The Key to referrals from Seniors
There are two kinds of people that advisors are interested in…clients and prospects. You need to understand how both of them think in order to create a trusting relationship.
Fortunately, they both want to be treated almost identically. So if you understand what they are thinking, you are well on your way to a greater number of referrals and clients.
A recent study confirms Seniors wants
A recent Forrester research study found that Retirees want 3 things from a relationship with their financial professional:
- They want to understand vs. being told what to do. They want an advisor that will take the time to ensure they fully understand something before being asked to sign on the dotted line.
- They want to feel confident that the advisor is there for them and is going to put their concerns and needs ahead of the advisors.
- Frequency of Contact—You need to contact them frequently. A CEG Worldwide showed the optimum number of contacts to be about 2 a month. That is with phone, mail or in person. Obviously, most clients don’t want to meet one-on-one monthly so most of the contacts should be via mail and phone.
Many advisors wonder what they could possible talk to their clients about 2 times a month. The first thing you should keep in mind is that the contact does not and should not be about their money. If the only thing you talk about is their money then they are going to assume the only thing you care about is their money. The CEG Worldwide study showed that the contact should mostly be about non-financial things.
Non-financial! What the heck is that all about? It’s about showing that you care about them as individuals. That you care more about them then just their money. Many advisors think this is unprofessional. I guarantee you, it is TRULY professional.
Whenever we work with a professional, a doctor for instance, we want to make sure that they care about us. We assume that they are professional or they wouldn’t have a license, what we don’t know is if they care about us.
One of the easiest ways to demonstrate that you care about someone is with contact. When you first started dating and liked someone, how often did you want to see them? If you love your wife or child, how often do you want to physically touch them? Contact is something we all crave from those that care about us.
Referrals will follow
When you look at the practice of a top producer, a producer that has a lot of money under management, you will see a producer that knows the value of contact. Contact:
- Lowers the clients likelihood to become upset or dissatisfied—making the advisor’s practice much more time efficient. It takes much less time to contact someone with 10 friendly contacts than to handle just one complaint.
- Increases your client’s likelihood of giving you additional money
- Increase the likelihood that your clients will give you referrals
- Increases the likelihood that the children of your clients will keep the assets with you at your client’s death
Contact is one of the easiest things we can do to grow our practices and sadly, one of the most ignored. Do it. Do it now. Set up a contact schedule for your clients and hot prospects and watch your practice grow and your workload shrink.
