Watch as Duncan discusses Ideal Client Events and how to leverage them to re-frame your client relationships and increase your rate of referrals.

Duncan in Denver with Chris Jeppesen, co-author The Advisor Playbook and Head of Practice Management at First Trust along with Jon DiGiovanni, Jake Rigert, and Jared Marcus, CFA presenting on the best practices for organic and scalable growth.

One of the golden rules of conversation is that people tend to discuss the things that exceed their expectations, or that fall below them. People seldom discuss the things that meet their expectations, because those types of things do not make for a good anecdote. Your referability works in exactly the same way.

Turn Volatility into Refer-able Moments

Through many market cycles over the years, I’ve been saying that a good financial advisor is at his or her highest level of refer-ability during times of volatility. Money becomes more topical and many people start to have nagging doubts about the track they are on – both in terms of their current advisor and financial plan. As a result, friends and family members will often confide in and then bare their souls to your clients: 

“Are you happy with your financial advisor, because I think I’ve just about had it with mine.”

Capitalize on this growing stage of readiness so that your clients will feel compelled to shine a light on you at that moment of truth. Trigger a moment of recognition and awareness for your value through proper positioning and imprinting. 

Getting Out in Front 

Call all of your favorite clients. A proactive call can serve as a mid-course correction to prevent them from drifting into a mindset where they fixate on specific products, pricing and performance, back to an enlightened philosophy, panoramic planning strategy and methodical process around financial independence. 

From MORF to FORM 

Be certain that you also bridge your “how” with their “why”. Transition yourself from the traditional Money, Occupation, Recreation and Family approach. Instead, focus on their Family Investment Legacy, their Occupational pursuit to a work optional lifestyle and their Recreational bucket list. This way, you can keep Money as a means to an end. The more they stay focused on why financial independence matters, the more value they will place on how you get them there - and in the process you will de-commoditize yourself. This is essential to keeping clients focused on what matters and what they can control.

Imprint Your Value 

“Just before I let you go, as you can imagine, I’ve been speaking to several clients recently, many of whom have friends and family members who are a bit unsettled and are starting to look to the future with apprehension rather than anticipation. I’m telling you this because I want to remind you that, as a value added service, I will gladly be a sounding board for anyone who is looking for a voice of reason. And keep in mind, they do not need to become a client to take advantage of this service. If they’re important to you, they’re important to me.” 

Act on Their Permission 

Many clients will thank you for your comment. Others will give you permission to elaborate by saying:

“I wasn’t aware that you did that.” 

• Tell them WHY you do it – it’s because of your sense of purpose
• Tell them WHO you do it for – by defining the person who fits your ideal client profile
• Tell them HOW to make an introduction – by demystifying your process 

The C3 Advisor – Beyond the Chief Investment Officer 

You ultimately aspire to become a client’s personal CFO, ensuring total client engagement over the lifetime of the relationship. You can’t achieve that by solely being their CIO. They need to know you are a CEO who runs the business like a business, creating a solid client experience, and you need to be a CMO with a marketing, branding and communication process that ensures clients understand and appreciate your value and continually focus on what you’re worth rather than what you cost. 

Continued Success!

Contributed by Duncan MacPherson

You are at your highest level of refer-ability right now! Talking to your clients about what's going on right now helps them understand how strong your people, practice and process really are, and what it represents in terms of the value you provide.

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Being good at what you do is expected by a client. For clients to feel it would be a disservice to a friend not to make an introduction requires you to be better than good.

Providing an exemplary level of service and communicating your value with clarity allows clients to buy into a relationship with you, not just products from you. It lets you exceed their expectations. Being refer-able actually does lead to referrals.

In this episode of The Blue Square Method video Duncan points out how we all have the same 24 hours of time in a day and the importance that emotional intelligence has on practice and relationship management.

With Michael Cain, Scott Curran and John Jochum at First Trust in beautiful Westport Connecticut outlining The Blue Square Method - the mindset and best practices of top free for service professionals.

Make your clients the voice you listen to. Just as importantly, demonstrate that you’re acting on their feedback. Close the feedback loop by continually pointing to any surveys or input you sought from your clients, and show them the actions you’re taking. This takes it from a claim that you’ll be improving the client experience, to your clients actually appreciating the elevation of service

In addition to strengthening your client relationships and running a more efficient and productive business, the process of developing a “Fee-Worthy” mindset and approach can provide you with another meaningful benefit. You also become more efficient with your time. With money we think of Return on Investment; with time we should be thinking about ROE - Return on Energy.