Ep. 17 | Mastering Strategic Partnerships
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John Tripolsky:Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the Mr. R Show, brought to you presented, edited, and I we could say unscripted by the MRR Institute. So what does this show actually mean for you? If it's your first time here, the greatest thing about this, right, is everybody loves free, but we take it even one step further. When we offer you something free, we just don't want it to be you know, it's it's not a BOGO cyber Monday, Black Friday special, nothing like that.
John Tripolsky:We're talking about a free CPE. So I wanna start this show off by saying that for a number of reasons. One, I think it actually adds some credibility to what we're talking about here. 2, if you actually look in the show notes, wherever you listen to this, you're gonna see a link right at the very top, and that is gonna direct you straight to Earmark. Earmark is a platform we've chosen, we partner with to provide you that free CPE for, again, tax pros.
John Tripolsky:Hopefully, you're a tax pro listening to this. If you're not, well, you're in a good place. You learn more about what your tax pros learn about. So without further ado, let's actually jump into the topic today. We're gonna look at scaling revenue through strategic partnerships.
John Tripolsky:So specifically on this, we're gonna get into some good details. Chris is gonna take us through a little journey on how him and his team and and teams, we should say, have utilized this in their private practice. And also some thoughts we have on, you know, opportunities for growth, etcetera, etcetera. Again, those examples, don't have to use them specifically, but just the way that you approach some relationships may actually turn into some strategic partnerships. So let's go waste some time.
John Tripolsky:You've probably heard enough of me. Chris Bacurrell, welcome back, buddy. How are you?
Chris Picciurro:Oh, it's good to be back and, excited to talk about this practice management hack that we've been using for many, many years, and I have believed for a long time that collaboration over competition is very important. So just kind of put that in your mind. You're a tax and accounting professional right now. You know, it's it the first kind of step of understanding of how you operate might be you're trading your time for money. Maybe you're in that process of exchanging your knowledge for money and or maybe you're already doing what we're doing in our private practice.
Chris Picciurro:You are exchanging your knowledge for money, and that's over and over and over again, meaning you have a full subscription model. And when I went to, you know, this moving towards a full subscription model in our private CPA practice, one of the scary things, even though the revenue is great, but one of the scary things someone might think about is, well, wait a second. My revenue is caps now. Right? I've got a monthly subscription every month and that's it.
Chris Picciurro:But one of the funny things you have to things you have to realize is that about 2 thirds of the time, maybe even 3 quarters of the time you work with a client on something, there's an additional value add even on that membership model that you could provide to that client. And a lot of times you're doing things and not getting compensated for them, or you're making referrals and you're not getting compensated for them. So this episode is about building strategic partnerships. We're gonna talk about that. That can help you scale your business.
Chris Picciurro:And some strategic partnerships can actually be revenue sources, which is even better. In for so for us, you know, we started off with a really in that subscription model thinking, okay. Well, we're not gonna have much, you know, as far as revenue sources other than those subscriptions. And we do charge a setup fee and and that sort of stuff. But guess what?
Chris Picciurro:Now in our practice, we are, luck I shouldn't say luckily, but through through the creating the proper structure and doing the proper engineering, we are really helping clients out, reducing their money legally and ethically, reducing their tax, but also working with what we call strategic partners. So I'm excited to talk about that, very share with you what we've done in our private practice to see share with you what I've seen other people do. And, you know, I want you to think too if you're that one woman or one man band, you might start thinking to yourself, jeez, I'm wearing a lot of hats. Right? And I'm our Salesforce.
Chris Picciurro:I'm our marketing force. I'm our client services force. But the beautiful thing is if you could build a proper network of strategic partnerships, they are actually your Salesforce for you. You're not your own Salesforce. They're really your marketing department.
Chris Picciurro:You you you know, you're gonna field the inquiries, but they're out there advocating for you. So that's something I'm excited to talk about today.
John Tripolsky:And and really, Chris, I think, you know, even kinda you know, I think I'm the king of dumbing things down at times. It's almost like outlining and focusing on the value, really the extreme value that comes along with, you know, the the famous or infamous quote of, oh, I know a guy. You know what I mean? It's not like you have to be the janitor, the marketing guy, the sales guy, the IT guy, the landscaper, all this stuff. Right?
John Tripolsky:It's and I use the example of almost, you know, and I could be wrong, and I'm sure there's some instances where this is absolutely not correct, but kinda looking at it from outside the box a little bit more as well too. Right? So we're looking at it from inside of the tax professional box looking out. Right? So almost looking in, there's probably very few, maybe financial advisers that also do taxes.
John Tripolsky:Right? I'm sure they say, oh, well, I have a great tax professional that I can introduce you to. So they're not necessarily I and, again, I imagine that could be wrong, that they're actually filing your taxes for you. They're connecting you with somebody. And, again, there's instances.
John Tripolsky:I don't know if that's a good example or not to show.
Chris Picciurro:Well, John, yeah. No. That is a great point. One of the things that that you might be worried about if you're listening to this about building these strategic partnerships Is that, oh, no. What hap what what if I referred somebody to someone else that does something that I do?
Chris Picciurro:Let's do any good strategic partner is not going to step on your toes and vice versa. Right? The other thing is that that there except except that there's gonna be overlap out there in financial, legal, tax, accounting, bookkeeping, you know, payroll processing services. There will be overlap. That's gonna happen.
