How Do I Get Clients to Bring Referral Phone Numbers to Meetings?

Welcome to Day 15 of our Referral Clinic and Blog-a-thon.  We asked advisors to send us their toughest referral challenges. Now we're featuring the 20 best, along with solutions from top referral experts and veteran financial advisors. 

Today's winning question comes from Adam B. and Jennifer H., independent advisors from Bend, Oregon. Congratulations!

Adam's and Jennifer's question will be answered by yours truly, Miriam Lawrence, resident referral expert at Horsesmouth and author of the Automatic Referrals blog.

Question: "We have no problem getting a lot of referrals from our clients (usually about an average of 15 per client that we ask). Our problem is the follow through from our clients. Our clients do not seem to bring phone numbers or addresses with them to the referral meetings so we are forced to wait on the client after the meeting to get us these numbers. Our clients are mostly business owners, therefore have little time to revisit the referrals and provide us this information. We call for personal introduction lunch meetings as the clients request, but the client is too busy. How do we get our clients to follow through? How do we approach them to be prepared with phone number or addresses without making them feel overwhelmed?"

Answer: This is a terrific and challenging question, and something that many advisors ask in some form or another.  That is, "My clients are happy to give me referrals (i.e. names), but how the heck do I get them to follow up?"

I'd like to hear other advisors' approaches on this one... but my primary suggestion is changing your methods to focus more on depth and less on breadth. A high-quality, actionable referral in the hand is worth 15 names in the bush.  So, rather than gathering a whole list of names that are awkward to get follow up on—in large part because of the sheer volume—it may be more effective to focus on just one or two referrals at a time. 

This approach will also allow you to learn more about each referral, and make it more natural to ask for the introduction.  If you've just spent 10-15 minutes talking about one or two people your client knows—learning how they know each other, what possible issues the client thinks the referral might have, or specific reasons why that person came to mind as a potentially good fit for you—it is easy and natural to segue into a suggestion that you'd like to take the client and referral out to lunch or golf sometime in the next couple of weeks. It also makes it less onerous and awkward to call the client to follow up later, because it's easier for the client to process the idea of introducing you to one person, or two, as opposed to 15.

Why would you want to get just a couple of referrals when you could get a dozen or more?  Well, the rest are still out there.  Referrals without details or introductions or follow-up are useless. Depth trumps breadth, and patience pays. You can still get those other names and hopefully introductions at a later time—you don't have to get them all at once.  It will be much easier to get follow-up on one or two referrals per quarter, and you'll be much more likely to do business with those referrals if you know more about them and get that all-important introduction.

Scott Carr, a very successful advisor who has built his business with referrals (his story is featured in the Automatic Referrals report) says he sometimes waits up to a year to ask for an introduction if he feels that waiting will improve the quality of the ultimate meeting.  Scott has had tremendous results.  It's ok to slow down.  If you're getting a couple of quality introductions per quarter from your top 10-20 clients, you'll have all the new business you can handle.

But, if you just can't bring yourself to give up the sheer numbers, here are a few ideas that may help you get the information and introductions you need.

Schedule a follow-up call or meeting as soon as the client gives you the referrals.  As the initial referral meeting wraps up, get permission to call to get the details on the referrals, and set up a specific phone appointment for that call.  Better yet, set up a face-to-face follow up (perhaps a visit to their office or place of business, to minimize the inconvenience to them) and consider bringing along a thank-you gift such as a gift certificate.  That will make an impression and may help facilitate more prompt follow-up on future referrals.

Send a handwritten thank-you note within a day or two of the referral meeting.  Call to get the information  (or schedule another call or meeting to get the information) a couple of days after that.  If you've taken the time and trouble to say thank you, clients may be more likely to take the time and trouble to follow up on their promises.

Use email to follow up.  List the names you were given in the meeting and ask the client to hit reply and type in the information you need. Better yet, suggest in your email that the client call or email the referrals to introduce you, and perhaps even include some language that they can cut and paste into their emails (explaining that it's just for their convenience, since you understand how busy they are and want to save them time and trouble).  (If a client is not an email user, you can follow up with a form in the mail listing the referral names and including blanks for addresses and phone numbers.)

Whatever you do, if you're dealing with a large number of names, understand that you can't expect a client to personally introduce you to all of them, unless you opt to put on a special event to which you'll invite all of them, as well as the client.  That's an option to consider if the referrals all have something in common that you can use to put on a memorable event.

Advisors, is this a challenge you've dealt with successfully?  Please offer suggestions to Adam and Jennifer by clicking on "comments" below.