Exit Planning Archives

Advisor’s Guide to Entering the Exit Planning Marketplace

Posted on July 8, 2025July 9, 2025 by Lindsay Giachetti

3 minutes

Core Insights

Business owners often delay exit planning, but advisors can lead the conversation with the right tools and messaging.
Start by engaging your professional network—collaboration builds credibility and opens doors.
Focus on educating, not selling. Use consistent content like newsletters, blogs, and testimonials to stay top-of-mind.
Position yourself as a thought leader with content across channels, including social media.
Referrals and client advocacy grow naturally when value and trust are established early.

Breaking Through: How to Overcome Barriers in the Exit Planning Market

Last week, we explored the common roadblocks advisors face when introducing business owners to the Exit Planning process. Many owners believe they can wait until they’re ready to exit or assume they don’t have the time right now to begin planning. But as experienced advisors know, the only way to exit on your terms—your timing, your buyer, your value—is to start planning today.

So, Where Do You Begin in the Exit Planning Market?

You may be looping in your head, wondering:

Who should I be talking to? How do I start a conversation? Will they even listen to me?

Reach the Right Business Owners: Leverage Your Professional Network

Start by connecting with other professionals who already serve business owners—accountants, attorneys, bankers, consultants. These individuals can be invaluable allies. When you demonstrate how Exit Planning benefits their clients and creates new opportunities for their firm, you lay the foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Focus on how collaboration helps everyone win—especially the business owner.

Start the Conversation: Lead with Education, Not Sales

Education is the most powerful, cost-effective tool at your disposal. Business owners don’t want to be sold to—they want insights, solutions, and clarity. Use storytelling, client success examples, and practical tips to communicate the value of early planning.

You’re not alone in educating clients about the urgency of planning. Experts like Douglas R. Batts Sr. are making national headlines calling on Baby Boomer business owners to start Exit Planning now—before it’s too late. Sharing insights like this can reinforce your message and help overcome skepticism.

Douglas R. Batts, MBA – Award-Winning Business Broker, Veteran

Consistent, educational outreach—like a well-crafted newsletter with links to content like the article above—keeps you top of mind when owners are ready to act. It also positions you as a trusted resource rather than just another service provider.

Get Business Owners’ Attention: Build Your Exit Planning Thought Leadership

Establish your credibility across multiple channels—articles, blogs, webinars, speaking engagements, podcasts, and yes, even social media. While business owners might not follow you directly, their inner circle does. When your content resonates with someone they trust, it’s more likely to be shared—and remembered.

Be sure to:

Include a newsletter signup on your website
Add content to your email signature
Use lead forms to collect interest from site visitors

Make it easy for people to access your content—and for new Exit Planning or Owner Based Planning opportunities to find you.

What Comes Next? Turn Exit Planning Clients into Advocates

Your first few Exit Planning clients are your strongest advocates. As you deliver real value and build trusted relationships, referrals will follow. Over time, your network grows—and so does your influence.

Looking for the right tools to reach business owners faster?

Access professional marketing materials, educational content, and proven Exit Planning tools trusted by top advisors.

We’ll help you do more of what works—and less of what doesn’t.

Learn more

Why Business Owners Delay Exit Planning

Posted on June 23, 2025June 24, 2025 by Lindsay Giachetti

The Real Reason Owners Delay Exit Planning—and How to Break Through

Many owners assume that planning for their exit begins once they’ve decided to leave. But the reality is that effective planning starts well before that decision. By engaging owners early and reinforcing the value of growth-focused strategies, advisors can ensure a smoother transition and more favorable outcomes for all involved.

“I’ll plan my exit when I’m ready to leave.”

This common mindset among business owners is one of the biggest challenges advisors face. But overcoming this misperception doesn’t require magic—it requires clear, consistent communication that educates and empowers.

At BEI, we regularly hear from advisors looking for a reliable way to engage reluctant business owners in planning their exits. While we have proven tools to help convert hesitation into action, the first step is understanding why so many owners delay planning in the first place.

Why Exit Planning Can’t Wait: The Risk of an Unprepared Business

Most business owners know their companies aren’t ready to run without them—yet many still postpone planning. Why? Because they assume they’ll have time to prepare when the moment to exit finally arrives.

But experienced advisors know better: preparing a business for a successful exit takes years, not months. The earlier owners start, the more control they have over the outcome.

“Owners know what needs to happen. They just don’t look at it closely—or think it has to happen today. I tell them, ‘This is your final exam. Will you eat steak or Top Ramen for the rest of your life? Let’s do the work.’ And they do.” – Marko Mijuskovic, Senior Partner at WestPac Wealth Partners, CExP™ and BEI Member

Helping Owners Move Past “Not Yet”

To shift this mindset, advisors must help owners see the realities of waiting too long. That starts by clearly communicating three critical truths:

There’s often a significant gap between what owners have and what they’ll need to exit on their terms.

Bridging that gap takes time and consistent effort.

