Without a doubt, a referral from a client is the most valuable referral you can receive as it does not only demonstrate the strength of your client relationship, but you are most likely to be referred to a prospective client who is similar to your client and one who will come to you with an element of trust borrowed from that close connection.
Simply, they are highly likely to be someone you want to work with and are more likely to become a client.
So, who wouldn’t want to receive a lot more referrals or introductions from their client? Given the above, it is sometimes perplexing that planning for and asking for referrals on a regular basis from established client relationships are not more prevalent and a priority for all practices.
Take a moment to consider:
What your client referral objectives are currently.
How you are tracking against your objective.
What percentage of clients refer at least 2 new clients per annum?
Is it most clients, some, or none?
How many referrals per quarter do you receive from your best referrers?
What do you need to implement and do to achieve at least one referral per month from 80% of your clients?
When is the best time to ask for referrals?
How should you ask?
The questions you should consider are not limited to the list above and are essential to spend time working on if you really want to improve your client referral strategy.
The best practice examples I have observed with advisers result in 2 to 3 new client referrals per month, per adviser. For the sake of this example, let us round that out at 20 new referrals per annum, with a success rate of 75%. That’s approximately 15 new clients per annum!
Over the decades I have observed a number of highly effective ways to ask, which we share during our GROW Adviser Capability program, along with exploring the questions and solutions to the questions that I raised above.
Keep an eye out for my next article:
What is value
How many new prospective clients are referred to you each month from your clients? Do you have a structured client referral program in place? Can your clients easily refer their friends and family via a digital link?
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