The summer is the perfect time for a backyard barbecue, cookout, or picnic. The sizzle of a hamburger on the grill, the sweet buttery flavor of corn on the cob, and a savory serving of mac and cheese bring back memories of summer get-togethers with family and friends.
What do you bring to the cookout? Do you provide a cooler of ice-cold drinks? A tray of homemade brownies or cookies? Or are you more of a main course person and bring an entire rack of ribs to the festivities?
Everyone has their go-to item they bring to a cookout, just like every advisor has their niche in the exit planning engagement.
So, what are you bringing to the exit planning table?
Highlight Your Cooking
Are you the best at making brownies? When people find out you are attending the cookout, they text you, “I hope you are bringing those brownies of yours.” Word travels about your incredible brownies and people come to you specifically requesting those brownies at their cookout.
You better believe you will be making the brownies. Not only that, but you offer them up on a beautiful tray. You take pictures of your dessert display at the cookout and share it on your social media. Soon enough, everyone will be asking for your brownies at their cookout.
When you become the go-to person for brownies, or let’s expand here: exit planning services, you will become known for your expertise. Referrals are one of the most impactful sources for lead generation and business development. By highlighting your client's success stories and the problem you solve, you become synonymous with solving that problem for your clients.
Invite Others to the Table
Here is a quick cookout tip: if you know you are not great at making potato salad, do not offer to make the potato salad. Everyone will know and they will not be thrilled with the outcome. Instead, invite the person who is best at making potato salad to come to the cookout. Your popularity at the cookout will go up because you invited the creator of the star side dish to the function.
A business owner works with a team of advisors, trusted partners, and family members on their exit planning strategy. As a member of this team, you are responsible for managing your area of expertise in this process. If your business owner client comes to you looking for advice on a subject area in which you are not the expert, the best thing you can do for the client’s ultimate success is to bring in another advisor who is a subject matter expert in that field. For example, if you are a financial advisor, you might not be best suited to manage the legal aspects of estate planning. It would be in both you and your client’s best interest to bring in an attorney at that stage of the exit planning process.
Use the Best Quality Ingredients
When preparing a meal, side dish, or dessert for a cookout, the recipe is only as good as the quality of the ingredients used to create it. Your brownies would not be world-famous if you used expired butter, spoiled milk, and a four-year-old bag of chocolate chips. Using the best quality ingredients enhances the skills you have in the kitchen and makes your recipe truly shine.
In the exit planning profession, high-quality education combined with an advisor’s current skillset makes for the best-in-class exit planning advisors. You might have years of experience in the financial advisory field, but what are you doing to enhance your skillset and stay up to date on industry topics and trends? By investing in the best quality “ingredients” like an industry-leading CEPA credential, award-winning continuing education courses in EPI Academy, an expansive national EPI Chapter network, and the largest exit planning conference in the world at the Exit Planning Summit, you improve your practice and your service offerings.
So, how prepared are you to attend an exit planning cookout this year? And, what are you bringing to the table?
