How To Ask for Referrals From Your Clients

Learning how to ask for referrals needs to be part of your client engagement process. To engage your clients and develop rapport, ask them questions about themselves.

Here are some ideas:

• How’s your family?
• How have you enjoyed your summer?
• Where are you traveling next?

Get reacquainted with your clients. Check-in with them.

Find out what is most important to them about the conversation?

Ask them how much time they’ve got for the appointment. Next, explain the conversation. Highlight the things that you would like to talk about and provide an outline.

Ask them:

• What are 3 things that they want to improve upon?
• What are the 3 challenges that they are facing?

Then listen:

So, I understand that A, B, and C are the things you want to talk about.

I’m hearing that these are the 3 things you want to improve upon.

And these are the 3 challenges that you’d like to work on.

I’d also like to talk to you about A, B, and C.

Setting the Stage for Asking for the Referrals:

Before you meet with your clients, make sure you review their file. You want to know the answers before you ask the questions. For example, when you ask them:

How long have we been working together? (You will know exactly how long you have been working with them)

The goal here is to get your client to associate the length of time you’ve been working together.

• ‘What do you like best about working with me?’
• ‘What have you received that you didn’t expect?’

Write down their responses. This is a very important step. You want to document this for future meetings going forward.

This way, you can always refer to the document and say, Last time we met, six months ago, I asked you:

What do you like best about working with me?

What did you receive that you didn’t expect?

You said: “I have no idea about the value that you are providing. You’re taking a complex world and you’re simplifying it so that we can make the right decisions so that we can live our lives. We can conduct our businesses; we can look after our careers and our families without having to worry about a very very complicated world.”

Now, you want to highlight what they said to reflect back how much value they’ve received working with you. When your clients associate the value that you’ve provided to them, you will have set the stage for them to want to provide you with quality referrals.

If every financial advisor were to make a list of their top 10 or 20 clients and then ask them 2 questions:

What do you like best about working with me?

What have you received that you didn’t expect?

There would be a lot more people working with financial advisors!

Now, make sure to also continue with:

I would like to talk with you about individuals that you’re connected to in your family, your church, and your associations, that would appreciate working with an advisor. That would like to be able to have a plan to grow assets, protect assets, to save tax and leave a lifelong legacy.

Now, wait for the answer. Tempted to keep talking…
DON’T. Wait 5 seconds and let them think.

5% of the time, they might answer with a name right away, but 90% of the time, they won’t come up with anyone right away. So again. Wait it out. Resist the urge to speak. Don’t fill the silence.

Then, once you’ve waited, say: “You know what… most of the time folks don’t have anybody on the tip of their tongue. What I would like to do is send you an email that you could forward on.”

Sample Email

Dear ______,

I don’t know where you are in respect to working with a financial advisor to be able to help you to create a plan to be able to grow assets, protect assets, save tax and leave a lifelong legacy, but I’ve been working with ________ and he’s an extraordinary advisor and I’d like to be able to introduce you.

Kindest Regard,

And so you say to your client I’d like to send you that email that you could pass on and then follow through.

There is a law of the universe, a question will be answered and, you will receive a referral. It puts you in a position where you start to practice asking and it comes from the place of value — it’s values-based.

Summary of the Key Questions:

• How long have we been working together?
• What do you like best about working with me?
• What have you received that you didn’t expect?

And that’s how you ask for a referral.