Referrals are the lifeline for financial advisors. In fact, for LifePro’s top advisors, referrals make up one third of their overall business. That’s why it’s important to have a systematic approach to obtaining referrals so that you can set yourself up for success for years to come.

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Dan shows the precise moments when your clients are most excited and what you can do to encourage them to share their experiences.

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Video transcription

Hello there, and welcome back to another episode of "Money Script Monday." My name is Dan Tatulli, and today we're going to be talking about the three best times to ask for a referral.

Before we get into that, I just want to take a step back and show you the importance and the impact that referrals can have on your business.

We have what's called a Mastermind meeting. We hold this meeting twice a year, and top advisors from around the country, they all fly in to San Diego here, and we just strategize on what are the tactics that are working today, what are some of the sales strategies, the marketing techniques that they're using, what's working, what's not working, and what they would like to see out of us as a LifePro partner here of what we can do to help better their business.

Three sources of revenue

And one of the questions that we asked them was, where is their revenue coming from? Is it all new clients, existing business? Where is it coming from?

We saw a common theme around all the advisors in the room, where it's really broken into perfect thirds.

One third of top advisors' business comes from new clients. New clients that are, seminars are a big way to get in front of the most amount of people in the least amount of time.

That's where top advisors are getting in front of new clients.

A third of their business comes from existing clients. So, these are people they've already signed policies with, maybe they're signing more policies with or changing it.

And a third comes from referrals.

So, when we're talking over the next few minutes in this episode, referrals, we're talking about a third of your business today. That's the importance of it.

Let's go into when you're thinking about referrals, there are two questions to be asking yourself. "When are my clients most excited about the product or service?" And then question number two is, "How can I encourage them to share this information with their friends and family?"

Question #1: When are they most excited?

First, let's get into question number one, "When are they most excited?"

There are really three best times to be asking for a referral.

(1) Immediately after learning about product/service.

Number one, immediately after learning about the product or service.

For example, let's just use indexed universal life (IUL). This would be when they're first finding out about IUL.

This could be done via a seminar, maybe after they sat through the hour-long seminar, they walk up to you and they're super excited.

You've probably even experienced that, where, "Gosh I've never heard about IUL like this before. And with the 401(k)s and IRAs, this is just the better vehicle, and it makes sense," where that's where they're most excited.

That's the time to capitalize and ask them for a referral.

That, and also think about one-on-one appointments of when, again, when they're discovering IUL, that's the best time to ask for a referral.

(2) Immediately after receiving product/service.

Number two, immediately after receiving the product or service.

This would be when they're actually signing the policy. When they put ink to paper, and they're actually excited about receiving indexed universal life.

A great point here would be during that appointment when it's most on top of their mind.

Your clients have got lives to live, they've got kids of their own, they've got soccer practice, where we would love day in and day out for them to think about life insurance and annuities as much as we do over here, and you do, too.

But really, capitalize on that moment when, you're typically summarizing the benefits for them, and they're signing that policy. That's when they're most excited about the possibility and the opportunity that IUL can give for them.

(3) Immediately after receiving promised benefit of product/service.

Number three, immediately after receiving the promised benefit.

What's the promised benefit?

Typically, for indexed universal life, we talk about the tax-free retirement income that they can generate from it.

We're not talking about waiting 20 years to ask for a referral, but what we're saying here is maybe during the annual review appointment.

I know those carrier illustrations, they don't really show you easily of how much money you're putting in and got out, and the index, or the interest that was earned throughout the year.

What we do is we create a proprietary annual review report. If you haven't seen it, ask your FSR about it, but we can show you this that easily shows clients, this is how much money you put in, this is how much cash value you have, this is the amount of interest that you earned throughout the year.

And in most cases, people are super excited, because they learn the information, they signed it, but this is actually their money at work for them. They're super excited about it.

This is where we see the most amount of new activity generated through existing clients and their referrals, so that's a great time to ask for a referral.

Question #2: How can you encourage them to share?

Lastly, let's talk about the second question. How can you encourage them to share?

So now they're super excited in those three times. How do we encourage this?

There are a few different ways I'm going to share with you, and you could feel free to take any one of these. You might also have some ideas of your own. So today, I just wanted to briefly go over just a few.

Ask

Number one, ask.

Ask, right? It's probably the simplest yet hardest thing to do, is simply ask for the referral. So, maybe during that one-on-one appointment, when they're learning about it, say, "You know, do you happen to have any friends or family that would benefit from the information that I just shared with you here?" You know, "Gosh, I've got a sister, two years older, she's got two kids, perfect situation, much like me. I think she would love to talk to you about it."

So, ask. It's a simple question. I know it's hard, but just ask in that moment.

Pre-Written Letter/Email

Pre-written letter or email. A lot of people, when you throw that burden on them, that responsibility for them to really craft a message for their friends and family, maybe write up a letter for them.

During that annual review appointment, maybe write up the experience that you had with them that year, and write a letter, and just show it to them, and say, "Hey, I'd love to actually mail this out on your behalf. Do you mind reading it over? Feel free to change it, but, can I have a few names with their mailing address, and I'll mail this on your behalf."

Again, take that responsibility and that amount of time, that burden, off of them. Just try to make it easy for them.

Social Media

Next is social media.

Even with seminars, they're going to be Googling "What is IUL?" They're going to be Googling you, too.

They're going to be searching who is this person that's trying to sell me this stuff? Make sure you have a Yelp account, or Facebook, or anything like that, make sure that you have a process for it.

Send them the link. Say, "Hey, do you mind writing up a testimonial, and sharing this information with your friends and family?"

Video

Next is video. Maybe they can't necessarily think of anybody offhand. So, just capture a video.

Everybody has a smartphone nowadays. Record just a few minutes in length and it's actually your clients using their own words.

You could use it for your website, send it out in an email.

Email Copy

Email copy. This is kind of the same thing as the pre-written letter, but maybe give them like three choices, all with different experiences, different words, a different approach, and just try to make it as easy as possible for them.

Have them click, "Yeah, I like option B. You can send that out. I don't mind you sharing my information," and send that testimonial out.

LinkedIn Connections

And then lastly, this is just a quick idea, LinkedIn connections.

If they can't think of anybody offhand, when you're going into that appointment, if you know of any high-net-worth individuals in your area, search for them, and see on LinkedIn if they actually connect with your client.

So, in that annual review appointment, you could say, "Hey, I noticed you’re friends with Mayor Bob. You're connected to him. I was on LinkedIn. Do you mind introducing me to him about the information that you just learned here? Do you mind? I'd love to talk to him and share with him what you learned here today."

Again, throw the names at them. You can do that with LinkedIn, it's just a simple search there of looking for some high-net-worth individuals around the area and see if you guys are connected.

That wraps it up for this episode of Money Script Monday.

What I want you to take away is that referrals are an integral part of your business. Very important, and make sure that you're capitalizing on those three events and activities where they're most excited.

And really, no matter what you choose here, just make sure you have a process. A process for capturing their excitement and their interest in asking for those referrals. That wraps it up for today. Take care.