Last week we asked our Advisor community, “Outside of the traditional professional advisor, who did the business owner pick as their most trusted person?” Without further ado, here are the results:
66% said Spouse
12% said Business Partner
2% said Executive Leadership
20% said Fellow Business Owners
EPI Vice President, Scott Snider, provides a deeper look into this trivia:
Naturally, I think we want to say the spouse. However, according to the State of Owner Readiness Survey, the CPA is trusted twice as much as the owner’s spouse! The owner’s spouse came in at 15% while the CPA received 40%. The second highest rating, sitting at roughly 30%, was the owners peer group of fellow owners. And this stands true for me as well. I would say that after my business partner, I lean heavily on an owner group of which I am a member. The group meets on a quarterly basis and hosts conferences and retreats as well.
I think this is critical information for us to understand as advisors. As we enter the market as exit planning advisors, the biggest hurdle we will leap is the fact that owners are misinformed about what exit planning really is. We must begin educating owners and since some of their most trusted advisors are fellow owners, we must start developing strategies to educate their trusted people along the way.
For this reason, one of the most effective business development tools is the Owner Roundtable Series. These small groups are facilitated by the expert advisor but allow the owner a safe place to share and bounce ideas off each other. Understanding the owners trusted people, professional advisor or not, is critical to how we better engage and get entangled with the business owner and become a more trusted advisor.