Exit Planning isn’t just about leaving—it’s about growing. Enhancing business value and cash flow benefits owners no matter when they exit or what path they take.

This is the heart of Exit Planning: helping owners build stronger, more valuable businesses—whether they’re looking to exit in 3 years or 10. And that’s the value you bring as an advisor.

You’re not just offering a service. You’re guiding business owners toward better outcomes, greater security, and more freedom. But to do that, you need to replace uncertainty with education—and replace hesitation with clarity.

Consistent Communication = Better Engagement

One meeting isn’t enough. The most effective advisors don’t rely on one-off conversations to spark action—they use ongoing, branded content to deliver their message at scale.

Our top-performing Members consistently share planning insights with 500+ owners and advisors at least twice a month. This kind of sustained communication helps dismantle the belief that planning can wait—and instead reinforces the benefits of taking action now.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack.” –Winston Churchill

Closing the Communication Gap

At the end of the day, owner inaction isn’t about unwillingness—it’s about unfamiliarity. Advisors who succeed are those who make Exit Planning familiar, relevant, and urgent through ongoing education and encouragement.

If you want to help business owners act, keep showing up with valuable information, insights, and motivation. Because when owners understand the stakes—and see the benefits—they’ll start planning with purpose.

Ready to turn hesitation into action?

Start equipping business owners with the tools and insights they need—while positioning yourself as the trusted guide in their Exit Planning journey.

Learn More

Transforming Owner Resistance into Opportunities with Proven Strategies

Posted on October 20, 2023 by admin

See how BEI helps professional advisors like you overcome owner objections to business planning conversations.

When BEI engages with new and prospective professional advisors, some tell us about a common hurdle that prevents them from having the success they want: “Owners don’t want to talk about succession planning with me.” Even though advisors want to provide their important services and business owners know they should have a plan for their eventual business exits, there’s still resistance to the planning conversation.

The reasons why business owners feel this way can be numerous. They may misinterpret Exit Planning as someone ripping them away from their businesses against their will. They may also think that developing a plan for transition will take up too much of their time.

While these reasons are the result of misunderstanding the point and process of Exit Planning, it doesn’t mean that advisors should disregard them as there is a large opportunity to capitalize on with owners just like this. Typically, advisors just need to frame the offer of talking about Exit Planning differently. One of the most effective ways to do this is for advisors to rely on their core expertise.

Keep Planning Conversations in Your Wheelhouse

All successful advisors have exceptional credentials in their respective professional fields. The obstacle that falls in their way is often related to balancing their technical expertise with the relationship-building skills necessary to become a successful advisor.

For many business owners, the idea of an advisor coming to them to talk about leaving their businesses can be jarring. After all, it’s likely that they see their businesses as an extension of themselves. So, having someone suggest that they should plan for when it’s time for that extension to go away can be confusing and even threatening.

The way to overcome objections about business planning is for advisors to talk to owners in the owners’ language, using their core advisory expertise.

For example, we recently spoke with a CPA who uses the BEI Premium License to attract, engage, and eventually develop a plan with clients. When this advisor first started out, he would open his planning discussions with both current and prospective clients by asking, “Would you like to talk about exiting your business?” Usually, business owners would decline. He started to get frustrated, so he reached out to BEI. We suggested that, at least initially, he focus on how his core expertise fits into succession planning rather than focusing on outright Exit Planning.

This meant that rather than asking his clients if they’d like to specifically talk about leaving their businesses, he would ask them questions like, “What kinds of tax-minimizing retirement planning have you done?” or “How do you think taxes might affect you and your business when you eventually sell and retire?” These kinds of questions do two things:

They probe at business owners’ pain points without directly talking about their business exits. By asking questions about their futures without implying there is a problem, advisors can let business owners identify areas that they consider to be issues. When business owners identify a problem with how they see the future of their business, they’re more likely to commit to a conversation.

They let advisors guide the conversation toward Exit Planning using their core expertise. By leading with what they know, advisors can talk about aspects of Exit Planning with full confidence and help business owners identify what might be bothering them about their business exits. As a bonus, those advisors are more likely to offer products and services already being sold within their firm.

How BEI Helps Facilitate Planning Conversations

One of the major benefits of BEI’s tools, strategies, and content licensing is that these aspects help advisors use their technical skills on a larger playing field. Exit Planning Advisors use their core expertise to open the conversation about Exit Planning on terms that both they and their business-owning clients understand and are comfortable with.

It’s easy for advisors to over leverage their expertise without asking themselves why owners would care about what they’re telling them. BEI helps advisors balance their technical expertise with the relationship-building skills they need to establish the Exit Planning conversation properly, resulting in success not only for the client, but for the advisor as well.

From assessment tools and documented methods to show their expertise, to lists of questions to ask and access to advisors who have had proven success in breaking through resistance to Exit Planning, BEI knows how to help advisors start the Exit Planning conversation successfully.

Tag: Exit Planning