Gordon Bernhardt: The Power of Going Deep In a Niche Market

Making inroads with a niche market can be challenging. Even if you are courting investors to whom you can deliver great value, it’s not always easy to get through to them and build relationships that translate into new business.

But by getting creative with the opportunities in front of you, you can score big.

Take Gordon Bernhardt, principal at Modera Wealth Management. Several years ago, he was looking to expand his reputation among his practice’s chosen niche market—executives and entrepreneurs in the Washington D.C. area. So, naturally, he was excited when he was invited to join a weekly radio show that interviewed C-suite executives.

Several months in, Bernhardt was enjoying the radio show and meeting lots of ideal prospects. Trouble was, he hadn’t built any solid relationships or landed any new business—so he began looking for ways to boost his effectiveness.

The key to success, he decided, was to deepen his relationships and build connections with the people he wanted to serve. So he began asking the executives who took part in the show to let him interview them about their lives and careers. He would then use those comments to create “profiles of success” that he would give to each participant. Each profile would be professionally written by a freelance writer and would feature a Wall Street Journal-style photo of the executive.

From the start, Bernhardt sought to create profiles that told each person’s unique story—including their background and history, their family life, and the driving forces that help them achieve their great success. “People want to know why you do what you do more than what you do. So I focused my interviews on exploring the why,” he says.

Bernhardt eventually took his interview project to the next level. After doing roughly 50 profiles with executives, he compiled them in a book he called Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders. He has since published 15 more volumes containing profiles of successful professionals as well as experts who work with them, such as CPAs, attorneys and others.

His efforts paid off. Bernhardt forged deeper connections with both ideal clients and the people who could refer ideal clients to him—and built his business as a result. “The book has gotten our name out there and has enhanced our credibility among our target market. People now see me as a thought leader, and come up to me and introduce themselves. It’s also online, so from a search engine optimization perspective it has given the firm a lot of visibility that has led to new business.”

The end results: Bernhardt and his team grew the firm he started in 1994 to more than $600 million in AUM before joining Modera in 2022.

Bernhardt offers the following advice for advisors who might want to follow in his path:

Be patient. Building relationships with ideal clients and COI referral sources takes time. “It took probably two years of work to pay off, but it was absolutely worth it,” says Bernhardt. “I don’t think we’d have seen the growth we experienced without implementing that strategy.”

Focus on a niche market. Through working with advisor coaching firm CEG Worldwide, Bernhardt decided to pursue his niche market of D.C.-area executives and entrepreneurs instead of continuing to take “anyone who could fog a mirror,” as he puts it. “Try to identify a niche that you think you will be empowered to serve in, and that you’ll have fun with the people in it,” he advises. “Go after the right affluent clients for you.”

Be ready to deliver value to your niche. Bernhardt also worked with CEG Worldwide to develop a wealth management offering that addresses his clients’ specific needs, in a systematic way—from an initial deep discovery meeting through regular progress check-ins. “We now have a process for delivering value consistently,” he says. “And everyone on the team understands it and can execute on it.”

Ultimately, Bernhardt’s story is not just about working harder, but also about working smarter. Successfully connecting with the affluent is a crucial step in becoming an elite financial advisor. When you run into roadblocks, think creatively about how you can get through to prospects in a way that tells them you are the go-to advisor they need in their lives.