Elevate Your Business with Strong Centers of Influence: A How-To Guide

Hello and welcome to Mastermind Mastery, the podcast for professionals who want to create and run successful peer advisory councils, or as we call them, PACs for short, or they're also known as peer groups or business mastermind groups. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, founder of Elixir Council, where I've been in the industry running groups since 2005 and now help those like you with education, certification, and support wanting to do the same. At one time, I ran 10 groups, nearly 100 members and sold my groups for a good multiple and recently released my second book, Your Seat at the Table: How to Create and Run Your Own Peer Advisory Councils, published by Forbes and grateful to you that it's an Amazon bestseller. I invite you to join each week where we share strategies and techniques to successfully launch and become a master of running your PAGs. You'll hear insights, perspectives, dos and don'ts, learn from my and my guests' mistakes, successes, and get the inside track to key takeaways. Each time we have a guest, we'll be having a bit of fun. So are you ready? Let's get going and dive into today's episode.

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, and today's topic is the power of a COI, a center of influence. You'll learn not just only what the definition is, but importantly, why it's important to your success in creating and running your groups and how to find them and creating a win-win relationship. They are so critical. And then at the end of today's episode, you can download a diagram, an actual worksheet of how you create your centers of influence team, because you do need a team, that's for sure. So I love this episode as it's what I call the Holy Grail. I talked earlier in an episode about why it's so hard to launch and not having COIs, centers of influence, in your corner is one aspect of why it's so hard. And I actually even just got back from a conference with a lot of financial wealth advisors and business advisors and what— how— what a plethora of COIs for me there. So let's start with the definition. Center of influence. Why in the world is it called that? And what's, what's that phrase all about? So centers of influence are well-connected people, and they can be groups, but specifically I'm talking about one-on-one, a well-connected person that can enhance your credibility through referrals, testimonials, word of mouth. They influence people, so they have a network, a history, experience, etc., that they can be trusted, and they are very good at what they do. So a COI, again, or a center of influence, is someone well known. They're respected, they're trusted in their community. And what kind of community we're talking about here that's relevant to you is the business community. And as a result, they have significant influence over thoughts and actions of others. They expedite the process for you. Now, why is this important other than kind of the obvious? But let me state something, which is when a center of influence introduces you to someone or connects you with someone, and more importantly, they are a referral source, so they refer you. People are 400% more likely to become a client when referred by a friend. That's 4 times more likely. 4. Not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4. And when that happens, they become a client. The lifetime value of a referred client is 16% higher than a non-referred So not only do they make you more money, but they actually close so they can make you more money. And so it saves you time, higher productivity. It's typically a more targeted, well-fit referral. And that is the number one reason why to cultivate your centers of influence, your COIs, because they add to your clients' referring. Because ideally When you're starting out, you're not going to have that many clients yet, right? You're just forming your groups. You're trying to get the first group off the ground. So you don't have existing clients that are going to refer you unless you are also doing something else and you have clients over there, but they can't refer relative to you in a group because you don't have a group yet. Maybe you're just brand new to it. So if you're just starting out, this is what's really, really important. Is that your centers of influence will be instrumental in your success. So who are good centers of influence for you in launching groups? You share ideal client personas. That's— it's very, very important. A center of influence doesn't work if your ideal client is nothing like their ideal client, because you'll never cross paths. You won't really be able to help each other as much as you could if you shared your ideal client personas. So that's very important that you figure that out quickly and figure out who in your space actually works with your ideal client. So you share values. When I say values, you share how you work, you share the same type of, of thought and same type of, not process, but just how you work with a client that you're, that you have the same type of mentality of how you work with a client. So you share values about that. You share the abundant mindset, like always willing to kind of give and help first. You're very conscientious about the relationship. You share the ability to connect people. But you also understand the importance of carefully handling those connections, carefully handling Whenever a center of influence, a COI, refers you, introduces you, connects you, that you take it seriously. It's like a little baby bird that you're just in your hand and you're going to make sure that they are safe with you in that introduction. Okay, so that's what good COIs, what, what it is that you're looking for there. So let me give you some examples and tell you a story or two. So examples are, if you're thinking about a traditional CEO group, and you could be running them today and you just don't have a strong COI team around you, and therefore you need to build it. So you're going to look at, you know, some of the traditional or commercial lenders because they work with CEO business owners, outsourced professionals. And this is a huge list. So outsourced professionals, or is anyone a professional firm working with an organization in an outsourced basis? So it could be outsourced CFO, chief financial office firm. It could be outsourced CMOs, outsourced sales like Sandler, or sales acceleration. You have outsourced marketing. You have also outsourced systems. Systems