Participants:
Steve Wershing
Julie Littlechild
Stacey Brown Randall
Steve Wershing: First, we go back to the basic principles and talk about how to incorporate referrals into your routine interactions. And we clarify what a referral really is, which is fundamental to a personality that attracts referrals. She digs into how to respond to that common client comment that, someone mentioned us, but that too often does not result in an introduction or a new client. We discuss how to address referrals with centers of influence and we talk about how to incorporate referrals into new client interactions, to lay the groundwork for future referrals. There’s a lot in this episode. So, let’s get right to it. Here then is our conversation with Stacey Brown Randall. So, welcome for a second time to our charmingly sarcastic guest, Stacey Brown Randall. Welcome back Stacey. Julie Littlechild: Steve Wershing: Well, for all of you listening, who don’t listen to Stacy’s podcast, which is the Roadmap To Grow Your Business podcast, which is wonderful, that’s in the introduction, so I figured I’d just, I had to leverage that and- Julie Littlechild: Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: But, I’ve been teaching this now for eight years and… Or a little bit longer, and so as I find myself teaching, even sometimes when it’s someone just stops me, like I happen to be at an event and someone stops me or we happen to have a conversation and they’ll ask questions about, “Okay, how do I do this referrals thing without asking?” What I realized is that sometimes I find myself finding different ways to explain the same topic in a way that allows the more light bulbs to go off. And so typically what people ask me about is how do I get more referrals? And I focus in on what I would call the center layer of a referral strategy, which is how do you get more referrals from your existing referral sources. From those folks who have referred you in the past, what’s the process, what are the steps, to be able to generate referrals from them. And that is usually the heart and soul of where I tell folks to consider starting if they’ve received referrals in the past, because to be honest, it’s the easiest. If someone has referred you in the- Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: And then if we’re looking at one layer outside of that, those are the people that, you know have the potential to refer you; they just never have and so, whereas the strategies are somewhat similar to the existing referral sources, these people have never referred you. So, you have to cultivate them differently to get them to refer you the first time. And then there’s what I call these ancillary layers that shoot off from there, that are about, well, how do you turn a prospect into a potential referral source? If they’re talking to you about hiring you, what can you do to also turn those folks into referral sources? What do you do to also make sure your client experience is turning people into referral sources? And then what do you do in networking situations where you’re talking to maybe a stranger or maybe somebody you’ve known for a year and you’re trying to generate referrals there too. So, what I tell folks is, is where it can sound overwhelming to have a holistic kind of approach to your referrals, these are pieces and parts that we kind of start in one place and then when we’re good there, we layer on the next layer until we have this overall holistic strategy. Steve Wershing: But let’s back off of that for just a second, before we start talking more about how that layering works and, and those different things and let’s talk about basic principles first. So, just to sort of clarify where you come from Stacey about, about referrals, can you tell us a little bit about what in your view are some of the principles that generate referrals? Stacey Brown Randall: And so what I always tell folks is, the ability to generate referrals starts with one founding principle, and that is, you got to do great work. What you do has to be great. You have to be referable. You have to be worthy of people wanting to talk about you and so that is this underlying foundational principle. And then from there, what I like to teach people is, okay, let’s also make sure we know what a referral is. So we want to be referable, great, but what are you actually receiving if you do great work and you are referable and that is, is that you understand what a referral is, which means a referral is always a prospect that has been connected to you by a referral source, because that’s where the trust transfer happens. The referral source knows that you can solve this prospect’s problem and they trust you, so they transfer their trust to the prospect and they connect you to them, and the prospect has a need identified. So the best referrals that a financial advisor is going to receive is somebody who is looking for a new financial advisor. For whatever reason, they’ve made that decision and they are reaching out to someone they trust to connect them with the best possible person. So, it’s got to always have personal connection and need identified and that- Julie Littlechild: Stacey Brown Randall: And those are the terms that people confuse with