How I’m Building Relationships With CPAs by Teaching Them About IRAs

Editor’s Note: In this edition of What’s Working Now, an AdvisorRADIO feature in which Horsesmouth members tell us about recent success they have had running and growing their businesses, we hear from advisor Dale Wright, who is using presentations to build professional, referral-oriented relationships. You can hear the full interview by clicking the audio file below. The following article includes edited excerpts of Dale’s comments.

Hometown guy

I’ve lived in Richmond, Va. since 1955, but I’ve worked in a number of different businesses. At one time I was working on a PhD in Physiological Ecology, but I realized you can’t make a lot of money at that. So I entered the investment and financial advising world and work for a company called Equity Concepts&v=4mc3i4logog1xvv0cfbwsg3r.

We were created in 1991 by our founder, who added his first partner in ’94 and their first assistant in ’97. I was the first independent advisor they added to the group in 1998 and I’ve been with them ever since. We’ve grown to some 16 advisors in four offices with a support staff of 50 across two states.

We’re an independent advising firm and use a holistic method. We do what we do because we want our clients to be the best stewards of what God has blessed them with. That’s how we do our work.

Granting CPEs without the headaches

Our company believes in working closely with CPAs. We have a large network of CPAs in the Richmond area that we contact and want to build ties with. This year, through Horsesmouth, we were able to offer them CPE credits through the Savvy IRA Planning program&v=4mc3i4logog1xvv0cfbwsg3r. We started presenting “Savvy IRA Planning for CPAs: 10 Things CPAs Should Know About IRAs” to CPA firms and we grant CPE credit to attendees through Horsesmouth.

It’s really a pain to get certified to award CPE credit, so in the past we would sponsor someone else who is CPE-certified to teach a workshop. But since Horsesmouth took care of all the CPE issues for us, it allowed us to go and be the experts. I’m the Ed Slott advisor for our company and a Savvy IRA subscriber, so I had access to all this. And I thought it was a great opportunity for us to teach and offer CPE instead of sponsoring someone else. It went off fantastically and the group really responded well.

CPAs—Catch them in the morning

We presented in front of a small CPA firm that I already had a relationship with—I send my taxes and a number of my clients who need tax preparation to a woman that works there. We’ve been trying to expand our presence in the firm, so I approached them and said, “Hey, we’ll come in and give this presentation and you’ll all get one hour of CPE.” They’re always looking for CPE and also something to distract them during the day. They agreed and of the 15 CPAs in the firm, 12 came to the presentation.

We’ve found that with CPAs, the best thing to do is catch them first thing in the morning before they get tangled up in their spreadsheets and clients’ books. So we went in, brought them some bagels, pastries, coffee, and juice and spent an hour first thing in the morning doing some CPE.

Know your material

I’m fairly comfortable speaking in public. I’ve spoken at small conventions of 450 to 500 people. I learned a long time ago that if someone asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, just be honest and tell them, “I’m not sure about that, but I’ll check on the answer and get back to you.” I don’t have a problem doing that. There are some people that feel like, “Oh, I’m the presenter. I’ve got to be the expert on everything.” If they do that, they’re always going to be in that box where they’re afraid somebody’s going to ask them something they can’t answer. My advice is to not let it bother you.

The key is knowing your material. That’s one reason I’m associated with the Ed Slott Group&v=4mc3i4logog1xvv0cfbwsg3r. I’m now a Master Elite member and have been with them since 2010. It’s easy to feel confident, with all the training and support they give you. I have even spoken to attorneys, who can be a little more difficult than the CPAs!

I know that I know things about IRAs that most CPAs don’t know because of the Horsesmouth training. The founder of the CPA firm was in the audience—he’s a sharp guy and has been in the business a long time—and I actually got him on something. He said, “Are you sure about that?” And I said, “Oh yes, I am.” I lost him for the next five minutes because he pulled out his cell phone to Google what he had asked. And he found out that I was right.

So it went very well. He was pleased, as the founder and owner of the firm, and got great feedback from the people who attended. In fact, they want me to come in and expand on some of the topics and do more trainings with them.

I really like the Savvy IRA Planning program because of the good information that’s in there. One thing I didn’t want to do was put on a boring CPE workshop that people attended just to get those credits. I don’t want to teach a workshop like that. If they don’t learn something, then I’ve failed. But with the information in the Savvy IRA CPA presentation, it wasn’t hard to show them a few things they didn’t know.

