First Leverage Your Best Relationships

“I need to learn some new?prospecting?strategies,” Erin, an advisor in Minnesota, was telling me.?

“I’ve done okay,”?she continued,?“But what I’ve been doing doesn’t seem to be getting me any further lately.”

I asked Erin about her practice.??“How many clients—households—however you measure it, do you have now?”?

“About 300,”?she advised. ?“A few are what I would consider clients, but most are really just one-time customers.”

“And how many of those clients have introduced you to friends and family members?” I asked.

“Very few,” she responded.

“Then you?may not really need to learn new prospecting strategies?at all,”?I suggested.??“What you definitely do need is to turn some of those clients into fiercely loyal advocates."?

Most sales training programs for advisors are based on the theory that sales is a “numbers game” and nothing more.? While the quantity of people you reach out to and meet with is important, the?quality?of your contacts is equally—or more—important.

If you see your work as finding a lead, making a sale, and then going to look for another lead to make another sale—rinse and repeat—it can be exhausting and expensive.?

Leveraging?existing relationships?is a more efficient, more powerful way to grow your business.? Leveraging involves two actions: (1) Finding more ways to serve and delight existing clients, and (2) Getting them to want to ?introduce you to the people they care about most.

“If I went through your notes or ‘fact finders’ on your 20 best clients, would I find things that you could offer them, that you haven’t yet?”?I asked Erin.

“Probably,”?came her honest response.

“What stands in the way of your approaching them to talk about some of those things you haven’t talked about?”

“Nothing, I guess.”

We then went through and discussed each client she identified as being in her?“Top 20”.? Several of them hadn’t heard from her in months—or, in a couple of cases, more than a year, and aside from birthday and holiday cards, she had not done anything to develop her relationship with most of them.? Here’s what we agreed:

1.?Find more ways to truly serve existing clients.? She’d start with her Top 20, the clients she’d most want to replicate, and serve them in every way she can.? This means making sure to talk with them about everything she believes they should be considering.?

Truly serving them also would mean that she’d refer them to other professionals in her network to meet needs that she herself is not equipped to help with—even if she’d make no money from it.?

2. Look for ways to let them know she cares about them.? Surprising and delighting clients with a special gift or socializing with them makes you a trusted advisor and friend.

3.?Ask to be introduced to new clients through your happy existing ones.??Discuss with your Top 20 clients whether you’ve done everything you can for them and whether they’re happy with the work you've done and your relationship with them.? Then, ask to talk about the people they care about most who might not be as happy with their situation. The odds are good that in most cases, someone?will?come to mind.

Before you go out into the world to hunt for diamonds, make sure you’ve mined for diamonds in your own back yard.

Leveraging your existing clients is the first step in my Marketing Tune-Up coaching programs. ?Contact me to talk about these steps and how you can easily break through to much higher income levels.

And in the meantime,?keep?REACHING…