A few people have asked me recently, “What’s your elevator pitch for LUCEN Perspectives?”
After decades in distribution leadership, you’d think I’d have a quick answer. Turns out, I do. Two short lines: Advocacy for advisors. Growth for providers.
It isn’t really a pitch. It’s my résumé. But an elevator ride doesn’t leave much room to explain what those words mean, so let me take a few more floors here.
First, who I am (and who I’m not)
I’m not an advisor. I’ve spent 35 years on the provider side, leading sales and distribution for firms whose growth depends on relationships with advisors, consultants, and other centers of influence.
What I’ve learned on that side of the table is that the people who know the most about a partnership are often the ones nobody thought to ask.
What advocacy for advisors actually means
To me, advocacy isn’t a slogan. It’s a habit. It looks like four things:
Listening before pitching. Asking about their priorities, their hurdles, and their goals before talking about ours.
Carrying their voice inside. Making sure what advisors say in the room reaches the people who build the products, set the service standards, and write the plans.
Respecting their time. Showing up with something useful to them, not just something we need from them.
Connecting people. Introducing partners to each other, to resources, and to ideas, with no agenda of my own.
One of my favorite examples of the first two came from an advisory council, when a group of partners was asked one simple question: “What are your pet peeves?”
What came back wasn’t aimed at any one company. It was about providers in general. Slow turnaround on time-sensitive requests. Hearing “no” before anyone had looked into the issue. Learning about a new product from a mutual client before hearing about it from the provider directly. None of that had ever shown up in a satisfaction survey.
The fourth habit is the one people ask about least, so let me tell you about it.
The introduction that asked for nothing
I once met with a consultant in Florida who was competing for larger plans as a solo entrepreneur. Almost in passing, she mentioned that she felt she needed a contingency plan. She didn’t dwell on it, and nothing on the agenda had asked for it.
Weeks later, I met with a consultant on the other side of the country. She had spent decades at a large consulting firm before deciding to go out on her own. In personality and in depth of experience, the two couldn’t have been more different. But something told me they should know each other.
So I introduced them. Not to pair them up as business partners, just because two very smart women might learn from each other. Eventually, they built a partnership and began working together on certain consulting projects.
There was nothing in it for me when I made that introduction. I didn’t make it for that reason. But the firms I led distribution for went on to have ongoing success with both of them, long after they met.
That’s the part that gets missed. Advocacy for advisors isn’t charity, and it isn’t opposed to the provider’s interests. The partners who are best supported tend to become the partners you most want to work with.
What growth for providers actually means
Providers invest a lot in growth plans. But in my experience, partner strategies are often built on assumptions and rarely shared with the channel they depend on.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe: the greatest growth opportunities aren’t always the ones we’re pursuing, and they aren’t always a new RFP. Sometimes they’re the ones we haven’t discovered because we’re not asking the right questions. The most valuable thing I heard in Florida wasn’t on any agenda, and it wasn’t a bid. It was one sentence, said in passing.
I saw this at scale when I led a pilot focused on gathering deeper partner insight. I expected to validate what we already knew. Instead, the conversations surfaced priorities and opportunities that rarely came up in traditional meetings or business reviews. Some of the most valuable ideas required little or no budget.
When it was over, I wasn’t struck by how much we learned about our partners. I was struck by how much we learned about ourselves.
Why the two belong together
People sometimes hear “advocacy for advisors” and “growth for providers” as two different jobs. I see them as one conversation.
Advisors support what they help shape. When they feel heard, they engage. When providers understand what their partners actually need, they make better decisions about where to invest. And partners remember who helped them without asking for anything back.
Advocacy without growth is goodwill. Growth without advocacy rarely lasts.
One question I always make room for is, “What’s the one thing you’re worried about that you haven’t told me yet?” The answer is rarely about the reason the meeting was scheduled, and it’s often something no one else had thought to ask.
How the work fits together
That’s why I founded LUCEN Perspectives, and why the work follows a simple path:
Know Your Channel™ opens the conversation. It’s a focused two-hour session with two or three partner stakeholders who have real visibility and influence. It isn’t a sales presentation. It’s a conversation built for candor.
The L.E.N.S. Discovery Framework™ gives that conversation structure, so the right questions get asked and the answers are heard.
The Actionable Partner Plan™ brings what we learned back to the table, confirming priorities in the partner’s own words and turning them into shared priorities, stronger relationships, and measurable growth.
So, did I make it to the next floor?
Advocacy for advisors. Growth for providers. It’s what I’ve done for 35 years, and it’s what LUCEN Perspectives exists to do.
Worth asking honestly: when was the last time you introduced a partner to someone, with nothing in it for you?
If you lead distribution and you’ve ever wondered what your partners might tell you if someone simply asked, I’d love to talk.
Schedule a 20-minute conversation: lucenco.com/contact or DM me on LinkedIn.
Originally published on LinkedIn.