Strengthening ties

The first thing we wanted to achieve with this workshop was strengthening our relationship with this firm. I always want somebody to come out of my presentation saying, “I learned something that I didn’t know,” no matter how long they’ve been in the business. When the founder of the firm who started his company over 30 years ago walked out of there going, “Wow, you taught me something new,” that made me feel good. So one, I want it to be useful information.

Two, I wanted to walk out of there with them going, “OK, I have somebody I can call if I run into a situation with a client’s IRA and I don’t know the answer.” That’s my big thing with them. I say, “Hey, I know you try to keep your bills down for your client, because every type of client worries about how much something is going to cost. And instead of having to do four or five hours of research, call me to get the answer. That’s four or five hours you don’t have to bill your client for.”

Building a team for our clients

Our firm aims for collaborative, holistic planning for our clients. If there’s something we can’t do for our clients, we want to put them in touch with someone who can. I can’t do a mortgage for them and I’m not a CPA who can do taxes. We understand how they work really well, but we don’t do them. So we put together teams with other companies that can help our clients do those things. We want to be in charge of those teams so our clients can have a good experience all the way around. It helps everybody. They get new clients. We help them be cost effective for their clients—it’s a great partnership.

Getting new business

Of course, we also hope that putting on these presentations grows our partnership with the CPAs and leads to more referrals. If the CPA has somebody coming in and they know we’re unique and different in how we do our planning, we can hook them. I can go to the CPA and say, “Hey, I’ve got an expertise in this area, but you should take a few minutes and learn what else we do as a company that can benefit your clients and their planning, and we can team together.” So far, it’s worked out really well.

Another way we are generating new business: One of my assistants is focused on client relationship-building. So he is dripping on all the CPAs who attended the workshop. We have their email addresses because we needed them for the CPE credits, so he is sending them little nuggets of information from the Savvy IRA Planning program and the Ed Slott Group. And he reminds them, “Hey, if you have a question with a client, call us.” So we continue and we follow up on that. We actually got a referral before we walked out of the door at the presentation. One of the CPAs came up and said, “I have a client I need help with.” Boom.

Putting yourself out there

It’s a contact sport. You have to get in and prove your value—you can’t sit there and send out LinkedIn notices and expect everyone to come running through the doors. Some of these people have been doing taxes for these clients for years and years, and they’ve built a good relationship. They’re not just going to turn that person over to somebody if they’re not confident that person is capable of showing them something different and beneficial.

We’re constantly going out there and proving our worth to other groups. I’m one of the main presenters for our company; I work with the surrounding counties on financial literacy through their adult education programs. We also do presentations for our clients and ask them to bring a friend. We have a training room that can seat about 50 people, so we’ll do the workshops there.

We did one a little while ago on Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), pulled the information from my Savvy IRA Planning and Ed Slott materials. The room was packed. I also made that presentation to another CPA group. We let them borrow our training room for a meeting and I mentioned that we could come in and do a presentation on RMDs. They said sure, so it worked out for both of us.

We’re constantly doing stuff like that. Next week, I’ll be doing a workshop at the local Baptist Theological Seminary to pastors on special financial things that they can do as pastors that other people can’t do.

It’s simple, really. We want a variety of things out there. We want people to say, “Oh, yeah, you’re the Ed Slott IRA guy, but you also do this.”

My advice

I think it starts with being comfortable speaking in public. If you want to do this but don’t feel comfortable, join a speaking group. Once you feel confident speaking, make sure you know your material—that’s the most important thing.

I don’t read from notes when I’m presenting—I don’t like it. I can go anywhere, and walk through the audience. I might keep a sheet of technical data or important numbers by me because I want to be sure I get them right, but other than that, I don’t look at a piece of paper. If you want people to respond to you, you’ve got to prove that you know your material. If you’re reading from the notes, they’re going to go, “Does he really know the material?”

The president of our company has a saying, “You can’t be effective with your clients unless you’re comfortable in your own skin.” I’m comfortable in my own skin, so I’m not worried. If I get a question I can’t answer I have no problem saying that and getting back to them with the information. Being comfortable with yourself is one of the most important parts of giving a presentation—people will pick up real quick if you’re not comfortable with what you’re teaching.