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Most financial advisors rob themselves blind every time they meet with their best clients because they don’t simply ask for referrals.

Why don’t they ask?

Well, most advisors don’t know the correct words and phrases to say to make their clients want to send you referrals. But once you figure this part out, the rest comes easy. In fact, it could even help you land your largest client this year.

That’s why I invited Bill Cates, The Original Referral Coach for financial advisors, onto today’s show to reveal some of his best-kept referral secrets.

Want to grow your client base in the easiest and most reliable way possible?

Listen now.

Show highlights include:

  • How to double your referrals this year (even though it’s never been harder to reach interested prospects) (3:38)
  • Two words to say to satisfied clients that makes them want to send you highly qualified prospects (3:58)
  • Why asking for referrals is the quickest way to make your referral pipeline dry out (4:54)
  • The 2 most common objections your clients have when you ask for referrals (and how to overcome each one) (7:51)
  • How strictly should financial advisors stick to their referral script? A referral expert answers… (12:42)
  • Use this 7-word phrase whenever you’re in a tricky sales situation to position yourself as the expert authority (14:49)
  • How asking this simple question can land you your largest client by the end of the year (20:55)
  • The advanced “Double Readership Path” copywriting trick for transforming your website into an appointment-setting machine (27:35)

Need more help turning your business into a referral machine? Order Bill’s newest book, The Language of Referrals: The Words & Scripts Highly-Successful Financial Professionals Use to Gain More Ideal Clients, here: http://languageofreferrals.com/.

Go to https://TheAdvisorCoach.com/Coaching and pick up your free 90 minute download called “5 Keys to Success for Financial Advisors” when you join The James Pollard Inner Circle.

Read Full Transcript

You're listening to “Financial Advisor Marketing”—the best show on the planet for financial advisors who want to get more clients, without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal.

James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisors grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard.

James: Financial advisors, welcome to another wonderful guest episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast returning for either the second or third time. I probably should have checked before the show. Bill Cates, he is a referral marketing expert. I wish I had this printed out. I should have printed this out. [00:50.0]

I actually got Get More Referrals Now! That is his book. I purchased it. I'm looking at my order on amazon right now. I got it on March 20, 2015. That is probably in a box somewhere. But I have this on my shelf, Beyond Referrals. I'm holding it up so he can see it. Podcast listeners, you can see it. And the bookmark that I used is actually my order slip, and Bill can see that this is from May 11, 2018, so this is not a new thing. Bill has been around for a long time. I have been studying his material. So, 2015. This episode is going to release on March 20, 2024, so that's nine years ago that I bought Get More Referrals Now! and it has been an influence on me. I highly recommend it to financial advisors all the time.
Bill, could you share a little bit about your journey in the world of referral marketing? And just tell people who you are if they don't know already.
Bill: Yeah, longtime customer, huh?
James: Yeah.
Bill: James, thank you. Had I known what an influencer you would turn out to be in this industry, I probably would have mailed them to you for free, and you'll get my next book Language of Referrals, which we'll talk about today as soon as it comes off the presses, maybe off the presses by the time we're talking and this goes live. [02:06.5]

In any event, yeah, I’ve been helping financial professionals for just almost 30 years acquire more clients, mostly focusing on referrals and now introductions, personal introductions through centers of influence or clients, and it just kind of turned out to be my calling, to use a trite phrase. I seemed to be a natural at it. People seemed to like the words I used to suggest that they would use. They liked the way I said them. I don't know, it has turned out to be great.
I’ll tell you, what I love most about this, James, is the fact that as I help financial advisors find more clients, I am helping those people get the serious help that they need. There's a huge ripple effect in all of this, right? When I help clients, help advisors get more clients, they help those folks, and that, in turn, is a ripple effect throughout the whole family, helping create legacy, financial dignity, increase wealth, the whole thing, so I just love being in the space. [03:10.8]

James: That's something that I wish I considered more and more deeply and earlier in my career as well. I noticed that you purposefully said introduction, or at least, it seems like you did when you shifted from referrals to introductions. Is there a difference?
Bill: Yes, sort of. The old way used to be taught, was called the referred lead, right? “Call George. Use my name.” Look, George doesn't pick up the phone. Then they know who is calling. He's wondering why his friend has given out his name. It's just so hard to reach people these days for all kinds of reasons. These days, the last four or five, six years I guess, I’ve been really, really emphasizing the introduction, that connection. I know we'll get into this a little bit. But, really, the process is not done until we've gotten connected. [03:56.8]

