How to meet the right centers of influence

If they’re not hosting a group outing at the skeet shooting range, insurance planner Elaine Eisner, J.D., private banker Joseph Swiderski, CFP, and their entourage might be found, brooms in hand, sliding stones on the local curling sheet, or perhaps, rods in hand, fishing for walleye on Lake Erie. 

No, Eisner and Swiderski aren’t out to revive the old “American Sportsman” television series. For Eisner, who with her husband Scott Gohn runs Eisner Gohn Group in Beachwood, Ohio, and Swiderski, a high-net-worth-focused wealth manager at First Merit Private Bank in nearby Cleveland, these are work outings — examples of two closely aligned advisors bringing their centers of influence (COI) relationship to life to generate new business for their practices while having some fun with clients and prospects in the process.

Swiderski and Eisner frequently co-host and co-brand events such as these. “She’ll bring clients and prospects, and I’ll bring clients and prospects, and they all get to learn about us and what we do in an informal, informative way,” Swiderski says of his teaming arrangement with Eisner. “And because Elaine and I are friends people sense that so they let their defenses down, which allows for more frank and productive conversations.” 

Eisner calls Swiderski, whom she has known for about a decade, her “COI of the year.”

“We look at it as a mutually beneficial relationship,” she says. “He has added a lot of value to our work with clients and we have done the same with his clients.” 

A relationship that started innocuously enough with sporadic phone conversations, lunch meetings and the occasional exchange of leads has blossomed into a COI partnership that produces a steady two-way flow of prime referrals. “It takes time to find the right (center of influence) relationships,” Eisner observes. “But when you do find them, it’s very rewarding.”

The Gold Standard for Prospectors 

Among the many strategies advisors use to generate leads, centers of influence stand out for their ability to deliver the most desirable types of prospects. “I’m at a place in my career where I’m able to pick and choose the clients I take on,” says Andrea Blackwelder, CFP, ChFC, co-founder of Wisdom Wealth Strategies in Denver. “For me, with the centers of influence piece, it’s not about quantity (of new clients), it’s about quality. I’m looking for a really good fit. They can introduce me to people who are a great match to my skills and values.” 

As powerful as centers of influence can be at generating highly qualified leads and highly desirable new clients, productive COI relationships such as the one Eisner and Swiderski share don’t happen by accident. Cultivating and sustaining them takes patience, careful planning, focus and a knack for relationship-building.

COI relationships tend to be most productive when they’re part of a broader lead-generation strategy, says Andy Barkate, MS, president of California Retirement Plans in Bakersfield, California. “It’s hard to rely just on centers of influence for all your new business.”

Barkate says high-profile marketing — advertising in print or on TV or radio, even hosting a radio program or appearing as a subject-matter expert on TV — is a particularly good complement to lead generation via COIs. “They reinforce one another well. Each provides credibility to the other.”

From advertising to media appearances and beyond, “everything ties together” into a coherent marketing, lead-generation and referral strategy, he says. Clarity, Selectivity Key to Targeting COIs

Barkate has branded himself and his practice as retirement income specialists. Eisner markets herself and her practice primarily as insurance planning experts. Blackwelder has found a niche in the high-net-worth world focusing (although not exclusively) on airline pilots.

Each has a clearly defined area of specialization, one that makes them more readily referable for COIs. Indeed, successfully leveraging COI relationships starts with clearly identifying with whom to pursue relationships, then defining your value proposition as an advisor and as a firm so those COIs not only understand how you can add value for the clients they refer, the people they’re referring to you understand it, too. 

“You want to make sure you’re not lumped into this massive group of advisors who all want to work with the accountants, attorneys and insurance agents out there,” Barkate suggests. “We always try to segment ourselves within that group, to represent ourselves as doing something unique and adding value in ways other advisors can’t.”