The Cross-Serving Solution: Making Partners Heroes Instead of Salespeople
Your firm has tried for decades to recruit your partners to "sell" your services to their existing clients. They mandate that partners "collaborate more," create elaborate referral systems, and wonder why their cross-selling numbers are consistently disappointing.
Here's the truth: Cross-selling (like that) doesn't work. And it never will.
Why Cross-Selling Doesn't Work (And Never Will)
Your firm has tried for decades to recruit your partners to "sell" your services to their existing clients. And it doesn't work. For many, many reasons:
Partners hate selling what they don't understand. Your tax partner is brilliant at tax strategy, but asking them to pitch cyber security feels like asking a master chef to explain quantum physics. They fear they'll sound amateurish, so they don't try.
Clients can smell a sales pitch from three ZIP codes away. The moment your partner shifts from "trusted advisor" to "person trying to sell me something," the dynamic changes. Trust erodes. Relationships suffer.
"Selling" feels transactional, not advisory. CPAs became CPAs to solve problems and provide expertise, not to hit sales quotas. When you ask them to "cross-sell," you're asking them to be someone they're not.
The risk feels asymmetrical. What if the client says no? What if they get annoyed? What if the introduction goes badly? Partners would rather stick to what they know than risk damaging a relationship they've spent years building.
Nobody wants to be the annoying partner. You know the one—always pushing other services, always looking for angles, always making conversations feel like sales calls. Partners avoid this at all costs.
The Cross-Serving Solution: Making Partners Heroes Instead of Salespeople
Here's the reframe that changes everything: Instead of imagining your partners as salespeople for other departments, turn them into heroes for their clients.
How do we do that? It's simpler than you think.
Step 1: You know what triggers a need for your services. When you hear certain situations, challenges, or opportunities, you recognize potential clients immediately.
Step 2: Work backwards from that knowledge. If you know the answer (your service), what are the smart questions that reveal whether someone needs that answer?
Step 3: Equip your partner with those few very smart questions to ask their client.
Step 4: Your partner asks their client insightful, prospective questions about their business—as a trusted advisor, not a salesperson.
Here's the beautiful part: Even if nothing comes of it, your partner still wins. They get credit for seeing around corners, for thinking strategically about their client's business, and for caring about issues beyond their immediate service scope.
But when those questions expose a need or risk, your partner can quickly put the client's mind at ease with a solution.
Boom. Hero status achieved.
The Client Experience Difference
From the client's perspective, cross-serving feels completely different from cross-selling:
Cross-selling feels like: "Now that we've finished your taxes, let me tell you about our other services..."
Cross-serving feels like: "As I'm thinking about your business situation, there are some strategic questions you might want to consider..."
One feels transactional. The other feels advisory.
One damages relationships. The other strengthens them.
One creates resistance. The other creates appreciation.
Why This Works When Everything Else Fails
Cross-serving succeeds because it aligns with how partners naturally want to serve their clients and how clients naturally want to be served:
Partners want to be trusted advisors. Cross-serving lets them demonstrate strategic thinking without becoming salespeople.
Clients want proactive advice. Cross-serving provides valuable insights into whether or not they need additional services.
Relationships get stronger, not weaker. Cross-serving deepens the advisory relationship rather than compromising it.
Risk becomes manageable. Even a "no" enhances the partner's reputation as someone who thinks broadly about client success.
Natural conversations replace forced pitches. Cross-serving questions flow naturally from client situations rather than feeling scripted or artificial.
The Bottom Line
Cross-serving isn't about selling more stuff to your clients. It's about serving them so well that they never think to go anywhere else.
When your partners can ask smart, strategic questions that demonstrate deep understanding of their clients' businesses, everyone wins:
Clients get proactive advice and strategic thinking
Partners maintain and enhance their trusted advisor status
The firm captures opportunities that would otherwise go elsewhere
Relationships strengthen rather than suffer
Stop trying to turn your partners into salespeople. Start helping them become heroes.
The difference in results will amaze you.
Talk Soon,
Bruce & Lefty
Ready to transform your cross-selling struggles into cross-serving success? The strategy is simpler than you think—but it requires the right approach. Click Here to continue the conversation with us.
