1. A talk for the AFA Tuesday March 29, 2011 The Art of Obtaining Referrals

4. 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?

5. Seven Steps to Referral Success - How 1 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

6. Seven Steps to Referral Success - How 2 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

7. Seven Steps to Referral Success - How 3 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?

8. Seven Steps to Referral Success - How 4 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

9. Seven Steps to Referral Success - How 5 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

10. Seven Steps to Referral Success - When 6 Pick your moment 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’

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

12. 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

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