First little action step here. When you're with a prospect, a client, a center of influence, anyone who has the ability to connect with others, make sure you use the word that represents what you really want and that is introduction, or you could say connection. “James, how would you like to introduce me to Laura? James, let's talk about how you connect me with Bob, just to get on his radar and make sure he feels comfortable with all of this.” So, connection, introduction. We will be using the word referrals a little bit here. Let's consider that not for public use, right? For internal use only. Yeah, there is a difference.
James: I feel like the referral is “What do I get?” I'm getting the referral, but Joe or Bill or whoever is getting the connection, so the client is getting the introduction, getting the connection, but the referral is all about me, me, me, so I can appreciate that difference.
Bill: Yeah, and I think it was Mat Oxley I think who did some research on this that wealthier, more affluent investors, advisory clients, I should say, that a lot of those folks didn't like to be asked for referrals, but they'd like to make introductions. [05:12.2]

Part of it may be semantics and their perception of what referral means, but most of these folks like to introduce, and most of us like to introduce when we see the good match there. Some people are afraid to make introductions, because they perceive it as a risk, but in most cases, people do like to introduce. In this case, that's what we're doing, pay it forward. It's about bringing the value forward to others. Yes, we make money if it turns into a client, that's the way conscious and ethical capitalism works, and it's about bringing value to others.
James: Cool. You alluded to your new book at the beginning of the episode. It’s called The Language of Referrals: The Words & Scripts Financial Professionals Use to Gain More Ideal Clients. Amazing title, by the way. How is that different from some other books that you've written over the years? [06:06.0]

Bill: Yeah, it’s different in the sense that it's about as tactical, a book that I’ve written. I mean, most of my books have a lot of tactics in it. I work, James, really on three levels. I work on the levels of principles. Principles almost never change. They're the kind of truths, beliefs, things that seemed to work all the time in most situations. Then there's the strategies and the strategies are adjusted, depending on the type of business you have, the type of practice you have. But the tactics, those can really change, given the circumstance, given the context.
That's why in the book, I provide a lot of different contexts, a lot, for instance, the objections or concerns around giving referrals. You notice any number of things that a client might say to show reluctance to engage in this conversation. I give about seven or eight different ways to deal with that, different ways to ask for introductions, different ways to get introduced. [07:03.0]

Boy, it covers the strategies. Those are the six parts. But then underneath, it says tactical as can be, and you know this, advisors, really anybody, they just like to be “What do I say? What are the words that I use?” and when they have the right words that are right for them, that creates confidence. Then once they have the confidence, they are likely to take action, and the action produces the results. This is all about building confidence by helping people come up with the right word for themselves.
James: I think once they see a model or a template or a script, then you're right, they do have that confidence. They just see something. It's hard to really put a strategy or a principle into action until you have a vision of what it actually looks like, so I can totally appreciate that. You mentioned objections. What are some of the most common objections that people have to giving referrals? [07:57.2]

Bill: First of all, the two main resistance or pieces of reluctance that advisory clients seem to have are, one, they're concerned about confidentiality. They don't want things revealed, and even though you've brought that up in different places in different ways, perhaps you haven't brought it up in terms of in direct relationship to the introduction, and then the other is, what's it going to look like? How are you going to reach out to my friends or family or colleagues?
It's an unknown if you've never talked about it, and because it's an unknown, it's a perceived risk, and so a lot of people won't naturally go there because of that. They may think that you asking for introductions means them giving you names and phone numbers and you bugging their friends, because maybe that happened to them in the past, so that's what they see.
Unless we teach our clients, prospects and clients, and centers of influence, by the way, accountants, attorneys, unless we teach them what that connection is going to look like, that's going to be an uncomfortable introduction. It's going to feel safe for everybody. Until we do that, then there's that reluctance for a lot of folks. [09:06.1]

Now, get into the nitty-gritty of it, you hear lots of things, right? You hear things like “I don't like to give referrals” or “I’m not sure I feel comfortable with that. You get a lot of no’s disguised as maybes, right? You get “Give me some cards and I’ll pass them out,” or “Let me let me think on that a little bit.”
Now, we don't know that that's a no for sure. We shouldn't assume it's a no. But quite often, that's what it is and they're just trying to let us down easy because we already have a decent relationship with them. Yeah, so having the right formula, the right way to address that makes a big difference.

James: I’m trying to think about myself and how I give referrals, because I give a lot of referrals, but I honestly can't remember a time. I’m sure I did it years ago, but I can't remember just giving someone a name. The way that I personally do it is I say, “Look, I can make an introduction. I’m not going to give you a name. I’m going to make the introduction.” [10:07.2]

So, I know so-and-so and I know the advisor, or the accountant or whoever. I say, “I can bring you two together.” I don't tell the accountant or the advisor, “Oh, yeah, my friend Bill is someone you should contact.” I never do that, right? I tend to be the person bringing them together. Is that common or am I just a control freak?

