Turn Your CEPA Designation into a Scalable and Profitable Business
If you’re a Financial Advisor* who has earned your Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) designation, you’ve already taken a bold step toward becoming an indispensable advisor to business owner clients. But turning that certification into a thriving, scalable revenue stream requires more than just technical knowledge. It demands a strategic approach to marketing your offering, building credibility, generating qualified leads, and converting opportunities into long-term relationships, all while driving AUM.
In this article, we explore proven strategies to help you commercialize your CEPA, establish yourself as the go-to exit planning expert in your market, and unlock the long-term potential of offering high-impact exit planning services.
Why Exit Planning Needs to Be Front and Center
According to Exit Planning Institute®’s (EPI) 2023 State of Owner Readiness Report, 49% of business owners plan to exit within the next five years, and yet most have done little or no formal preparation. Additionally, for 80% of business owners, their business represents the majority of their personal net worth. These numbers present a massive opportunity for advisors with the right training and the right systems.
Exit planning isn’t just about transitioning ownership. It’s about helping clients protect their wealth, plan their future, and optimize the value of their life’s work. As Christopher Snider writes in Walking to Destiny, “Owners need to see the business as the asset that funds their future.” That shift in mindset opens the door for you to guide them from uncertainty to clarity.
Establish Authority and Credibility
To win over business owners, you must first establish yourself as the trusted authority in exit planning. This begins with visibility, particularly digital visibility.
Build an Exit Planning Presence Online:
- Create a dedicated exit planning section on your website.
- Publish regular blog posts and educational content focused on business value, personal readiness, and real exit stories.
- Use your CEPA credentials in your LinkedIn headline, bio, and featured content.
- Share relevant statistics from Walking to Destiny and the EPI Readiness Report to create urgency and credibility.
Remember: authority comes from education. By consistently offering insight, you don’t just inform. You transform how business owners perceive their situation and their potential.
Engage and Nurture Prospects Over Time
Exit planning is a long game. Most business owners aren’t ready to sell tomorrow, but they need to start preparing today. That means nurturing relationships over weeks, months, and years, not just cold-pitching services.
Nurturing Techniques:
- Create a lead magnet such as a “Score Your Business” readiness quiz or a downloadable guide.
- Build an email nurture series (6–12 emails) sharing value-building insights from Walking to Destiny.
- Share client success stories and lessons learned.
- Hold educational webinars or small workshops.
Christopher writes, “Business owners don’t understand what drives value and therefore have an unrealistic opinion of it.” Your role is to gently guide them toward awareness by focusing on what they can control: their Attractiveness and Readiness Scores.
Generate High-Quality Leads Using LinkedIn and Email
The CEPA designation gives you credibility. Now you need a system for attracting qualified leads who are actively running businesses and interested in maximizing their value.
LinkedIn Outreach:
- Use Sales Navigator to target business owners by geography, industry, and company size.
- Send personalized connection requests referencing mutual connections or relevant business topics.
- Share insights from Walking to Destiny in your LinkedIn posts to create thought leadership content.
- Offer a “15-Minute Business Value Chat” as a low-commitment call to action.
Cold Email Campaigns:
- Keep emails short and value-driven (less than 125 words).
- Offer insights such as “3 Reasons Business Owners Don’t Sell for What They’re Worth.”
- End with a link to book a call. Don’t ask for a reply, ask for action.
Tools like Maus’ “Attract Outreach” and “Attract Leads” can automate much of this process while allowing for personalization at scale.
Convert Leads into Booked Appointments
Once you’ve built awareness and interest, it’s time to move prospects down the funnel.
Lead Conversion Best Practices:
- Offer a brief discovery call framed as a “Readiness Assessment Discussion.”
- Use qualifying questions to gauge personal, financial, and business readiness (aligned with the Value Acceleration Methodology™).
- Share a short readiness or attractiveness report (powered by platforms like Maus Software).
- Book a follow-up strategy session immediately after the discovery call.
This structure helps prospects see the path forward, and you as the one who can lead them there.
Automate Where It Matters, Personalize Where It Counts
Automation doesn’t mean impersonal; it means freeing up your time to focus on the high-value moments: deep conversations, strategic planning, and relationship building.
Platforms like Maus Software allow you to:
- Run client assessments.
- Generate business value reports.
- Track KPI improvements and readiness milestones.
- Produce presentations that visually demonstrate exit readiness and value gaps.
When you can demonstrate measurable progress, you help position yourself as the most valued advisor in a business owner’s life.
Tie It Back to AUM
How does exit planning grow AUM? Well, the process doesn’t end with the sale of your client’s business. If you’ve been involved in the journey, you’re the one your client trusts when the liquidity event arrives. This translates to:
- Managing the windfall of cash post-sale.
- Assisting with estate planning, charitable giving, and legacy strategies.
- Expanding the relationship to the next generation of the family.
Your CEPA designation isn’t just about preparing owners for a sale. It’s about retaining those clients and growing their wealth under your guidance.
Final Thoughts: Take Your CEPA to Market
As a CEPA, you’ve gained knowledge that can change the trajectory of a business owner’s life, and yours. But to make that impact, you must bridge the gap between your designation and your market. That means:
- Building authority with content and presence.
- Nurturing interest with consistency and care.
- Generating leads with precision and purpose.
- Converting with structure and value.
- Delivering results that extend well beyond the sale.
Exit planning is no longer a “nice-to-have.” For business owners, it’s essential. For advisors, it’s the most powerful differentiator you have.
Now is the time to commercialize your CEPA.
And with the right system, support, and strategy, the results will speak for themselves.
Want help building your exit planning pipeline?
Explore how Maus Software can help you automate client engagement, deliver measurable results, and grow your AUM - all while staying focused on what matters most.
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*Exit Planning Institute believes exit planning is for all advisors, not just FAs.
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