Is it a Good Sign When a Professional Has a Line Going out the Door?

Is it a Good Sign When a Professional Has a Line Going out the Door?

Published on: Monday, February 3, 2025

Years ago I was speaking with the father of one of my close friends. He had been having health problems and I asked him how things were going. He said that he had an appointment with a cardiologist the following month but he didn’t think it was going to help him. I asked why and he said, with his Italian accent, “I think he’s going to be a shoemaker”.

Now, for those who are not familiar with Italian culture, a “shoemaker” is an expression used to describe someone who is not so skilled in his craft. There is no disrespect intended to shoemakers. Rather, it’s a way to say that someone doing a job, say cardiology, doesn’t seem like he’s trained for it all. It looks like he’s been trained for something else altogether, such as shoemaking.

So I probed. Why did he not have confidence in this doctor?

“I got the appointment in one month. If he was a good doctor, I would have to wait a year”.

It’s sometimes true that once people have built a reputation for good work, they are in higher demand and it’s more difficult to source their services. My massage therapist is tremendous and if I try to book a treatment, the next available date is months out.

My business is doing very well. It’s grown quickly because of referrals. But I’m a little worried because if a potential new client contacts me, I can usually see them within a few days or the following week. Does that say something about me as an advisor? Am I a shoemaker?

The difference is that medicine, massage therapy, hairstyling, the trades (plumbing, renos etc) are transactional businesses. The person performing the task is paid only for what they are doing for you at that moment. Every slot in their day is filled with customers for whom they will perform a task and get paid for it. Anything else they spend time on is not compensated.

Financial advice is ongoing. People entrust me with their wealth and pay me a fee to look after it 24/7. I am paid to do much more than meet with them periodically. Face-to-face meetings are a small part of what I do for them. Taking care of their investments and their financial plan involves things I do every day such as following the economy, current events, financial markets, legislative changes etc. If my whole day were filled with client meetings, there would be no time to do those things and to work on client files – doing calculations, transactions, formulating plans etc.

There are some new-fangled pizza joints in the Hamilton area that are often “sold out” if you call or visit to order a pizza. “You need to get your order in 48 hours ahead of time” you are told. I think it’s nonsense. It’s contrived scarcity. A marketing ploy. Guess how inclined I am to get a pizza from them.

Even the busiest advisor with a very large practice will find time to meet a potential new client. No one passes up an opportunity to grow his or her business. It’s what happens after the client is on board that tells the story.

And, it’s the opposite of the perceived talent of the professional for whom you have to wait in line. In my business, it’s about how quickly and how proactively you respond that makes you the top of the profession. Not how slowly.

Clients deserve timely replies to their calls and emails. They should expect to hear from the advisor regularly with updates, check-ins to confirm if anything important has changed, taking their temperature to see if recent events are rattling them, etc.

Being available on short notice lets the client know they are valued and important to the advisor’s practice. Maybe it’s worth waiting a bit to see some professionals. But if your wealth needs attention and you can’t get a quick reply, that’s a sign you need to find someone else.

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