Bill: You want to be careful is what you want to do, right? This is true for anyone making an introduction, right? The prime directive for you, the introducer, if you will, you want to protect the relationships, right? You want to make it feel comfortable for folks and for yourself, and so you're careful on how you do it. Now, as the advisor, we respect that and we want to get connected, right? If you think of a Venn diagram, you want to protect your relationships, but you want to connect me. [11:01.0]

James: Right.
Bill: I want to get connected, and I want to help you protect your relationship. That's where the two come together, and so having the right type of introduction. Now, for myself, sometimes I’ll just make connections. I’ll just say, “James, meet Bob. You guys should know each other.” But only if I’m really sure it's a good connection and you're going to be open to it.
Sometimes I will check with you first and sometimes our clients want to check with their friends and colleagues. While we don't always want that to happen, because they don't always do it in the most powerful way. Sometimes that's what needs to be done for them to feel comfortable. I've done that. Sometimes I wish people would check with me before they make an introduction, because now I feel obligated for my friend making the connection, but I’m not sure I really want to talk to this other person. Right? I'm not sure I see the relevance.
This is probably the most complicated aspect of the process and it has to fit the context. The context is king here. That's why we want to talk to clients and make this a collaborative approach on who we should be introduced to, and then what does the introduction look like, so it feels safe and effective. [12:13.7]

James: I think that's the reason why I do it, because I wouldn't want someone to just introduce I guess. If a financial advisor started calling me out of the blue and just calling again and again, and emailing and LinkedIn. Where did you find me? I wouldn't really take well to that. I know that some people could, especially if it really is a great fit. But not everybody does that due diligence. Advisors should take note of that.
I do have a question about scripts, though, since The Language of Referrals has so many templates and scripts and models.
How strictly do you think financial advisors should stick to a given script?

Bill: Everybody's a little bit different. Some folks do very well with a very specific verbiage and script. Others are okay, just kind of having a sense of what they want to say, the bullet points, if you will. Now, I call this “words and scripts” in the subtitle of the book, The Language of Referrals, but I’m not really expecting people to necessarily memorize the scripts. I’m just giving them options. [13:14.0]

What some folks will do is actually they'll memorize the script, and then they’ll personalize it. Memorize, personalize, right? Just make it you, make it sound like you, etc. Others like the work a little bit from bullet points. They just need to know what bases they should touch on in the given process. Here's the bottom line, James, whatever works, meaning, whatever produces the result that we want, as long as we're doing it in a way that everyone feels okay and comfortable, I think that's what matters most.

James: That's true, and I think that when I work with advisors, the closer I work with them, the more I script stuff out. I’m just writing for a wide audience and just because there are financial advisors from all walks of life who consume my content, so it would be disingenuous and really a disservice for me to just say, “Oh, you should always do XYZ,” and just like you said, whatever works. Model it to your situation. That's what I want financial advisors to do. [14:19.7]

Mike: Right.
James: But if I have a consulting call and we're talking about email, and I can see everything that they're doing, then and pretty much only then I will say, “Look, say this, this, this and this, do not question me. Do it.” I can appreciate that where sometimes it's flexible, and other times, it's very rigid.
Bill: Right. Yeah, it totally makes sense and it has to fit. The context is king and we're going to have to resolve what's the result we're trying to create. Here's a phrase, by the way, that I have in the book. At the back of the book, I have some, call them power phrases, whatever word you want to use there, things I’ve picked up over the years. Let me give you one of them that applies to what you're talking about here, and here's what I found works the best. [15:05.8]

If we're talking about getting introduced, if we're talking about following up, if you're talking about you're doing some coaching with one of your advisor clients, here's what I found works the best, and everybody wants to know what works the best. It doesn't mean they're going to follow up, follow it, but that's our favorite way. It's a pretty good educated guess on our part, and I’ve found that I get people to kind of do what I ask them to do if I say, “Here's what I’ve found works the best,” and then I lay it out and I say, “Could that work for you? Do you see yourself doing that?” “No, yeah, I could do that.” So, yeah.