referral. So, when you think about it, if I were to say, “Hey, Julie, oh my gosh, I’m connecting you…” Like over email, like, “Hey Julie, I’m connecting you to Steven. He’s awesome. You guys should get to know each other. Steven. Julie’s awesome. You should get to know her, happy connecting.” A lot of people will look at that and be like, “Oh, I just got referred.” And my response to that is, no, you got connected by an introduction to somebody, but you don’t know who’s supposed to be buying from whom or it’s truly just, “Hey, we’re being connected to grow our network.” It’s the same thing but the opposite with word of mouth buzz. It’s like someone says, “Oh my gosh. Julie, I was talking about you the other day to my neighbor… Absolutely has to hire you. I told them how amazing you are. Don’t worry I gave them your contact information. They’ll follow up.” Whereas that feels like a referral because the need was identified, there was actually no personal connection, because you don’t know who that person is. There’s a person walking around that needs to hire you and you don’t know who they are and you’re not in the driver’s seat. So, whereas an introduction lacks the need, hasn’t been identified, word of mouth buzz, lacks the fact that the personal connection hasn’t been made. And so when I talk about with being able to identify a referral, it’s recognizing, “Do I have these two pieces?” Personal connection and need identified? Or is it an introduction or word of mouth buzz? So, that’s like that first step. Then the second step really is actually what you first asked me, which is, okay, now how, if it was a referral, personal connection, need identified, how well did the referral source set you up in terms of really honing in on the need or really talking about how amazing you are, so that that conversation with the prospect goes smoother when you have that first conversation? Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: Steve Wershing: Right. Stacey Brown Randall: Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: And so what it means when you get connected by them, you may have to do a little digging to figure out what exactly was the conversation that happened to where my name came up, so that you can hone in and really understand, okay, what’s the pain point, what’s the need we’re trying to solve. And am I, which I think every advisor owes to every client they work with, am I the right person to help you solve that problem? Julie Littlechild: Steve Wershing: Julie Littlechild: Steve Wershing: Julie Littlechild: Stacey Brown Randall: So it’s recognizing that referrals come from relationships. So your job is to develop better relationships with your referral sources and to ultimately understand. And this is kind of like that other founding principle that I have is, don’t ask those people for referrals. They don’t want to be asked. My guess is you probably don’t want to ask. There’s a small minority in the world that actually enjoy asking for referrals. Most of us don’t fit into it. And so it’s figuring out, you got to look at this from a different approach to take care of them and a different way to generate those referrals, because hope is not a strategy either. We’re not just going to hope that they come, we’re going to do some work to make them come, but we’re going to understand where it lies within terms of taking care of the relationship with our referral sources and making sure we don’t ask for referrals, but also that we do great work, we are referable and we know what a referral is when it arrives. Julie Littlechild: Stacey Brown Randall: And so their triggering piece is still a part of what I teach. I just take it out of that asking mentality. And I look at how do I honor and respect the person who’s going to refer me? So what I teach and what my clients learn is this language piece of how we plant these referral seeds and they’re embedded within our gratitude and our thankfulness for the referrals we have received and how we take care of our clients and how we’re memorable and meaningful. But we are weaving in the language of referrals. And the easiest example I can give is that anytime someone sends you a referral and you were going to write a handwritten, thank you note. And yes, I mean, handwritten, even if your handwriting is terrible, but if you’re going to, when you, I shouldn’t say if, when you write that handwritten thank you note the easiest way to plant a referral seed and the most direct way in that moment, because seeds are based on the situation, the referral seeds are based on situations. In that moment, the easiest and the direct, and the best way to plant a referral seed is to use what we call the thank by name, which is you’re going to say, so let’s say for sake of argument, Julie, you had referred Stephen to me. So then I would say, “Julie, thank you for referring Stephen to me.” It is that one sentence that needs to be in every thank you note you write. Now, how you start that card, how you end that card. I mean, there’s some specific things I teach, but it really depends on your relationship with the referral source. It’s the ability to remind. I’m reminding Julie that you referred me Steven, and it plants the seed that, “Oh, that’s