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I had a great conversation yesterday afternoon with another professional that serves #financialadvisors via an incredible organization. Both of us agreed that the common problem that we see among successful professionals in the financial services space is that they have a hard time managing the top of their sales funnel. In many ways, this is understandable given the demands of servicing a mature client base and the regulatory demands of our industry.
At the same time, any seasoned professional is going to have some paranoia associated with not knowing where the business is coming from…especially if they can foresee some challenging times ahead.
Have you noticed things are a little different lately…
If you have achieved financial success in your practice you already know how to work with prospects that want to meet with you about what you do.
The problem is this: how can you make sure that you have the ability to get enough of those meetings so that you and your entire team will able to survive economic challenges or staff turnover? You also know that you need to be able to confidently invest more capital in scaling your support resources.
Did the manner in which you built your business (and the time frame it took) to your current level of success create the kind of experience and lifestyle that you want to maintain in your next level of growth?
Chances are high that the answer is not a firm yes. You probably got some #referrals on the way up, but you probably had to do a lot of other things to survive that you don’t prefer to do again.
So many of my personal coaching clients were actually doing almost no marketing at all other than passive referrals because they were unwilling to replicate the cold calling and transactional sales models of their past. I have some really, really good news for you: you don’t need to do that anymore.
If you have made it this far, you have most of the resources necessary (network, skills, experience and knowledge) to be able to build the next level by referral. Note: I am not saying you cannot do other forms of marketing…I am just pointing out that most of you don’t want to spend the money necessary to make that work (in both ad spend and staff to handle the volume) either.
How do we do it? We move from accidental referrals to predictable referrals.
This is achieved by first accepting that creating any kind of predictable and sustainable #marketing success has some basic rules no matter how you do it, especially referrals. You must have a target market, effective messaging, strategic planning and systems that are followed with discipline and consistency. When you are doing traditional marketing, or (shudder) marketing automation spam on this platform (please don’t message me)…you are outsourcing that process via $$ to other professionals.
This week is the introduction to a multi-part series of newsletters that will take you through the process in detail. Topics we will discuss include: target marketing/ideal prospects, macro and micro strategies, mindset, being a referral concierge, developing and optimizing center of influence relationships, managing the top of your funnel via referrals and using content to save time.
One thing that will really help you is this: you need to understand the bigger picture when it comes to referrals and that, humbly, could be accelerated by getting a copy of my latest book and then actually reading it. You can get a copy at www.caniborrowyourcar.com. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have the correct mindset about what really makes referrals work when deciding whether or not to go all in on them.
Why should you keep reading and/or subscribe to this newsletter if you are successful already? Precisely that. Your success is also a trap. Your risk tolerance for errors, ironically, is lower than when you were trying to make it in the business at first. You have something to lose now and you remember what it cost you to gain it.
Predictable referrals, knowing that you will get the business you need and want year after year, makes growing your business to the next level fun and exciting..while giving you the confidence to develop new skills. Most of my work is helping millionaires like you develop the confidence to try new things.
If you get anything from this newsletter (I certainly hope you do!) I hope that you are more confident about what you can do to improve in the near and distant future. I get to work with other successful professionals like you every day and am blessed beyond measure as a result. You are capable of more AND you are able to enjoy the process of working towards it as well.
You can have success and a life that is full of joy. You do need to do some work to make that happen and to keep your life aligned (throw out that trash talk of work life balance…complete and utter nonsense).
- What makes you most alive?
- What really matters to you?
- Why aren’t you doing that as much as possible?
Those three questions are 100% relevant to getting predictable referrals. This is because when you are the most alive…you are the most referrable. People want to introduce people that are enjoying their lives, especially financial advisors, to other people. Your BMW or Porsche isn’t going to make them want to refer you, but your passion for life will do nicely.
Related: Getting the Attention of Your Prospects Is Going To Get Massively More Difficult!