If your referral strategy is not yielding results, perhaps you need to take a more targeted approach.
Advisors often give up asking for referrals because they find their strategy is not working, says Matt Anderson, founder of the Referral Authority in Evanston, Ill. But their lack of success is usually the result of not having a system for finding the right referral candidates.
Anderson offers the following advice to help you identify the best referrals for your business:
> Make it routine
Include a note in your agenda to ask for referrals.
“The most practical thing that advisors can do is to set it a goal [to ask for referrals],” says Anderson. Make it an action point in the meeting agenda to indentify two or three referral candidates whenever you are speaking to a client you have a good relationship with.
> Listen carefully
Pay attention to what your clients tell you, even when they go off on a tangent.
“We think we’re listening to things people are saying but really, we listen only to some of it,” Anderson says. “The rest of it we’re just hearing words and they go in one ear and out the other.”
But if you pay closer attention to what clients are saying, Anderson says, you will begin to hear names of people in the client’s network who are potential referral sources.
> Change your questions
If you think your referral strategy is stalling, try some new tactics.
Maybe you are asking the wrong questions when speaking to clients. Anderson recommends following the acronym FORD when talking to clients: friends and family; occupation; recreation; and dreams.
These topics are good conversation starters, he says, that can potentially tap into a person’s network.
> Ask for specifics
Find referrals by being specific in your conversations.
When you ask about “family members” in general, you could be referring to 30 or 40 people for some clients. Instead, Anderson says, ask your clients about their siblings. Or, if you are talking about their circle of friends or their colleagues, ask about their “best” friends and “favourite” colleagues.
> Tell a story
You can jog your clients’ memories for potential referral candidates, Anderson says, by telling a story.
Share an anecdote with a client that demonstrates the various types of clients and businesses you have helped in the past, he says.
For example, if you work with business owners, tell your client about an instance in which you helped someone who was selling his or her business.
Giving a specific example will help your client better understand the kind of referral you are looking for.
IE