right. I did refer Stacy. Oh. And look at that. I get a thank you note. I really appreciate her taking care of me in that way and acknowledging what I did do,” and the crazy thing about it is, and it’s really sad to say that we… I think we’ll be talking about this unfortunately forever, which I guess in some ways it’s great because it’s why I have a company. People don’t always take the time to say thank you. Now, I don’t believe you can unleash a referral explosion because you write thank you cards every time you receive a referral. I think it is a piece of the strategy you have to have in place to show them that you’re worthy of more referrals. And then you have to have a strategy behind it to generate more referrals. But this whole concept of seeds, it’s just the language that we use. And there’s direct and indirect ways that we plant referral seeds. We don’t always plant them in every single scenario. There’s a nuance and a cadence to it of how we do it. And it’s that idea that we are going to trigger them thinking about us because we’re taking care of them and showing our gratitude and thankfulness for them referring us, in this situation, but also reminding them of what they did and that’s how we plant the referral seed by saying, thank you for referring so and so to me. Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: Steve Wershing: Julie Littlechild: Stacey Brown Randall: So that’s when we know it’s happening though, so it’s about, “Hey, I talked about you and they’re going to follow up. Like we know because they’ve told us,” but to your point, Julie, there’s like this whole other side of it where people are talking about us and people are sharing how great we are and how people should work with us, but they’re never telling us and that person’s never following up. Sometimes they do. I mean, sometimes I’ll have people reach out and they’ll be like, “Hey, so-and-so told me I should connect with you and I should go through your program.” And I’m like, awesome, had no idea, because that person, the referral source who told them, never connected them with me. They connected themselves, which is great. But it is that ability for you. And I always tell my students to keep your eyes and ears open for those things. We don’t know what’s happening when we’re not around or when people aren’t telling us what’s happening, but people leave clues to that. They leave clues, like even if it’s half mentioned in an email that they send to you where they… Maybe they’re talking about something else and they’re just… You like, “Gosh, I love working with you. I tell my friends about you, I love working with you. I told a couple of people at a barbecue last week, how great you are.” It’s recognizing those moments and then not letting them pass. And so again, if someone’s talking about you and you never find out about it, it’s hard to try to recreate that. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. But it is the ability when people leave like little breadcrumbs that they are probably saying things about you for you to kind of hone in on that and have a conversation with them, getting them to the point where they will actually make the connection to that person that they were talking to. And so that’s an important step that people have to pay attention to. And the truth is the more people are talking about you out there in your marketplace, whatever size your marketplace is, whether that’s a local or a larger scale, eventually they start bubbling up and you can start paying attention to them, which is why it’s also really important when someone reaches out to you and says, “Hey, I was told that I needed to connect with you,” that you try 14 ways from Sunday to get them to remember who told them that because you have an obligation to go back to that person and be like, “Hey, so-and-so reached out to me. They said it was because of you. And I want to thank you for it.” And so, I mean, I don’t need you to ask 14 ways from Sunday, the same question over and over again. But it’s your ability to kind of prod a little bit at that person over time to see if they can remember how they heard about you, because we leave opportunities laying around all the time with situations like that, because we’re just not attuned or we’re just not willing to take the extra step to go do a little digging. Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: And the bigger thing here is, is the truth is you need to come at this from the opinion that they’re only not following up because they got busy and they may just need to know where your contact information is when it comes time to follow up. And that’s why you ultimately want to be connected. And if your referral source is really holding off on making that connection, it’s also important for you to really pay attention to, well, when they’ve referred me in the past, how did I respond? That may be giving them a little hesitation. Maybe it’s nothing you’ve done. They just haven’t gotten around to making the connection for you, even when you’ve asked them to, or maybe it’s because they’re so afraid you’re going to go into attack dog mode. And they’re like, “Whoa, I don’t want these people to feel attacked. I just know how amazing you are,” which