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March 01, 2007 at 07:00 PM
Did you develop your script, role-play, ask yourself if you’re referable, etc.? Of course, this exercise is extremely valuable for acquiring referrals. The reality is, however, that most financial advisors – and most professionals in general – don’t like to have to ask for referrals. It’s the same reaction most of us have to cold calls – if we don’t have to, we won’t.
Most things that we don’t feel comfortable doing are discontinued after a period of time. So I decided to look for referral generating strategies that don’t require asking. What follows are three proven, referral-boosting strategies that don’t require you, the advisor, to be an expert at asking for referrals.
It’s about the relationship
Some of this industry’s top advisors receive 100 or more referrals each year without ever directly soliciting them. How do they do it? They tell me it’s because of the relationship they have with their clients. The clients simply want to introduce their friends, family and colleagues to the advisor.
Ask yourself a few questions: Do my clients know I care? How do I show or tell them? Do my clients like me? The truth is that if they like you, they will refer more business to you. Performance alone seldom gets you the number of referrals you deserve.
One of the best ways to develop the relationship is through systematic client reviews. Determine how many times you want to meet with each client, record this in your database, schedule the reviews, and schedule their next review while they are in your office for their current review. When you build the relationship in a personal and impactful way, the referrals will start coming in.
Your staff may be repelling referrals
