And of course, one of the best ways to build your client base is through referrals. But if you're like many financial advisors, you're not quite sure how to persuade current clients to regularly offer them up.
The good news is that if you provide valuable, worthwhile products and services to clients, they will want to share you with others. But you must have a system in place for promoting this positive "word of mouth." What follows are three proven, referral-boosting strategies that don't require you, the advisor, to do all the asking:
Give clients more than service, give them an experience
In order to get your clients spreading positive word of mouth, give them an experience to talk about. What differentiates you from all the other financial advisors targeting the same market and offering the same products? An experience may be something unexpected, exceptional service, or it could even be the environment where you meet your clients.
An advisor in Illinois has created a "world theme" in his office specifically to give his clients something to talk about beyond the investments. The conference rooms in his office have been transformed into cities of the world. One room is London with a huge mural of the city on the walls and items from London throughout. Others are New York, Washington, D.C., Venice and so on. The company reports that clients bring their friends who are not clients into the office to see the cities of the world. Can you imagine a better way to introduce people to your firm?