you may have never done before. Or maybe you have and you need to overcome that with how you respond to anyone referred to you from that point forward because you get to right that wrong so to speak. And most people, when they refer a financial advisor for the first time, they are so scared of the attack dog mode. It’s just built in, I think, into like, kind of like the reputation, unfortunately, advisers have, which is not fair, which is, if I connect you with this person, they’re going to go into attack dog mode. And then they’re going to be like hitting you up to have 14 meetings and the person’s going to get mad at me. And so your follow-up has to be done very well. And it has to be more like, “Hey, I know we were connected. So thankful. Here’s my contact information. Love to schedule time when you have time.” And it’s got to be what I call easy breezy that follow-up has to be easy breezy. And so it’s paying attention to when people say they’re talking about you, but they’re not connecting you. Is it just because they need to be told how to make the connection? Or is there something else underlying there where they’re not going the extra mile to actually make the connection for you and they’re not giving you the names or anything like that. There’s some unpacking sometimes that has to be done. Julie Littlechild: Stacey Brown Randall: So when someone says, “Hey, you should go hire this advisor.” The first question will be, “Do you work with them?” And your referral source, if they’re not a client and they’re a COI, they need to have a response to that, that they’re very comfortable with; and that is obviously the truth, but there’s a reason why they would still refer that person to you, even though they don’t personally work with you. And I think that’s really, really an important piece for people to understand. Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: So, yes. Do I think you need a sticky client experience where you can have specific points where you’re dropping in referral seeds. Absolutely. But one that I think you can do with clients new or existing, and one I think that you should do in networking opportunities when you’re just kind of out meeting with people in your network is really honing in on how you answer questions that you’re going to be asked all the time. And typically those are going to be like, “Hey, how’s business, how’s it going?” And most people respond to that question with, “Oh, it’s great. Things are wonderful. Thanks so much kids are getting so big.” Or, “We just moved offices,” or whatever it is. And so they, they answer with well-meaning, but very generic answers. And so in that case, I always tell folks you’re missing out on an opportunity when somebody asks you, how’s it going, or how’s business for you to plant a referral seed. Now, will it go anywhere with somebody you’ve just met at a networking event? I don’t know. We don’t know until you actually try applying it. Does it have the opportunity to take root with a new client or an existing client? Yes, because you’re going to have more opportunities to have conversations with them going forward. But the answer of the how’s business question and plant that referral seed is really simple in terms of just saying, “Business is actually really good. Things are going great. Thanks so much for asking. I was actually just reviewing my third quarter results. And, I was looking at the number of new clients I brought on board and 70% of them were referred to me by other clients,” or, “90% of them were referred to me by other clients,” or whatever it is that’s real. Please don’t lie, like you can’t even make this stuff up. I shouldn’t have to say that, but I always feel this need to say it. Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: You’re just planting that seed in that moment with folks that you were working by referral. Yes. And there are people who are doing it recently. And so I think that’s really important. And when, as long as it’s factual, you’re going to have confidence in saying it, the best part about that conversation though, is, is you don’t need to, they keep talking about it. I mean, you’ve planted the seed just by answering the question and then turning the question back to them about, “Hey, how are you doing?” And if they own a business, maybe you get in a conversation about their referral generation. And if they don’t own a business and they work for a company, maybe you don’t, but it’s just looking for those opportunities and knowing what to say in those moments to be able to just plant a seed. And we’re just going to see if we plant it. And then maybe if we have the opportunity to water it and take care of it and fertilize it in the future, it’ll actually fertilize itself right into a beautiful referral that you’ll receive, which if you have the very middle… The very beginning, first layer of my layering process, you’ve already got a strategy in place for people who refer you. So you get that new referral from that new referral source, and then they drop right into your process, your system. So you can continue to cultivate referrals from them. Julie Littlechild: Stacey Brown Randall: And that gives you what I would refer to as your list of gold. And I