are like EOS or Scaling Up, or it can be outsourced IT professionals. It could even be, um, organizations like ERA, Expense Reduction Analysts. I mentioned marketing firms, boutique M&A firms, accounting, banking, law. It could be insurance organizations, HR firms, payroll. These all work directly with the CEO of privately held firms. Now, this one may sound odd to you, but this comes from the abundant mindset. And I say don't throw out your competitors as a center of influence, believe it or not. So when I ran groups, in the Baltimore, Washington area, and I was in a franchise and I had a territory. Okay. And there wasn't another, let's say, franchisee next to me. And I ran into somebody that was beyond my territory. I referred them to a competitor and probably more than one, but it wasn't unusual for that to happen. Or I also referred if I had someone who I was not a right fit for the groups that I had. and they might be a right fit elsewhere and vice versa. So it could be, okay, others. Now I know that might be hard for you to get your head around that it could be an, a competitor, but do not rule it out. It could actually be one of the most rewarding centers of influence that you actually have. I mean, as a result, I ended up doing a group with my competitor. So we actually did a group together and it was the most fun. We had so much fun. I have to say it wasn't the group I made the most money with because we were splitting the dues, obviously. But I will tell you, I had the most fun doing it and it was something I looked forward to every single month doing this group with this individual. Hopefully this gives you some ideas. On centers of influence that you need to have on your, on your team and in your back pocket. Now we're going to talk a little bit about how to find them, how to create the relationship, and a little bit more on like why they're important. And one of the other reasons on why they're important is because you're going to get asked, do you have a guy, quote unquote? So that's a common phrase. It's not to mean literally a man. It means a person. But you will get asked by your members, do you have, right, someone in this space you can refer me to? So I need an accountant. Do you have a guy? Who can you refer me to? I need someone to come in and possibly do an analysis and help build our leadership team skill set, etc. Do you know someone? So these centers of influence will help you be able to have an answer for, do you know, do you know a guy? Because you want to be the go-to person that your members go to, others go to, that you have a big basket of people you have vetted, trust, shares the same values, um, etc., that others will trust because you've already vetted it. And if they love working with you, then they want to work with others like you. And instead of them going through all that research, etc., they just want to know, who can you refer me to that's like you, that will, you know, do what they say they're going to do, that they will show up, they price things fairly, all of those things. They know how to work with me because they're your same ideal client persona. We're back to that again. So this is part of building out your COI team is also part of building out your I have a guy team, right? So how do you find them? The biggest place and the easiest that I tell everyone to do is to go to who is already providing services for you that you trust. And ask them who you should know. So let's say, for example, maybe you're not integrated in your community, um, because maybe you're transitioning from a corporate job, you know, to now you're going to run groups. And, or maybe you were running your business and you're heads down running it, so now you have to be more involved and you just don't have those connections in the community to start with your centers of influence. So you're going to call your banker, you're going to call your accountant, you're going to call your attorney, and you're going to ask them, right, who is it that you should know that shares these same characteristics of what you're looking for? And that's a great, great start, is there with your current service providers who also work with others like you, right? So you're going to ask them. And you're going to basically ask the question, who do you know that I should know? Because it's a wonderful way to ask and trigger in somebody's mindset, huh? And I would even add this word to it. Who should I know that is amazing? Because that's what you're looking for, right? If you're looking for anything, and let's say, for example, Maybe you're trying to fill a slot in your COI team, and maybe that slot is, is you need a marketing firm. And so you could ask, who is it that you know that is an amazing marketing firm? So you just tack that onto the back. When you say amazing, while it's intuitive that they're not going to give you a name that— of someone that's not amazing. But when you say the word amazing, it goes to the top of their thinking, of the top of the list of people they interact with that they believe is amazing. That's who you really want the connections to and the introductions to. Obviously, you don't want them to the not amazing people, but by adding that word, it really helps someone hone in on the best of the best to introduce you to. Right? How else do you find them? Any of your existing clients, ask who their preferred vendors are. Who do they love working with? Who have they loved working with in the past? Right? Do your research. Aside from going to networking events, etc., and if you have particularly a current COI, you ask them. Current COIs already have a team or they're working on a team. So who else is part of their team? And again, asking them the same question, who is it that you work with that is also another amazing center of influence I should know? Again, a great way to ask who it is that's already been vetted with from someone that you already love working with. Conferences are another great avenue because if you're at a conference, you already share a certain, you know, like for something because of whatever the conference theme is. And typically everyone is there, right, networking as well, trying to make connections. So that's already in their DNA because that's how you create a relationship. You have to give first, even if it's personal, with something helpful like a restaurant recommendation. Or maybe you find out that they love to boat and go boating. So you might, you know, share with them a particular fun restaurant on the