A TALK FOR THE AFA

TUESDAY MARCH 29 , 2011

The Art of Obtaining Referrals

‘Why should you listen to me?’

IFA, AFA article – ‘How referrable is your business?’

Advisory panels for Dealer Groups

Dealer group & individual firm clients

Practice what we preach

- 83% of my clients through referral, 17% through speaking

- Calls, reports & pricing

Overview

Need a system & the right mindset

Why, How, When & Who factors

Yes, there will be an offer if you’dlike to find out more – lucky you!

Seven Steps to Referral Success - Why

Referrals are ____% of my business and I currently get _____ referrals per year from my top 100 clients

Current referral revenue = $_____

Goal referral revenue = $______

Do you have a system andthe right mindset to close the gap?

Seven Steps to Referral Success - How

Find out what your clients really think(via phone, not email or paper based)

Independent feedback = value proposition, brand & your best marketing collateral

Complaints represent a great opportunity to generate referrals

The process will help you ‘earn the right’ for referrals

Selling services (intangible) - need evidence of your service quality to counteract fears

Increased retained, repeat & referral business

1

Seven Steps to Referral Success - How

Plant ‘referrability seeds’

‘Foreshadow’ the conversation – website, collateral, initial meetings

Share your vision of a referrals based business;

‘I’m building a business based on providing so much value to my clients, they often want to tell others about me.’

‘Please don’t keep me a secret.’

Trust Marks –associations, accreditations (quals), power clients, endorsements, guarantee

2

Seven Steps to Referral Success - How

Acknowledge your client’s fears

Make it all about them – ‘We love making our clients look good by doing a great job with the contacts they refer us to.’

Explain your referral process and the outcomes of any introductions – build their confidence in the process

A successful outcome with a referred client strengthens the existing client relationship and should lead to more referrals

Is an incentive enough to overcome referral fears?

3

Seven Steps to Referral Success - How

Fish for compliments & Brainstorm

Get clients to articulate your value

Treat your referral request with importance

Be confident & expect to get referrals

If you met your clients through referrals, remind them of that

Get permission to brainstorm

Categories & individuals – ease tension & be aware of potential concerns

4

Seven Steps to Referral Success - How

Get your head in the game

Our findings – 80% of clients would refer, only 20% of clients have the ‘referral conversation’ with their adviser

Overcoming your own objections:

“I often don’t feel I’ve served my clients enough yet to ask” – listen to their comments

“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

“I will look too aggressive and hurt the relationship” – ask from a client centred point of view

5

Seven Steps to Referral Success - When

The opportunities to become more referrable – do you track this in your client contact process?

Provide value – memorable experience (early referrability – high gain questions & unrelated value add) & strong client relationships (throughout client lifetime)

‘Energy Map’

Pick your moment6

Seven Steps to Referral Success - Who

Prospect for referrals using the ‘Ladder of Loyalty’

Start at Ambassador and Terrorist and work in towards the middle

Choose wisely7

Summary

Find out what your clients really think & document it

Make it easy for clients to complain

Have a systematic referral process that your business is comfortable with and that your clients trust

Expect to get referrals and have more referral conversations

Spend less effort telling people how good the client experience is and more focus on building a more referrable business

Offer – Client Satisfaction& Referrability Campaign

Client Satisfaction Research

Register your interest today to receive one of threefree, in-depth referrability self-evaluations

Retention & Referral indicators, Urgent & General business issues, Additional Business Leads

Individual Client reports & Campaign Appraisal reports including Recommendations and Next Steps

Referral program

Take home value

Referral Strategies for the ‘Ladder of Loyalty’ clients

The ten opportunities to make your business more referrable

Value Proposition alignment, segmentation model (Loyalty Ladder)

Referral strategies for Clients and Centre of Influence Partners

Increases in New, Repeat, Retained and Referred business