Finding the Middle Class Millionaires.

After reading the compelling and recently published The Middle Class Millionaire by Russ Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff, I have compared notes with the extensive research done by Thomas J Stanley, from another book by Prince, and present some ideas for you on places to meet people with a higher net worth. Pick one or two of these ideas and stick at it!

1. Network more with and develop more referral partnerships with attorneys, wealth management advisors, and especially accountants.

MCMs hire a support team: legal advice, financial wealth management, and tax guidance. They know they don’t have the time or skill to be jacks of all trades. In Thomas J Stanley’s The Millionaire Mind, he found that the number one activity engaged in by 85% of the millionaires he studied was not going on exotic vacations but consulting a tax expert! Are you meeting any CPAs?

59% of them had consulted with their investment advisor in the past 30 days. According to Prince in another of his books, Cultivating the Middle Class Millionaire, almost 73% of MCMs said that working with a high-quality investment advisor was a major concern.

Interestingly, MCMs prefer to be referred by their advisors (54%) than by their friends (30%) or clients.

64% of these advisors also revealed that their best new affluent client acquired in the past 12 months had come either from an attorney or an accountant. Only 29.5% said that a current client had sent them their best referral.

It’s time to get more serious about referral partner relationships that can be a gold mine for you. Who’s on your Referral Radar?

2. Network where the fish are in your community. (PS. Know who your fish are!!)

Most MCMs network, value knowing a lot of people and see it as a “natural means of getting what they want in life.” Their less affluent peers do very little. Where to network is not as black and white as most of us would like. Every community seems to have different groups, boards, and committees that attract the ‘players’ of that area. It could be a downtown Rotary, United Way board, Hispano Chamber or even a high school football team booster club. 

The best recommendation I can give is become a detective for your community. Make no assumptions. Remember: most people do not network much and so probably won’t have much idea – they just won’t tell you that! Ask a lot of questions of people who network a lot and preferably in higher places and find out which business owners serve on which boards. Just because someone serves on a board, it does not mean their business is thriving.

a) Network more with well established business owners. Over 80% of MCMs are either business owners or part of a professional partnership. You are unlikely to meet these people at a chamber mixer which is why it’s important to identify where more established business owners do network. It IS possible some of them are on the board or a certain more exclusive committee (that requires a higher dollar investment or your company to be a certain size).

Again, become a detective first if you can before you invest too many dollars or too much time. This probably won’t be a simple exercise. I do believe you’ll create your own opportunities through some hard work, persistence, and good questions. Just this morning, I interviewed a rising star in the UK film industry for a seminar I’m doing in Newcastle, England in a few weeks. He makes recruiting and training videos for companies such as Nike and Nestle. He told me that he and his business partner joined every business organization in their area and slowly identified which groups had the events that were most attended by their target companies. You can do the same. As he ‘eloquently’ put it: “You’ve just got to get off your arse and do it. Stop making excuses.”

b) Consider networking with higher level business coaches.

 Many MCMs invest in themselves. Prince notes: “The secret here is that high achievers out there aren’t doing it alone.” They work with business coaches (and sometimes personal trainers) for the structure, accountability and unconditional support. Plus, since most of them are business owners, they stand to profit personally from all the gains they make.

In North America and the UK, Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach program is endorsed by the likes of Russ Alan Prince and Chicken Soup for the Soul co-author Jack Canfield for its benefits. Without question they attract higher achievers – what a great environment to network.

MCMs also value their health because they recognize how it impacts everything else they do. 45% to 47% said they had gone jogging or played golf in the past 30 days (Stanley).

c) Charitable activities: Former University of Georgia professor Thomas J Stanley wrote quite a lot about the value of networking in this environment in the ‘90’s. Prince’s research found that the numbers of middle class people involved were similar for both his millionaire and other sample group. Fundraising events can be a great place to meet more affluent people. Stanley’s data indicates that between 57% and 68% of millionaires attended such events during the year. Since 81% listed going to museums during the year (this ranked #2 on the entire list), this might be a worthwhile organization to get involved in.

d) Private schools: Unlike in Stanley’s books, there is no discussion about private schools in Prince’s book. Stanley has found private schools to be great places to meet affluent people. In addition, MCMs are much more likely to hire independent educational consultants to help get their children into top universities. A name-brand college is important to many of them. Interestingly, this is partly because they recognize the value of the lifelong social and professional networking benefits to these institutions.

e) Solid middle-class neighborhoods with a strong school district:
MCMs really value a good education for their children. They prioritize living in the neighborhoods where the schools are highly rated. They are much more likely to tear down a smaller house in the right neighborhood and build a larger one than live somewhere where the schools are not so highly regarded.

f) School sporting events
61% of the millionaires said they had watched either children or grandchildren play sports in the past 30 days. The #1 ranked activity in the thirty day diary was socializing with children/grandchildren (93%). I know one financial advisor who does the play-by-play announcements for his local high school football games. He has made many initial contacts doing this and then followed up during the business week.

g) Religious Services
52% had done this in the past month. Clearly, this would only be a place to start networking if it was truly your faith that came first – not that any of these suggestions work if it’s a ruse or scheme on your part.

h) McDonalds, Burger King and Wal-Mart:
Think I’m kidding? 46% of millionaires surveyed had been to one of those fast food restaurants in the past month and 31% had shopped at Wal-Mart. I guess you never know where that first conversation might start.

 f)  Any large corporate offices near you? Ask some employees you know from a specific company if any of their peers get incentivized for good performance. Some MCMs are corporate employees who are on a pay-for-performance salary.

Where are you networking? How much time are you spending on this? What are your networking habits?

3. Penetrate a target market.
This is primarily Stanley’s advice who found that 61% of millionaires had attended events for their trade or professional association in the past 12 months. It correlates to Prince’s points that MCMs are very career-oriented AND believe (mostly) that they should focus their efforts on one endeavor (i.e. their career). What I mean here is that if you can position yourself well in one of these target markets, you can get noticed and build a reputation with the business owners in this profession.

In Networking with Millionaires, Stanley gives examples of the turkey processing industry, gas station owners, and scrap metal dealers.

Matt, a financial advisor client of mine, wanted to target pharmacists. First he enlisted help from a budding CPA referral partner who recommended four pharmacists to him. They became clients and referred him to their supervisor. It turns out that he owns a chain of pharmacies that put on quarterly educational events. Matt then decided to repay his CPA by asking this pharmacy owner if the CPA could speak at one of these events because this would put him in a room full of more prospects.

Ask and you shall be answered:

It got much better. Not only did the owner say yes but he asked Matt to present at the next FOUR events on different financial and insurance topics. Now Matt can position himself as an industry expert and is developing some branding materials for these events that describe him as a specialist. His next step is to join their professional association as an associate member and continue climbing the ladder. His ‘secret’? “Just keep asking (even if they don’t call you back right away)!” Hmnn: Persistence – sounds like a future MCM.

Got niche?

4. Network, learn about, and make connections with: concierge physician services, and those who invest in fractionally-owned residence and vacation clubs, motor home, luxury car and luxury handbag programs.
This is a longer shot for most people but since it got quite a lot of air time in the book, I wanted to mention these things. They are growing trends among this demographic. A client of mine networks among car enthusiasts who own high-end vehicles like Porsches and Lamborghinis. It helps him get more specific with his referral requests and target clients.

Pick one or two of these ideas and stick at it!

Please forward this to someone else who wants to go places.