Best Referral Sources for Financial Advisors

Best Referral Sources for Financial Advisors

Any financial advisor who’s been in business for more than a minute knows the best way to grow a practice is through referrals. We’re taught from the very beginning that the best source of quality referrals is from clients. Advisors who focus on differentiating themselves by delivering exceptional, highly personalized services to their clients are often rewarded with referrals.

But clients aren’t the only source of referrals. Many highly successful advisors create a comprehensive referral marketing strategy that taps multiple sources. While building a fruitful referral network can take time and effort, it is the one sure way to establish a steady stream of qualified prospects.

Here are five of the best referral sources financial advisors can develop.

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Four Imperatives You Must Embrace to Achieve Sustainable Growth in Your Practice

Four Imperatives You Must Embrace to Achieve Sustainable Growth in Your Practice

As you might already know, the key to achieving sustainable growth in a financial advisory practice is to focus on your core business of business development and client management. From a practice management standpoint, that requires developing business processes that enable you and your team to gain greater efficiencies while increasing productivity by doing more with less. In other words, turning your practice into a well-oiled machine.

But what about you? As the guiding force of your practice, what are you doing individually to ensure its sustainable growth? Business processes are essential for scaling your business and expanding its capacity for growth. But there are certain things only you can do to drive its growth.

Here are four imperatives financial advisors must embrace to achieve sustainable growth for themselves and their businesses.

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Niche Marketing: Narrowing Your Focus to Attract More Quality Prospects

Niche Marketing - Narrowing Your Focus to Attract More Quality Prospects

In recent years, the commoditization of investment advice has forced an increasing number of financial advisors into offering more comprehensive financial planning as a way to add more value to the client relationship. As a result, the financial planning space is becoming much more crowded, making it difficult for financial advisors to stand out.

That is why many practice management consultants recommend that financial advisors establish a niche to more quickly build their businesses, focusing on a more targeted market they can dominate rather than a broader market they can vanish in. The key to differentiation in a crowded field is to become more focused and specialized to become recognized as the best-of-breed for a specific type of clientele that can be served profitably and effectively.

Successfully crafting a niche is not without its challenges, and most advisors avoid attempting it for fear of narrowing their field of prospects. However, any advisor who has found success in a niche will tell you that, while you may narrow your field of prospects, you increase the likelihood that a higher percentage of prospects in the niche will choose to do business with you.

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Clients not Giving You Referrals? Here’s Why That May Be

Clients not Giving You Referrals - Here's Why That May Be

We devote a lot of space here on how to generate referrals, and with good reason. Generating quality referrals is critical to building a sustainable and profitable practice. Many of our articles address the ‘how,’ even addressing how to overcome the reluctance to ask for referrals. Based on my decades of experience, I’m confident that advisors who study those articles and incorporate the tips and practices into their process can generate more referrals.

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For Highly Ambitious Advisors, Influence + Credibility = Thought Leadership

Becoming a Thought Leader - For Highly Ambitious Advisors, Influence + Credibility = Thought Leadership

Becoming a thought leader enhances your personal and professional stature within your industry and community, making you much more appealing as an authority and person of influence. When an advisor is viewed as a true thought leader, they attract the attention of influential clients who use their influence to refer other influential people.

As previously discussed on the blog, content is the key to building influence. Producing compelling, thought-provoking content delivered through your website, a blog, and emails, is how you establish your authority in the field. The more it is viewed, the more influence you can build, which is where social media comes in. Posting your content on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites expands your potential audience and builds your online influence.

But that’s just the beginning. While influence is critical, without credibility, it can be fleeting. Blogging and social media engagement are essential for building thought leadership, but when you can share your thoughts in high-profile settings you gain invaluable credibility.

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Why Blogging Is Your Path to Achieving Thought Leadership

Why Blogging Is Your Path to Achieving Thought Leadership

For advisors competing in a crowded industry, achieving thought leadership is becoming essential for those who want to stand far above others in a crowded field. Why? Because thought leaders are viewed as people of influence with recognized expertise, credibility, and strong reputations – traits that have become table stakes for advisors hoping to attract the attention of high-net-worth clients.

Though it takes time to achieve thought leadership, the return on whatever investment of time and resources can be unparalleled. Fortunately, in this digitally wired world, you have tools that can accelerate the journey. If you have a couple of hours a month to devote to writing, blogging can be your most effective marketing activity.

Today, more businesses than ever are pointing to blogging as their most important inbound marketing initiative. And the vast majority of businesses report that their blogs have led to increased visibility, notoriety, and business development. Financial advisors are finding that blogging is an affordable way to establish themselves as a high-profile authority and a credible source of financial information in a highly competitive arena.

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Thought Leadership May Be the Only Edge for Financial Advisors

Thought Leadership May Be the Only Edge for Financial Advisors

Clearly, the financial advisory industry is undergoing a major transformation. Technological advances and the democratization of investing has virtually commoditized financial advice to the detriment of advisors who continue to languish in brand obscurity. Until financial advisors can differentiate themselves as authorities in their field, most struggle to gain the attention of new clients or keep the attention of existing clients. Advisors who establish themselves as true thought leaders hold a distinct advantage in the race to add new clients and grow assets under management.

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Why It’s Critical to Have a Well-Conceived, Repeatable Advisor Onboarding Process

Why It's Critical to Have a Well-Conceived, Repeatable Advisor Onboarding Process

It is well-established in the financial advisory industry that the client onboarding process is crucial to building profitable, long-term relationships. When done poorly, you’ll likely see clients heading for the exits leaving you with thinning profit margins and a tarnished reputation. For the same reasons, onboarding advisors is equally critical for financial advisors looking to […]

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You Can’t Be Afraid to Fail. It’s How You Succeed.

You Can’t Be Afraid to Fail. It’s How You Succeed.

Who doesn’t want to be a success? It’s what people, particularly financial advisors, strive for every day. No one wants to be a failure. But did it ever occur to you that it’s virtually impossible to be a success without failing? Successful people must be very comfortable with failure because they probably fail more often than they succeed. They’re successful because they use their failures as learning experiences to propel them forward.

Yet, many people seem to have such a  dysfunctional relationship with failure that they can’t see the value in it, choosing instead to avoid it by not taking the same risks that led to it. That’s not learning. That’s capitulation, which never leads to success.

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Stop Justifying Your Fees and Start Explaining Them in the Context of What Your Prospects Value

Stop Justifying Your Fees and Start Explaining Them in the Context of What Your Prospects Value

The financial services world has undergone significant change in the last few years, mainly for the benefit of those seeking financial advice. They have more options, investment costs are decreasing, and they have more protections thanks to the regulators. However, for financial advisors, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same—at least as it relates to fees. Advisors still find themselves in the unenviable position of having to withstand fee compression while, at the same time, justifying them to their clients.

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