Chris Picciurro:So you could either decide to live in a silo and be be greeting your customers at the front of the restaurant, seating them, giving them their menus, taking the order, going back in the kitchen, cooking yourself, washing your hands, bringing it out to them, and then busting the tables and cleaning up for the night. Or you can say, I'm okay with being a part of a bigger team. I'm okay with, you know, because ultimately, if you wanna scale your business, we had an amazing episode with Chase Berkey, who's a great CPA from Dark Horse CPAs. We talked about the difference between scaling and growing. It's easy to grow.
Chris Picciurro:It's hard to scale. And not all growth is good growth. Just because you bring on a new client doesn't mean that's necessarily a good thing. It depends if that client aligns with your vision and and and what your what your firm, looks like and what your ideal client is. There's an and your ideal client that you're listening to this is probably completely different than ours, and that's okay because every client's unique.
Chris Picciurro:You know, I talked about I had a very you know, I was very honored to talk, or do some do some teaching for the NATP. I think we did year end planning for businesses. And as I was talking, we had a couple webinars, almost a 1,000 people register for these webinars. So I was thinking, like, what's the one of the messages? And one of the the things I thought about that was worked for us is that this is this.
Chris Picciurro:Well, we know we always talk about ideas are cheap, implementation's valuable. Your tax planning and strategy process should be the same for every client, but the actual advice is customized. The process is the same. The result or advice is customized. So if you think about that, that's how you can start building some strategic partnerships in some and and sometimes, you know, we should you and you should consider having more than one partner for for different services.
Chris Picciurro:So for instance, if you, it, you know, just it doesn't mean that you can only work with 1 financial adviser, 1 estate planning attorney, 1 specialty tax firm, one tax mitigation firm. You should have a couple people that you work with, that you trust, in your Rolodex. And like you said, John, you wanna be that person. You wanna be that either individual or that firm that your clients say do you think your clients are walking around saying, man, they time blocked great. Man, that signature in their email was amazing.
Chris Picciurro:They don't care. What you need you what you need is you need to be the the the practitioner or firm that your client says, I don't know what I would do without this person.
John Tripolsky:Right. And, you know, I almost take a page out of my wife's book where she's like, oh, did you see such and such, you know, posted this on, we'll just say Facebook. And I'm like, no. I haven't seen that. She goes, well, why why why haven't you seen that?
John Tripolsky:And I say, oh, you know, I'm kind of a selfish social media poster. I go on there to post my own stuff. And why I say that is it's, you know, I'm a consumer of something, and I'm very like, it's it's about me when I'm on there. I really don't care about it. Like, I say that because I get on to post my own stuff and don't look at anybody else's.
John Tripolsky:But I say that because of the sense of almost putting what we're talking about here with strategic partnerships and just partnerships as a whole, where thinking about it too from the lens of your clients. Right? Like, you're like you said, they really don't care how fancy your email signature is. You know, they really don't care how cool your phone number is or your domain for your website or any of this stuff. Sure.
John Tripolsky:They care about some of the tech that they're heavily involved in. Right? Which portal you're using, etcetera, for invoicing, all that good stuff. But, yeah, if you become the guy or the girl that's got the best connections for anything that they can think of, there's so much value in that. And not just saying, oh, yeah.
John Tripolsky:I have a guy I can send you to. Here you go. Here's his contact, you know, off you go. And that person falls through or, you know, they they completely botch the introduction. So that like, that's where I think you mentioned too about having different people kind of, you know, riding the pine, if you will, as a backup of a backup, maybe of a backup for a specific thing is super important.
John Tripolsky:I'm not saying everybody's gonna botch the relationship or anything, but maybe they get backlogged with stuff. Maybe they go on vacation that you weren't aware about. Little things like that. You just you having those contacts, you having those resources, so much value. And kind of what I was saying about the it's all about them in a sense, is that if you're giving them good connections to people, I highly doubt they're gonna be looking for your replacement even if somebody you introduce them to does also what you do.
John Tripolsky:Like you said, they shouldn't likely be stepping on your toes. But if they do, they might say, oh, well, you know, Chris over here actually does x y z services. That's great you do this, but you use that. So, hopefully, that clears it up.
Chris Picciurro:Exact and and, yeah, that that's when you build these strategic partnerships, understand that not every client's gonna be a fit for each one. But what you're trying to do is you're trying to, again, take things away from what maybe you're doing so you can scale and potentially monetize it. And the monetization might be as simple as, you know what? Here's some more referrals. Or it could be, you know what?
Chris Picciurro:We implemented something, and now we get a revenue stream. So there's a lot of opportunities there. First thing I wanna do is just think about as a tax tax or accounting professional. What a strategic partnership is. Right?
Chris Picciurro:In, you know, sometimes we think of partnership like, oh, man, that's a, you know, I'm a I'm a lone wolf. I'm a Han Solo. Right? I don't want any partners. A partnership doesn't mean that you own equity in each other's company.
Chris Picciurro:Because a partnership is this it's a relationship that adds mutual value to to each other for the better for the better good of your clients or customers. You know? So a great strategic partnership that I utilize every day is peanut butter and jelly because that's what I have for lunch every day. But they go, who's let's say I have a peanut butter sandwich or just a jelly sandwich? You put them together and now we've got something.
John Tripolsky:Right.
Chris Picciurro:So first thing you need to do when you're starting to build strategic partnerships. And you might be listening to this right now, and you might have strategic partnerships you didn't know about. And the other thing is keeping it's not just building strategic partnerships. It's also making sure that you're working with companies that share your vision and your ethics and your morals in in identifying because as as a tax professional, you are a target to many, many people. You already know you get tons of financial advisors, estate planning attorneys, bankers, lenders.
