Cultivate Relationships with Top Professionals
If you carefully cultivate relationships with top professionals, your clients will enjoy a coordinated approach to a broader range of services.
Many independent planners are just that—independent and unused to collaborating across disciplines. Indeed, few planners maintain strong relationships with estate attorneys, CPAs or other professionals, experts say. These untapped connections represent a huge opportunity: Forging ties across disciplines can improve your client service and give your practice an edge over the competition. It can also boost your bottom line. “This is really lucrative if you know how to do it,” says Susan Bradley, a financial planner and founder of the Sudden Money Institute. But she and others agree that client service, not referrals, must drive the effort. Tit-for-tat reciprocity can lead to inappropriate referrals that undermine your strategy, and worse, jeopardize your clients’ trust. On the other hand, if you carefully cultivate relationships with top professionals, your clients will enjoy a coordinated approach to a broader range of services. And over time, you’ll receive referrals that can help your business grow.
-Susan Bradley, financial planner and founder of the Sudden Money Institute, in Your Network of Experts
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