I need to tell you about two dentists.
For years, my wife, Jillian, and I went to a dentist I will call Dr. Yum. She was good at the actual dentistry, but that is not why we stayed. Dr. Yum was one of those people who made you feel like coming to the dentist was not a punishment. A little kooky. A lot of fun. She remembered your kids' names, she laughed at your bad jokes, and when she told you that you needed a crown, you believed her. Not because she sold you on it. Because you trusted her.
We would have gone to Dr. Yum forever.
Then one visit, she mentioned she had brought on a new dentist. I will call him Dr. Bum. He seemed fine. Personable. Good credentials. A few weeks later we got a letter: Dr. Yum was retiring, and Dr. Bum had acquired the practice.
Yum Dentistry was now Bum Dentistry. They only had to change one letter on the sign (so that was nice!).
Now, Dr. Bum was not a bad dentist. He was actually quite good technically. But from day one, something was different. Every visit came with a pitch. New services. Add-ons. Things we had never been told we needed before.
Then it got worse.
I had a procedure done. Multi-visit, not cheap. We agreed on a price, they did the work, I paid the bill. Done. Except a few weeks later, a notice showed up in the mail. We owed another thousand dollars on top of the two thousand we had already paid.
I called. Got one explanation. Called again, talked to the same person, and got a different explanation. Called a third time. Got a third story. The insurance had not been handled correctly, the numbers did not match the original agreement, and the story changed every single time I asked.
I told them I was not paying. We had an agreement, and they did not honor it.
So, Dr. Bum sent us to collections!
We paid the collection agency and never went back.
Think about that for a second. Dr. Yum had built something so valuable that another dentist was willing to write a check to acquire it. And in less than a year, Dr. Bum destroyed it. Not because his dentistry was bad. Because he optimized for the wrong thing.
Here is the math Dr. Bum never did.
Jillian and I were patients for years under Dr. Yum. Two cleanings a year each, and all too frequently a more involved procedure, plus we referred friends. Conservative estimate: our household was worth $2,000-$3,000 a year to that practice, and we were not going anywhere. Over a decade, that is $20,000-$30,000 from one family. Plus the referrals.
Dr. Bum blew all of that up for an extra $1,000 he was not even owed. He squeezed the lemon so hard it exploded in his hand.
This is the Extraction Trap. It is the moment a business stops asking "how do I make this person want to come back?" and starts asking "how do I get more out of this person right now?" Once you flip to the second question, you are running on a timer, you just don’t know it yet.
Many of you know my father. He has a (somewhat) famous saying that “In business, you want to attract more and more customers, sell them more and more products and services, at higher and higher margins.” My dad is a smart guy, and I agree with him on many, many things. This is not one of them.
Well, I should say that it is more nuanced. Mathematically, of course, he is correct. But his formula is missing one vital element. It is missing the notion that clients are not “people to be sold to.” Clients are relationships to cultivate.
Dr. Yum never fell into this trap. She understood that the relationship was the asset. The cleanings and crowns were just the way the relationship generated revenue. She never confused the mechanism with the thing that made the mechanism work.
You already know where I am going with this.
Every time, as a travel advisor or entrepreneur, that you are tempted to push a higher margin product that is not the best fit for your client, you are one step closer to the Extraction Trap. Every time you add a fee you did not disclose upfront, you are closer. Every time a client has to wonder if you are looking out for them or for your commission, you are closer.
I am not saying you should not charge what you are worth. You absolutely should. Charge fees. Earn your commissions. Value your expertise. But do it transparently and do it in a way that your client never has to question whose side you are on.
Because here is what Dr. Yum figured out that Dr. Bum never did: the most profitable thing you can do is make someone want to come back. Not trick them into coming back. Not lock them in. Make them want to.
Clients who trust their advisors will book with them for twenty years. They will send you their friends. They will send you their parents. They will call you when they do not even know where they want to go yet, because you are the person they think of when they think of travel.
That is worth infinitely more than whatever you could squeeze out of one booking.
Overall, the businesses that last are not the ones that got the most out of every deal. They are the ones that made every client think, "I would never go anywhere else."
That is what Dr. Yum built, that is what Dr. Bum destroyed, and that is what advisors get to choose, every single day, with every single client.
Best Success,
Jason