The Wells Fargo Client Retention Strategy That Actually Works

Some agencies win clients by inviting decision makers to Formula One boxes, but Neil prefers the way banks play the wine and dining game. Bank of America sent his CFO to a World Cup game with the hotel paid, and Wells Fargo offers suites and seats after the deal is done, just to say thanks. Then a competing bank tried to match Wells Fargo's refinance offer at the last minute, after months of saying no. Eric shares a group text pitch dressed up as comparing notes, and Neil tells the worst pitch he's heard: a financial advisor chasing a friend's $25M house sale and eight-figure profit with one cherry-picked account and a stock that barely moves down. A blunt episode on relationships and selling. Key takeaways ◾Thank-you tickets with no pitch keep clients around ◾Match the offer early, because last-minute fixes come too late ◾Be direct when you sell, and show all your numbers Chapters 00:00 The wine and dining game 00:47 Competitors win clients with Formula One boxes 01:30 Bank of America sent our CFO to the World Cup 02:32 Wells Fargo offers tickets after the deal 03:39 Tickets with no sales pitch keep clients 04:44 The bank that came too late 05:48 Too little, too late, like a bad hire 06:33 Steve Jobs to Tim Cook: do the right thing 07:18 Group texts gone wrong 08:49 Selling while pretending not to sell 09:50 The worst sales pitch 10:52 One client account next to Buffett and Ackman 12:05 70% leverage and 'it barely moves down' 12:58 AI showed the stock drops far more often 13:44 Big investors get deals you don't Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Finding customer information shouldn't mean digging through emails, call notes and spreadsheets. HubSpot Starter Plan brings all of those details together, so it's easier to track what's happening with every deal and what to do next. It pulls information from calls and emails. Then it gets to work, logging and summarizing them. Right after your call ends, HubSpot pulls next steps from your call notes and drafts suggested follow-ups. And it stays up to date for you, so you can build demand, win more deals and spend less time on repetitive work. Your records, insights and next steps are ready for you to act on. And you don't have to miss a beat searching for any of it. Try the Starter Plan for $10 a month. Learn more at hubspot.com. Let's talk about the wine and dining game, right? So let's say, you know, Neil and I, we have people that invite us to these sports events, right? Come to this Laker game over here, come to this Dodger game, we have the suites over here, we have the president suite, all this stuff, right?

• 0:46Speaker 00

  So, and especially in the agency world, there's a wine and dining game. You have to meet the clients, you have to go back and forth, especially Latam as well, right? You gotta wine and dine them even more, right? And so I want to talk about the wine and dining game and how to play it to our to our preferences, because some people, the way they like to play, it's like, it becomes like a whole like thing for multiple days.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Yeah. I've met a few of our competitors who are agencies and they found that pay-per-click ads produce good leads, but they're expensive. And they can't make them profitable. Cold outreach hasn't worked out too well for them, because most people don't want a email or a call. But when they do cold outreach to their ideal customer, and when I say ideal customer, it is the ideal company, the ideal person within that company who's the decision maker. And they offer them tickets to like a Formula One event or whatever it may be with them. And they'll do like a box and they'll get like 20 of their ideal clients or 10 of their ideal clients and one person. They find that people are much more obliged to respond and accept it. And they close really good deals that way.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  I think that's really good, but the way I like the whining and dining is actually the way the banks do it. So we bank with Bank of America for our international accounts. So like, even though we're in the UK, Bank of America provides our UK bank account. Even though we're in Brazil, Bank of America, like when I log into bankofamerica.com, I can see all our Brazil and Reis, and we can do that for almost all the countries we're in. They sent our CFO, because they knew he was a huge England fan, to one of the World Cup games with Holland and, not Holland, Netherlands, not Netherlands, Norway, sorry, you know Holland.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  Netherlands versus England, right? Or not, not, Norway, sorry, Norway and England, right? The player was Holland.

• 2:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, Holland from Manchester City.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 2:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  So and they also paid for the Marriott, not Marriott, Mandarin Oriental Hotel. And he just had to pay for flights for him and his wife. Two tickets, he didn't have to interact with Bank of America or anything like that.

