I have heard so many theories on why clients do and don’t refer in my career, but the truth of the matter is that it is all about fear. Fear of bringing up the subject of finances with friends and colleagues, fear that they will sound stupid and fear that the people they refer to you will have a bad experience.
In fact, recent research into neuroscience has proven that fear is the most dominant influence in human decision making. One of the aspects I love about insightful use of Social Media is the ability to make referring a pain-free experience and to capture the referral for perpetual use.
Now the example I am going to give you from my former Financial Planning firm was used years ago for an audience of high net wealth pre-retirees. A demographic that at the time had almost no exposure to what most people think of as ‘Social Media’.
So let me ask you this, what does a wealthy person typically do in the year after they retire? The answer is simple – they travel. In fact a common theme amongst affluent retirees is the love of travel. But the first year trip is usually the big one and not only that, but it is also the year that people are still in contact with work colleagues and have a need to report in on their ‘big retirement trip’. After all, everyone wants to know how the new life change is going and to perhaps live a little vicariously by hearing about it.
So instead of sending out another boring email or newsletter about tax planning or investment markets, we interviewed these clients on video about their trip, what they learned, their favourite places and experiences and also their least favourite holiday moments. We asked them to bring their best photos in too so we could cut them together into the interview.
At the end of the video, we had a slide with the words ‘Made by our firm name’. Of course we used the video for our website, email newsletter etc. However, the power of this strategy was providing the video link to our clients and empowering them to share it via email with all of their friends, family and colleagues (we even provided some suggested text for the email). It was much easier for them to forward the video to those around them, rather than regurgitate the same holiday story over and over again to anyone who cared to ask.
Used in this way, email can be an Adviser’s most valuable form of Social Media as it can completely remove the fear of your clients making a referral, whilst at the same time making it FAR more effective.
Rethink your ideas about referrals and what ‘Social Media’ is, and let us know if you can break our record of 26 high net worth referrals in one month from one client.