Chris Picciurro:Everyone knows that you you kinda hold the key to the client's, financial war chest, if you will. And that's a big responsibility that we all have. However, we also know that we need to we need to protect ourselves from potential strategic partners that don't make sense, or and align ourselves with the right ones. And guess what? It's okay.
Chris Picciurro:You know, we have some sometimes a strategic partnership isn't permanent. You know? So that's one thing we have to we have to monitor as we move along. So but let's I let's start talking about you know, I think we understand what a strategic partnership is, but let's hang on. Let's start talking about how you identify people that would people or companies that would be a good strategic partner.
Chris Picciurro:Right? Because depending on what type of work you do, that really dictates what you're looking for. So for me, when our firm, we are subscription based specifically for real estate investors and entrepreneurs. So your clients are gonna tell you what partners what strategic partners you should find. A lot of our clients enter real estate.
Chris Picciurro:A lot of the clients need to keep track of their time. So I've I thought, well, gosh. What can I look for a strategic partner that can really help us, have a IRS and tax compliant time log? Right? And keep track of time put in their definite real estate properties if they're meeting that short term rental loophole or if they're all real estate professional status.
Chris Picciurro:So for our firm, that was important to find that partner that we can we can align with. Because it's one thing, you know, if you tell a client, you know, you really should be taking keeping track of your time better if you're trying to qualify for real estate professional status. Oh, the client says, yeah. That sounds great. How do I do that?
Chris Picciurro:Right? So for us, that's important. If you are, you know, if you're if you're in a different line of business, you you might have a different strategic partner. So but identifying, you know, what your clients need. So as you think about, okay, I've got these I've got these clients or, you know, they're yeah.
Chris Picciurro:They they have a need. It would make our life easier. It'll allow me to do my job better for them. That's a potential strategic partner. So it could be, I know we we've had clients in we've had great guests on this podcast.
Chris Picciurro:For instance, Corina Miller. Right? Talked about cannabis industry. So for her, she does she does audits. Her first CPA firm does audits.
Chris Picciurro:It does some tax preparation work, but there's if you're doing attestation or audit work, there's a lot of limitations on what you can, you know, strategic partnerships that you can have as far as revenue. But what are things who does she need kinda in to be able to help her clients with different stuff? Probably a banker credit union. I bet she works a lot with different banks and credit unions that refer her business and vice versa. Probably some type of, payment processing service.
Chris Picciurro:Right? Because the the because the cannabis industry has its own special rules. And, not every company will do that. Maybe a bookkeeping software. So these are just things that she's these are just alignments that she was gonna probably wanna make.
Chris Picciurro:So and
John Tripolsky:that's and, Chris, even, you know, looking into it, you know, we talked about identifying we started talking about identifying, you know, what the client needs are and then you obviously having a resource and you making that connection. I might be jumping the gun a little bit, but how do you really go out and find these people? So say I'm your client and say, you know what, Chris? I really need and not nothing like abstract. Like, hey.
John Tripolsky:You know, I need somebody to wash the windows on my house. I mean, you you can't have everybody in your rolodex, but you might have something like that. You know, we're talking a little bit more focused relationships. But say as, you know, looking at it and I say, hey. You know what?
John Tripolsky:I, I need I need a, a business attorney. Right? Like, obviously, you're probably not gonna say, you know what? I could I could probably pretend that I'm your attorney and not a bad idea. Right?
John Tripolsky:So, like, how do you go out and maybe find those individuals if you don't have them already? So kind of a a step one in the process. Right.
Chris Picciurro:So the step one would be you're always looking out for the best interest of your clients. So for instance, maybe it's not in in that estate planning attorney or John, maybe we might have a maybe you have a lot of clients that are multigenerational businesses. And you know that there's going to be a transition of ownership from from one generation to the next. So a great strategic partner would be someone that does accredited business valuations, a consultant that works in that situation, an attorney, maybe someone that does that helps you utilize different types of tax strategies we've talked about in our private practice, something called a, a a a a DST, but not the Delaware statutory trust, but the deferred sales trust. So thinking about, okay, who do I have in my Rolodex that I can refer them?
Chris Picciurro:But here's the other cool thing. I can't tell you how many times a client came to me and said, hey. I'm already working with this amazing person that's helping us transition our ownership. I'd like you for you to meet with him or her. You know what I'm gonna do?
Chris Picciurro:I'm gonna say, great. I actually in my calendar, I have a special type of meeting. It's a half hour Zoom meeting that says a synergy meeting. And I'll reach out to, let's say, it's Joe or Joan and say, hey. We have a mutual client.
Chris Picciurro:I'd love to learn a little bit more about what you're doing. Let's chat because you could be that could be a strategic so sometimes those strategic partnerships just fall in your lap. It happens a lot. One thing you wanna do is make sure. So let let you know, I hope that answers your question.
John Tripolsky:No. No. That's perfect. It is. You know, I I thought of some even in the past, you know, my my marketing agency days.
John Tripolsky:Right? Like, we we didn't do everything. And, yeah, I mean, you could you could be me you know, talk about falling in your lap. You could be at a networking event. You could be at a, a friend's wedding.