• 3:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  They were already a customer, we're a good customer, and they just offered the tickets.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  We're about to sign a deal with Wells Fargo, we're in contract phase. Most of the contracts are already reviewed and done, so we have signing next week. And they didn't try to offer us anything to try to close the deal, they already know we're closing it, we already spent a lot of money on it. They're just, dude, I just got the email the other day, like, check this out. Dodgers. So check this out, I got an email, me and some other people on my team. They're like, hey, I want to get ahead of the next round of sports and entertainment tickets we have available here. Most are offered on first come, first served basis, although in some cases they request specific games or events, okay? NHL, Kings, glass seats.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  NFL, Chargers and Rams, Wells Fargo suite. NBA, Lakers, Wells Fargo suite and seats. MLB, you want the Dodgers and Padres, limited playoff tickets may be available. Concerts or events at crypto.com, arena or Honda Center. They're just like asking, like, do you want anything? Not because they're trying to get our business, they didn't know they have our business and they're just trying to maintain relationships. And what's cool about this, they would offer multiple tickets, it's not like I had to go and interact with with some of them, depending on what it is, if it's not a suite. It's not like I had to interact with people and get a sales pitch, they're like, we just want to say thank you. I like doing events that way. We've done events for some of our customers, where we don't take them to games to try to win the contract.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Just show appreciation, and if they want to just go by themselves or whatever, no problem, here's the tickets, go have fun.

• 4:36Speaker 00

  So the way I see that is it's a retention mechanism, right? So people remember you. To me, it's like the amount of times that they see you, they remember you, because it's like, oh, I actually need something. Oh, it was actually Neil that hooked me up with this thing, I should have a chat with Neil, he probably knows someone that I should talk to. Oh, we happen to know the right person, you should talk to this person on the team over here. So you, this is hard to measure, you don't know what you're going to get back from it, but you know you're going to get some. Frictionless Growth Marketing, hosted by Sonya Thompson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Frictionless Growth Marketing, hosted by Sonya Thompson, shows how modern brands grow by removing the friction in their marketing and customer experience that pushes customers away every single day, often without leaders even realizing it. Each episode delivers practical insights, real brand examples and conversations with marketing leaders,

• 5:21Speaker 00

  showing brands how to win with the new rules of growth, identity-driven marketing, cultural relevance and frictionless customer experiences. Listen to Frictionless Growth Marketing wherever you get your podcasts. Think back from it. All right, so I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my podcast co-host Neil's agency called NP Digital. And they work with a whole host of global companies or a global organization. Also, Neil has SEO tools such as UberSuggest and Answer to Public. All you have to do is go to npdigital.com to learn more and we'll see you on the other side.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  So I got a text message the other day from one of the competing banks, and they knew we were going to move and we showed them the offer that we got from Wells Fargo. And they weren't able to match it, but at the last minute, they messaged me saying, hey Neil, appreciate the other call earlier today, if their bank could get to X dollar amounts and Y global cash leverage covenant, with addition to a minimum US trailing 12 months EBITDA of Z dollars. Would this impact the decision on the refinance? We're not approved on this, but we're thinking of ways that we can get to the X dollar level while still having a limit on how, how far US EBITDA would, or minimum on how the US EBITDA would need to be on downside scenario, right?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  And the difference between this current bank, which is Wells Fargo, is Wells Fargo will just operate us based on our global numbers, while our current bank only operates us on the US numbers. So as we keep growing more globally, it makes it harder and harder to grow the leverage when we're having crazy growth overseas, slower growth in the United States. And I was just like, in my mind, I'm like, you have the opportunity to save this.

• 7:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  You're trying to match it now, you could have matched it a month ago when we already had this conversation with you. It's like, it's at a point where it's just like, might as well just go with the person that's already adapted to me. Why would I keep my business with someone that I had to convince to adapt with us versus the one that's willing to adapt from day one?

• 7:20Speaker 00

  This is no different than hiring. You're hiring another bank that's already willing to do so, and someone else is, now they're trying to do it when it's too little, too late.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Yes, and I've been having conversations with them for months about this and they weren't able to do it. And a month ago, I told them, more than a month ago, I told them that a competitor of theirs is, they're like, oh, we can't, we can't match it. Now last minute, they're like, hey, what if we match it? And I'm like, dude, why?

