The FA Amplifier Vol. 1: Nailing Client Reviews and Referrals

An AGC? Newsletter

Welcome to the June edition of The Financial Advisor Amplifier: a newsletter curated by Advisors Growing As a Community ?, where valuable insights from within our community are clipped and repurposed for all financial advisors. Our aim is to provide you with actionable strategies and resources to help you thrive in your advisory practice and serve your clients with excellence.

What's Inside:

• Top Growth Strategy of the Month: Asking for Client Reviews
• AGC Growth Secret: Client Referral Process
• Upcoming AGC Events
• AGC Open House Registration

??Top Growth Strategy of the Month: Asking for Client Reviews

Online reviews play a crucial role in shaping your reputation as a financial advisor. Of course, before you get started, it's important to speak with your compliance officer. Once you have the green light, here's how you can effectively ask for and manage online reviews to enhance your practice:

Conducting a Dress Rehearsal

Before asking for real reviews, consider a dress rehearsal to familiarize yourself with the process.

• Create mock reviews based on hypothetical scenarios to evaluate your review policies and procedures.
• Use this opportunity to identify any potential SEC prohibitions and craft clear disclosures to accompany reviews. Build a disclosure library for consistency and customization in disclosure statements.

It's Showtime! Asking for Your Client Reviews

Make sure you're asking ALL of your current clients for reviews when getting started - the SEC wants to ensure you aren't cherry-picking your favorite clients. We suggest using email as the method for outreach in the beginning to ensure you have records of communication in case the SEC wants to check that you aren't cherry-picking favorites.

When drafting your email and preparing to ask for reviews, there are a few things to consider:

• Prepare a single email you’ll send to all clients - This will demonstrate to the SEC that your messaging is consistent regardless of the nature of your relationship
• Schedule the email for early morning delivery on a weekday (e.g., 5 am) or consider weekend delivery to avoid overlapping with time-sensitive client emails
• Consider reaching out to sensitive clients by phone the afternoon before your outreach to provide context about the email they’ll receive the next day, and reach out to brand new clients by phone in advance who might feel the email asking for a review is premature

Asking for Online Reviews in Your Everyday Business

Just as other trust-based professionals like doctors and lawyers have incorporated online reviews into their daily routines, you’re now ready to do the same (while being mindful of SEC cherry-picking concerns.) A few tips to consider when collecting reviews in your daily routine:

• Update email signatures, client newsletters, business cards, and office materials with links to review platforms (Note: If you’re on Wealthtender , they provide a QR code that links to your Wealthtender profile page and a widget you can embed on your website to collect and display reviews)
• Integrate review requests into project workflows and avoid soliciting reviews on-site to prevent suspicion of fraud.

?? Snag Our Growth Secrets

Unique Client Referral Process to Copy

In The AGC, we host Member-Led calls where advisors can gather as a group and hear about what someone is doing well in their practice, things they've learned, and overall share knowledge that can help other's practices grow and improve.

Last month we had Yohance Harrison BFA?, CRPC? , Founder, CEO, and Behavioral Financial Advisor, who shared his unique client referral processes and systems that have garnered him much success over the years. If you're looking to improve your client referral process through a highly effective and innovative method, check out the links to his content below.

• Yohance’s Referral Email Process
• Yohance on Michael Kitces Podcast: Charging Advice Fees To Help Clients Change Their Money Script
• Yohance’s Website

When joining The AGC, you can watch the full on-demand replay of Yohance, along with dozens of other replays of advisor-led discussions that help AGC members grow their practice. ??

?? Upcoming AGC Guest Speaker: Philip Koontz

At The AGC, we believe in continually enriching our community with insights and expertise from diverse backgrounds. That's why we're thrilled to announce our June Guest Speaker, Phillip Koontz a former Navy SEAL turned Life and Business Coach who brings a wealth of experience in leadership and professional development to the stage.

He will lead a session on Three Dimensional Leadership where folks will walk away with insight on how to be able to identify what it means to first lead yourself well and be able to create ways to ensure you are fully energized and engaged as a leader, insight on proper conflict resolution techniques, insight into different leadership styles and how to adapt them to various situations, and more.

?? Join us for The AGC Open House

Are you curious about Advisors Growing as a Community ? (AGC) and what it has to offer? Don't miss our upcoming Open House event, where you'll have the opportunity to explore all that our community has in store for financial advisors like you. Register here to save your seat.

Thank you for reading our June Newsletter ?? See you next month!