this client had this occur. Let's do something. my God. And I could, I could bore you to tears with stories about advisory teams. And it wasn't a tactic. was a pure authentic response.

Aaron Grady - Hehehe.

Duncan MacPherson - You know, there's so much in the world that's synthetic. When something occurs that's authentic. my gosh, it's so memorable. So that's part of the process.

Aaron Grady - I think, I, you there's, you you mentioned kind of the negative side, you know, there's things that are positive that you recognize these moments of truth and there's negative ones that you recognize and you honor and you walk alongside of your clients. You know, I love the idea of being intentional about it. You know, when we do these exercises with teams and you have them come up with, you know, five to 10  of these moments of truth that they get, I mean, you ask any advisor, can list a handful of things that are, whether they're expected or not, they know that they're an inevitability of life, a serious illness or death of a spouse or death of a loved one or birth of a grandchild. Having them document them, but then create a plan to how they wish to respond or acknowledge those, it allows the advisor to be authentic because they're acknowledging them with clients, but to be able to be more proactive, less reactive. They're more apt to what I've found through this process with working with teams. It's easier for advisors to be more high touch when there's a process behind it, when they've already thought through the steps so that they're not having to scramble around the last minute. So I love the idea of operationalizing being authentically responsive to these life events that happen in your clients' lives, these moments of truth.

Duncan MacPherson - Well, and Aaron, a little plug for us. You know, obviously we wrote this white paper on AI for the financial professional. 17 use cases and best practices. It's a pretty meaty document, but you know, you can use AI to help you be more authentic because it's sometimes a kickstart putting you in the red zone.

Aaron Grady - Okay.

Duncan MacPherson - Because it's hard sometimes to look at a blank sheet of paper and get creative. But I'll tell you an example. and this is in this white paper. So this advisory team, and again, I might be messing up the story a little bit, but they had a client, very humble client, humble beginnings, first generation. They earned every cent and they had this, I think, triple milestone. Where it was a meaningful anniversary. Tthe one of the spouses retired and they just became empty nesters, like something like that. And they treated themselves to like a luxury trip to Mexico to celebrate. the, the, they, there's many clients that basically ask their advisor for permission to do something like that. Like, is it okay if we splurge a little bit? You know, like sometimes a client will say, I afford a new car? And the advisor is thinking, you could buy the dealership. Okay. You're so well off, but they're still frugal, right? Anyway, so this client, this couple went to Mexico and one of the staff members happened to notice on social media, you know, there's pictures of the trip and they're just euphoric and they ended up adopting a dog in Mexico. Apparently that's a thing and came back or arranged to have this dog come back from Mexico for them. So apparently as the story goes the team wrote them a congratulatory card and took one of the pictures and had it framed and sent to the couple. Congratulations, what a massive achievement. You must be so proud, we're so happy for you. And now they've got this framed picture, which has got the impact in the shelf life, the impact to memorialize the trip and the shelf life. Like you're not getting rid of that, it's gonna stick around. Well, apparently the couple called the team and asked them, know, can you get everybody together? Cause we wanna just thank you. So the couple is literally choked up talking to the team on speakerphone saying, none of this happens without you guys. You guys helped us achieve all of this. It was this kumbaya group hug. And I'm not saying get in the gift giving business. I'm just saying, pick your spots.

Aaron Grady - Right.

Duncan MacPherson - To slow life down. Like the more technology creeps into our lives, the more the human touch is so impactful. That's what onwards and being the chief noticing officer does in terms of strengthening relationships.

Aaron Grady - I love it. So as we kind of put a bow on the always on client experience and building an advisory practice with intention. For the advisory team out there that's listening to this that maybe is thinking, man, that's a lot of stuff. There's, you know, I don't even know where to start with all of this. What would you say is probably the first area to define or document to start building towards or moving towards an always on client experience or always on advisory practice?

Duncan MacPherson - Well, it's like a lot of things. This is easy to do. It's just easier not to. So as Stephen Covey would have said, begin with the end in mind, like just acknowledge the fact that this is a gap and this is a path we want to get on and just be at peace. the pace, you know, how many times have I said over the years, like done is better than perfect. Just get it done. So in the Blue Square Method, I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly, the bluesquaremethod.com, there's a sample chapter that we give that has this framework. And I'm sure for your community, you'll provide the framework. Just look at where this is going, have the checklist and just chip away and just let incrementalism, it's like anything else, compounding. Money compounds, disciplines compound, neglect compounds.

Aaron Grady - Hmm

Duncan MacPherson - You know, like, just acknowledge, okay, this is a gap. I want to get it done. Just get on the path, let it build, and good things are gonna happen.

Aaron Grady - I love it. Well, Duncan, I appreciate you taking the time today. I know that you're very passionate about this topic and as well as I am. Any chance I get to have this conversation with you, I will never avoid it. So thank you again for taking some time to really expand upon the always on client experience and how advisors can get started with it and kind of helping create some clarity in certain areas of being intentional about building a client forward practice. With that if you like what you've heard today, please like and subscribe and as always as it's always said when the why is clear the how becomes easy So never lose sight of your why. Thank you very much!

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The RARE Advisor is a business model supercharged by Recurring And Repeatable Events. With decades of experience coaching successful advisors, your host, along with other leaders in the industry, discusses what it takes to grow a successful practice. With the aim of helping financial professionals and financial advisors take their business to the next level, this podcast shares insights and success stories that will make a real impact. Regardless of the stage of your practice, The RARE Advisor will provide thoughtful guidance, suggestions for developing systems and processes that work, and ideas for creating an authentic experience for your clients.

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