• 7:43Speaker 00

  This actually reminds me of when Steve Jobs handed over the reins to Tim Cook for Apple, right? He said, Tim, don't try to be like me, don't think about what I would have done, just do the right thing. And this is no different than how Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons operates, they want their staff to do the right thing. This person, whoever you interact with, didn't do the right thing, they tended to follow policy too much and they didn't stretch outside it, they weren't creative.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  I even talked to the guy who headed up that whole division in the United States. They weren't able to do it, but now they're like, they think it's of above 50% chance that they can do it. I'm like, I just think it's.

• 8:18Speaker 00

  At this point, above 50% chance, okay, I'd rather go for certainty, it doesn't make sense. So speaking of texts, Neil, so I got a text from one of our, one of our mutual friends yesterday. So we're in this, we're in this chat group, okay? So this is where I think, I think starting a chat group is, is, is cool. But we're both in this chat group and then this person's like, hey, you know, by the way, this is Neil Patel, in case you don't have my number saved, I'm just giving Neil's name in here. All right, I wanted to see if you'd be open to a catch-up call in the next few weeks. A few things I'd love to discuss. Number one, comparing notes on AI initiatives can share what we're seeing across all the enterprises we're working with. Number two, you know, this AI community, I want to see what's working, what isn't working. I'm hiring someone that will help scale this, this, this community, dah dah dah, you know, through AI transformation. Let me know if you're down to find time.

• 9:02Speaker 00

  You know why he sent me this text?

• 9:04Speaker 01

  Why?

• 9:04Speaker 00

  There's no other context with the text. What, what is your best guess as to why he would just send me a screenshot of this text?

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Who sent you the screenshot of the text?

• 9:12Speaker 00

  Our mutual friend, I can't say, but yeah.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  And this is just someone who just messaged him?

• 9:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, we're, we're both in like this, this chat group.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Think he's just like, what the heck are people doing, like just bored and just like talking about how terrible it is?

• 9:25Speaker 00

  No, it's more so the reason why he got so, imagine he gets a text message from someone in the group, he runs the group, okay?

• 9:31Speaker 01

  Oh, it's someone from the group that's actually messaging?

• 9:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, so he takes a screenshot.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  It's not a random person.

• 9:35Speaker 00

  No, he said, yeah, he takes a screenshot of the text and sends it over to me, right? Basically laughing at the text, right? He didn't say anything, there's no other context besides this. So what is your best guess as to why he's sending me this text screenshot?

• 9:46Speaker 01

  Because he thinks the person's an idiot.

• 9:48Speaker 00

  Because, I mean, partly, yes, partly, yes, but I'm like, dude, like, I think it's fine to start a community, I think it's fine to start a text group or whatever. But when you're trying to sell and you're acting like you're not trying to sell, people can see it. That's what I'm saying, right? It's like, don't try to say like, I'm going to try to compare notes or whatever, right? It's like, no, you're not.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Is it one of the communities that you're not allowed selling, like, kind of like a YPO?

• 10:11Speaker 00

  No, it's, it's not, it's, it's like, imagine I started a group, right? And I have like, you know, like 10 people in it, right? Right, everyone does well. But when you start a group, one of the kind of unspoken words is like, don't try to start a group and then like, just try to, if you're going to sell someone, like tell them on the side, like maybe you're trying to sell someone. But don't say, I'm trying to compare notes or whatever, because the moment you try to do that, like people aren't idiots. They see what you're trying to do and they don't appreciate the fact that you're going, you're beating around the bush, just be upfront.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  I think it's easier to sell if you're just direct and you say, I have something for you, it produces X. Let me show you, if it doesn't, don't waste your time with it. I think people appreciate that and they like it. When I get direct messages and someone's saying, I'm going to give you, I can do X for you and I can prove it, here you go. It does well, but dude, you want to hear one of the worst sales pitches?

• 11:01Speaker 00

  Was it when they call you brother first?

• 11:04Speaker 01

  No.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  Brother, brother, brother, brother. Hey, bro. Hey, brother.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  No, but um, uh, so my, one of my friends sold his house. And he sold it for a pretty penny.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  Is this in Las Vegas?

