Referrals. Many producers use them to create new business, but they often struggle with how to consistently generate them and have to rely on existing clients, cold calls, and direct mail to find prospects. It is the status quo in the industry, and Brandon Stuerke just wasn't content with the status quo.
"I wanted to come up with a cutting-edge and revolutionary way to build my business," said Stuerke. "I really had to, because my direct mail results were dropping off so much, that if I didn't find another way to get in front of new prospects, I wasn't going to last very long. I think a lot of guys are in that boat right now."
After less than 10 years in the industry, Stuerke, 29, has developed a thriving system that turns CPAs into marketing and referral partners for his independent agency, Golden Financial Group, based in Lake Ozark, Mo. By moving beyond the status quo, Stuerke is building his practice solely through referrals and has begun teaching other advisors his unique steps to success.
Four years ago, Stuerke started Golden Financial after four years with MetLife. Joining a study group of top producers, Stuerke became friends with Jack Keeter, who introduced him to the idea of working with CPAs. Keeter's approach involved finding a retiring CPA, buying the CPA's firm, and making the junior partners part-owners as they brought in a certain number of referrals.
"I loved Jack's idea, because the CPAs' clients saw him as an extension of the CPA firm, and would automatically trust Jack. But I didn't like the idea of buying the firm and having to manage and run another business," Stuerke said. "So I looked into how I could offer the CPAs value without having to buy or move into the firm."
A value proposition
Instead of buying the CPA's firm, Stuerke came up with six components of value that he could offer the accountants and entice them into partnering with him: (1) monthly client newsletters; (2) weekly client e-mails; (3) online Web linking; (4) joint appreciation events; (5) joint education events; and (6) complimentary tax returns.
"I looked at the things we were already doing to market and brand ourselves to our existing client base, and came up with six different ways that I could offer value to the CPAs to get them to want to partner with me," Stuerke said.
Stuerke contacted the accountants for his top 10-15 clients and set up meetings with them, explaining that "we were looking for two to three top accountants that we could work with, we could refer our clients to and provide value to our clients." The meeting put the CPAs in a position of interviewing for a position on Stuerke's team -- "We have them wanting to be on board."
After explaining what they could offer to the CPAs, Stuerke found that the accountants were very eager to become partners.
6 components of value
Here is how Brandon Stuerke explains components of the value proposition to potential CPA partners:
Monthly client newsletters and weekly e-mails: For the CPAs who aren't doing newsletters and e-mails, Stuerke's firm will write and customize them for the accountants, and include a second article under the headline, "A note from our partners in planning."
"That begins to co-brand us among the CPA's base of clients," Stuerke said. "So every week, every month, those clients are getting something of value from the CPA, and it's got our firm and our information in there."
Online Web linking: Stuerke explains to the accountant about the importance of having a quality Web site and having clients find the CPAs online.
"We explain to them that if we chose them as a partner, we would put a link on our Web site, not just to their Web site, but to a full-page bio about them, under our 'approved strategic partners' page," Stuerke said. "It shows them that we've done a good job building our online reputation and people will be able to find the CPA through our site."
Joint appreciation events: Stuerke's firm hosts appreciation events for their clients, and offers the opportunity for the CPA and his or her clients to attend the event as well.
"The CPA will introduce us to their clients, and we explain to them why we chose them as partners, along with the need for team planning. By explaining to them about the team concept, it gets them in the mindset that we are an extension of their CPA's firm."
Joint education events: Stuerke will run traditional educational workshops, but instead of sending out 10,000 direct mail pieces, he will send out 250 invitations to a CPA's clients, and get 100-110 people there who are already trusting prospects.
"The client will come in saying, 'My CPA trusts you and I've worked with him for 15 years, so if you're the one he says I need to work with, here's my account,'" Stuerke explained. "It's such an easy sell at this point, since you don't have to overcome the trust hurdle, and it gives you a huge base of people who are never going to come to a direct mail seminar or call because you sent a flier in the mail."
Complimentary tax preparation: Stuerke's agency also offers to pay for the tax returns of any clients of the CPA who are referred to Golden Financial.
"When you've packaged it all that way, and they've seen examples of the newsletters and what the events will look like, they're asking in the second meeting, 'When can I get on board?'" Stuerke said.
While Stuerke currently works with six CPA associates (which allows him to have "quality relationships, rather than just service-level partnerships"), he sees the opportunity to find partners from a variety of backgrounds.
"You can have attorneys, CPAs, mortgage brokers, property & casualty agents -- whoever you want, whoever is working with your ideal client. I think that's the biggest key to my success -- rather than going out and finding clients one at a time, find out where your ideal clients are already doing business and plug in at the top."
The ease of referrals
The partnerships make the referral process much easier, for both sides.
"The hardest part of getting a CPA to give you a referral is that they are busy running their own business so they're not thinking of referring you business everyday," Stuerke said. "But if you can get their stamp of approval at an event or through a newsletter or e-mail, the client will just pick up the phone and call you."
