New Business Development How to ask for referrals

Invesco Global Consulting
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Key takeaways

  • The challenge:

    Referrals may be the best source of new clients, but you may be apprehensive about asking for them.

  • Our solution:

    Our research-based approach uses a low-risk offer to help friends, colleagues, and family members.

  • Our program:

    “Preferrals,” our business-building program, is built to teach you how to ask and receive referrals.

The challenge: Asking for referrals

You don’t get referrals if you don’t ask, but asking may damage your client relationships. Not asking isn’t good for business. They can be a primary growth engine. Nearly 70% of a practice’s new business was through referrals, according to Cerulli Associates.1

Our solution: “Preferrals”

Our business-building program, “Preferrals,” uses a research-based approach to transform an outdated and potentially harmful referral method into a low-risk offer to help friends, colleagues, and family members. You’ll be shown:

1. The greatest source of new clients

The number one source of new clients for financial professionals was referrals from clients, friends, or family members, according to Cerulli Associates.1 More than half (55%) of new clients come from this source, so we believe it’s important to take a proactive approach.

2. A better approach to proactively pursue referrals

You aren’t asking for anything; you’re simply making your considerable expertise available to anyone that they care about, if and when they need it.

3. Social prospecting methods

It’s a way to make you and your friends comfortable and to clearly communicate that you’re available if they ever need help.

Learn more

  • 1

    Source: Cerulli Associates, The Cerulli Report—U.S. Advisor Metrics 2024: Adding Services to Scale. Analyst Note: Advisors were asked, “Over the past year, what percent of your practice’s new clients were acquired through the following sources: 55.1% from clients, friends, or family members, and 13.4% from centers of influence (COIs). Cerulli Associates utilizes the term “advisor(s)” instead of “financial professional(s)” utilized by Invesco Distributors, Inc.

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