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's in Las Vegas. You know who it is. Okay? So transaction happened. It was expensive home. I won't mention his name, but it was a twenty five million dollar uh, event and he made really good profit on it.

• 11:30Speaker 00

  He bought it for like eighteen?

• 11:32Speaker 01

  No, way less.

• 11:33Speaker 00

  Fifteen. You you helped too.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Alright, so uh, so he he profited a pretty sum. Let's call it eight figures in profit.

• 11:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Um, and I'm just rounding here. But so let's say ten out of the twenty five was profit. I'm making up the number. Right away, someone comes to him and says, hey, hey dude,

• 11:54Speaker 01

  we we wanna, I I wanna help you manage your money. Okay? And he knows this person. This person did something that was really unique or interesting in which he said, look at the people who have had the best returns, the ten best investors. So he's like pointing out Bill Ackman and Warren Buffett, and he's listing their returns. And he's like, you wanna know what's crazy? My returns are up there. Look at my returns. They're roughly thirty percent. And he's showing one a client account, only one client account. He's like, I manage over two hundred million dollars. But look at this client account. I'm so good, dude, that I should be charging hedge fund fees. But because I know you, I won't even charge two percent. I'll do it for like maybe one percent. Right?

• 12:39Speaker 01

  And the the first thing that I got from that and he was telling me the pitch, I was like, if he's producing thirty percent returns, his business will naturally.

• 12:48Speaker 00

  Why is he managing more money?

• 12:49Speaker 01

  Yes, A, he would manage way more money.

• 12:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:52Speaker 01

  Two, he wouldn't have to pitch that hard. And three, you're not producing thirty percent returns. You just showed one account that was getting thirty percent returns because they owned Nvidia and some of these AI boomers. Actually, show all your accounts. If you're just gonna show one client account, people are gonna assume you're full of crap. And you're actually not producing that.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  No.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  Um, and then the the big thing is, is they told him, dude, if you wanna build another house, don't buy it with cash. You should just buy the stock over here. You can get seventy percent leverage and it barely moves down. So it has only moved down one time in the last ten years. So it's very unlikely that you'd ever get a margin call. So I'm like, dude, this is so inaccurate. And I know that symbol. And I was like, this stock, you would have got a margin call this year alone. Uh, if you bought the stock in January, because in March, it went down more than ten percent. And it went up within a week later, not back to where it was, but close enough. But I'm like, when you get a margin call,

• 13:58Speaker 01

  you got a day or two or whatever it is. They don't give you a week or two to maybe the stock will go back because it couldn't just keep going down. They'll just liquidate your, you know, liquidate you unless you come up with the money.

• 14:08Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  And I was like, dude, this guy's just pitching you risk. And then he's just like, dude, I know. And he put it into chat GPT or Claude, actually, of how often that stock went down more than ten percent. It's a lot more when the financial advisor was saying, and I'm like, people don't understand that you can just check this stuff. This is a terrible sales pitch. I'm like, who would ever sign up for this?

• 14:28Speaker 00

  Multiple things there. One, that guy's an idiot for the way he he like to to expect that he can pitch someone else like that, right? He hasn't thought through his pitch, number one. So that's idiot move number number one. But idiot move number two is is also not being direct again, right?

• 14:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  It's trying to beat around the bush with someone that is clearly smart, that has done well for themselves. And but this is how also how these people make money too. They they will eventually find someone who's unsuspecting and and, you know, be able to get their pitch through.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  And idiot move number three that he did not disclose is, people don't realize when Berkshire Hathaway buys stock in a company, a lot of times they have a different deal than a normal retail trader when they're buying large positions in corporations.

• 15:07Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  Um, or maybe a Bill Ackman negotiated a unique deal. We as individuals do not get all the deals that they are able to get. Maybe the certain class of stock or certain provisions or access to certain things.

• 15:22Speaker 00

  Then you get better price too sometimes.

• 15:24Speaker 01

  Correct, because they they know that if they go in and they buy twenty percent of your company, it's gonna cause the stock price to go up. They work out unique deals. You are not getting that same deal. You can't compare. Oh, look, look at my returns. We can or we can just copy them and we'll get the same returns. It doesn't work that way.

• 15:40Speaker 00

  Yep. So anyway, guys, that's it for today and we will see you tomorrow.