And you can help them grow by helping them become thought leaders. About three-quarters of T&E attorneys and 90% of accountants recognize the value of being such a thought leader (Figure 3).
You can help them with this by providing high-caliber content they can use with clients and prospects. T&E attorneys and accountants find that talking about certain subjects is helpful when they are trying to win business owner clients: These clients want to know about updating estate plans, for example, or about the benefits of success coaching, or about the common mistakes they make when selling their companies. They also want strategies to limit their personal liability.
You can help accountants and attorneys distribute such content, and when you do, you benefit from the “multiplier effect.” If they get more business, so will you. If the thought leadership content is geared to successful business owners in such a way that they can distribute it, they will usually get more engagements that regularly motivate them to drive more wealthy investors to you. The greater success of their practices can graciously translate into greater success for your practice.
You can also refer clients to them. However, this approach is limited, at best, for simple mathematical reasons: You are unlikely to have as many opportunities to refer business to those professionals as they have to refer people to you. That’s why helping them grow their business and generate more revenue from their own clients is a more productive approach.
Russ Alan Prince is president of R.A. Prince & Associates.
Brett Van Bortel is director of consulting services for Invesco Consulting.