The second meeting should last for 40 minutes, and advisors should drill deeper and conduct some due diligence by creating a profile of the center of influence.
If the advisor still senses an opportunity for quality referrals, they can then arrange a third meeting with the center of influence.
“This is now your time to shine,” said Turner. “Tell them about how you work with clients and how you collaborate with other professionals. What is your experience and credibility. Give them a snapshot of your firm, a picture that can plan in their mind what it is you do so they will remember you.”
Turner said that many advisors fall short in making explicit what is normally implied – that they want the center of influence to generate new client contacts.
“What happens is we just assume that the center of influence knows what we’re doing,” Turner said. “We don’t talk about it, we sort of talk around it and we don’t cement what the partnership would look like. In a partnership, there has to be a win-win. This step is about communicating what that looks like, what am I going to do for you, what are you going to do for me.”
Professionals should create a process around referrals – does it involve an e-mail thread, a conference call, or scheduling a face-to-face meeting between the client and the professional? Is simply telling the client about the advisor sufficient?
Too often, advisors and centers of influence refer clients to one another by handing over a business card, said Turner, adding that advisors and centers of influence also don’t do enough to cement their relationship – and their referred client relationships – over time.
“It’s a partnership, you need to ask how you’re going to go forward,” Turner said. “Can I add you to my mailing list for my newsletter? Can I touch base with you every four months? Can we have annual meetings where we talk about how our referred clients are doing? Change the way you talk about that experience.”
Centers of influence who give advisors referrals should be treated at the same level as an advisor’s best clients, said Turner.
“The whole process is about deepening trust,” she said. “It’s part of our relationship with the client, it should also be the foundation of our relationships with other professionals.”