“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

—Helen Keller

Teams that don't have certain capabilities to meet the needs of clients will need to partner or collaborate with another advisor either within your office or outside the office. It's this internal and external collaboration that takes the team and/or partnering to a new level. It's the collective wisdom that you bring to bear on a client relationship that can enable your team to be hypercompetitive and really provide differentiated expertise and a competitive advantage. (See the team collaborative model diagram in Figure 7.1.)

The advisor team is the centerpiece for coordinating both internal collaborative relationships and external collaborative relationships. We classify these relationships as your expanded team members. Let's describe these relationships as we have arrows in the diagram that emanate from the core, which is the advisor team.

The branch manager is sometimes an underutilized expanded team member. The branch manager can help you navigate the firm and provide key talent resources for significant client relationships you are trying to attract to the firm. The manager should be your business strategist and help provide business planning and strategy guidance similar to the way in which the advisor provides guidance to his/her clients. Sometimes, inviting a manager to a significant client/prospect appointment might be enough to bring in more assets to your team and firm. The client sees that management stands behind the team and supports the client's best interests. The manager can be useful for the more significant relationships you are trying to close.

The advisor specialty team may have expertise and capabilities that don't exist on your team. For example, this team may have capabilities in doing business with endowments and nonprofits that you don't have on your team. You would partner with this team and leverage its expertise. It's this multidisciplinary approach that can bring the most appropriate skill sets to the client relationship. As the complexity of the wealth management business continues to evolve, it becomes increasingly more challenging to have all the necessary skills that reside on one team. Your team would work out a split/fee‐sharing arrangement and share revenues generated from closed business for a period of time. We recommend teams memorialize this arrangement in writing. When you consider the competitive nature of the wealth management business, this type of team collaboration is hard to disrupt.

Collaboration and Team Growth

Many financial advisor teams develop clients that share common threads. They may forge relationships with small business owners, business executives, attorneys, and physicians. Over time, they begin to understand the specialized needs of these clients and can develop specialty niche markets. Niche marketing is defined as reaching a subset of a broader market. Many advisors choose not to specialize in niche markets because they can be limiting in terms of scalability, meaning that there are not enough clients in a market to successfully grow a practice.

In Florida, for example, it would be hard to ignore the retiree market as a specialized niche. In the Silicon Valley in California, it would be hard to ignore the entrepreneurial market in technology. A subset of this market might be to fully understand Rule 144 sales of securities and how to accommodate the needs of executives who receive restricted stock and stock options as part of their compensation package. If you don't have expertise in accommodating the needs of this customer base, it might be important to collaborate with a team that fully understands this capability.

Specialists and specialty teams hone their skills over a period of years, and it might be important to bring this specialty skill set to the client or prospect relationship. It's the unique capability that the specialist team brings to the table that can enhance your client relationship. Yes, you must create a fee‐sharing relationship that considers the other team's time spent on the relationship through the initial presentation, the close of business, and follow‐up after specific strategies have been implemented. Unfair splits on revenue between teams is a nonstarter for the relationship.

If a lawyer can bring in a forensic accountant on a legal case or a trauma surgeon can bring in an orthopedic surgeon on a high‐profile trauma case, then financial advisors can bring in an expert or specialist team to solve a problem for an important client relationship. It has been our experience that many financial advisors and teams simply concede the business or try to maneuver in unfamiliar territory. As a result, they either don't deliver the best client experience or deliver an experience that would lead to more business and referrals.

One of the key reasons that collaboration or partnering is a challenge is that the culture of many firms doesn't necessarily reward sharing arrangements, or collaboration hasn't been institutionalized among teams or business units. Also, the absence of trust between teams is a factor when you have another team intercede on an important client relationship. Firms will need to be supportive in overcoming the issue of trust in optimizing the best solutions for the client.

Team leadership in complex client cases becomes more functional and is based on the situation at hand. Leadership might rotate between the specialist and the key person in charge of the client relationship. In our experience, we have seen this work superbly well; however, it is not as widespread as it could potentially become.

Let's say your team has just received a lead from a client who sits on the board of a major hospital. The hospital has put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a $100 million endowment. Your team has no experience in this area. What do you do? Rather than move into uncharted territory, you identify a team outside of your office that has years of experience in this very area. They know exactly what to do and how to respond. In fact, they have worked with other advisor teams before and understand the sensitivities around compensation splits, relationship management, and the best way to respond to the RFP. You decide to select this experienced team; however, you stay involved in the process, which is critical to the relationship.

There are some terrific team benefits to be gained through collaboration.

