When you get a referral from a client, learn as much as you can from this valuable resource. Two great questions you can ask are:
 

1. What do you like or admire (or respect) about him?
Use this information, in a genuine way, to build rapport with your new prospect. This is often a way to demonstrate your relationship with the referral source and what you might have in common with the prospect.
 

2. What’s going on in his life that’s important to him right now?
We know that money intersects every aspect of a person’s life. We also know that to gain an appointment with a new prospect, we often have to have a compelling reason why they should meet with us now – instead of 6 months from now. The answer to this question can often help you craft that compelling reason.
 

Your referral source is an incredible resource of information about your new prospect. Take the time and ask the questions.
 

If you found this tip helpful, you’re gonna love our Referral Boot Camp for Financial Professionals.
 

www.referralcoach.com/bootcamp

Take a few minutes to calculate the life-time value of your typical ‘A’ client. How much money can an ‘A’ client be worth to you for the remainder of your career?  Now, what would your clients be worth to you if you fully committed to a referral process?  

We’ll be conservative here.  If you adopt a systematic approach to generating referrals, you could probably average at least – some average much more – 1 referral from each of your ‘A’ clients – over the lifetime of your relationship. (I’m being very conservative.)  Then, you convert 40% of those prospects into new ‘A’ clients. We’re already at some significant money for most financial professionals.But remember, the referral process works like compound interest. As you acquire more clients through referrals – you are bringing in people who are predisposed to giving referrals. This effect mushrooms and you soon have a momentum that can’t be stopped.Take a minute to do the math. This should prove to be a very compelling argument to make a full commitment to learning and using a proven referral system.
If you found this tip helpful, you’re gonna love our Referral Boot Camp for Financial Professionals.
  

How do your handle a referral that is interested but doesn’t meet your criteria without offending them or the referral source?Chris

How do you deal with someone who is an elephant but only wants to be transactional and not interested in the process?Thanks
Ray

I recently visited with a prospect who was referred to me by a young Trust & Estate attorney from the largest law firm in Bflo. I visited w the prospect at her home and I thought I developed decent rapport with her. She absolutely meets my optimal client profile.

The prospect told me that she was meeting with one other advisor and we agreed to speak the week following that meeting. I got a voice mail from her over the weekend that she has decided to select the other advisor as he works on an hourly, fee-only basis and will teach her how to do the investing, etc on her own.

I charge a fee for investment management but it is 1% of AUM in perpetuity.

What would you do in follow up if you were me?

Thanks,

Will

_______________________________________________________________________

Will, 

I think I’d wish her well, let your referral source know, and then maybe check in with her in 4-6 months (or sooner if you think that makes sense).  You might see what the attorney has learned and what he advises – based on what he knows about her. I wouldn’t totally let go of her – yet – but I wouldn’t spend too much time on her either.  Things change, and it would be good for her to remember a very favorable impression of you. 

Make sense?  Bill

We have client surveys that are filled out and returned by our clients. One them they ask whether or not they would be willing to give a referral. For the ones that said yes how would you bring that up in a thank you letter? 

 - JB

This is a very good question! Perhaps the best way to answer your question is with a sample “script.” Of course, you need to make this your words, not mine.

“George, I want to thank you for completing the client survey our company sent to you. Your feedback is very important to us. And thank you for the kind words and high ratings. I have a question. I noticed that you checked ‘yes’ to the question that you’d be willing to refer me to others. I’m wondering. When you said ‘yes’ to that question, did you have a specific person or people in mind, or was it more of a general vote of confidence?” Now… you’ll get one of two responses:

1. They have one or more people in mind. If so, you talk about them and go for introductions.

2. It was more a vote of confidence. If this is their response, proceed with the “script” below.  

“Well, I appreciate that. You should know that I’m never too busy to see if I can be of service to others you care about. Would you be open to brainstorming a little to see if we can identify some people you care about who should really know about what I do?”

Finally, if you can’t bring yourself to asking for referrals in this context, your alternate response could be:

“Well, I appreciate that. It’s important that you know that I’m never too busy to see if I can be of service to others you care about. You should also know, that our processes and systems are geared toward working with successful people just like yourself. We do our best work for folks who have substantial assets - as you do - and who have slightly complicated financial scenarios.” (You can substitute whatever “profile” you want to here.)   

Here’s a great client gift idea I learned from one of our recent Referral Boot Camp Participants.  When you want to say “thank you” to a client who owns their own business, consider buying them some nice indoor plants along with a maintenance plan for 1 year.

Question:

I just read the article, “End of Year Gifts for Clients” and thought it was great. We try to send personalized gifts to our clients as well. We have given some great gifts to those that referred someone to us that became a client. My question for you is what about birthday gifts? Are they necessary or should we focus only on end-of-year referral gifts? We’re currently doing both and want to know if our money is better spent elsewhere.

Answer:

Thanks for taking the time to write.

I have no strong opinion either way regarding sending birthday gifts.

My gut reaction is “yes” do this for your “A” clients or Centers of Influence who you want to treat like your “A” clients.

Pull out all the stops for your “A” clients and COIs. Pull back somewhat for your “B” clients and even more for your “C” clients.

The first place you want to look in your client list for referrals is your client “love list.” First of all, you can come to this conversation with these clients with a great deal of confidence. They love you. You can’t hurt this relationship by asking for referrals.

So go through your client list and identify those 10, 20, 30 or more clients who love you. Talk to them about the value they are receiving from you and your processes. Then brainstorm with them about who they think should know about you.

Today: Take a look at your client base and identify your “love list”. Then, have your assistant call them to set up a meeting to bring more value and ask for referrals.