truly believe is your business’s biggest asset. Yes, your clients are amazing. And I’m so glad you have all… The AUM that you’re doing. And you’ve got all the things that are happening in your business, but the people who send you clients easiest possible, they are your business’s biggest asset. And so from that perspective, it’s knowing who is actually referring you. And I think when people look at kind of the layering approach, kind of that visual that we have, that they can find on your show notes page for this episode, they’ll be able to figure out, okay, we start from the left side of this page and we identify our existing referral sources. And then here’s all the additional layers that we can add on. I think that visual helps people know here’s, what’s coming after you start. But to your question, you have to start first by identifying who your referral sources are, if you have any. And if you don’t, that informs where you go next. And if you do that informs where you start. Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: But I would say that the podcast and the book are two great places to start. Of course, we have lots of other resources available on the website. We have a Facebook group Referrals Without Asking. I mean, we have more places to find resources and information that they need, but just figuring out, “Hey, I want to take this next step.” I would say is really hone in on identifying your referral sources. And then once you’ve done that, trust me, when you look at that list and you want to learn more, there’s plenty of resources I have available for you. Steve Wershing: Stacey Brown Randall: Julie Littlechild:
Welcome to Becoming Referable, the podcast that shows you how to become the kind of advisor people can’t stop talking about. I’m Steve Wershing. On this episode, we welcome back Stacey Brown Randall, author of Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, host of the Roadmap To Grow Your Business podcast and someone who coaches business owners and sales professionals on how to be referral ninjas. We invited her back for a second visit on the podcast because we wanted to have her discuss some of the current thinking about layering of referral conversations.
There’s a title.
That’s funny.
share the joke.
Oh my gosh. I love it. I mean, you only remember that and Stacey with an E, I think if you’ve listened to the podcast many, many times.
Exactly.
So, thank you Steven for being a listener of my podcast as well.
That’s right. Well, I’m a devoted fan. So, we’re very excited to have you back on the program. We love your philosophy and we love how you go about doing this and so, I know that you’ve got a couple of new things to talk about, so we’re thrilled to have you back and talk all about how to get more referrals. So, thank you for joining us back.
Yes, thank you guys for having me.
You and I had corresponded and what you had brought up in that conversation was talking about a layered approach to getting referrals. So, let’s just jump right in on that. So, what is a layered approach to referrals?
Perfect. Okay. So, if any of the listeners remember back to the episode that I was on first with you guys, which I believe is back in October of 2018, so, you’d have to go back a little bit to actually listen to that episode, but we really kind of dove into how I came up with my strategy to generate referrals without asking. And specifically these five steps that I teach to people about being able to generate referrals without asking for them.
Sure.
past, and now you can have a strategy in place to take care of them, then ultimately you’re going to be able to generate more referrals from them and build on that. But the truth is there are a few more layers that people need to keep in mind if they want what I call that holistic referral strategy and so, if you think about the core being, “Hey, you’ve got referral sources.” We call them existing referral sources. “Let’s get more referrals from them.” That’s your core center.
Yeah, and I really love that whole perspective of it being a holistic thing, about it being, who you are and how you relate to people as opposed to attack the guy. I had to laugh when you said before, people approach you at conferences and say, “How do I do this referrals thing?” It’s a little bit like talking to your doctor and saying, “How do I do this health thing?” It’s a way of living. It’s a way of having the relationships and so, I like the idea about we spend so much time talking about one of these layers or one of these situations, but that it’s actually sort of a continuum of different things that get layered on top of each other, as you gradually usher people through the process of getting to know you, liking you, trusting you, doing business with you, and then telling all their friends about you and generating referrals for you.
Yeah, I think that’s a great place to pause and make sure we’re all on the same page and because we have overused and diluted, I believe, the power of what a referral is when we use it interchangeably with other types of sales terms and when we don’t truly understand its definition and we don’t ultimately understand where referrals come from. So, I think it’s great to just revisit that quickly.