water to go to, or maybe some boat safety tip that's new or gadget that's new, that sort of thing. So if you can't give first professionally, you can always do so personally in creating that relationship, creating a relationship. Not only just takes time, but it takes effort. Effort in understanding what's important to them, getting to know them. And this is why the FORD method that I've talked about in previous episodes, where you find about FORD, F-O-R-D, F is family, O is occupation, R is recreation, D is their dreams. So you do a deep dive into them personally, their family, what do they love to do? That's the recreation part. You know, what are their hobbies? What do they do when they're not working? You know, what is, what are their dreams? No one asks everybody what their dreams are. So what is it that their vision is? Where do they plan to grow? What do they dream about that one day, right? The one day, the one day in business, the one day personally. And obviously their occupation, you want to do a deep dive into who's their ideal clients. What are they trying to accomplish? What are their challenges? What are their successes, but et cetera. And the more you get to know them, the more you're going to understand where you can help and help drive value for them. When you drive value first, it automatically creates a bank account for you in the positive sense. You have deposited in that bank account for that COI that now feels a little bit of obligation of reciprocal, right? They have to reciprocate. And it's, it's not a hard transaction, but it's way better to be on the side of that you've banked a lot with your COI and the ball is in their court and they're actively working to reciprocate with banking into your bank account, right? With an introduction of some sort, something that they can help you with. So the FORD method is really, really, really essential to use and effective because again, you create the relationship when you're going to work hard to get them a referral, doing something meaningful. And the only way to do that is if you listen. And the other only way to do that is you've got to stay connected and frequently connect monthly at a minimum. Because otherwise you just are out of sight, out of mind, and you're really not cultivating a relationship. So what are some ways to cultivate that relationship? So I'm going to give you some examples and tell you a couple of stories. One is you can offer to give your service for free to one of their clients, or maybe a group of their clients. So for example, um, we teach that you can hold a special, um, mock meeting, experience meeting. You know, basically you're running just a sample meeting, right, with either all your centers of influence in the room and it's just your COIs. It gives them a chance to get to know each other if they don't already. But in that sample meeting, they will get value and they will experience what you do, your methodology, your style, et cetera. So it's extremely valuable just to do a sample meeting with your COIs. Now, if you don't have enough COIs, and by the way, you're not trying to sell them anything, you're just bringing them together. They can experience what you do, but they're going to get value because you're gonna process a challenge, opportunity, problem, or idea, a COPI. And they're all gonna learn from each other because their centers of influence that have a lot in common, ideally the same type of client, right? Now you can also take a center of influence and suggest that you're happy to run that same type of meeting with just their clients. So your center of influence could kind of sponsor it. You're kind of doing a workshop for them, but for their clients. You're not going to sell their clients. You're just giving value. And that is another unbelievable way to connect with your COI, but even connecting with their clients, but driving value for them and making them look good. So you're always trying to make your COI look phenomenal, right? So again, you can offer to do that for them. You might even just do something as simple as like maybe invite them to a breakfast with another sitter of influence or someone that you think that is important for them to meet. And that's extremely meaningful, and they'll be very grateful to you for that. One of the things, when I first started out in '05, I knew no one. Many of you guys know the story, but I knew no one in my territory. I even chose my territory without even having set foot in it. I didn't even know where it was. And I say that because I was always driving into DC, working, flying out across the country or globally, and then coming back home. And I didn't travel out into this one area that's now going to be my territory. I'm like, well, I got to figure out, I got to know the people. I got to know who are the COIs in this territory with business owners. And so, you know, how do you, how do you do that? Well, it just starts with one. So with one, then became, who did they know that I should know became number two. And then it was, who is it that we all want to know that we don't know? And that became number, you know, 3, which made 4 of us, etc. And what we— 2 things I did that were game changers with centers of influence. One is that we met on a regular standing monthly time, and during that monthly time, it was intentional. We talked about what was new and successes and challenges. But each month someone had time. It was designated. It was like, this is your month. The next month is someone else's. The next month is my month, et cetera, to do a deep dive on our business and, and making sure that each person there understood exactly what we did, what we did well, what made us different, our value proposition, the whole thing, so that they could be on the outlook right, the lookout for the right prospect, referrer. Aside from that, we always came with where can we use help and where can we give help. So after every month, that was an intentional meeting that no one ever missed, by the way, because it was so valuable. Always walked away with— I knew exactly where I could help. And I had also communicated where I needed help. So that monthly cadence, keeping in front of your key centers of influence was critical because I was getting burned out doing the coffee and the lunch and the happy hour with each one. I'm like, there has to be a more productive way to do this. So it's like, let's bring everybody together and we'll do it all together. And it saves us a lot of time, but it creates more of a bond.

