I get asked a lot how you win high-net-worth clients if you don’t know any. The usual answer is to pick your billionaire and spend six months trying to get into the same room as him, which is exhausting and really quite stalkery if you ask me.
The richer someone is, the less of their own life they actually run. The PA, the family office or the driver is quite often the one deciding who even gets a look in.
And yet I watch firms grovel to the principal in a way that would make Smithers blush, and then leave the driver sitting in the car park for two hours without so much as a glass of water.
That driver has the principal to himself on the way home. The principal asks, quite idly, what he made of that lot, and the driver says “Bit full of themselves, sir. Didn’t even offer me a cup of tea.”
That’s your brand now.
It’s called the horn effect, the less glamorous sibling of the halo effect. One unflattering detail leaks into the whole judgement.
The PA is worse, because he trusts their judgement completely. If they say your office was a nightmare, he isn’t going to think “well, they were charming to me.” They always back their people.
So before you spend another month trying to reach the principal, find out how your own team talks to the gatekeepers.
And for the love of all things holy, offer the driver a cup of tea.