Lesson 7 is about reviewing your Trusted Advisers' Connections on LinkedIn.

Next to the referrals you get from your existing members and the connections they have, Trusted Advisers could be your most lucrative form of lead/referral generation for potential CEOs.

Why are Trusted Advisers such a valuable referral source?

In my executive search practice, I get about 1/3 of my referrals from other Trusted Advisers. These could be bankers, benefit consultants, CPAs, business lawyers, strategic planners, and any other personal service provider who sees their primary client interaction at the CEO level.

The Trusted Advisers who refer me to their clients have such a strong bond with their CEO clients that I've practically got the business the second the referral is made. This is a "super breed" level of Trusted Adviser. This is the type of TA who confers/consultants with their clients on a wide range of issues that many times has nothing to do with their functional expertise. That's why they are called Trusted Advisers. Consultants who are one-dimensional in their relationship with their CEO clients are NOT Trusted Advisers.

These Trusted Advisers I am talking about are typically MASTER NETWORKERS. They get it. They understand how to receive and give referrals. They understand how to manage the referral process. Their business success is based on referrals. STOP wasting your time with personal service providers who are one-dimensional, only have a few CEO clients (their real point of contact/relationship if one-two levels below the CEO), are NOT Master Networkers, and they are not a "super breed" of Trusted Advisers.

You have a very limited window of time as a Chair to do marketing and obtain referrals and leads. My recommendation would be to focus some of that time on the "super breed" of Trusted Adviser.

 

Organizing Trusted Advisers

There are 3 dominant methods to organize your Trusted Advisers (and I'm sure multiple variations, overlaps, combinations, and hybrids of these basic 3 methods).

1. The formal structured TA Program offered out of Vistage HQ in San Diego. The member pays a monthly fee and in return receives a mini-Vistage/TEC like experience.

2. The TAs either pay you directly some small monthly fee or no fee at all to provide some form of a meeting/personal coaching on a monthly/quarterly basis. Some chairs bring their TAs together privately once a month or once a quarter and the group shares the cost or pays a small fee to cover costs.

3. You have a list of TAs, but you don't coach or meet with them. You might have met them a few times, given them a few referrals to members in your group, or even invited them to attend one of your speaker presentations if they brought a CEO with them to the meeting.

It doesn't matter what structure you use to organize your Trusted Advisers, the key is to have the right Trusted Advisers in your network, work a deep relationship with the "super breed" of Trusted Advisers, shake their tightly protected list of CEOs from their LinkedIn Profile for referrals.

 

Working Your Network of Trusted Advisers for Referrals:

• If you want to get referrals from a network of TAs, you've got to do the basic networking/relationship building stuff that comes first. This includes:
• Spending time getting to know your TA. Breaking bread over lunch, attending a sporting event together, or some other activity that allows for conversation/interaction. You may need to do this a few times to get to know each other better.
• Sending them articles, blog posts, links, useful information know that you know a lot about them and their business. One of the elements of successful networking is being helpful to your network (such as this e-course that I host for the Chair Community - what do you do to be helpful to your network?)
• Inviting them to one of your meetings to make a 5 minute presentation after a speaker presentation. Let them stay for lunch and interact with your members.
• Refer them to one of your members when the member expresses an appropriate need
• Check in with them - see how they are doing - ask about their business - show a genuine interest in their success. I would recommend you should be having a phone call at least once a month with a core group of 12-15 "super breed" Trusted Advisers.

This "super breed" of TAs are not going to open up their rolodex to you until they trust you and you've proven to be a helpful member of their network - both directly to them and in-directly through your content/thought leadership to the rest of their network.

Now you've softened them up to work through their connections and start requesting them to make personal introductions the CEOs they know.

 

Tools for Identifying "super breed" Trusted Advisers

Over the years, I've been involved in coaching TAs and working with Vistage/TEC to improve their TA program. A few years ago, I developed a series of tools for Chairs to use in identifying and selecting trusted advisers. My observation of the failure of TAs in the Vistage/TEC community primarily centered around the fact that most Chairs had surrounded themselves with average and mediocre TAs. These were not bad people - they just didn't have the knowledge, network, or capability to refer appropriate CEOs for Vistage/TEC membership.

I began to develop a series of tools that Chairs could you use to determine the referral potential of a trusted adviser and start to distinguish between average TAs and "super breed" TAs.

Tool 1:TA Master Category List

Tool 2:TA Tracking List

Tool 3: TA Success Factor Snapshot - a definition of a successful TA (in context of having a formal TA Group)

Tool 4: TA Selection Interview - an interview done for a formal TA group - adapt as you see fit.

Tool 5: TA 8-Point Success Matrix - This might be a good evaluation matrix to compare each of your existing TAs.

 

Lesson 7 Action Steps:

1. Download and Review the list of Trusted Adviser Categories.
2. Download and Fill out the tracking sheet  for Trusted Advisers. Your ultimate goal should be 3 "super breed" Trusted Advisers in each broad category (If you can't fill out the worksheet fully, start working on expanding your Trusted Adviser Network).
3. Download and Review the TA Success Factor Snapshot, the TA 8 Point Success Matrix Evaluation, and the TA Selection Interview to get a feel of what separates average and mediocre TAs from the "super breed".
4. Make sure you are connected to each Trusted Adviser on Linked.
5. Start building deep relationships with about 12-15 "super breed" Trusted Advisers.
6. Work through each of your Trusted Adviser's Connections on LinkedIn looking for CEOs. Ask the Trusted Adviser for a personal referral.

 

Lesson 7 Discussion Points:

What's the strength of your Trusted Adviser Network?Are the majority of TAs you have nice folks but little referral potential? Do they fall in the "super breed" category?

Can you completely fill out the worksheet with three of the very best Trusted Advisers in your geographic area for each broad category?

Do you know every CEO with whom your Trusted Advisers have a deep relationship? A deep relationship basically means a personal referral is a guarantee of a phone or in-person appointment.

How many of your members have come from a referral by a Trusted Adviser? The goal should be a minimum of 1/4 of all referrals and joins. Are you at this level? If not, what's the roadblock preventing you from hitting the 25% mark with this referral source?