John Tripolsky:You could be at a conference, believe it or not, that's actually full of people doing the same thing you are, and they have somebody that they refer to. So it's I guess the biggest thing, you know, a little pea little nugget of advice that I can always put in there is almost let it be known if you are looking for somebody specifically. You don't have to beg for it out there. But like you said, they might fall in your lap. You may be surprised where they come in and and who they're from.
John Tripolsky:And, really, the great thing too about, you know, we'll we'll call it the the post pandemic days, if we will, a little bit more than before is I think a lot more people now are open to a lot more virtual services than before it. It was much more of a, I need to, you know, look and feel a desk and be able to walk into a door. I mean, certain stuff is still like that, but a lot more of it now has has more options, which then opens the doors obviously to a lot more people, different types of people, working hours, etcetera. So I think that that's a huge piece of it. And, yes, I think the biggest thing to take away from that is literally echoing what you said.
John Tripolsky:Right? They might literally fall in your lap, but they can only fall in your lap, specific people. And you realize that they're falling in your lap if you know what your clients are looking for or what they're needing.
Chris Picciurro:Especially if they're we have a saying, let your best client pick your next client. So if you have an amazing client that's working with another person that you really like, chances are your other really good clients are gonna like working that person or firm too. Sometimes you get some oddball. I you know, I've had a lot of situations where I've had clients come that that were they wanted to do something. They might have someone in their network that they introduce, and it might just be over that person's head or they just haven't, you know, haven't had experience doing that, and then you might have to bring in your your own.
Chris Picciurro:But, again, these are just these things happen, man. You know? And and,
John Tripolsky:you can't forecast
Chris Picciurro:that. Making sure the client, you know, the client is is put first and and, again, it's always better. So let me wrap let me just say one more thing about the the situation where a client has you know, I have a client I've had several clients, and one of them was going through a transition, but, you know, it's multi generational. They had a a business transition, professional who is an accredited business value later. Sometimes when you get into these businesses that are worth 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars, you've got to you've got gift tax considerations, and there's a lot of other considerations.
Chris Picciurro:This person was excellent to deal with. Really good. I really enjoyed working with him. I ended up establishing a relationship with him, after this transaction was completed, and I'm very comfortable with, utilizing or referring him to other clients. It doesn't always work that way, but for in that instance, it's great.
Chris Picciurro:And but the quick the the good thing you have to remember is there was a situation where with this transaction where things became a little murky, we'll just say. And not in a negative way, just there if if the client kinda went wayward, and it could have been it could have easily become a situation where myself and the other professional working in this transaction were pitted against each other. But because we had that rapport from the beginning and we're able to have some communication and we're think about what's best for the client, it all worked out. So, don't don't feel threatened if someone else comes in to assist with the transaction with their client. Give that person a good opportunity to get to know that person, to figure out what they're trying to accomplish and, you know, because it's easy to get threatened.
Chris Picciurro:Right? We sometimes we hoard our clients, and we're like, we don't want anyone talking to them. But if we want what's best for them, we know that if it's something that we need someone else to help them out with, we should bring them in.
John Tripolsky:So And based off of your experience with that too, it's and I I assume earlier on, right, you probably had the had the client handoff jitters maybe, and and everybody probably did at one point or they still do or they haven't even got to that point where to get him yet. I mean, is there anything that you may have found earlier on, like, little tips you might be able to give people that maybe makes them feel a little bit better and and maybe not riding the pine so much and seeing how it plays out? Like like, maybe do you send a follow-up a couple days later, a week, a month later, and say, hey. Just wanted to check up on that, you know, introduction. Did everything go okay?
John Tripolsky:Or do you think that's kind of overstepping bounds a little?
Chris Picciurro:So this this is when someone refers brings someone in.
John Tripolsky:Like, say you refer so say I'm so say I'm your client, and I'm looking for an attorney. And well, attorney might be a bad one because he's not gonna
Chris Picciurro:do taxes. But Strategic partner?
John Tripolsky:You say you refer so you refer them or you refer me to them. They do complement or they do the same services as you guys do. What could you do to make yourself feel better about that introduction? Would you email me?
Chris Picciurro:Well, that yeah. You could I mean, ultimately, you're gonna be closer to one of them Mhmm. Most likely. And, they could be both really good friends. As you work with someone, less follow-up as needed.
Chris Picciurro:But in the beginning, there's nothing wrong with making an introduction. Typically, they're going to say, yeah. Let's we set up a meeting and then set yourself a task for 2 weeks later if the meeting's in a week. It just to just could you use some as formal as a text separately? Hey.
Chris Picciurro:Did did you have a chance to meet act Joe Joe Smith or Joan Smith? How did it go? You know, because it and then you'll get the feedback you you're looking for. Perfect. Perfect.
Chris Picciurro:Yep. That's that's what I would do. I mean and then some I mean, some of our strategic partners, gosh, we work on one of them specifically. We're gonna work on about a 100 cases with them this year. So it's it can't be that informal.
Chris Picciurro:Right? We've got a we've got some spreadsheets. We've got we've got weekly communication based on cases. So it just depends on how in-depth you're going. You know, another so that that's where you've gotta just figure out what, you know, what the situation is.
Chris Picciurro:But if you're just starting, start small. Right? Think about so let's talk about what a strategic partner looks like as far as what you should be looking for. Then I wanna talk through the difference between revenue and nonrevenue strategic partner, and then I'll give you examples of the strategic partners we use in our private CPA practice. Now yours might be different.
