I’ve Been Thinking About It

About a century ago I was employed very briefly as a sales representative for European Health Spas, a long-defunct chain of fitness gyms whose main objective was to sign up as many unwitting people as possible to the most expensive and long-indentured membership contracts that the company offered.

Today, that strategy employed could easily be labeled a “bait and switch,” but then it was simply regarded as an “upgrade” but hardly in the same vein as say, “you want fries with that order?” Each Monday and promptly at 8:30 am, we would have an all hands on board staff meeting, where we would dissect and discuss potential roadblocks that each of us might encounter when making a presentation.

The most common was when a potential, who obviously had not been at, or near, a gym since the Nixon Administration, would remark, “Well, I’ve been thinking about it.” 

And in case you haven’t guessed, “it” meant getting on a regular physical fitness program and/or joining a gym.

“That’s an easy one,” explained Jim, the sales manager, who was so relentless that he was once nearly tossed off an airplane because he kept trying unsuccessfully to sell a membership to the woman sitting next to him. “You simply tell them that ‘thinking about it’ never got anyone in shape.”

Like the Sherman and Peabody cartoon characters, I turned the “Way Back Machine” to those halcyon days because now that we’re more than a month post tax season, I’m actually hearing that phrase echoed a lot more than I probably should with regard to succession planning.

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: Hey, good to catch up again, hope you got through tax season without too much trouble. I’ve been hearing a lot of horror stories, especially this year.

Client: I swear this is the last tax season I want to work. I’m ready to give it up.

Me: Okay, I think can help with that. Do you have people in-house to run the firm when you’re gone or have you mapped out some type of a succession plan?

Client: No, but I’ve been thinking about it.

That usually brings the conversation to a deliberate halt in order to back up a few paces.

I calmly explain to them that you need to evaluate where the firm is and where you want it to be when you’re ready to hang up the shingle. Lucky for you if you have the bench strength to continue, but if you don’t, you’ll need to evaluate other succession avenues such as M&A or going outside the firm to secure the requisite talent to do so.

But like anything else that takes a lot of forethought and pre-planning. Otherwise you may be steering your practice headlong into a fire sale.

If nothing else, Jim was right about one thing. Thinking about it was and is, never a successful strategy.