Right.

And it's actually like a mini version of you running peer group meeting in a way. Right. So another thing that we did is that we did events together. So we all again had the same ideal client persona and we would do an event, invite all of our clients, all of our prospects to. We were providing value. We were sharing the cost. And I got to meet more ideal clients in one setting than I could ever imagine. And it was in a natural way to build a natural relationship, to connect, to get to know them. And when we did these events, we would do them systematically, like about every 6 weeks or so. And I knew I might see that same business owner again in 6 weeks, which was great. And it drove more business than I can ever tell you. Every single event, I always came away with a member or more, and so did my centers of influence friends. So you can do events together, and it's amazing leverage and a super easy way to introduce your clients to your COI team and vice versa in a very natural, non-selling way. Okay, so we have talked about what is a COI, examples of them, right? We've talked about how to find them, how do you create a relationship. So in summary, to make this work, you have to engage frequently. You have to treat it like prospect you have to keep warm. So COIs you have to keep warm. And because it only works if you're top of mind, not absent of mind. And my challenge to you is to— here's an action step. Okay. Ready? Make a list of COIs you want to meet, whether specific by name or industry, and you're going to ask to get connected to them or referred to them by people you already know. Because again, if I got referred by one of my COIs to another, I take it seriously and immediately they're past like stage 1. Because I'm not wondering if they'd be a good connection because I know they will be because of where they came from. And then don't forget, download the worksheet. So that worksheet was a graph of all these different types of COIs. You write in, right, who currently are your COIs, and the blanks are the ones you know you need to fill in the blank and get. And you, most of the time, it's kind of a good idea to have more than one COI in a specific space, just as a backup. What I mean by as a backup is a lot of times when someone says, do you have a guy, you might want to offer to them 2 or 3 options that will fit. You may have your favorite COI, but you really should have more than one so you can give people a choice when that's appropriate to do. Okay, listeners, that wraps it up for the power of a COI, and I hope today's episode you're walking away with who is it that you haven't connected to in a while, you need to rekindle it. Understanding how you need to keep them hot and warm at all times. Don't let your COIs get cold. Where's your gaps? Go fill your gaps and work it and start adding value. Who have you not added value to that is trusted in your right center of influence team? And now's the time to get back on it. Make sure they know that you're there. Add some value to them. And get that rekindled and going again. So until next time, go make it happen.

Hey, moderators of peer groups, thank you for listening to today's episode. To get access to show notes and exclusive content and resources, go to TinaCornerStolz.com or www.alexcounsel.com, where you can become part of our online exclusive community, attend our academy where there are over 13 modules of how to create and run a successful peer advisory group, mastermind group, as well as free resources, white papers, checklists, and more. And you can even contact me there as well. If this episode resonates with you and you know someone who can also benefit from listening listening. Please share with them by taking a screenshot or post it on your social media.

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Please tune in next week for the next episode of Mastermind Mastery, and I will close by sharing something my mentor did after every learning moment with someone he connected with. He reached into his pocket and he shared a shiny pebble with anyone he passed knowledge to and asked them to forward that pebble knowledge on. Now I encourage you to pass on a pebble, the takeaways you learned today, to either your existing groups or fellow peers. Now go make it happen.