Chris Picciurro:But, again, we're we're an open book here at MRR collaboration over competition. That's that's what we're focused on. And actually, John, it's interesting. This is gonna sound like a shameless plug for for I'm the MRR Institute, but we have a mastermind group, peer to peer mastermind group, amazing professionals in that group. And I could tell you we've already shared strategic partners with each other.
Chris Picciurro:We we've gotten we've gotten referrals from them. We've given out referrals. They've referred people to each other, and they've been their own each other's strategic partner. You know, one example is international tax. We we don't do in in in our privacy pay appraisers inbound international taxation.
Chris Picciurro:But if someone comes to us, I've got someone I can refer, audit work, nonprofit work. So we have these people, you know, in different areas, because a lot of times you can you can get caught up in decision fatigue and trying to figure out also, should I do this? Should I not do this? And say, nope. Stay in our lane.
Chris Picciurro:Do what we do, and and focus on that and make sure that that if don't feel obligated and do everything your client needs needs done. Because if you're telling them that person, you know what? We like our private fur you know what? You need your book you need some bookkeeping work, you need caught up, you've outgrown, either doing it on your own or let me refer you to someone who can do that for you.
John Tripolsky:Mhmm. And that's I'm good really glad that you brought up that mastermind because it is cool to to almost witness that a little bit. You know, it's it's almost like watching neurons fire, you know, within the the your brain, basically. It's even though and and that, I think, supports my comment a little bit earlier about, you know, you might find, you know, those as you mentioned, you might find those strategic partners tossed in your lap where you least expect it. And I think I as I mentioned, you might be at a conference of your peers that offer all of the same stuff as you, which that that is the makeup of that group.
John Tripolsky:Everybody is a tax professional in one way or another. And it you're right. I mean, I've seen the I've seen the connections. I've seen the conversations, you know, online within that group, but then also offline, which are a little bit more 1 on 1 or, you know, a small group setting, which completely changes the landscape, I think, for a couple of those members specifically that I'm thinking of. I mean, one example specifically, I remember a conversation you had with him earlier on and basically has completely shifted his business model to something that he really only thought of.
John Tripolsky:And I think that conversation started with and I could be wrong again. It was him asking just a simple question on, you know, how do we do this this thing? And I won't mention what the thing is, but it's
Chris Picciurro:it's all there. A step further too. I look at our strategic I look at the p I look at our strategic partners beyond just rev referral partners. I mean, our soft the the software we use and that we you you know, our tax preparation software and our CRM, those companies are our business partners, and I tell them that. I treat them like that.
Chris Picciurro:Mhmm. Because we need them.
John Tripolsky:Right. If
Chris Picciurro:you need someone now is your paper supplier a strategic partner? No. Because you could get your paper anywhere. But if if you're working with someone that's essential to the operations of your business, be it a piece of software, they're your strategic partner. You know, John, you've done a great couple of things and then we definitely dive into how you pick them.
Chris Picciurro:You've seen this, you know, and if your perspective is great because you're not an accountant. You know, you're and but you've been with me at different conferences. And when we hit the when we go to this the the trade show, we're on a mission. Right? We're on a mission because we're like, okay.
Chris Picciurro:This is my this is my challenge. Can and I'm looking for a partner to that could do help us with this. And, and that's that's important. That's the way we should look at it. Now if it again, if it's something like you're shredding company, I don't think let's say you have a physical office and you need paper shredded, that's just that's a commodity.
Chris Picciurro:That's not a strategic partnership.
John Tripolsky:Yep. I can honestly say that we've never gone to a conference or trade show and said,
Chris Picciurro:we need to find
John Tripolsky:a new Internet provider today. Like, we are we don't give a hoot. We can figure that out. And, Chris, honestly, the way that I look at it and again, I'm glad you brought up that example too is, you know, basically, we spend all this time. You know, years now we've been doing this in different organizations.
John Tripolsky:Basically, having a bag of puzzle pieces. We put the puzzle together, and, you know, we're missing a few pieces here and there. And they may we may find 1, and then we're missing another one, and who knows where they go? I'll just blame my dog or my daughter, 1 of the 2. And we look at that puzzle, bird's eye view down and say, alright.
John Tripolsky:We're missing this, this, this. Basically, we write them down, and they're in a note that we have. And this is a perfect example. We share, you know, an Apple note or, or an Asana task or something like that and says, you know what? Conference x y z, these dates, we're together these dates, divide and conquer.
John Tripolsky:We find those individuals. And it is great because usually there's not just one person that's present that does it. There's multiple. So we go and talk to each of them, and naturally, there are some differences. There's some similarities.
John Tripolsky:One may I wouldn't say one may be better than the other, but they just the output is the same, but how they get to that output, the process is different, and that may work better with the way we do things. So it is cool to see that.
Chris Picciurro:Absolutely. That's that's how it works, man.
John Tripolsky:It could be like that in any industry. I mean, you could be making auto parts. You could be, you know, painting houses. You could be walking dogs, and there's something. Just that approach.
John Tripolsky:Right.
Chris Picciurro:Like, I I mean, a paint yeah. You could be painting houses and maybe the paintbrushes are a commodity, but but maybe you go somewhere specifically to get your paint mixed, which is essential to painting the houses. Because if if you need a paintbrush, you could probably run up to Home Depot and grab a a comparable replacement, but you can't have, you know, 80 gallons of paint mixed right away. So that's that's kind of the, that that's one of those things. Well, what should you okay.
