Taming time (Part 1 of 2): How to prospect and generate referrals efficiently

(July 2004) Top advisors and their team members say that finding time to prospect and generate referrals is one of their biggest challenges. Those who are successful have developed a process to follow which ensures they are maximizing their resources and receiving all the new assets possible.

Here are a few “big picture” thoughts and objectives to keep in mind when mapping out your prospecting and referral-generation strategies:

• Aim to keep your pipeline full with qualified prospects.
• Remember that referrals are a low-cost source of prospects.
• This is your opportunity to clone your best clients.
• Develop a time-efficient process to grow your business.
• When a client gives you a referral, it demonstrates trust and helps deepen your existing relationship.

Steps to execute

1. Prospecting

• Develop a prospecting plan based on the following questions:

  More Outside the Box

  • Power your prospecting by creating a community referral network • Community contacts: 80 local professionals you should get to know • Group gains: Finding success with structured networking • Taming time (Part 1 of 2): How to prospect and generate referrals efficiently • Taming time (Part 2 of 2): Use this tool to organize and track your prospecting activities

  Back to Outside the Box main page

  • What is your monthly goal and what are the required activities?
  • Do you have a minimum number of new clients you can handle?
  • Where will the potential clients come from?
  • What amount of time per week will be dedicated to prospecting?
  • What prospecting methods will be used?
  • Who will contact the prospects?
  • Who will attend meetings with prospects?
  • When a prospect becomes a potential client, what process is followed?
  • When a prospect does not move to being a potential client, what happens?

• Create a tracking system (to get you started, please click here for a customizable and printable monthly prospecting activity sheet).

2. Referrals

• Develop a list of potential referral sources (traditional COIs, alternative COIs, bank relationships, top-tier clients, contacts in your community, etc.).
• Create a referral plan including goals, how to ask, when to ask and a follow-up process.
• Base plan on your comfort level (direct approach versus indirect approach).
• Determine how you will service referred clients and how you will recognize those who provide referrals.

• • •

To help you organize, visualize and track your prospecting activities on a monthly basis, please click here for a worksheet you can open as a customizable and printable Word document.

• • •

For more insights and advice on how to leverage a network of alternative centres of influence (COIs) to build your business, be sure to check out the July issue of Advisor’s Edge. To view archived Advisor’s Edge articles or to subscribe to the magazine, please click here.

• • •

Joanne Ferguson is a partner with Ontario-based Advisor Pathways, a company that offers consulting and coaching help to advisors and their firms across Canada. Joanne can be reached at jferguson@advisorpathways.com or through her company’s Web site at www.advisorpathways.com.

(07/06/04)