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Julie Littlechild:              
Welcome to Becoming Referable, the podcast that helps you become the kind of advisor people can’t help talking about. I’m Julie Littlechild, and today Steve and I are focused on how to fuel your referral efforts. And here’s the thinking, there are so many strategies and tactics that you can employ to drive more referrals but they may not be as effective if you aren’t thinking about the points of friction in your referral process. So points of friction are simply those things that get in the way, that make it less than easy for clients to refer the right people.

Today we’ll walk through the points of friction that we see and of course what you can do about it. Today’s advice is less about adding new strategies to drive referrals its more about pouring fuel on the fire to make sure what you are already doing is truly effective. And with that let’s get straight to the conversation.

Steve Wershing:
Well, Julie, nice to talk with you, as always. Today, I wanted to ask you a few questions about points of friction. We want to make referring and an effortless experience, and so I think it would be really interesting to find out from you a little bit about what kinds of things can cause friction when people want to refer us and how we can help advisors overcome them. So first, why don’t we just start with, when we talk about a point of friction, what is it that you’re thinking when we say that?

Julie Littlechild:
Well, I think we often talk about the big strategies in tactics associated with referrals, but there’s all of these little things that we do or don’t do that either facilitate or hinder referrals all along the way. So, I think both of us are big believers in being very intentional about the referral process, and I think just trying to tease out what are the things that can get in the way and what are some hopefully simple tactical solutions to get over that. That’s what I’m thinking of with the five big points of friction that we focus on.

Steve Wershing:
Well, I think that makes an awful lot of sense. One of the things that advisors can do to help with business development generally is just removing the obstacles, is making it easier and easier to deal with you and making it effortless to get involved with you. So let’s start with the first idea, and that is that one point of friction is that your clients can’t effectively articulate your value.

Julie Littlechild:
Absolutely. We know this to be true, and to some extent our natural inclination is to say, “Well, that’s just not good enough, let’s help the clients articulate our value better.” I don’t think we should give that up. The problem is it’s hard for some, and we don’t always control the narrative, if you will, when prospects or our clients are talking to prospective clients about what we do.

One of the things that we’ve recommended is rather than always trying to “train” our clients to articulate our value, why don’t we help them refer by always pointing a prospective client to a particular link? So if our training is, look, any time an opportunity comes up and you want to share our name, we love that, thank you very much. All you need to do is share this link, and this link is to a hidden referral page on our site. It’s not for everyone. It’s something that is designed to explain what we do so you don’t need to do that.

I think the benefit of that if we can ingrain notion that all I need to do is send my friend this link, then that’s a lot easier than all I need to do is be really articulate in explaining the value that my advisor provides.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah, and so what kinds of things would be on that page?

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah, so I think of a referral page is almost like rolling the red carpet out for a perspective client who comes to you. So, the positioning at the top might be along the lines of, you’re here because someone thought we could help you. I’m so honored, there’s no greater demonstration of trust. I may or may not be the right advisor, right? Let’s get that out there, because we know that sometimes clients are referring the wrong people, but I’d love to find out. So, this page will give you an overview of the clients that we work with and the problems that we solve, and we’d love to connect going forward.

So, A, we’d want a general statement of what this is, B, a brief description of what we do. You and I have talked about focusing on different challenges. I think there’s a great opportunity here to filter people into the right place so that you can talk about a particular challenge. Maybe a very quick two minute video of who you are and what you do and why you do it, and then in every case, something that gives them some value right away-

Steve Wershing:
Okay, sure.

Julie Littlechild:
And a way to leave their email address for you. So that if it’s not the right time now, that you can connect over time. So, that’s what I’m thinking.

Steve Wershing:
When you say offer a visitor some value, what kinds of things are you talking about?

Julie Littlechild:
Well, maybe you’ve got a checklist, maybe you’ve got something about talking to kids about money or talking as a couple about money, something where they can walk away thinking I learned something, I got some value and it was easy. I just needed to throw my email address in there, and I’ve connected with that person in some way.