Chris Picciurro:So you're thinking about this, like, what should I look for in a strategic partner? What should I look for? Well, first thing you're gonna wanna look at, do they have mutual goals and values as you? Right? I mean, that's that's super important.
Chris Picciurro:Do they do you have complimentary strengths? Complimentary is important. Sometimes we tend to align ourselves with people that are just like us, and that's not always the best. You know, and you know, John, I mean, you know a lot about our our private CPA firm, and you know that my business partner and I are other our sense of humor is equally bad. Other than that, and maybe our taste in in, like, movies and stuff, but, but we have extremely complimentary strengths.
Chris Picciurro:Like, I'm the visionary. He's more the implementer. You know, we have I try yeah. He's built it. He's good at certain things that aren't my forte and vice versa.
Chris Picciurro:So think about who has complementary strengths as far as from a strategic partner.
John Tripolsky:And a lot of those things too. It's not like they're filling out an application. You know, it's not like you're sending them an email. It's like, oh, well, identify yourself as being strong in organization. Like, you can you probably get that, and this is more of a question for you personally, like, how you've done it.
John Tripolsky:But you probably get that read from somebody within the first few moments of talking to them and then a little bit more of a deeper conversation. Right? Like, you unless they're really good at
Chris Picciurro:talking to us. Yeah. I'm gonna figure out if they're if if they're if they're organized. It's really easy Mhmm. When you meet them, and you kinda start talking and stuff.
Chris Picciurro:Think about think about giving them an opportunity to do some type of follow-up. Right? It could be, hey. We talked about this. Here's a podcast episode.
Chris Picciurro:So you're gonna find out, you know, it's kinda an innocent thing, like, if they if they do follow-up. You know? And I and but that's follow-up so important. Consistent follow-up. So if I meet someone, I will oh, yeah.
Chris Picciurro:Just sent 2 2 sentence email maybe. Hey. Great to meet you. Here's here's a link to our podcast. We talked about x topic.
Chris Picciurro:Please let me know your thoughts. You're gonna and if they reply, if they take interest in it and they invest some time into the relationship, then you'll do the same. Make sure that someone's very client centric. Right? Make sure that they are, focused on the best result possible for your client and not necessarily what the financial outcome's gonna be for them.
Chris Picciurro:Right? I mean, yes, we all need to be compensated. However, sometimes these partners are really worried about worried about sales and not not helping the client. Let me give you an example. The person, the person that at the auto auto dealership that's trying to sell your client a 6,000 pound vehicle, because for some reason they think buying a heavy vehicle is a great tax decision, and that's a you know, buying a vehicle is not a tax strategy.
Chris Picciurro:It there it's it could be a business decision with a tax benefit. But I'm not gonna have a strategic partner to dealership because they're fin you know, I don't know that they're gonna be client centric necessarily. Right? Maybe that's a bad example. No.
Chris Picciurro:I know. Sure they're
John Tripolsky:that's actually a really good one, believe it or not. I know I know you think it might be bad. That is a a great example. Like, they sure. They could they maybe will refer you stuff, but you're most likely gonna be referring them more than it's gonna be coming back, and they're more inclined to serve their own needs than what that client needs in the long run, should say, which that really that really is a good example, believe it or not.
Chris Picciurro:Absolutely. I would say that they they so yeah. I mean, being client centric, being transparent. Right? I'm okay if I refer someone to a client or for a client's own in the in the in that that person says, yeah, I'm I'm not, you know, it's not a great fit.
Chris Picciurro:Transparency could be priced too. We've got a situation where we've been in our privacy pay practice. We've been approached by one of our strategic partners right now. That's trying to own another line of business, and they trust us. So we're, you know, somewhat of a guinea pig, a little.
Chris Picciurro:And I've had a couple meetings about this. It could be very beneficial for everyone, yet they don't have they're not they don't have their stuff together for lack of better term. They're not ready to take on this line of business because I have people that are interested in this line of business that I think could benefit, but they're not ready for it. And I'm starting to get the feeling that they're not being as transparent as I'd like because, you know, the last two times I've needed more information. It's like, oh, sorry.
Chris Picciurro:It took so long. They're figuring things out. So I feel like they should have maybe explained a little more in the beginning that where we're at in the in the process. I'll give you an example. We were opening up some lines of business in our private CPA practice.
Chris Picciurro:Some things that we outsource work very deeply considering bringing out bringing in. But it's important to tell your client, like, let's say you are a tax professional and you say, you know what? I'm gonna process payrolls. That's what we're doing. Tell your client, hey.
Chris Picciurro:We're gonna start processing payroll. We feel like we, you know, we could really help you out with that. But, you know, we're just launching this this year. We're you're you're gonna be one of the first three clients I'm gonna do this with. Make sure that they understand that.
Chris Picciurro:So transparency. Use technology. I've said you've got you know, if you're gonna be working on mutual clients with people, make sure that that's in tune. I mean, it can get, we've got some strategic partners that we have a we have a mutual Slack channel, not advocating for Slack. We have some that we have shared spreadsheets that we could track and task projects.
John Tripolsky:You
Chris Picciurro:know, if if someone like, we're a virtual CPA firm, a private CPA firm. If that if that we're not gonna work with strategic partners that don't have a virtual way of doing business. That's just not gonna it's not a good alignment. Doesn't mean that they're bad or good. Just isn't aligned.
John Tripolsky:And and, you know, some of some bad examples of it. Right? Because, you know, I'm full of those. They, that would be like you being very, obviously, client centric, but tech focused. Right?
