sales and marketing
| By Bill Cates, CSP
REFERRALS
When Not to Ask for Referrals
Enhance your success rate in getting referrals by learning when not to ask for them.
I’m a huge advocate of asking for eferrals. But recently, I was asked if there is a time when not to ask for them. Here are three circumstances when not to ask for referrals. First, you probably don’t want to ask for referrals when the performance of your client’s portfolio is significantly below average and your relationship is uffering because of this. After a recent seminar, a participant wanted to know how to ask for referrals
when his client’s account was down
by 70 percent. I told her two things,
one of which I knew she didn’t want
to hear. “First,” I said, “you can’t ask
for referrals right now; you’re engaged
in damage control. You need to focus
on rebuilding your relationship and
making sure that sound strategies are in
place. Second, you need to reconsider
the financial strategies you bring to
your clients or what you allow them to
do to themselves.”
There will be
times when some
relationships get
hurt when the
market is hurting.
Of course, you always want to
make sure that a client judges your
performance separately from the performance of the market. Yet that’s not
always possible. There will be times
when some relationships get hurt
when the market is hurting. In these
cases, be as attentive as possible to
the problems. Work on restoring your
client’s trust in you. If he lets you do
this, you will become referable in his
eyes once again.
Know your client’s personality
Second, on the topic of not asking for
referrals, you have to consider your client’s
personality. One way to measure a client’s
personality is by using a continuum ranging
from very open to very guarded. Obviously,
a more open person will be more likely to
play the referral game earlier in the relationship while a guarded person will take longer
to warm up. Some guarded clients may
never warm up to the referral process.
I don’t recommend asking a guarded
person for referrals in the first or second
meeting, although this could be easy to
do with a very open person. When you
do ask a guarded person for referrals and
it’s clear he is uncomfortable with your
request, you have to back off quickly.
Now, with this said, you do have
guarded clients who will give referrals,
but only on their terms, not yours.
The third situation in which you
might consider not asking for referrals
is when a client doesn’t fit the profile of
your ideal client. It is critical for you to
develop a very clear sense of who fits
your business and who doesn’t. You also
need to resist doing business with clients
who do not fit your profile. The one
exception is when a client refers you to a
very close family member.
On the topic of
not asking for
referrals, you have
to consider your
client’s personality.
There is no question that some of your B
and C clients can refer you to A clients. But
can you ask a B or a C client for referrals
if you’re only pursuing A clients? No, and
yes. In most cases, you can’t, unless you
have an unusually strong relationship with
that client. When that client has become
a business friend, then you can talk about
where you’re headed with your business
and how he might help you get there. This
is a conversation usually reserved for business friends.
There is no single approach to getting referrals that will work with every
person, every time. There is the skill—
having the right tactics to apply, and the
art—knowing what to apply when. The
more tools you have in your referral kit,
the more likely you’ll have the right one
for the specific job.
Sometimes I’m asked: “What’s the
most important ingredient for success in
getting referrals?” My answer is always
the same: “Your commitment to mastering referrals.” When you make an internal commitment to mastering referrals
and become a student of the game, you
will more naturally pick up the skills and
awareness that will work for you.
Bill Cates, CSP, is the author of Get More
Referrals Now! and Don’t Keep Me a
Secret! He’s offering you a free copy of his
report, “ 7 Deadly Referral Mistakes” and a
subscription to his free referral newsletter.
Contact him at Info@ReferralCates.
56 ADVISOR TODAY | November 2009