Steve Wershing:
Okay, yep.

Julie Littlechild:
So, it’s like we’re taking all of that away from your clients and trying to make your job easier.

Steve Wershing:
So, we’re talking about a lead generator, we’re talking about a download resource.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah, that can be a lead generator.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah, so not just something that’s on the page that’s valuable, but something that they can get from you.

Julie Littlechild:
Right, yes.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah, okay.

Julie Littlechild:
Yep.

Steve Wershing:
Sure, okay. Another point of friction that you point out is that clients articulate your value in general terms. Why doesn’t that work and what can advisors do about it?

Julie Littlechild:
Well, I think you and I talk about this idea of really focusing in on problems in the problems you solve a lot. Sometimes if we do a really good job, it’s easy for clients to do that. Sometimes they will still say, “My advisor’s the greatest and you should really talk to him or her.” One of the tools I think we can consider is really building some funnels out on a website or maybe on this referral page that we just talked about. So, that if I come to your site and it’s says a little bit about who are you and what’s your biggest challenge right now.

I mean, there’s probably a better way of putting that, whatever I say, here’s what I’m trying to accomplish should lead me to the right information, don’t make me hunt around to figure out how you solve my problem. But if I tell you it’s about, I don’t know, retiring or designing a vision for my retirement or whatever, then that should take me to the right information.

So we hope clients can talk about the problems we solve, we hope that they talk about it at the right time, but if a client comes to your website at any point, and they will, then we also need to be able to help them find the right information based on what they’re experiencing. So that’s where I think this concept of more, we’re calling them sales funnels, but the idea of you’re feeding up the right content to people.

Steve Wershing:
Right. So, let’s pull that apart for just a minute, because I think that there’s a lot of value there. I want to reinforce something that you said, which is guide them to a page that helps them solve a particular problem.

Julie Littlechild:
Right.

Steve Wershing:
We really do need to get specific. You may have multiple pages on your site that do somewhat different things. You and I would probably advise advisors to not try to tackle everything, not to have one page that talks about student debt and a different one to talk about your estate tax problems, and a wide variety of things, but there still may be multiple things.

Julie Littlechild:
Yes.

Steve Wershing:
So you might have develop a vision for your retirement, you might have optimize when you file for social security, you might have how to figure out when to pull money out of your IRAs versus other kinds of accounts. Those are three different things, but they’re all in the same theme, so that would be an advisor who’s oriented toward that retirement transition. But tell us a little bit more about what’s a sales funnel and what does it do for you?

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah, and we could do an episode on this I’m sure. We’re unveiling a new website, it may already be unveiled by the time that we release this, but our goal was to help advisors. So, I’ll give you this example and then we can relate it back. Our goal was to help advisors get the right information based on what they were experiencing. So, we have the same issues as advisors have with their prospective clients and clients.

So, a sales funnel is as simple as saying, would you like some more information? Can you tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for? Then it directs you to the right information and sends you the right follow up. So for example, with our site, you might say, “Well, I’m really interested in how I can use input to drive more referrals.” Well, if that’s your primary goal, then that’s all we want to help you understand. So tell us that, and then we’ll deliver some insights to help you do that, and we’ll follow up if you want more information on how to do that.

So I think the same is true, it’s just building out the series of communications. So you need a developer involved in this, you need to think about it, but it’s the next level, I think, of how we can make our websites much more relevant.

Steve Wershing:
Right, right. Well, you’re totally correct. I mean, we can do more than one full episode about that, but just so people understand what a sales funnel is. So, just to clarify. For a specific need, you can have a hidden page on your site, that if a client wants to refer somebody, they can share this little secret with them. Say, “Hey, most people can’t see this. If you go to the home page, you won’t see this, but if you go to this page, they’ve set it up for people that I know, so you can get this free thing.” Then that starts a nurture sequence, it starts a sequence of things.

