What are your top fifty clients worth to the firm?
More than last year's fees. They took years to win, they send you the next ones, and they cost the most to replace. A read of your book is about keeping every one of them, and growing the half that could buy more from you.
Five questions worth a minute
You don't need the answers to hand. Most firms don't. The point is what the answers are worth.
- What would it cost to lose one of your top fifty, and how long before you'd notice?
- How many of them buy one service from a firm that offers six?
- What would it be worth to double half of them?
- How many had a conversation last year that was about them, rather than the work in hand?
- Which of them are being courted by someone else right now?
Keep every one of them. Grow the half that could buy more
There are more ways for a top-fifty account to grow or drift than any firm can watch by hand: the contact who moved, the company that changed shape, the service they buy elsewhere, the year that went by without a call. A read of your book looks for all of them, account by account, and comes back with the opportunity in each one, who to contact, a reason to contact them now, and a priority.
You leave with the calls to make in the next fortnight, and a first look at what the firm has been sitting on. For a firm that keeps its clients close, the same read of the next fifty companies worth winning.
Six places growth hides in a client list
Six places, with one example from each profession at a time.
- 01
People moved
Accountancy: the finance director you trained is now at a group three times the size.Legal: the in-house counsel who sent you every deal has moved to a listed company.Engineering: your contact at the council is now head of capital projects at a utility.Architecture: the development manager behind two of your schemes has joined another developer.Wealth: the finance director who introduced four colleagues has retired, and her replacement hasn't had a call.
- 02
Something happened to the company
Architecture: a charge registered against a development company means a funded scheme about to start.Accountancy: a client formed a subsidiary in March, and the group structure hasn't come up.Legal: a corporate client closed a funding round, with another firm named as adviser.Engineering: a client won a water-services framework and hasn't rung you about the first package.Wealth: a director client has agreed the sale of the business, with the proceeds still to be planned.
- 03
Service gaps
Legal: a corporate client of six years with no employment or property file.Accountancy: an audit client of nine years buying tax from someone else.Engineering: a client who buys structural from you and civils from a rival, on the same site.Architecture: a housebuilder you've designed for twice, with another practice on their latest planning application.Wealth: a pension-only client since 2019, with three products held elsewhere.
- 04
Attention gaps
Any firm: fourteen months since anyone rang.Accountancy: a client inherited in the acquisition, with no relationship owner on your side.Legal: an accountancy practice that referred nine files in 2024 and none since.Engineering: fees falling three years running, and no meeting in the diary.Architecture: an operator you worked for in 2022, still trading, nothing recorded since.Wealth: no review meeting in two years, and the policy still live.
- 05
The book's own network
Engineering: a client's new site in a county you already cover.Accountancy: a client director who also sits on the board of a company you'd like to audit.Legal: a client expanding into London, where you have a desk and they don't know it.Architecture: a client operator announcing a campus in Madrid, where you have an office.Wealth: an accountancy practice that introduced three clients last year, never thanked, never asked for a fourth.
- 06
The calendar
Wealth: a founder-director at fifty-nine with a business sale in view.Accountancy: a director turning sixty on the register, with succession never raised.Legal: a client's lease expiring next year, and the file closed four years ago.Engineering: a safety regulation changing in January that touches four of your clients.Architecture: a 2021 planning permission reaching its fifth year, and the client hasn't had the call.
Start with your top fifty
Email me, or book a half hour and ask anything, including whether it's the right first piece for your firm. Business contacts only: private individuals stay in your own records.