Building a Referral Pipeline

When it comes to building a referral pipeline, the first step is to clearly articulate the value of your team, but how do you do that? As you already know, the more assets a client accumulates, the more complex their financial challenges become. That's where you and your team come in. Because at some point, the client's complexities will require a team of highly specialized financial professionals, just like you. So when you're developing your team's value proposition, you should consider including the following ideas into your story. First, the idea that you are a team of complimentary specialists who can help them meet all of their needs. Second, that you can either access broad institutional capabilities or possess this expertise on your team. Third, that your team works together to ensure that all of the strategies and recommendations work in concert with their wealth management plan. That's how you can present yourself as a synergistic team that can help the client meet each of their goals.

Another important step in building your referral pipeline is to craft a compelling client engagement message. In our industry, every client essentially has two fundamental questions. Number one, will I make it? And number two, do I have any potential financial blind spots? So, your client message should include the ideas that you uncover potential blind spots and create a plan that will help them reach their goals. Clients will naturally want to know how you do this. And one option is to use the doctor analogy. The doctor reviews your symptoms and diagnoses the problem, will analyze the information and provide you with a prognosis. Then we'll design your specific treatment plan. As financial professionals, you work with your clients in a very similar way. You conduct discovery to understand where they are now. You create a wealth plan to help them get where they want to go. Then you build their distinct portfolios and initiate their financial plans. And naturally, just like the doctor continues to monitor a patient's progress and overall health. You do the same with your client's wealth.

Another step in building your referral pipeline is preferrals. Which is scripting high impact requests for client introductions. Everyone talks about referrals, but few financial professionals actually asked for them. Why? The easy answer is that asking for referrals is awkward and uncomfortable. But, Invesco looked further and found that the very act of asking puts the obligation on your client, creating an imbalance that can ultimately damage your relationship. And that's not what you want. The solution? Moving from asking to offering. And here's a way to ask for a referral and a direct interaction with a client using preferrals. Consider starting your script by explaining why you don't ask for referrals. Which could be that you don't want clients to feel obligated. Then you explain some of the concerns you have, like investors being unprepared for today's environment or having financial professionals who don't consider holistic wealth. Next, you make an offer like, I'd be happy to be a second set of eyes for the people that you care about the most. Just a simple act of using an offer rather than a request is powerful and game changing. Now go and create your own preferral script.

Another way to ask for referrals is in a social interaction. To do so, you'll need to do what we like to call breaking the social prospecting dance. Now I'm sure you have friends and acquaintances that you run into socially from time to time. You know, those people that you'd like to work with, but you're afraid to ask for fear of looking like a pushy salesperson or for the real fear of creating an imbalance in your personal relationship. That's a very reasonable concern. But here's where the idea discussed in preferrals comes back into play, specifically making an offer rather than asking for business. We like to call this the favor of the second opinion and here's how it works. In step one of this offer, you're allowing them the option of a second opinion if they ever have a question or would like a second set of eyes. And think to yourself, hey, we get second opinions in healthcare. Why not in financial services? In step two, you put the ball in their court by explaining that your door is always open for them. And since some of your friends and acquaintances don't necessarily ask you to help because they don't believe you're taking on new clients or they think you might be too busy or successful, in step three, we let them know that you're able to selectively take on new clients. Now here's an example of what that script might sound like. "Mary, I know we run into each other frequently at these events, and I just wanted to let you know that as a friend, if you ever have a financial or investment-related question, or would simply like a second opinion, I would be more than happy to make myself and my team available to you. Please also know that our friendship means more to me than any business relationship that could materialize. So I'll leave the ball in your court to reach out if and when that need should arise. I just want you to know that my door's always open to you. So with that in mind, what are your vacation plans for this summer?" Now that simple script, you'll notice I used three steps that we discussed earlier. I offered a second opinion. I explained that my door's always open and I let the friend know that I'm able to take on new clients and relationships. Using this method, you too can break the social prospecting dance without potentially damaging any of the relationships and or offending any of your friends or social acquaintances.

The fifth step in building your referral pipeline is client replication and niche marketing. Now I'm sure all of you have those clients that you just love working with, the ones you wish you could clone. The first step is to identify those individuals and find an opportunity to speak directly with them about this. It could be at a regular review, a social event, a lunch, dinner, whatever works. Now, as you're getting into that conversation, tell them and articulate how much you enjoy working with them and why, then ask if they can think of other people just like them, who might be a great fit for working together. Now, when it comes to creating or further developing a niche market, the process is very similar. Perhaps you've noticed that a number of those ideal clients might come from the same industry. Like, for example, maybe the medical profession, or maybe there's a specific subset of an industry you'd like to focus on, like, say, surgeons. The first step is to clearly identify the niche that you have or that you aspire to have. Then, you can funnel those opportunities and find the connectors and identify centers of influence that exists within your book today. Finally, you want to develop a script that works both for you, and your clients. So, you would start by identifying what attracts you to each of those niches and why you like working with those individuals and that client in particular. We would caution you to be genuine about those responses. Consider asking them how, if they were in your shoes, trying to build a business within this niche, how they might go about building this out, then meet with one of your favorite niche clients and try out your script. Now, the key principle to this script, is to tell them why you like working within that niche and clients like them, and then, of course, asking how they might build out this niche, if they were you. To start in this process, simply reach out to your Senior Advisor Consultant here at Invesco, and complete our Practice Innovation Index, powered by Cerulli, which will help you assess the strengths and challenges of building your specific niche markets and client replication strategies.

Thank you for your time, I hope you found it informative. If you have any questions or for more information on this, or other programs from Invesco Global Consulting, please reach out to your Senior Advisor Consultant. Thank you.