I will never forget the first client that signed a contract with my name on it. It’s not that I had not led client relationships before; I had worked with many. It’s not that I had started my own firm at the time; I was working for a big firm with hundreds of partners. It’s that I had found that client, they had come to me! They had trusted me to hear their challenges and to propose a solution, and now they accepted my proposal and expected me to lead the way to their goals: A privilege and a responsibility I was craving.

Finding a client, winning a client, developing business, making rain, selling…call it what you want, but the process and effort of seeking new clients and then succeeding is one of the best professional experiences I have had. Of course, we are all team players and advice is a team sport, but this is the difference between playing in a soccer game and scoring the winning goal for your team. Trust me, you remember those games. Those games are personal.

If you want to be the ultimate team player and do the one thing every firm desperately needs and does not have enough of, I propose that you should become a business developer. Our firms do an excellent job with existing clients, but not many new ones are coming to our doors. You don’t have to ask what your firm needs, every firm needs more business developers, just like every team wishes for more victories.

So, I say to you: Let’s grow together. Let’s accept and personalize the responsibility for growth and find a way to identify and successfully pursue more opportunities. Our team at The Ensemble Practice is starting a new business development program – the G2 Growth Academy – and we would love for you to join us.

We believe that training together will make a difference because we will learn from each other. This has proven successful with our G2 Leadership Institute. We believe data-driven insight is better than “old school tactics,” and we have relentlessly gathered investor data through surveys and interviews. We believe in focused niche approaches. In Bulgaria they say: “Those that try to sit on two chairs, most of the time end up on the ground.” We have seen enough advisors whose target market is “nice people with lots of money” to know that this is not an effective way to grow.

We believe that to grow you must look at the world through the eyes of a client. You have to understand their unique needs, find them where they are, speak their language, and listen closely.

Here is my invitation: If you are an advisor hungry to grow, join us! Bring your ideas and we have many to share with you! If you are a firm leader: Send us your most curious and your most passionate. The industry is full of inquisitive advisors ready to take on fresh challenges and keep learning, and we can’t wait to work alongside them and grow together.

And this is where, personally, I want to invest my time. I want to work more with business developers. Because this is the biggest need I see our clients face. No business wishes for stagnation. We will do it one-on-one, with a lot of individual responsibility and accountability, while also energizing each other and sharing best practices.

I hope to welcome you in the program in the next few months. You will find the information on the site, but most of all, just give me a call. I would love to talk about it!