Julie Littlechild:
Well, yeah, it does. I would say that that should be on the hidden referral page, but I would also argue that we need to look at this kind of strategy for the main website as well-

Steve Wershing:
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Julie Littlechild:
So that prospective clients can [inaudible 00:10:17]

Steve Wershing:
So yes, yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah, having a downloadable lead generator, key to building your list, but then also having that hidden page specifically for referrals can be really an interesting idea as well. Now, of course some people will share some things that the advisor offers, but that person may not end up getting connected with the advisor. So how do we overcome the friction of sharing stuff, but not having a connection made?

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah, and I think that many advisors have accepted this idea that I need to provide really shareable content. Sometimes that content means it’s not about the markets, it might be about things that people want to share a little more readily. So that’s great, and that’s part one. So you think, “Okay, I’ve done that.” It may well be that I as a client receive that and say, “Oh, my friend would really like that,” and forward it, but there’s all sorts of opportunity missed in that process.

One is I’ve just forwarded it, they’ve got full value. That’s nice, that’s better than nothing, but there’s no connection. Also, we’re not controlling the narrative, again, in terms of what that means. So increasingly as we’re building out plans, generally in response to feedback, what we’re trying to build in is much more automated ways of doing this.

So for example, I would send you an article and say, “Steve, I found this great article on parenting, I just thought you would love it.” Then rather than just saying, if you’d like to share, you’re welcome, I would say if you know other parents who are struggling with this, you can just click here and it will send them a copy of the article.

Really all that’s doing is opening up a pre-populated email, where instead of your client, it’s saying now, “Hey, my advisor shares this great information with me from time to time, and here’s a link to their website if you’re interested in learning more, but here’s the article that I thought you’d find of interest.” So you can’t expect clients to think that through, but if I can just click a button, it removes all of that friction and you’ve got the right message attached to that article.

Steve Wershing:
Oh, that’s great, that’s great. Now so these are some electronic ways, some ways that we can utilize digital media to spread the message, but then there’s also the personal thing. This is a problem that goes back to the beginning of referrals, and that is that clients are uncomfortable mentioning you or making an introduction to people. So, that can be some serious friction that gets in your way. How can advisors overcome that particular kind of friction?

Julie Littlechild:
Well, I would differentiate between the discomfort or lack thereof with referrals versus introductions. What we do know from the research is they’re not at all uncomfortable with referrals. I mean, they’re doing it all the time, advisors just aren’t meeting most of them. However, when it comes to actually making an introduction, when we dig into that and say, well, how did you make that referral? More often than not it’s, “Well, I told my friend about my advisor and I hope they find them, or maybe I shared contact details,” but we know that it may not be the right time or that might get lost. It’s a next level to say, can you share information and copy me, right?

Steve Wershing:
Okay, sure.

Julie Littlechild:
We know that’s probably the best way to do it, but now we might have some friction created, because you’re like, “Oh, well, I love my advisor, but they’re going to be harassing my friend now.” So, what I think is really important in this case to remove that friction is to just explain your process, right, to say, we really appreciate referrals. What we found is that often when we’re referred, it’s just not the right time. So, we may even lose the opportunity to speak with your friend or your family member.

So if you copy us on the email, let me tell you what happens. We’ll see that, we will send a thank you email and connect that to our website, and we’ll reach out once. We’ll reach out once to see if they’re interested in talking, and if they’re not, rest assured they can stay on our list if they’re interested, but we’re not going to do. So again, just remove the lurking friction by helping them understand what you’re going to do.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah, that’s so important. I think that’s a great idea, because, yeah, I think people are worried about, “Well, I want to leave it to my friend to decide whether to call.” One of the fears behind that might be, “Well, if I tell my advisor, are they going to get hassled all the time?”

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah.

Steve Wershing:
So, explaining that upfront I think is a really good way of overcoming that potential resistance ahead of time. That’s really good. Then you mentioned that your client might make an introduction and it may just not be exactly the right time for that person to work with a financial advisor. So that’s its own point of friction, that, well, it’s keeping me from calling that advisor, because it’s not exactly the right time for me. How do we overcome that kind of friction as well?

