Should you be a specialist?

I used to be a good athlete, but I can’t keep up with friends dedicated to a specific sport. I occasionally golf with a group of guys who play every weekend, and find myself regularly buying the beer.

It made me think: Is specializing a winning strategy for advisors?

I know an advisor who’s focused her business on entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector. She understands her clients have needs related to insurance, succession, tax, estate, and retirement as well as investments.

Over the last 15 years, she’s come to understand these issues extremely well. Because of her focus, she knows what her clients are going to face before they do because she has similar clients in various stages of their business cycles.

Read: How to advise business owners

Another advisor focuses on dentists, and understands that one of her main purposes is to get her clients to plan for succession to the next generation. There is a growing trend among young dentists to buy multiple practices and run them like businesses.

Through her client network, she is connecting some of her older dentist clients looking to sell, to her clients who are looking to focus on the business of dental offices. That way, she helps both her older and younger clients achieve their goals.

Read: Business owners ignoring succession

In the advisory business, specialization can lead to more in-depth knowledge of a market niche and a broader understanding of your clients’ current and future needs.

Here are some other advisors who focus on specific types of clients:

Focusing on the film industry

Jerrod Schafer, who advises farmers

Advising professional athletes

Doctors’ retirement plans on life support

Keith Pangretitsch is director, national sales at Russell Investments Canada Limited, who has a passion for helping advisors grow more efficient and profitable businesses. He is an active member of Russell’s Practice Management program which has worked with more than 1,200 advisory teams across North America and Europe.