Can I just pause on that one, just to understand. So, in cases where the need isn’t as specific or the introduction isn’t direct, do you see those as sort of good quality, bad quality referrals? Or is there a continuum there? Because you’re honing in on that ideal, which makes sense. I just wonder how you think about the others.
So there are. So, I would say that a better referral is all based in the setup. So, depending on how your referral source sets you up, when they make that connection to that prospect, is going to be whether or not that referral is truly like the best thing you’ve ever received, because they’re quicker to close, easier to close and less price sensitive. They’re like, “Just work with me.” But definitely sometimes our referral sources don’t set us up as well as we would like and so we still have to do a little trust building where we still have to make sure that they have the exact need that we can solve, is there, but in absence of that connection and need identified, whether the referral source sets you up amazingly well or not so well, it’s not the same thing as an introduction or a warm lead or word of mouth buzz.
And Stacey, if I could ask you about a possible clarification, you were saying that they have a need identified and that a referral is somebody who makes a personal introduction and says, “You need a financial advisor; here’s a financial advisor who can help you.” That my suggestion would be that that title, that label is not what you’re shooting for. What we want to do is drill down into that need. So, if you say, “Oh, you’re coming up on retirement. Well, I know a guy who’s expert at coaching people through that,” or, “If you have this financial need, I know people who do that.” So, connect you with the need as opposed to, with the title. What are your thoughts about… Is that more powerful in your view or is it the same?
No, I think definitely, I think it is to connect with the need is definitely more powerful. And let’s be honest, when it comes to the financial advising space, nobody just wants to be connected to a financial advisor.
At the end of the day they want to be connected to someone that can solve a very specific problem, because when we’re talking about our future or the money mistakes we’ve made in the past, or trying to figure out how to leave a legacy for our children, those are the most highly sensitive conversations that we’re ever going to have with someone, which means the ability to be referred to someone that can solve my distinct problem is ultimately what I’m looking for. I’m not looking for a jack of all trades, in that situation.
Well, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And we talk so much about the need for specialization, the need for differentiating you from other advisors that there are plenty of folks who have the label financial advisor, but you want the person who’s good at Stacey’s problem and the particular challenge that Stacey faces and that, that way, it’s not just open to any financial advisor, but Julie, specifically is the person that Stacey needs to talk to.
And most people can help someone identify, “Oh, wait, you’ve a retirement coming up. Oh, I know the exact person.” And in some cases, some of our referral sources, the people who are well-meaning that want to refer us or have referred us, they don’t always make that connection to exactly what the need is.
So you talked Stacy about, doing great work, understanding what a referral is, and then I took you completely off base… Can I, I want to make-
That’s usually my job-
I know
How did you did you jump into that?
well, you’re welcome. So I just wanted to make sure we’d covered all the bases on those fundamental principles.
Yes. Perfect. So what I had talked about was the ability to do great work and to understand what an actual referral is. And then in addition to that, it’s also understanding this underlying philosophy that everything I teach comes from, which is, referrals only come from relationships. They don’t come because you ask a prospect or ask a client or ask a COI and then ask them 32 times after that, referrals come because somebody trusts you, especially when they are referring somebody who is so intricately involved in their client’s lives. I mean, there are a few people that people, when they make the decision to hire a financial advisor and in some cases a CPA or an attorney, that these people become intricately involved their lives. And so referrals are better suited for them more. I mean, every industry needs them, but in particular with these industries.
Okay. And so one of the things you’ve talked about is planting seeds for referrals. I think that’s a really interesting idea. Can you talk a bit more about that? Maybe give us some examples?
