During the weeks immediately preceding Tax Day, advisors must respond to a wave of questions as clients prepare their tax returns. To many advisors, it's ONE BIG HASSLE. Some even take off tax week just to avoid the trouble.

If you are sticking around and providing this service, you can get marketing value from doing so. If you're attempting to cultivate relationships with CPA's either as clients directly or as potential referral sources, you can find out a lot about CPA's this week. At the very least, you can make sure your client records reflect who the other advisors are. When you clients call in with the questions this week, consider the following:

"By the way, who is your accountant? Clients sometimes ask me to refer an accountant. Tell me a little bit about yours. How long have you worked with him/her? How did you find him/her? What do you know about their practice? Do they have a specialty?

If you are at a stage where you want to add CPA's to your network and your client describes attributes that are attractive to you, you can take the initiative to make contact and demonstrate superior service.

"Let me save you some time. I'll call your accountant for you and gave him/her the tax information."

If you don't want to go that far, you can just make a note of who they are and contact them after tax season.

"You and I share some common clients. We should probably know more about each other's practice. I may have other clients who may need your expertise."

As you attempt to develop relationships with other advisors such as CPA's, keep in mind that not everyone is a good alliance partner. Identify the characteristics you want in your network of complementary service providers. Here are a few to consider:

• Wants to grow. Unless they want to grow, they are unlikely to see the value in developing a relationship with you or invest in collaborative marketing efforts.
• Willing to partner: This means they are willing to give as well as receive.
• Serve a market that you find attractive. If you are targeting a certain kind of business owner, strive to establish a relationship with an accountant who serves that type of business owner. As a result, you may complement each other's expertise and offer a more robust expertise package. In addition, it is much easier to develop marketing initiatives to which both of you can contribute and derive benefit. Strive for a few solid relationships, rather than many weak ones.
• Deliver high quality service. You want people who will treat your clients very well and will agree to certain standards of reciprocal communication.

1. Who else might appreciate receiving the Referral Mastery Tip of the Month?
   It's free. Just send me their name, email, and their phone number if you have it. I will ask them if they wish to receive it before sending it.

2. Who within and beyond your company might be interested in business development seminars or coaching?

Michael Brizz, CSP, CMC

See also
You may want to reference the earlier issues of the Referral Mastery Tip by clicking here. In an earlier Referral Mastery Tip and Tele-seminar, we reviewed the importance of understanding your clients' objectives and securing client agreement on the structure and the strategy of the portfolio. We also covered how to use client reviews to address client disappointment and re-affirm the portfolio objectives, structure, and strategy. (Or risk management objectives, strategies, and policies)