In this Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work Podcast, Meredith Riley, Chief Sales Officer for New Business at iSolved, explores how iSolved’s Center of Influence (COI) program is transforming the way trusted business advisors deliver value to their clients. From benefit brokers to business bankers and accountants, Meredith breaks down why strategic HCM partnerships are no longer optional in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.
Key Discussion Points:
- What a Center of Influence Actually Is: A COI is a person or organization with the ability to shape decisions, connect people, and influence outcomes through credibility, expertise, and network. For iSolved, the ideal COI is a trusted business advisor, such as a benefit broker, accountant, business banker, or HR consultant, someone that business leaders already turn to for guidance.
- Why the One to Many Model Matters: Direct selling is inherently one to one, but the COI model unlocks a one to many dynamic. Through referral and reseller partnerships, iSolved can reach more prospective customers, reduce the cost of acquisition, diversify revenue streams, and amplify its purpose at scale, much like a teacher shaping the minds of hundreds of students over the course of a career.
- Why Advisors Need to Zoom Out: The business world has grown too complex for linear, transactional thinking. Benefit brokers and other advisors who once focused solely on their core subject matter expertise are now being asked bigger questions about culture, retention, and long-term business strategy. Payroll and HR technology, viewed through a strategic lens, becomes a platform of influence and a data engine behind critical workforce decisions.
- The Biggest Misconception Among Prospective Partners: Many advisors hesitate because they assume they need to become experts in HCM themselves. Meredith is clear on this point: they don’t. The goal is to find trusted partners who complement their existing expertise, not to reinvent their careers. Advisors simply need to find the right people who fit into their business model.
- Two Partnership Models Worth Understanding: iSolved supports both a referral model, where the advisor introduces iSolved and steps back while the experts take over, and a reseller model, where the advisor becomes a central figure who delivers HCM technology as part of their own offering. Each model carries different levels of ownership and risk, but both create stickier client relationships and stronger differentiation in the market.
- Trust as the Foundation of Every Partnership: Whether in a referral or reseller arrangement, trust is the thread that holds everything together. Meredith points to consistency, transparency, shared success, and empathy as the building blocks of lasting partnerships. When all three parties, the customer, the partner, and iSolved, benefit and grow together, that trust deepens naturally over time.
- The Bigger Picture for HR Practitioners and Advisors Alike: HR practitioners are overworked and expected to do too much alone. Business advisors are navigating a rapidly changing competitive landscape. iSolved’s message to both groups is the same: you are not alone. Activating the right vendors, partners, and advisors is not a workaround, it is the strategy.
The conversation makes clear that the future of business advisory relationships is not about doing more with less. It is about doing more together. iSolved’s COI program represents a compelling model for how technology providers, trusted advisors, and the businesses they serve can align around shared goals and create something greater than any one of them could deliver alone.
isolved:
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/isolved/
- Website: www.isolvedhcm.com/
Spencer Johnson:
- Meredith Riley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-reilly-33750246
