I was a financial advisor for 26 years. One of my biggest goals during that time was to have a steady stream of new high-net-worth clients who were a perfect fit for my business.

Today, I have the privilege of coaching top financial advisors, and guess what? That same goal is the #1 item on most of their lists, too.

And rightfully so. Think about the increased revenue and growth potential—as well as the freedom, peace of mind and life of significance for you—that could result from having a consistent flow of pre-qualified, pre-endorsed affluent prospects coming to your doorstep. The elite-level advisors we coach regularly get right-fit prospects with between $5 million and $50 in investable assets.

They’ve accomplished this by honing their referral strategy until it’s razor-sharp. That means focusing on the best sources for getting the highest-quality introductions to new prospective clients, and then building rock-solid relationships with those sources to ensure a steady stream of new, ideal business opportunities.

The Real Value Of Referrals
You don’t need me to tell you that referrals are a good way to build your practice. And yet, advisors commonly don’t have a systematic way to garner them. There’s a gap, it seems, between knowing which action steps work and actually taking those steps consistently.

The foundation of a formal approach to referral marketing relies on you delivering a world-class client experience. When you do that, the people who are part of that experience—and, as you’ll see, one powerful group in particular—want to share you with others. Consider some recent research from CEG Insights:

• Referrals from existing clients is how 75.5% of advisors get the bulk of their new clients—followed by referrals from centers of influence (other financial professionals such as attorneys and accountants) at 18%.

• All other, non-referral-based marketing accounted for just 6.5% of advisors’ clients.

From the perspective of your affluent clients and prospects, referrals are also highly valued. When we asked investors with at least $1 million in investable assets how they found their primary advisor, the #1 answer by far was “from a referral.” In fact, the wealthiest investors—with $10 million to $25 million—were the most likely to say that a referral got them to their current advisor. That’s how your ideal, target-market clients want to find you.

The upshot: Just focus on referrals! When you get a referral, it’s more likely to convert to a client. The cost of referrals is generally much lower than other forms of client acquisition, and clients who were sourced via referrals tend to be more loyal—resulting in greater client retention levels.

The Most Powerful Referral Source
The single most powerful source for ideal client referrals is centers of influence. As I’ve noted before, COI referrals are the primary source for advisors’ best new clients—with a full 70.8% of advisors reporting that their best clients came from a COI introduction.

This is a crucial finding—especially if you want to move upmarket and serve clients who are wealthier than the ones you mainly serve today. That’s because, ultimately, you can scale the hierarchy of success faster by getting a relatively small number of ideal clients than you can by generating a huge number of referrals of prospects who aren’t the best fit for you. A few “perfect” clients can mean a lot more than a bunch of so-so clients—and COIs are the referral sources that are in the best position to introduce you to the perfect (or near perfect) clients for your firm, accelerating your success.

Of course, COIs probably aren’t calling you daily and offering you new potential clients. The key is to develop deep relationships with a few COIs who can have a big impact and build a wealthy client pipeline between your offices.

Building Alliances With COIs
That involves six action steps:

1. Identify potential partners. To build partnerships with centers of influence, you need to first connect with the right potential partners—such as accountants and attorneys who have very wealthy clients and who want to become more professionally successful.

2. Conduct discovery. When working with centers of influence, you need to learn about their practices extensively. You should gain a solid and complete understanding of their business models, goals and obstacles. What makes this entire framework so effective is your ability to get into the minds, hearts and even souls of centers of influence. This requires discovery. You need true curiosity, interest in other people and a potent profiling methodology. For simplicity’s sake, we identify discovery as one step of the process, but it’s perpetual. You should focus on staying current and informed about your partners' professional and—when it makes sense—personal worlds.

3. Secure the commitment. Based on your understanding of a prospective center of influence, you decide whether he or she would likely make a good partner and whether you want to commit to the partnership. With your own commitment in place, you ask for a commitment from the partner. Assuming you get that commitment, you move on to formulating an agreement.

4. Create the agreement. You and your COI partner need to clearly understand what to expect from working together. The agreement in this context is not a legal contract but a well-articulated understanding of each party’s roles and responsibilities. You want a very clear understanding of what is required of you and what is required from your attorney and/or accountant partners.

5. Share best practices growth solutions. By helping your COIs improve their businesses, you will make them more successful, create the economic glue that binds you together and drive new wealthy clients to you. Above all, to be successful in implementing the thought leadership solution, you and your partners must be consistent and systematic. One-off efforts will not result in the new business you both want.

6. Track results. In tracking results, you are looking to quantify the value you deliver to your partners in the form of additional revenue and the economic benefit you are receiving in return. While getting referrals might be great, getting new business (and revenue) is the goal. So focus on tracking revenue and income more than on the numbers of client referrals.

Accelerate Your Success
None of this is to say you shouldn’t also pursue the many referrals you can potentially get from your best existing clients. However, the research—and over 20 years of coaching top advisors—clearly reveals that building a referral strategy centered on COIs is the most powerful way to accelerate your success and build a life of significance.

John J. Bowen Jr. is CEO of CEG Worldwide and CEG Insights. Join the "Play to Win" consultation; it's your guide to wealth management success. Capture high-net-worth clients, move upmarket, unlock your potential now!