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A talk for the AFA<br />Tuesday March 29, 2011<br />The Art of Obtaining Referrals<br />

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‘Why should you listen to me?’<br />IFA, AFA article – ‘How referrable is your business?’ <br />Advisory panels for Dealer Groups<br />Dealer group & individual firm clients<br />Practice what we preach<br /><ul><li>83% of my clients through referral, 17% through speaking

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Calls, reports & pricing </li></li></ul><li>Overview<br />Need a system & the right mindset<br />Why, How, When & Who factors <br />Yes, there will be an offer if you’dlike to find out more – lucky you!<br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - Why<br />Referrals are ____% of my business and I currently get _____ referrals per year from my top 100 clients<br />Current referral revenue = $_____<br />Goal referral revenue = $______<br />Do you have a system andthe right mindset to close the gap?<br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - How<br />1<br />Find out what your clients really think(via phone, not email or paper based)<br />Independent feedback = value proposition, brand & your best marketing collateral<br />Complaints represent a great opportunity to generate referrals <br />The process will help you ‘earn the right’ for referrals<br />Selling services (intangible) - need evidence of your service quality to counteract fears<br />Increased retained, repeat & referral business <br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - How<br />2<br />Plant ‘referrability seeds’ <br />‘Foreshadow’ the conversation – website, collateral, initial meetings<br />Share your vision of a referrals based business;<br />‘I’m building a business based on providing so much value to my clients, they often want to tell others about me.’<br />‘Please don’t keep me a secret.’<br />Trust Marks –associations, accreditations (quals), power clients, endorsements, guarantee<br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - How<br />3<br />Acknowledge your client’s fears<br />Make it all about them – ‘We love making our clients look good by doing a great job with the contacts they refer us to.’<br />Explain your referral process and the outcomes of any introductions – build their confidence in the process<br />A successful outcome with a referred client strengthens the existing client relationship and should lead to more referrals<br />Is an incentive enough to overcome referral fears?<br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - How<br />4<br />Fish for compliments & Brainstorm<br />Get clients to articulate your value<br />Treat your referral request with importance<br />Be confident & expect to get referrals<br />If you met your clients through referrals, remind them of that<br />Get permission to brainstorm<br />Categories & individuals – ease tension & be aware of potential concerns<br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - How<br />5<br />Get your head in the game<br />Our findings – 80% of clients would refer, only 20% of clients have the ‘referral conversation’ with their adviser<br />Overcoming your own objections:<br />“I often don’t feel I’ve served my clients enough yet to ask” – listen to their comments<br />“I don’t want my clients to think I’m not successful” – if referrals are based on the value you have brought, the easier it will be to ask for referrals<br />“I will look too aggressive and hurt the relationship” – ask from a client centred point of view <br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - When<br />6<br />Pick your moment<br />The opportunities to become more referrable – do you track this in your client contact process?<br />Provide value – memorable experience (early referrability – high gain questions & unrelated value add) & strong client relationships (throughout client lifetime) <br />‘Energy Map’<br />

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Seven Steps to Referral Success - Who<br />7<br />Choose wisely<br />Prospect for referrals using the ‘Ladder of Loyalty’ <br />Start at Ambassadorand Terrorist and work in towards the middle<br />

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Summary<br />Find out what your clients really think & document it<br />Make it easy for clients to complain <br />Have a systematic referral process that your business is comfortable with and that your clients trust<br />Expect to get referrals and have more referral conversations<br />Spend less effort telling people how good the client experience is and more focus on building a more referrable business<br />

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Offer – Client Satisfaction& Referrability Campaign<br />Client Satisfaction Research<br />Retention & Referral indicators, Urgent & General business issues, Additional Business Leads <br />Individual Client reports & Campaign Appraisal reports including Recommendations and Next Steps<br />Referral program<br />Referral Strategies for the ‘Ladder of Loyalty’ clients<br />The ten opportunities to make your business more referrable<br />Take home value<br />Value Proposition alignment, segmentation model (Loyalty Ladder)<br />Referral strategies for Clients and Centre of Influence Partners<br />Increases in New, Repeat, Retained and Referred business<br />Register your interest today to receive one of threefree, in-depth referrability self-evaluations<br />