Why referral success is entirely up to you

Business coach Joe Lukacs makes a powerful point in his most recent Practice Power Audiocast  (make sure your speakers are on before you click), part of his series on the Seven Myths of Success for Financial Advisors.  The myth he busts this week is the idea that external forces play a significant role in your ability to succeed. 

Poppycock, says Joe. "If you look at people in any business, in any area, that achieve at high levels, they take responsibility for their success, and for their failures. They don't blame somebody else, they don't make excuses. They say, 'Look, I achieve, or I fail.'"

Joe points to the bear market of 2000-2003 as an example.  He says that many of his coaching clients simply ignored the things they couldn't control and were able to grow their businesses by 20%, 30%, and even 40%.   We found the same thing at Horsesmouth through our interviews with advisors.  While many FAs were crying in their coffee about how the market made it impossible to do business, a select few advisors were busy stealing their clients and growing like gangbusters.  Take Scott Carr, for example: using a targeted referrals approach, he more than doubled his revenues (free registration required) and increased AUM by 60% between 2001 and 2003.

So don't use external forces and events as reasons not to succeed.  If you want more clients or more assets, decide today to take responsibility for making that happen.  Make a commitment to learn how to ask for referrals effectively. Decide you won't "forget" to ask anymore.  If the idea of asking makes you anxious, commit today to overcoming that fear (the Automatic Referrals report devotes an entire chapter to this issue). 

Success really is there for the taking.  All you need to do is reach for it.

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