With the referrals that Stuerke receives from his partners, he can target groups of people, like high-net-worth clients.
"You have someone who already knows who those people are. If you're cold calling or doing general radio ads, you don't know who you're reaching," Stuerke said. "But if you have a CPA partner, they can tell you, 'Hey, Bob and Sally have $2 million, and they really need some estate planning work.'"
Creating the partnership approach was not without its challenges, however. Stuerke quickly discovered that he had to find a way to offer the value components to the CPAs without creating a lot of extra work for himself. After some trial and error, he was able to build efficiencies into the system by hiring a programmer to handle the newsletter and e-mail templates, as well as additional staff to help coordinate the events.
"You have to find a way where you don't have to reinvent the wheel every week and month -- if you don't have a system in place, it's going to be overwhelming for you and for the CPAs, and they won't continue to do it," Stuerke said.
Despite the extra work involved, the trade-off is worth it because of the opportunities that have emerged from Stuerke's partnership with CPAs -- opportunities that may not have come if he had stuck to cold calling and direct mail.
"Without this system, you're either going to be hustling to hit the phones really hard, or doing a ton of direct mail seminars and throwing a lot of money at the prospecting problem," Stuerke said.
In 2009, Stuerke was able to go from conducting 24-30 direct mail seminars a year, to zero, saving him time and money (almost $60,000 in direct mail costs). Now, he can focus on events and seminars that are solely for those already interested. It is an opportunity that many advisors do not get to enjoy, Stuerke said.
"I think most of the prospecting methods used by advisors today are all about dropping yourself in front of people who may or may not be interested, which is a big waste of time and money. If they aren't interested, there's no sense in putting yourself in front of them. If you send out 10,000 direct mail cards, you're going to get 40 people there -- that's because those 40 of 10,000 were interested right now.
"But the reality is, 90% of those 10,000 are going to have a need over the next couple years. So you need to insert yourself before there's a need and build the relationship. That's what we do with the CPA partners -- we throw events for their clients, and not all of them are going to have a need today, but because we have the newsletters, and the e-mails, and the educational events, they get to know us and like us and trust us, so when they do have a need, we're the first ones they call. Whereas most people wait and they're competing for the business as they have a need."
Client risk
With the referral opportunities that come his way, Stuerke focuses on the 55-and-older retirement demographic, working primarily with IRAs and qualified money and estate planning. He sees the risk in portfolios as the biggest issue his clients are facing, and works with them to build a safer retirement portfolio.
"The baby boomers and retirees today are still investing like they were in their 30s and 40s, and I think that's why you saw people get hammered in the early 2000s. Then people didn't learn their lesson and 2008 happened and they lost another 50% of their portfolio," Stuerke said.
When he first became an independent advisor, Stuerke recommended safe, prudent investments for his clients, which wasn't always the most popular advice. In the fallout of 2008, however, his clients watched their friends lose 50-60% of their money, while they retained theirs.
"That really set us apart in our market, because a lot of our reputation is built on the fact that we don't lose people's money."
Stuerke also works with his clients to ensure that their retirement income is not eaten up in taxes: "Roth conversion is a huge topic right now that clients need to look at before it's too late, before the future taxes on these qualified retirement plans get so high that Uncle Sam is taking 50, 60, 70% of it, and they end up paying to get us out of this mess.
"You have $13 trillion sitting in IRA accounts right now, so if you're the government and that money has never been taxed, wouldn't you look at that money as a solution to this country's problem? I would."
Growing the family and the practice
Between the implementation of the CPA-partnership system as well as the work of his three staff members (Jared Cameron, Cori Wheeler and Emilie Weston), Stuerke has been able to work three to four days a week, often traveling to his partners' offices to work with clients there. The reduced workload is especially important to Stuerke as he and his wife, Becky, are expecting their first child in July.
"I worked very hard these past four years to build the practice, but I didn't want to keep working at that pace as I built a family," Stuerke said. "If I hadn't come up with this program, I'd still be working long hours, struggling to find new prospects."
Instead, Stuerke is able to devote more time to his family and church, where he is very involved, leading various spiritual counseling groups.
With the success of his referral strategy, Stuerke has big plans to expand it in the future, hoping to add other partners from other backgrounds. He has also written a book, Winning with CPAs,
(www.winningwithcpas.com) and begun a coaching program to share his system with others. Currently, Stuerke is working with 15-20 advisors around the country.
"After seeing my results, I realized that I know other advisors who want to work with other professionals, they just don't know how -- they don't have the systems in place. If I can teach them to be successful and shift my focus from doing the planning myself, I look at it as a way to help way more clients than I could individually."
Stuerke recognizes that his youth has helped him break the mold of the referral process. "Being younger, I'm not buried in what I think is the way of doing things. I haven't been afraid to think in an innovative way or come up with a completely out-of-the-box way to market myself and find referrals," Stuerke said. "Life is a lot easier when you're not sitting around, stressing about where your next lead is going to come from."
Laura Graesser is Associate Editor of Life Insurance Selling.
