I feel like Eddie Izzard. Well, not exactly. While Eddie recently completed 27 marathons in 27 days for Sports Relief, I have just completed 72 new business meetings in a little over two days, which I’m wondering is some sort of record.
Luckily I didn’t have to travel far in between meetings as the venue was the cruise ship Arcadia and the event was the annual PIMS conference. The conference brings together the great and the good of the financial services industry, with product and service providers meeting prospective clients within the ship’s comfortable surroundings.
I’d arrived on board thinking I was going to have 58 meetings, which was daunting enough but it spiralled to 72 thanks in most part to delegates that I’d met then ‘spreading the word’ to others that the PortfolioMetrix proposition was worth looking at. The fact that a couple of our existing adviser partners also added to this endorsement during discussions themselves created an overwhelming response, it’s very gratifying to have clients who endorse what we do so whole-heartedly.
There’s an interesting dynamic on board ship at this event. Obviously it’s a captive audience as, aside from jumping overboard the invited delegates have to stay but nothing says they have to engage. For a relatively new and small company such as ours, it’s a significant investment to attend but the quality of the people on board certainly made it worthwhile.
Inevitably, having taken notes at 72 meetings I’m left with the mammoth task of following up all the conversations and hopefully welcoming some new clients as a result. True success will be measured not by my ability to remain sane and coherent right through to the end of the 72nd meeting but by the amount of new partnerships we achieve as a result of being there.
I may not have the stamina of Eddie Izzard, or the millions of £££s of sponsorship money he raised but I’m sure we have one thing in common – a massive lie down in a darkened room after it was over!