Yeah, so the referral seeds that I talk about that people are planting, is it’s just the language that we use. And it’s a very specific language that we use. And the way that I explain it is this, almost everything in life is going to happen because of a trigger. I mean, ultimately when your alarm clock goes off in the morning it is a trigger for you to either get out of bed or hit snooze. It is, that is if you are one of the people who wakes up with an alarm clock and not in the minority, they don’t need one. So things happen in life based on a trigger. That’s where the basic advice of asking for referrals came from as well, decades and decades and decades ago is that, Hey, if I want to get a referral, I need to trigger it. So I need to ask for it.
And I think that’s such an important point. I joke with people that I work with that, yes I wrote a book called Stop Asking for Referrals. I did not write a book called stop talking about referrals, because you’re right. I mean, it is a relationship thing. And I think that’s another important distinction, like the one you made before about understanding what a referral is. It’s so important that we… That referrals is a natural part of what we talk about and a natural part of the conversations we have with clients and that it needs to be in there and to the extent that you can make it natural and as you say, build a system around it. It just creates the environment where all that can come up because you talk about mentioning those kinds of things in a lot of different situations.
Absolutely. It just is that piece of it’s… You know what, it’s no different than any sales training you’ve probably ever gone through or any type of training you’ve ever gone through where you’ve learned a different way of saying something or a different way of doing something. And it’s that concept of understanding, hey, there’s a different way that you can say this, there’s a different way that you can approach this and that’ll have the impact you’re looking for it to have. And so once you understand it, I always tell my students when they’re in my Growth By Referrals program, I’m like, “Guys, first just memorize what I’m asking you to memorize. And then you can professionalize it for your profession and then personalize it for yourself because it needs to be you. It needs to sound like you, but in the beginning when we’re learning these pieces, it’s just a matter of understanding what it is and when you use it and when you don’t use it.” And that I would tell most folks that are… That work with me, they would say that everything makes sense, everything’s like, “Yep. Common sense, common sense, got this, get this,” and then they get to the language piece and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I never thought about it that way.” It’s just a different way of looking at it.
Yeah.
And one of the things you make me think of as you’re talking about this is, is the research that we do that shows that, most clients who in their mind have provided a referral, never get to the point of actually connecting with the advisor. There’s a massive referral gap there. So that goes back to your earlier definitions where I might’ve told my friend, they should really talk to Stacy and then you don’t even know about it. They’re like ghosts. Do you ever deal with how to try to bridge that gap and acknowledge the activity that might be going on and try to turn it into a referral more effectively?
Yeah. I actually think it’s one of the low hanging fruits of referral generation. We call it inside my program, the flip scripts, it’s beat your… But effectively what it is and essentially what it is, is your ability to identify that something’s missing either personal connection or a need identified and then helping your referral source, make the connection with what’s missing and then being able to make that referral actually happen.
So you’ve raised a really interesting point. And where you might get a note or a client may mention to you, “Oh, I mentioned your name a couple of times at that barbecue last weekend.” Do you talk, do you advocate or do you have suggestions about how you might respond to a comment like that? Is there a way that you can dig into that a little bit?
Yeah. I think the easiest thing that you should always say in these situations, and for some case, if you do nothing else, this is the one that I would say is ask for them like, “Hey, do you mind giving me their names, just so I’m on the lookout for them?” At a bare minimum that’s the first thing that I would suggest. Obviously I want you to do a little bit more than the bare minimum, but if you can get the person comfortable enough with giving you those names, then you can definitely have a starting point to eventually then follow back up; maybe a week later and be like, “Hey, I know you said you talked to Tom and Bob about me. I just want to let you know, I haven’t heard from them,” giving them an opportunity to, “Hey, if you want to connect us, that would be great.”
And do these same principles apply with centers of influence. How do you think about that as a separate target group?