Julie Littlechild:
Well, and I think this happens a lot, right, where we hear about something and we think, “Oh yeah, I’ve got to remember that when it’s time.” Then life gets in the way and we never get back to it, and then it just starts all over again. I think we know that the ideal thing to happen is that we’ll have a connection. Maybe they’re on a blog list, or there’s some way to nurture and stay in touch in a really comfortable way.

Now you mentioned lead magnets, and that’s where I think they become so important. So in an ideal world, a client hears about us or a prospect hears about us and they reach out right away, and then they set a meeting and they become a client, and then there’s the real world.

Steve Wershing:
Right.

Julie Littlechild:
So, the best that can happen in the real world is really that they reach out and they give us an email address because they want to download something of value. That gives us permission to nurture that relationship with really value-wadded information over time. So a lead magnet could be a checklist, it could be a report, it could be a video. It’s anything where a client provides an email address and gets access to something of value.

Earlier we talked about sales funnels, and there I was thinking of feeding up video or feeding up content that was directly related to what somebody said was important. A lead magnet can be more general, right? It can sit on a website, it can relate to a large proportion of your target audience and just say, if you’re interested in this report, enter your email. You can automate everything from there, right? You can use a MailChimp or what have you to just say, all right, here’s the report, here’s what we do. Unsubscribe if you don’t want to hear from us. But I think it’s critical.

Steve Wershing:
I think it’s tremendously valuable as well for a couple reasons. One is that that person that your client referred will access that when they need it.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah.

Steve Wershing:
But like you said, one of the big challenges that we have is that not only do we need to get introduced to the right people, but we need to get introduced to the right people at the right time.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah.

Steve Wershing:
Having those lead magnets, those downloadable resources, especially if they are fairly specific, here’s how you make this decision, or here’s a checklist, or here are the five things you need to know about this, that people will find that or people will access it when they have that need. So, that’s how you can align the here’s how I know when to get ahold of these people, is they just downloaded this, this must be on their mind.

Julie Littlechild:
Let me just sort of underscore what you just said, because one of the characteristics of a really good lead magnet is it’s easy, it doesn’t feel like you’re giving work out. So, a bad lead magnet is download our 100 page report on X, right? A good lead magnet could be, here’s a five point checklist, or like you said, top tips. It’s got to feel easy, and it’s a recurring theme that the more focused, the better, right?

Steve Wershing:
Exactly.

Julie Littlechild:
So it can be general, but if you have a really well-honed target audience or niche, then that lead magnet has to be aligned with that group.

Steve Wershing:
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, and just like the other content that’s on your site, having a series of focused lead magnets can also reinforce your expertise, reinforce that you focus on this kind of thing and you know a lot about it, because look at all these different resources that you offer, and they’re all trained on this one particular series of challenges that the client faces, so you must be really good at this.

Julie Littlechild:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Steve Wershing:
Exactly.

Julie Littlechild:
So yeah, so these are all sometimes small things, sometimes bigger things, but often it’s just whatever communication we’re sending out, whatever we’re doing with our clients, let’s think it right through and say, is there anything I can do to make it easier for people to share, to get a name, to add value? It’s often at the margin, right, that we need to tweak these things. Those are the things that get forgotten, the click here to make it easy. That to me is the next level of tapping into some of the, I think, significant missed opportunity out there for referrals.

Steve Wershing:
Yep, I agree. I think it’s a really important point, that the easier we can make it, the more we can get referred.

Julie Littlechild:
Yes. Yep, absolutely.

Steve Wershing:
So if you just take some time to think about what’s your referral process, how do you encourage people to refer you and how much effort did they have to expend to do that? If you can spend a little time thinking about, well, what are the two or three things I might think about doing that would make it easier, that would take away some of that work that would make it more effortless to be able to do this, that just paves the way so that you can get referred more often and have it work more often.

Julie Littlechild:
Absolutely. Yep, I think that’s the key.

Steve Wershing:
Great conversation, Julie. Always great to talk with you and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.

Julie Littlechild:
Absolutely. Take care.

Steve Wershing:
You too.