John Tripolsky:And Mhmm. You then partner with somebody who only accepts faxes. Right? That's their main mode of communication. They don't have a smartphone.
John Tripolsky:They don't you it's almost holding you back versus, you know, filling a void that you may have. And then, also, if I can just jump back just briefly too about, you know, identifying somebody who's client centric and not necessarily in it for the revenue, putting the revenue before the client. How many times have we seen this, and and I could probably think of a dozen of these over the past 10 years or more, where you're at a, say, to say you're at a b, you know, b to b, business to business, you know, industry trade show or something, and there's somebody that has a booth or has an exhibit there that they're leading in with, oh, come talk to me. We give you $500 per referral. Like, they lead in with that instead of, hey.
John Tripolsky:Come talk to me. We do a really good job for your clients, and this is how we do it. And, oh, by the way, we give you $500. To me, that's almost a a giant red flag out of the gate because they're looking at it as it's monetarily transactional instead of, hey. Let's build a good relationship.
John Tripolsky:Let's serve these clients well. Even if we never paid you, you never paid us. The clients are gonna be happier. They're working with you. They're working with us.
John Tripolsky:Bingo, bango. The train's moving down the road. So sorry to
Chris Picciurro:interrupt you. With strategic potential strategic partners, we talk about in our sale you know, when we talked about on those podcasts about sales and marketing, your best your best resource if you're trying to grow in your business and and increase sales are your ears. So if you if you go to someone and they're not asking you about your practice, they're just kinda with the script. Hey. We do this.
Chris Picciurro:We do that. We it's like, okay. Let's let's let's let's figure out what's best for your clients. You know, I think that we're gonna talk about revenue generation, but having understanding couple things. Is this a strategic partner that there is a potential to share revenue legally and ethically?
Chris Picciurro:Those those tax professionals, a lot of times we have to disclose if we're sharing revenue. Some of the revenue sharing has to occur through licensing. Like, for instance, in our myself, I'm I'm a a licensed financial adviser. I'm I'm licensed in life insurance. So I could I I can receive compensation if I work on mutual cases.
Chris Picciurro:I have to disclose that to clients, which is no problem. But there are some nonrevenue collaborations, which I'm very comfortable doing. I'm not a licensed attorney, so I'm not legally allowed to to share in that revenue. No big deal. I just want my clients with the right person.
Chris Picciurro:I'm not a licensed, realtor. So if I have someone who, you know, you know, if someone's asking questions or I I, you know, I I can't be compensated for referring someone to a realtor, if that makes sense. Not that that's really a strategic partnership, but, you know, it could be. But we have I actually we have some strategic partners that are that are run real estate meetups and stuff and and mastermind groups that we work with and provide tax education for. So determining if there's revenue or nonrevenue, don't let revenue generation be your barometer of if you should have a strategic partner.
Chris Picciurro:Mhmm.
John Tripolsky:But and depending on the industry, really, there could be there could be your best strategic partners could actually be completely abstract and seamless, you know, seemingly ridiculous for another one. Right? Say you're only focused on veterinary clinics, while the dog walker may be a a fantastic strategic somehow or another, be a great strategic resource, but that person would absolutely not be to somebody else. So it's every business is different, and that's what really makes it great. Right?
John Tripolsky:Like, you you pick your own holes in the puzzle, but then you gotta go find
Chris Picciurro:them. Right. Right. Exactly. That's it could there you know, a strategic partner doesn't have to be a revenue partner.
Chris Picciurro:It could be just an, you know, a great alignment. So in in those partners are gonna protect you, you know, if it let's use it quickly, use a dog walker example. If the dog walker is walking your dog and that dog is an has some serious behavior issues, they and you're a veterinarian, you they might say, look, I'm not gonna you know, I'm not just gonna blindly refer my people to whoever. You've gotta think about fit too. Mhmm.
Chris Picciurro:So, you know, you wanna have a good communication plan. Like you mentioned, do we have check ins? Do we do we chat monthly? Do we you know, for for our strategic partners, I have I put tasks in our CRM to reach out depending on the situation either every 3 or 6 months and just book it, hey. How's it going?
Chris Picciurro:What do you what's what's, you know, they take they might forget that you're, you know, they might be offering new things or have new processes, and you might wanna talk to them about some new things that you're doing as well. So it's a it's a relationship that you need to you know, we talk about you need you know, if you're married, you need to date your your spouse. You need to date your strategic partners too. Make, you know, make sure that that for me, when we're working with a strategic partner, I'm gonna follow-up because I wanna make sure like, I'm gonna wait I might wait till I have maybe 8 to 10 referrals sent to them, then I'm gonna follow-up and figure out how many were good referrals. If I if 7 of the 10 were good referrals, then I I understand it.
Chris Picciurro:If 3 of the 10 were good referrals, then my picker's off, and I'm like, okay. Something's just either I'm not understanding what they do or how they operate or I don't understand their fee schedule or I'm not understanding my client need. So figuring out that that an ROI, I guess, for lack of better term and focus on long term relationships, like I said. You know, there there's so many opportunities to collaborate, with these strategic partners, you know, as well, and we we've done we've done that. Now as we wrap up, though, I do wanna talk about, like I said, revenue versus nonrevenue, and then talk to you about some of the our strategic partners just to be fully transparent.
Chris Picciurro:So a strategic revenue partner was someone that you're gonna work with, that you will receive some type of compensation for that relationship. Now you might kinda it's for some reason, the tax and accounting world that feels like dirty. You know what I mean? But, you know, I want you to think about something. If you I'll give you an example.