So I look at clients and centers of influence the same. If they’ve referred me before I treat them pretty much the same. If they haven’t referred me and I’m wanting them to refer me, then I may look at it a little bit differently because the center of influence doesn’t have the benefit of what a client does, which is intimate knowledge of exactly how you work and exactly how amazing you are. And so from that case, it’s the idea of spending a little bit more time with your centers of influence so they can really trust you. And I actually don’t mean spending more time with you learning anything about how you do business, but their ability and a willingness to understand you do good business, but they trust you on a level to where they would be comfortable referring you, even though they don’t intimately know what it’s like to work with you, because let’s be honest. A lot of times when somebody says, “Hey, you need to go hire Steven,” or, “You need to go hire Julie,” the first question in some cases is going to be, “Oh, do you work with them?”
Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. And another opportunity besides COIs is with new clients. And you talk a little bit about starting to incorporate, talk about referrals early on in the relationship with a new client. Can you tell us a little bit how people can start wrapping the idea of referrals into a relationship with a new client?
Yeah, so you know, it’s interesting, I think one of the best questions that we are always asked when we start a relationship with folks, whether they’re a new client or you even just meet them at a networking event. Is that those conversations that we start with, “Hey how are you doing?” Or, “How’s business?” There are very specific questions.
Sure, rather right, yeah.
“Hey, I just brought on three new clients last month and all of them were referred.” It’s being able in a normal conversation to kind of drop in the reality that you are actually generating business by referrals and whatever that looks like for you, “Hey, I just brought on a new client last week. And they were referred to me by another client. It’s so awesome to get referrals from my clients.”
It sounds like so much of what you’re talking about as being quite intentional with all of your actions. I think it’s easy for us to, like you say, just respond to how are you doing? How’s your business. We just answer the question, but, not winging, might be a better approach for a lot of us. Stacy, are there things that you think advisors should just start doing right now? We always like to try to bring it back and say, “Where should I start this process, whether I’ve… I’m probably getting some referrals now, but I want to increase that.” What would your advice be?
Yeah. So I always tell folks the best and easiest place to start is by identifying if you have existing referral sources, because if you do, oh my please, oh my word, please start there because it’s the easiest way to get more, following a process and a strategy. And so if you have existing referral sources, that’s where I want you to start, but that means you need to go identify them. You need to figure out, okay, who are my referral sources and which clients have they referred me. And I tell folks to go back three or four years, or even a little longer if you’re willing, but at a minimum, you’ve got to go back a year or two and just figure out, “Okay, here’s all my clients who came by referral, who was referred to me and then who was the referral source for those specific clients?”
You know, that’s such great stuff. And what I really like Stacy, about how you talk about referrals is that it’s a system, it’s something deliberate. When we talk about not asking for referrals, a lot of people say, well, so I should just, wait and let other people take action. And like you do we say, no, no, this should be an active process, but it should be actively building relationships and actively thinking about what you say to people and common questions, so I just love the systematic way that you go about approaching this stuff. And we would love to talk the rest of the afternoon with you about this, but we do need to wrap this up, so if people want to learn more about what you do and how you coach folks on referrals and where they can learn more, where can they find you?
Absolutely. So, as you mentioned at the beginning, I have a podcast Roadmap To Grow Your Business. So if there are podcast listeners, a great place to start, or my book Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, I think those will always give you a great starting point to understand the philosophy and what I teach, how I teach it, make sure it jives with who you are and how you want to grow your practice. Those are two great places to start. I also would recommend that they download the PDF that kind of gives them a visual of what this layering process looks like. My websites on that PDF as well. And kind of just spend some time if they have a team talk about it with their team about what it would look like to really have a strong referral strategy within their business.
That’s great. Well, we… And as you say, we will put that graphic in the show notes, so people can download that and you can find out a lot more. And so Stacey with an E, Brown Randall, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s always a delight to talk with you.
Thank you so much for having me. I love these opportunities to be on your podcast and thanks for having me back.
Take care. Hi, it’s Julie again, it was great to have you with us on Becoming Referable. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please do us a favor and rate us on iTunes. It really does help. You can get all the links, show notes and other tidbits from these episodes at becomingreferable.com. You can also get our free report, Three Referral Myths That Limit Your Growth and connect with our blogs and other resources. Thanks so much for joining us.