Mark’s Story: How I Became “The Only Game In Town”

Hi, I’m Mark McKenna Little.

At the end of 1999, I started disengaging from 1,225 of my clients, and kept just 17 “ideal” clients who perfectly fit my criteria for “the type of client I serve the best.”

You see, even while I was paraded around at conferences as the “top producer” at my nationwide broker/dealer, I was miserable inside and looking for a way out.

I was working an insane schedule of 80+ hours per week, and I knew my clients weren’t getting the attention that they were expecting. I was spread way too thin, and when my staff messed up, it was my clients—and me—who paid the price.

By all industry measures I was a great success, but everything in my life was suffering, including my family, my relationships and even my health.

My success was literally killing me. I was all out of options, so I went all in. I decided to change the game by transforming my business—and transforming it fast.

I opted to focus exclusively on my 17 Ideal Clients. I created a client experience so extraordinary that through client referrals alone, I added 83 new Ideal Clients in just 34 months.

Before going all in, I’d barely been adding an average of 1.14 Ideal Clients annually. After the transformation, I was adding an average of 29.3 new Ideal Clients annually, and my client referral rate continued climbing well after I closed my doors to new clients.

To the best of my knowledge, no other system has ever come close to acquiring Ideal Clients at this high of a rate, let alone for multiple consecutive years. So why did it work?

For starters, I completely abandoned the traditional sales process in favor of a client-focused experience that was so compelling, it opened a floodgate of spontaneous, unsolicited referrals. As I had hoped, my incredibly happy clients had (unwittingly) become my marketing team.

Second, by politely disengaging from non-ideal clients, I freed up time and resources to do extraordinary things for my Ideal Clients—people who were able and willing to pay a higher fee for the kind of premium service they truly valued.

By 2002, I had disengaged from all of my non-ideal clients and I had changed everything else about my business that could distract me from delivering an extraordinary client experience or diminish trust in me:

• I focused on my clients’ concerns before my own.
• I learned what clients actually value, not just what I thought they did.
• I eliminated the traditional sales process and found potential ideal clients by developing interesting relationships. (Even as an introvert!)
• I learned to run my business like a business rather than like a job.
• I learned how to delegate most items on my task list, while consistently improving my client experience.
• I set priorities first and allowed them to inform how I managed my time.
• I stopped blaming the things I couldn’t control (like the markets or current events) and took charge of the things I could control.
• I stepped up as a financial professional, and made it my mission to ensure that my clients always made forward progress towards their desired outcomes, instead of hoping that they would achieve those outcomes by chance.

As a result, I immediately distinguished myself from all other financial advisors, and the successes I created for my clients were returned to me ten times over. My schedule dropped from over 80 hours to just 36 hours per week, and the work was much more pleasurable. I was taking several vacations each year and enjoying all the benefits of $1.6 million in predictable, recurring annual revenue.

By 2007, every Ideal Client’s financial house was in perfect order, and all my clients were on-track to achieving their financial goals. The business was set up to run like a finely tuned machine that my clients could rely upon, even without me. Because it suited my lifestyle goals and I was all out of interesting challenges, I decided to accept a buyer’s offer. Total compensation for the company was more than $3 million, while retaining a handful of clients whom I serve to this day. I’m still an active Financial Advisor who loves serving Ideal Clients.

“The most amazing thing about Mark Little is…
well, that there’s nothing amazing about Mark Little.”
– Nick Dilasser, Financial Advisor

I still chuckle about the day Nick said that, but he’s right: I’m just an everyday advisor who took a big swing in a moment of utter desperation, and I hit a grand slam. The whole reason this system can be replicated is because it was never designed around any special ability that I had. In fact, it was designed more around overcoming my limitations. (Not only am I just an “everyday advisor,” but I’m also an introvert with call reluctance and little patience for those not as focused as me. These are hardly indicators of success in our industry, but the system I developed made it possible for me to succeed regardless.)

Make no mistake: I’m the one who put in all the effort, but I was extremely lucky to have had the right combination of influential people in my life at the right times.  I was successful reinventing my business and my client services because I had their support, encouragement and insightful ideas to build upon.

In fact, it’s fair to say that I only made “top producer” status in the first place because I had already started experimenting with these new ideas. Most of my original 17 ideal clients had come to me during those final few years before I committed completely to the new way.

Somewhere in there I contributed a desire to serve, a willingness to carry through, and a strong sense of integrity that motivated me to see my clients thrive.

If this sounds like you, then I can tell you with authority: There’s no reason you can’t become the only game in town.

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