BECOMING A BY REFERRAL-ONLY ADVISOR

With two new advisors in my practice and questions about prospecting coming from The Intentional Advisor community, I have prospecting on my mind.  

I am going to tell you something that you already intuitively know. Working with people who don’t trust you is miserable. They are skeptical. They are looking for your angle. They want you to justify your fees.  They question your advice. They are wishy-washy. They no show because they don’t respect you.   

You are ”no one” to them and it takes a long time to turn you into “someone” in their eyes. And I just don’t have time for that!  

I am and I have pretty much always been a By Referral-Only Advisor. The only exception to that would be if I met someone, built meaningful rapport, and then invited them in for a Discovery EXPERIENCE.  

I know what you are thinking, ”How can I be a by referral only if I don’t have any clients yet!?“ 

By building an ATTRACTIVE Practice. Don’t worry, I will break it down for you.   

In order to build an ATTRACTIVE Practice from scratch, you need five things:  

1. Meaningful Initial Experience 
2. High-Value Offer 
3. Collaborative Key Partners 
4. Aligned Networking Group 
5. Inspiring Client Events 

Those five things build on each other and create your ATTRACTIVE Practice. Let’s break down why each is so important and how it helps you become a By Referral Only Advisor.  

You need a Meaningful Initial Experience that is valuable to the prospect regardless of whether they work with you or not. I, of course, recommend The Discovery EXPERIENCE, but the key is that this meeting serves the prospect and is a valuable gift to them, even if they don’t become a client. If you have this, you can, in good conscience, offer this meeting to EVERYONE as an act of service.  

Next, you have to have a High-Value Offer that makes it easy for the right prospect to hire you for advice in one meeting. Not everyone is a good fit for your practice, but those who are should hear your High-Value Offer and think, “That is exactly what I need and that price is very reasonable for what I am being offered.” 

Now comes the fun part. This is where you build a network of Collaborative Key Partners to support your clients and your prospecting efforts. These are your CPAs, Real Estate agents, mortgage brokers, etc. This is where you begin your By Referral Only journey. You do this by building relationships, having them go through your Meaningful Initial Experience, and ensuring they understand your High-Value Offer. They may possibly become clients in this process, but even if they don’t, they can now see how what you offer is different/better than other advisors and send you referrals.  

Part of your value proposition for your Collaborative Key Partners is that you are building an Aligned Networking Group that they can participate in. You are looking to build your network of service providers to serve your clients and support one another in business. This is how you can be of service to them.   

You also want to create a series of monthly or quarterly Inspiring Client Events. You can have your Collaborative Key Partners split the cost and co-host these events and even invite their client networks. You become an extension of their marketing plan and introduce them personally to your clients in the process. Co-mingling your client groups and making referrals between you more effective and likely in the process. 

If I were a brand new advisor today, I would start by ensuring I have a Meaningful Initial Experience and a High-Value Offer. Without these, you don’t have a way to efficiently get hired by the right people and you don’t have something valuable to offer the world. 

I would then begin the process of creating an Aligned Networking Group by reaching out to potential Collaborative Key Partners. I would offer every potential Key Partner a Discovery EXPERIENCE and walk them through my High-Value Offer so that they know what I do and how it is different. I would then organize monthly gatherings of my Aligned Networking Group.  

Once I have a few clients, I would begin to coordinate Inspiring Client Events with my Key Partners. My clients would be encouraged to bring guests and my Key Partners would be encouraged to invite their clients and colleagues. These are fun events, not product pitches, etc.  

In this way, you can be seen as a leader in your community very quickly and you open the door to warm referrals and introductions early on. Many of your Key Partners may themselves become clients when they experience what you do. You never push for it, but you are open to it.  

I would never encourage one of my advisors to cold-prospect. It’s demoralizing and doesn’t create the best client relationships.   

I would encourage them to offer their Meaningful Initial Experience to everyone. Friends, family, colleagues, and potential Key Partners. In that process, they will get really good at delivering their Meaningful Initial Experience and they open the door with each person to becoming clients themselves and definitely to giving referrals.  

I know that I have covered a lot in this blog and I haven’t gone very in-depth on HOW to do each step. The good news is that I created a free 7-day ATTRACTIVE Practice Challenge to walk you through the entire process! 

You can sign up HERE to get access to 7 video-based trainings on how to stop CHASING clients and start ATTRACTING them. When you sign-up you will get immediate access to day one and you will receive an email giving you access to a new training each day after that.  

You don’t have to cold-call. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can learn to become a By Referral Only Advisor and build an ATTRACTIVE Practice early on in your career.   Click HERE to sign-up and if you feel like it is valuable to you, share it with your friends!   

I truly hope this serves you,

-Lucila