This one is going to be fun to write for me.
I am not one of the members of the ‘Big Boyz’ Club and many of you won’t be either.
Ironically, the advice I am going to give will work with anyone that consults/coaches/trains/advises within the greater exit planning community, no matter the size of their company.
However, for those of you that are smaller, even micro sized, small businesses this will be a message of hope for some and a confidence boost that you are doing the right things for those that are more successful.
I am very fortunate to be in a position where I get to talk to a large number of CEPA’s (Certified Exit Planning Advisor) on a regular basis. I average around 5-10 meetings with them per month on a lower end. Most of this is because I am in a unique position to help because of my background with predictable referral marketing and my passion for giving referrals to other CEPA’s.
It could be argued, that as my presence in the marketplace continues to grow that I am almost required (literally) to continue to find new SME’s to refer my clients and friends that are financial advisors to. I average about 10-20 referrals given out to specialists in the exit planning process per month and the number is rising rapidly.
That is a long winded way to say the following: There is a ton of business out there for exit planning advisors and the very best place to get that business is from financial advisors (especially if they are CEPA’s and/or into exit planning).
How to get the business?
That is the challenge and the opportunity. I am not the only person that sees the opportunity. Just take a look around the Internet about ‘value advisors’ and ‘growth advisors’ and all the other specialists like M&A, HR, Sales and many more. Several companies are rising in the space and are hiring staff.
They are going to try and cover a large part of the market and bring efficiencies as they scale.
Good news is this: you can still compete on a larger basis with them. What you need to do is create groups of specialists that are in ‘alliance’ with each other. I have several friends that have done this in different professions with great success. They don’t have to scale to hundreds of employees and instead create a network of like minded and specialized experts across the spectrum and geography.
In essence, you ‘scale’ your network by strategically finding and recruiting other firms your size and offering them the chance to both give and get referrals. You both get to be the best at what you do and you also get the credit for serving clients that you wouldn’t normally be able to work with.
There are many ways to make it work and some include a form of revenue sharing. These are often in the form of some kind of referral fee and are usually negotiated individually between firms, but I have seen some common standards become implemented as the number of member firms in the alliance grows and matures.
The other way to compete effectively is to find and create natural conduits/pipelines of prospects. I have a friend in the M&A business that is the best I have ever seen at it. He has published a book that helps business owners with the exit planning process and speaks and exhibits at gatherings of financial advisors around the country. He is also one of my key resources because of the network of other firms like his that he has formed.
I literally know that I can refer him almost anything and he will have a trusted and vetted resource to serve my client’s client (remember I am often helping FA’s find great advisors for their clients).
This is just a short example (believe it or not) of some of the ways you can compete with larger regional/national firms. The larger firms are aware of the opportunity and are making moves to lock down market share. The time is now for you to take advantage of your size (agility and expertise) and start forming your own larger networks without having to have too large of a company.
Questions, concerns or some examples of professionals that are already doing this? I am always looking for quality people to refer to.
All the best and tight lines,
Mike