Chris Picciurro:I live in the Nashville area. Okay? I let's say I'm interested in let's say I work with a realtor here, and I've had a great relationship with that person. I'm interested in in buying a home in the Smoky Mountains, a vacation home. My real estate agent probably isn't gonna drive the Smoky Mountains and show me houses, but they're gonna help me and guide me to this.
Chris Picciurro:And I say, gosh. I'm looking for some they'll refer me some hey. We've got someone in our brokerage over there that I've worked with quite a bit. Why don't you talk to this person? And they will get to about a 25% referral fee for that.
Chris Picciurro:Is there anything wrong? You didn't pay anymore. You benefited from that relationship. You're you know that the person that you got referred to is gonna say, wow. Yep.
Chris Picciurro:They were referred by this person. I've already worked with other clients of theirs. They're gonna get taken care of really well. So don't shy away from being compensated for strategic partnerships as long as it's legal and ethical. Some strategic partners are nonrevenue partnerships, and that's okay.
Chris Picciurro:They're strict they're alignments or strategic partnerships. You know, if if I have a banker I love working with for SBA loans or maybe 2, I will still refer them to that banker. I'm not a employee of the bank. I can't be compensated for this referral, and that's okay. I'm just happy that they're getting put in the right
John Tripolsky:direction. Well, also, Chris, I think I think that's probably one of the better places to close out with too is just comparing those 2. Because there I mean, when when you say partnerships, and I'm glad you mentioned this much earlier on too, is it's not like you're you're on any paperwork with this strategic part. You're not an owner of their business. They're not an owner of yours.
John Tripolsky:Nobody's getting the k one. I know that I see, I
Chris Picciurro:I do pay I do pay attention
John Tripolsky:to you every once in a while, sir. We're not you know, there's no multimemembers going on here. So the one thing too and then then I'll shut up, and we can let everybody go upon their way or 2 is, well, actually, Chris, you know what? Is there anything else that you would wanna add to this? Because when I say something here, I'm probably gonna leave it at this because I wanna leave a cliffhanger for any folks.
John Tripolsky:Oh, I yeah.
Chris Picciurro:I would say just, like I said, be transparent. I wanna leave everyone with some of the partnerships that we have. So our key partnerships are gonna be the people that we have, our our tax preparation software, our CRM software, a specialty tax firm doing cost segregation studies, research and development credits, other tax credit in grant, a payroll processing company, a bookkeeping company or companies, a outsource CFO, estate planning attorneys, business transition specialists. As I said, I'm a licensed financial adviser, so any type of tax tax advantage investments, financial advisors, and then also, a a tax mitigation firms. So, like, so they're those are the key ones off the top of my head as I you know, for our practice, but it'll be unique for yours.
John Tripolsky:Alright, everybody. I mentioned about a cliffhanger here. So I'm gonna I'm gonna add this in here, and there's there's no caveat to this at all. I do want you to go back and listen to this show a little bit if you've never considered, seriously considered seeking out some of those strategic partnerships. Now I say strategic partnerships because that's the focus of this show, but you might call them somebody else.
John Tripolsky:You may call them referral partners. You may call them anything under the sun. Again, name's not important. It's all about what the clients are getting at the end of it and how that relationship goes. So I'll throw in a couple things here, really echoing what Chris said in a much more condensed version.
John Tripolsky:So when you do go hunting, we'll call it or fishing or scavenging, whatever you wanna call this, You wanna find those individuals or those businesses, those companies, anybody out there, service providers, that, again, align with what you're looking for in the best interest of your clients. So I would what I say you looking for in the best interest of your clients is you have that relationship. You should really know what your clients are looking for. So go see if you could find that company, that person, that organization, anybody that you can make that connection with. You make that connection, you then are a rock star.
John Tripolsky:I know I know that term is so overused, but you truly are a rock star to that client. And then the the fear factor, right, should slowly decrease on what's gonna happen after that relationship or that introduction's made. So think about that. You go out, find that individual you know or company again. You know what they're looking for.
John Tripolsky:But then also to think about it on the flip side. You go out, you find that really good strategic partner, you connect with them, That may actually open up a referral stream coming back to you because now that person, business organization, that you're referring to now has you as a resource. So now they might be sending you business. So as Chris mentioned too, there's the revenue and nonrevenue generating side of it. It may start off and may actually be no formal exchange of funds.
John Tripolsky:Nobody might be giving any anybody any any monetary value at all directly from that hand off, but you're both getting so many referrals back and forth that it's monetarily beneficial to the extreme for both of you. So consider that as you venture into this. If you have any questions at all, just reach out to us. We're happy to start some of these introductions for you or connect you with somebody in our mastermind group. Whatever we can do to help you, that is exactly what we are here for at the MRR Institute.
John Tripolsky:So check us out wherever you're listening to this. Keep listening to the podcast. Subscribe to these. Get those free CPEs. Shoot us an email if you want to at hello@mrrinstitute.com, and also check us out on social.
John Tripolsky:Feel free to engage in some of our groups there as well. And as always, we'll see everybody back here on the show. So you can't get rid of us that easy. We'll see you back here on the next episode as we dive into another topic that we've sifted through from our audience of the MRR Institute. Alright, everybody.
John Tripolsky:We're in the midst of the holidays. Have a great, great time. Enjoy it as much as you can. We'll see everybody very soon.
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