Masterclass on referrals
This week I have had my head buried deep in a book about referrals. There cannot be many advisers who have not at some time or another thought about referrals as being the ‘Holy Grail’ in terms of building their businesses. Unfortunately for many the reality is somewhat different, and a consistent and dependable stream of referrals is as elusive as the Holy Grail was to the Knights of the Round Table.
People who have been around financial services for a while will have no doubt heard from many gurus who have promised a referral business if you simply follow their patter. The trouble is that getting a consistent and dependable stream of good quality referrals requires a lot more than simply spouting a referral pitch.
Many of us, me included, have become cynical of referral systems, and then look on in awe at those people that have a gift of the gab – or so it seems. Yet the evidence is compelling, and talking with firms that have a good stream of referred clients it is hard to ignore the value of referrals.
Over the years I have listened to many ‘experts’ on the subject of referral strategies and tried various systems, but without much success. Clearly it works for some people, but in my experience success is relatively rare. The secret to referrals is something many of us would like to learn, and when I arranged a session on referrals for the local Institute of Financial Planning last year, it was one of the most popular sessions ever.
The speaker was a guy called Matt Anderson and his 90-minute presentation was well received. He kindly gave me a copy of his book, Fearless Referrals, but already cynical I did not actually read it. More fool me. But Mr Anderson persisted with me – I do not know why – and he sent me an advance copy of his revised book. In return he asked me to review it on Amazon. I said yes, so this time I felt obliged to read it.
I am glad I did as I have been having ‘light-bulb moments’ ever since. It is not that any of the other referral gurus I have listened to over the years were wrong, it is just that they were only half right. It is no use having a referral script if you have not done all the preparatory work to lead up to the conversation.
It sounds commonsense really, but sometimes the obvious really does need spelling out. Just think how often we need to spell out to our clients the things that we think are obvious. A key thing to know is what makes us referable? If we do not know, then we are already on a hiding to nothing.
I promised to read the book over a weekend and leave a review, but it quickly became apparent that I had a lot of work to do if I was going to get value from reading it. There are lots of exercises to go through. The review is late, and looks like it will be for some time yet.
Dennis Hall is managing director of Yellowtail Financial Planning
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