Trending
When professionals collaborate, too many step up to the plate swinging for a home run. Whether you’re a high-end financial advisor, a successful M&A professional, or a CPA, the temptation is the same: make the perfect introduction, land the biggest deal, prove the relationship is worth it.
But collaboration doesn’t work that way.
In my Can I Borrow Your Car? methodology, the key to collaboration is trust. People don’t hand you the keys to their most valuable relationships because of one flashy swing. They do it because you consistently prove you’re a safe driver through small, repeatable actions over time.
The Power of Singles
A friend of mine wanted to grow visibility for his international company. He kept holding back because he wanted his message scripted and polished. I challenged him to forget perfect. Just go live on Facebook for two minutes a day. Talk about why you care, who you serve, and what excites you.
That’s a single. Not glamorous. Not perfect. But it gets you on base. And the more times you get on base, the more chances you have to move others forward. That’s how real collaboration compounds.
When I first began the process in my own consulting company, I always remembered that risk mitigation is the key to referral velocity over time…and focus on simple and sustainable execution.
Defining Wins Together
Here’s the irony: you get to hitting singles by first defining what a real home run looks like. When two collaborators honestly talk about what makes a partnership worthwhile, they can measure ROI together. Then, every small action, a call, an introduction, a joint presentation, becomes part of moving the team around the bases.
This matters because business owners often resist complexity. If working with you means they have to juggle four different professionals, they’ll default to the status quo. But when collaborators “stack” relationships, showing up as a unified and coordinated team, they make decision-making easier, faster, and safer for the client.
The challenge can become getting over your own FOMO and realizing that the decision-making process for the ideal clients you really want takes a certain amount of time, no matter who is involved. You can’t short that interval. The key is to build enough confidence in your prospect’s mind that the solution (often easier with multiple partners) is powerful enough that it will be worth the effort and resource allocation to achieve.
Safe Drivers Only
Of course, not everyone collaborates this way. Some people only want to swing for the fences. In Can I Borrow Your Car terms, those are unsafe drivers. They’re reckless with trust, more focused on their own big sale than on building something sustainable.
The best collaborators, by contrast, understand the value of passing the ball or the keys. They know that if one of us can deliver the right solution, it benefits everyone.
Getting momentum with a joint client is key. Hitting singles together builds momentum. And every once in a while, those singles add up to a home run that brings the whole team home.
The Takeaway
Stop chasing home runs. Start hitting singles. Build trust one safe drive at a time. That’s how collaboration multiplies, relationships deepen, and referral pipelines overflow.
Related: Referrals Still Win—but Only if AI Knows Who You Are