Extend your strategic alliances beyond accountants

Remember the seventies? A new movement seemed to swell out of the hippy culture — that of herbal remedies, tactile therapies, crystal and magnet healing, yoga and aromatherapy.

It made tentative inroads to the mainstream culture but was widely dismissed by the medical profession as quackery. And as much as alternative medicine practitioners wanted to convince conventional doctors they had a place in a patient’s wellness regime, the more staunchly opposed the doctors seemed to become.

Roll forward 30 years and it’s a different picture — they are now well entrenched, called complementary rather than alternative practitioners, and cross referrals to and from traditional doctors are commonplace. How did this happen and how does it relate to financial planning?

Think outside the square. While they never lost sight of the need to work with doctors, the complementary health practitioners looked for other avenues to build strategic alliances, such as via health food shops, the rising gym culture, physiotherapists and the like.

Financial planners expend so much of their effort trying to convince accountants that they can complement their service offering to clients, when both professions are still hostile to the value the other really offers, they are missing opportunities elsewhere.

Think about the questions asked or comments made by your clients. “I want to travel overseas/buy a new car/renovate the house.” So rather than just writing it down as a short-term goal, do you offer to introduce, not just refer, them to the travel agent, or a car dealer you know, or a builder?

You have a client who has been injured playing touch football; do you know a sports masseur? If a client is terminally ill, can you give them the number of a palliative nurse or funeral director or celebrant you personally know, or a grief counsellor for their family?

Start looking at what your own clients do. Are any of them in a professional service, trades or business? Build your own directory of service providers with you as the financial planner. Get their permission to list and then provide them with copies to use in their business so they refer clients not only to you but to your other clients listed as well.

You will become a sought after resource and recognised as an holistic planner. Helping your clients get what they need goes beyond the expertise of just the financial planning service you provide; it needs a team effort from you and a host of other professionals.

Your service directory is a networking and referral resource designed to give you a head start on building, growing or refocusing your planning practice.

Jennie Murray works with CFPs wanting to maximise their potential while maintaining their sanity. www.bignoiseservices.com