• Collaboration raises your level of competency in the eyes of the client. This leads to client retention, more assets, and can potentially lead to referrals.
• Provides an additional avenue of revenue that may not have been previously available to the team. Solving complex problems and opening new avenues for growth can lead to more assets which is a key driver of business growth.
• It's a client first strategy and helps with client retention. Team values require that you put the needs of the client above your own needs. This improves your reputation in the markets you serve.
• The competitive nature of the business allows collaboration to provide a wider access to capabilities in support of the client. The industry experiences price compression and technology disruption. Collaboration is your disruptive threat.
• This leverage can accelerate team growth due to greater client penetration. The Force Multiplier Effect and impact is all about serving the needs of your clients.
• Using technology, you can create the equivalent of the 911 call of virtual expertise. Whether you use the phone, “GoToMeeting” communication, or Skype to have a face‐to‐face meeting, working virtually can have its advantages when a partnering team is domiciled outside of your market area.

One such specialty team we helped to form more than a decade ago consisted of three team members. They came together with the thought that their practice could evolve to include philanthropic services, nonprofits, and endowments. The team has received special accreditation and is accredited by their firm's Global Institutional Consulting (GIC), a group of approximately 80 consultants. The team has a host of certifications and accreditations that define their areas of expertise. They also have two client associates that complement the team business.

It bears repeating: You partner with a specialty team because they have a level of expertise and competency that doesn't reside on your team. If you have worked in the for‐profit and nonprofit sectors, you know they are quite different; each has its own culture, vernacular, and business practices. Many well‐meaning advisors approach nonprofit and charitable organizations seeking to partner with them in their fundraising efforts. Some are successful, while others are not.

To properly execute business in this sector you need to have received some training in several key areas, primarily in creating investment policy statements and planned giving concepts, and understanding tax and legal implications involved in this niche market. This is a complicated area that may not be in your team's “wheelhouse of expertise.”

Finally, you need to understand the backgrounds and motivations of the board members. Creating a collaborating arrangement with a team that is experienced in this niche market is the way to go. Bringing a team with this niche specialization to an appointment can only enhance your creditability in the eyes of the client or prospect.

The use of specialists in mortgages, estate planning, long‐term care, and lending are used to extend specific expertise to the client. The specialist may come with you to an important meeting with a client or can be available telephonically or virtually. External vendors also fall under this category and can provide resources and resource people to help with client acquisition. We have found that these specialists' relationships work best when there is a clear, confident relationship between the specialist and the advisor team. Lawyers bring in expert witnesses and surgeons bring in experts on complex surgeries. It shouldn't be out of the ordinary for an advisor team to provide resource people for important client meetings or complex issues. Again, this could be a team's competitive advantage or differentiating factor in gaining or retaining important client relationships. It's important that teams embrace these specialists as partners and not outsiders.

The firm's resource teams may be in a product or a marketing area, compliance as well as media relations, as an example. This resource can be helpful as you work on bringing significant relationships into the firm and go after niche markets. Again, using technology and videoconferencing, when appropriate, to connect these experts and resource people to clients can make the difference between winning a meaningful relationship, retaining a relationship, and providing the best service. It can be a constant struggle to understand where some of these resources reside in the firm; however, it can create the Force Multiplier Effect and have a positive impact on a client relationship.

Teams can create virtual teaming situations with all the above examples to bring collective wisdom and expertise when needed to grow and improve client relationships. Virtual teams are increasingly common. Members of a team may rarely meet in person. They collaborate from various parts of the country through telephone calls, e‐mail, file‐sharing technology, and face‐to‐face capabilities such as GoToMeeting and other online meeting methods.

We worked with a two‐person financial advisor (FA) team that was split between Atlanta and Dallas. They spoke by phone every day, and their one client service associate was in Atlanta scheduling appointments for both. It worked for them because they communicated so often. They could accelerate their growth by working both markets, and when there was a larger client ($10 million or more), they would both meet with them.

Getting people to work together for a common purpose is easier said than done. We have experienced that when teams come together in a collaborative way and utilize the collective wisdom of other team members within the organization, “magic” can happen. Fostering cooperation does require a cultural change. Perhaps some of the barriers to cooperation are firmly entrenched in one part of the organization not trusting another part of the organization, or compensation and fee‐sharing arrangements are not clear or become an impediment to collaboration. Some of the examples we have seen in silos where there is separation between functional groups operating under separate compensation arrangements. Usually, there may not be specific compensation strategies between groups that reward cooperation. Cultural differences when groups are competing for the same client can also lead to the avoidance of cooperation. The needs of the client must come first despite these impediments that impact the client experience.

