It’s always been said that the best way to grow your financial advisory business is through client referrals. However, we all know that getting client referrals is no easy task.
Our research among Financial Advisors shows that activity – getting referrals on an ongoing basis – is, for the great majority, the number one business challenge. The fact is that most of us – unless we are truly gifted in this area – don’t have the ability to gracefully go from the sale to the referral. We’re afraid, we don’t want to be pushy, we don’t want to put off the client. And we’re just too worried about closing the business. Does this sound familiar?
So what’s the solution to this conundrum? It’s learning how to get warm, qualified introductions – the anthesis of referrals. A warm, qualified introduction is when one of your best clients – the kind of client you would love to duplicate – introduces you to one of their qualified close friends, family members or business associates. Someone like them. What makes the introduction truly warm is that it’s done with permission and inclusion.
Here’s the major difference:
Referrals come from a traditional sales based approach where the primary goal is transactional, to make the sale. You provide financial advice to close a sale, to make money and hopefully, to get a referral. But if you don’t get a referral, that sale won’t help increase your activity or future sales.
Warm, qualified introductions are the result of practicing a service based approach where the primary goal is… warm, qualified introductions. These introductions keep your pipeline consistently filled with qualified potential clients, successfully addressing the number one Financial Advisor challenge… new, qualified activity. When you have more activity more implementation follows. As such, having a full pipeline creates tremendous opportunity to grow your income, revenue and business valuation.