How to end prospecting and referral challenges

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear prospecting and referral guru Dan Allison speak at MDRT in Vancouver. Allison's topic was on how advisors can end prospecting and referral challenges for the rest of their career.

As Allison's consulting business takes him around the country, these are the most common challenges he hears from advisors:

1. Getting referrals from top clients and professional relationships
2. Rolling out new products or strategies to prospects
3. Getting a high conversion rate out of workshops or seminars
4. Getting face time with more prospects

He believes by developing a core focus group you can solve all these problems. With the focus group, you identify your top clients. Not necessarily your top-dollar clients (although they can be) but those clients with whom you feel the strongest rapport. You value their opinion and you know they won't sugar-coat things.

Allison says if you identify, say, your top 25 clients, then you need to set up one-on-one, hour-long discussions with them, where you aren't trying to sell them anything. You're on a fact-finding mission to discover what they know about you and your services and where
the gaps are between what they believe and what the reality is.