Collaboration with Clients' Other Advisors

There are clients that prefer relationships with their personal banker, insurance agent, estate planning attorney, and certified public accountant. Rather than try to break an emotional bond that the client has established with these professionals, develop a strategy to meet with them and collaborate. Then use them to refer to other clients. We call that the Enthusiastically Endorsed List. When these key relationships exist, advisor teams should welcome the opportunity to collaborate and act in the best interest of the client. If the relationships can grow and prosper, they could potentially become a strong referral source to grow a team's client base. In our experience, having the client make a personal introduction over coffee or lunch leads to developing a strong relationship. Always ask first if the client can enthusiastically endorse the external advisor. If not, there may be an opportunity for you to provide a referral of someone you feel more comfortable recommending to the client – usually someone who has been enthusiastically endorsed by other clients.

Compensation systems that reward teamwork and cooperation have the potential to outperform those organizations where collaboration is not encouraged. Not all team‐based metrics should be based entirely on a revenue model. Teams can prosper when reviewing collaboration and its impact on team productivity. Teams should evaluate all their team‐based activities that contribute to performance and make sure that team members and those individuals that support the team are rewarded. Rewards, of course, can be monetary and nonmonetary. Don't wait until the end of the year to let a team member know that the work they are doing is appreciated. At times, and after team members have been working close together, members may feel underappreciated or taken for granted. Sometimes a day off, tickets to a play or sporting event, or dinner for two can go a long way in making a team member feel valued and appreciated.

The Force Multiplier Effect

Teams must collaborate among themselves to gain leverage and improve productivity. An area of struggle for many teams is the integration of individual books of business or clients. One way to accomplish this integration is to define a primary relationship manager, a secondary relationship manager, and – in the case of three producers – a tertiary relationship manager. Each team member works as the primary relationship manager for a specific number of households and, when not available, steps into the role of secondary relationship manager and pulls the client file folder (hard copy or electronic) and supports the client when the primary relationship manager is out of the office or on vacation, for example.

If teams can improve and leverage the collaborative team model, then it would be the equivalent of creating a force multiplier, a capability that, when added to and employed by a team, significantly increases the productivity potential of that team and enhances the probability of a successful mission accomplishment. In other words, a small and agile team that can carry a powerful punch! The definition comes from the military and is used to describe the multiplier effect and factor for combat advantage when using people, technology, and capable assets with a small unit. Utilizing these assets can enable a small unit to act as a large, formidable force.

In the [Navy] SEALs [Special Operations Unit], our force multiplier came in both internal and external forms depending on the mission. Externally, our force multipliers were close air support, unmanned aerial vehicles providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance of a known target (area). Internally, it was the skill and will of each team member, the team's ability to work together, and the speed at which we could learn, move and adapt – as individuals and as a team – to change and uncertainty.¹

A three‐person team in a collaborative effort can have the multiplier impact of more than double its size and capabilities if managed appropriately. If done right, teams could contribute significantly more in organic growth for the firms that employ them. Creating cooperative and collaborative organizations is the key to success. In our experience, this works best when visions, missions, and compensation systems are all strategically aligned and act in the best interest of the client. When teams act with precision, every team member understands their role, and everyone is aligned and focused on the mission, breakthroughs happen. Effective collaboration is a real game changer for teams to experience breakout growth.

We believe that teams can learn through the observations of other professional teams. A former naval fighter pilot and member of the prestigious naval flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels, was asked about his team experience. This is an example of the pursuit of excellence and continuous training, collaboration, trust, precision, and execution. He shared the following story with us.

Other Elements of a Team Force Multiplier

It's obvious that the proper use of technology and social media platforms such as LinkedIn, team websites, Constant Contact, HubSpot, and various customer relationship management (CRM) tools all help to leverage capacity and support sales and marketing efforts. You want to make it easy for potential clients to find you as well as tapping into the networks of your clients for referral opportunities. These capabilities cannot be ignored when considering the team's Force Multiplier Effect. Speed, efficiency, monitoring, and execution are all enabled if technology is used appropriately.

Another important key to collaboration is trust and transparency. Trust is a component of the Force Multiplier Effect. We have found that when team members trust one another and can rely on one another to execute the mission without hesitation, tasks are completed in a timely manner, which leads to goal accomplishment. Team members work in an environment characterized by open communication and information sharing. These are environments that thrive and retain team members. Team leadership must help team members to understand their capacity to collaborate both internally and externally. Individual creative ideas are necessary in team environments. Avoidance of “groupthink,” meaning that the only promising ideas come from the team, can be an impediment to success and performance. Teams must be able to cross collaborate with other teams and individuals to nurture fresh thinking for team sustainability.