There are two types of sports: individual sports and team sports. Golf is, perhaps, the most clear-cut example of an individual sport. Football is a classic example of a team sport. Here’s the important point—capabilities such as investment management or life insurance are like golf, and wealth management is like football.

Finding one or more professionals that can be reliable sources of new business can have a transformational effect on your practice. The key is finding the right prospects, and that depends on having a keen understanding of your ideal partner, screening effectively for those qualities, and the unique skills and value that you can bring to a strategic alliance.

Randomly choosing an accountant or attorney won’t deliver the results you want. You need to carefully evaluate each candidate for their ability to meet your needs. In my last article, I discussed the Professional Profiling Tool adapted from the profiling methods used by leading advisors to identify the right partners for their business needs. While the profiling process will vary from advisor to advisor, based on experience and personal preference, nine areas should be part of every conversation you have with a potential partner.

This is the first part of a two-part series on profiling professionals for strategic partnerships.

A raindrop falls in the mountains of Colorado, landing in a small stream. Simultaneously, a human is parachuted into the same valley without a map, GPS, compass or other form of guidance. Which will find the ocean first—the inanimate element of water or the most intelligent life form on the planet, the human?

To be exceptionally successful, it is valuable to critically examine the methods and processes employed by the most successful financial advisors in the country. Success is a subjective term, so we chose to use personal income (after all expenses but before personal taxes) as the barometer. In considering the “best of the best,” 1,200 financial advisors—across all distribution channels—consistently (each year for at least three years running) pocket a minimum of $1 million per year. We call them the Elite 1200.

In November 2006, the most significant new oil find in U.S. territory since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska was discovered in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico in what is called the Wilcox Formation. It is estimated to have somewhere between three billion to as many as ten billion barrels of oil in it. In the jargon of the oil industry, it is known as a SuperGiant. This is hitting the mother lode. To give you an appreciation for the sheer enormity of this find, the last SuperGiant discovered in the entire world was in 1979 in Siberia.