Are you a financial advisor looking to expand your client base? Well, referrals could be the silver bullet for you. Generating leads from referrals has a 30% higher conversion rate than other forms of advertising your services.
Implementing a successful referral program will make it easier to have productive engagement with clients. This is because of the higher level of trust that this program helps you establish with a prospect before the engagement.
However, you’ll face a lot of challenges during the implementation of this program. But with the right strategies, you won’t have a problem remaining consistent. Here are some robust strategies you should consider.
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1. Start an Incentive Program for Referrals
One of the best client referral ideas is the incentive program. Start this program, then communicate it directly to your existing clients via email. Or you could opt to announce it on your website if you attract significant traffic.
Gifting clients who make the most referrals is a great starting point. You could make this more competitive and available to more people by having first–, second-, and third-place gifts for the participants. This will encourage more people to participate as they’d have a chance of winning something even if they don’t emerge at the top.
Incentives as referral systems for financial advisors are a win-win for all the parties involved. You attract new clients, you reward your customers, and the new clients will benefit from your expert services in the long run.
2. Leverage Social Media
It’s safe to say that social media platforms have gone viral. Today, seven out of ten people use social media as their primary platform for communicating and searching for information. Start connecting with your clients on their social handles more frequently.
This will increase the chances of your client’s friends and their acquaintances bumping into your services. Go a step further and encourage your clients to like, comment, and share your posts. This will go a long way in giving you the exposure that’ll get you to give your business an extra mileage.
You should start a blog on your website as well. Update it with interesting and relevant content regularly to boost the engagement rates with your clients. Make it easier for your audience to share your work with other platforms/friends via a link.
3. Partner with Organizations and Local Societies
Organizations and societies are made up of like-minded individuals with similar goals and objectives. Your task is to identify the ones that might need your services. Once you identify them, you can start making inroads by offering free lectures on family investment and financial planning to their members.
This will have two major outcomes. First, more people will know you and your services. Second, these sessions will give you a glimpse of the specifics of your services that the market wants.
Bring your business cards to these meetings and distribute them to the members. Doing so will accelerate lead generation and conversions for your business
4. Extensive Networking
This is one of the top referral tips that financial advisors should never ignore. Don’t underestimate anyone you come across since you never know who’ll unlock the opportunities for you. You’ll have to be nice to people and show some interest in what they do, which is integral to building cordial relationships.
Once you have established this relationship, you can ask your contacts to talk to their friends about your services. But don’t be too pushy with such requests. Being pushy portrays you as someone who’s manipulative and is only there to further their career.
A good strategy would be to sort of make a trade with the people you network with. Ask them to talk to their contacts about you. In return, offer to market their services to your clients who might be interested.
This is a good strategy because prospects will get your referrals from someone they know and trust. It will be easier for the prospects to approach you this way.
5. Drop the Vague Requests for a Bolder Approach
The biggest impediment to getting referrals is the failure to ask or to make an attempt to get one. However, making vague requests has the same effect as failure to request in the first place. And there are so many ways that you can come off as vague to the client without you knowing.
For instance, ask your client if they know a person who’d require your services. Such a question doesn’t describe the person that you’d like to attract. You come off as a rookie who’s still trying to figure out the clientele to serve.
Try to be direct with your requests and describe the people you’d like the client to give them your referral. If it’s a fund manager, a retiree with a lot of savings, or a wealthy individual in the neighborhood, make it clear to the client.
Painting a clear picture of your targets to the client makes it easier to spread the referrals. If you stick to being vague, then the clients won’t be effective. Most will promise to spread the word but lose interest after a short while because they won’t know who to talk to.
6. Reminders
People tend to forget about sharing the referral because they are engrossed in their activities. Don’t allow this to hold you back from growing your client base. Sending reminders to your clients about these referrals can do wonders.
You should adopt a multipronged approach with these reminders. The overt way is to send emails to these clients once in a while, reminding them to market your services. The covert way is to include subtle reminders in direct conversations or replies to the client’s emails.
Grow Your Business with Referrals
Before using referrals, you must strive to create value for your clients. The core strength of a referral program is the excellent reputation of the business. People put their reputations on the line when they recommend a business for a job; then, the business fails to deliver.
If your service delivery is top-notch, then these referrals will improve your bottom line immensely by expanding your client base. Implement all of the above for the best results, as going for a single strategy isn’t fail-proof.
