If you’ve been in the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) community for any length of time, you know the opportunity is massive. Business owners desperately need advisors who can guide them through value creation, succession, and exit planning. The problem is not demand. The problem is access.
Ask any CEPA what they struggle with most, and the answer often sounds familiar:
In other words, CEPAs face the same core issue that business owners themselves often wrestle with: a lack of a reliable lead engine.
After more than 30 years in the business sector, I’ve seen this challenge play out across industries. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a construction firm, a SaaS company, or an advisory practice—the flow of qualified leads into your funnel determines your growth. And for CEPAs, building that flow is critical. Without it, you won’t reach enough owners to make an impact, and your CEPA designation becomes an underutilized credential rather than a true differentiator.
The good news is you don’t need a Fortune 500 marketing budget to fix this. What you need are the fundamentals, or what I call Foundational Guerrilla Marketing. These are low-cost, high-impact principles that help you stand out, connect deeply with owners, and move them from curious prospects to committed clients.
Here are the four marketing pillars every CEPA should apply to their own practice.
Let’s face it. Business owners are bombarded with pitches from advisors of all kinds. Financial planners, accountants, brokers, and consultants are all vying for their attention. If you sound like everyone else, you’ll be ignored like everyone else.
That’s why differentiation is your first priority. You need a Unique Positioning Statement (UPS) that clearly communicates who you are, what you do, and how you’re different.
For example, instead of saying:
“I help business owners with financial planning,”
You might say:
“I work with business owners to increase the transferable value of their company and prepare them for a successful exit.”
That’s different. That sparks curiosity. That makes an owner lean in and ask questions.
A simple test for your UPS: ask yourself, “Who else can say this?” If the answer is “a hundred other advisors,” it’s not differentiated enough.
The more boldly you plant your flag in the sand, the more clearly you’ll attract the right owners and repel those who aren’t a fit. And that’s exactly what you want.
Most advisors make the same mistake when meeting with owners: they focus on pitching their services instead of providing immediate value. But owners are skeptical. They’re busy. They’ve been sold to before. What they want is help, not a sales pitch.
The good news? As a CEPA, you have a built-in way to lead with value: the Business Health and Value Assessment.
By offering an assessment, you flip the dynamic. You’re not asking for trust—you’re giving it. You’re educating owners on where their company stands today, what risks exist, and what opportunities lie ahead. In a single conversation, you move from “just another advisor” to “a guide who gets my business.”
But don’t stop there. Think about how you can build education into every touchpoint. Share short articles on LinkedIn about the five stages of the owner’s journey. Host webinars on the top value drivers in privately held companies. Create a simple “CEPA 101” explainer video for owners who are unfamiliar with exit planning.
Each time you deliver value without asking for anything in return, you increase the odds that when an owner is ready to act, you’re the one they call. Visit DriveValue.com's Tools and Assessments page for key business owner resources.
In today’s attention economy, it’s not enough to share information. You need to capture both the mind and the heart of your prospects.
Most advisors focus only on the rational case: numbers, risk mitigation, ROI. That matters, but it’s not what motivates action. Business owners make decisions emotionally first and justify them logically afterward.
That means you need to engage them on both levels:
When you master this dual engagement, your conversations become unforgettable. Owners remember how you made them feel understood.
The final pillar is often overlooked, but it may be the most important.
Owners can feel your energy. If you come across as desperate, scattered, or self-serving, they’ll tune out. If you show up with genuine curiosity, joy, and servant energy, they’ll lean in.
I call this state coherence: when your words, actions, and intentions align. Coherence builds trust faster than any sales technique.
For CEPAs, this means approaching every interaction with the mindset of service. You’re not there to “close a deal.” You’re there to help an owner discover what’s possible for their business and their future. That shift in energy transforms the relationship. It turns sales conversations into collaborative strategy sessions. It moves you from outsider to trusted guide.
And here’s the kicker: owners want to work with people they enjoy. When you bring positive, aligned energy into the room, you become the advisor they want in their corner.
When you apply these four pillars—differentiate, provide value, fully engage, and operate in servant energy—you create a marketing system that attracts the right business owners and turns them into long-term clients.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
The result? A steady flow of qualified business owner leads. Stronger close rates. And a reputation as the go-to CEPA in your market.
At the end of the day, the CEPA designation is powerful, but it doesn’t market itself. You need a system to consistently attract and win business owner clients. These four pillars give you the foundation to build that system.
And once you do, you won’t just grow your own practice. You’ll also expand the impact of the CEPA community as a whole. More owners helped. More enterprise value created. More successful exits achieved.
That’s the kind of pipeline every CEPA deserves.