James: Sometimes advisors will email me and they will ask, “Which of your products sells the most?” What? That kind of ties into what you're saying, “Here's what works best.” They just want to shortcut. They want a heuristic. My approach is “The product that sells the most might not apply to your situation at all, but here, here it is,” and they ended up buying it and that's great. It's good, because it can help them, it can help me, so on and so forth. But it is interesting that people will definitely respond to that. “Here's what works best. Here's the best seller. Here's what most people do.” That is some incredible advice. [16:18.2]

What was your process for developing these scripts? What went into it? What did you do? How did this all start?
Bill: Yeah, how about years of teaching this and using it myself?
James: And coaching.
Bill: My coaching and interviewing, right. It's years in the making, in this sense. Mostly what it's come from is teaching my system and knowing that if I just stay on the level of principle or strategy, that's valuable, because when people know the principles and strategies at hand, they can often create their own tactics and methods, if they know the principle. But I’ve had so many people over the years ask me, “How should I say it? How would I say that?” [17:01.1]

Like you alluded to earlier, James, you're right, when people can't see themselves doing that strategy, they're not quite sure how to implement it, when you give them a tactical way, when you say, “You could say it this way,” they open up to the strategy, don't they? Because they [think], Oh, I never thought about saying it that way. That just evolved as I was doing this and I learned I’m actually pretty good at figuring out how to say things to people, whatever it is we need to say to people, so that's how it evolved.
I used to have an old scripts book with my online university, or academy we call it now. We had a scripts book of different scenarios, and so this is kind of a redo of that that I’m putting in a little more accessible to everyone. You don't have to be a member of the academy to get the scripts. Yeah, and it's come from a lot of questions. “What if I get this objection?” or “How do I enter? What if they say this, that I want to talk to them first?” So, a lot of this is over time figuring out what does work the best, what is the best way. [18:04.7]

I’ve got to give credit to all the advisors I’ve worked with over the years, whether I interviewed them or they I coached them, or, James, just doing my in-person presentations, people come up to me at the break or afterwards to say, “I say this and I say that,” and so I’ve learned so much from others as well and now I’m curating it for the rest of the world.

Hey, financial advisors. If you'd like even more help building your business, I invite you to subscribe to James' monthly paper-and-ink newsletter, “The James Pollard Inner Circle”. When you join today, you'll get more than $1,000 worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren't available anywhere else. Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more.

James: So, we actually have pretty similar business models, not necessarily [speaking.] I don't do much speaking. Actually, it's funny, I have a speaking engagement today at two o'clock, so speak of the devil. [19:03.1]

But, anyway, I actually had a podcast series come out a few months ago, as of the time that we're recording this, I believe, and it was “What I’ve learned from 10,000-plus conversations with financial advisors,” and I’m probably sitting on the book myself, because my email inbox, I mean, we flag all the questions to come in. I can just go through and look at all the little red tickers and, like, question, question, question, question, question, so I might have to model that. It'd be a lot of work and I’m averse to work sometimes, but we will see.
Bill: Averse to work, okay. But you do it anyway. You force yourself, right?
James: Oh, yeah, that is a discipline in and of itself. Having a routine helps a lot where I don't even know what I would do at eight o'clock, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock in the morning if it wasn't this. I just wouldn't have anything to fill it, so there's a lesson there, too. [19:59.0]

Now, I want to dig into some specifics. Now, you can get as specific as you want. You don't really have to share names or details or anything like that, but what I would like is a success story of someone who has successfully implemented your referral marketing scripts.
Bill: Wow, I’ve had a lot. I'll give you one, Aaron Willis.
James: Just to create that vision again.
Bill: Yeah, yeah, no, I get it. I mean, all the time, people are sending me stuff. I try not to brag too much, but you're asking for me to give some success story, so I'll do it. Aaron Willis was with a client and he actually confessed to me later. He says a client said, “Aaron, are you still taking on new clients?” and realizing that's not something you want to hear.
James: Yep.
Bill: Especially from your best clients, right? You want them to know that, yeah, you're never too busy to see if you can be a resource for others, don't keep me a secret. Anyway, he was telling the story to me and how the client said [that] and he said, “Yeah, of course, we are,” and she says, “Great, I’ve got somebody for you.” [21:04.7]

She introduced a colleague of hers, a very high-level executive, good assets to bring forward, and he brings her on as a new client and it’s a couple of meetings. Then she decides to become a client and transferring assets and whatnot, and she says, “Just like Laura did for us in introducing the work we do for her, who's next?” Right? It's a little phrase idea. “Who's next?”
That's one of the many, many, many little teeny scripts I give. “Who's next? Who's the next person to receive the value of an introduction?” and that actually got him introduced to his largest client that he's ever, ever gotten to. Just “Who's next to receive this value? Who's next to receive this type of connection?” That's Aaron, based in Annapolis, Maryland. Anyway, yeah, it works. [22:00.1]

I had one guy, Michael Schmidt, out in California. Once he says, “Bill, you make asking for referrals as natural as breathing,” and they go, “Wow.”
James: That's good.
Bill: Yeah, I mean, you're a copywriter, James. You can appreciate it. That's pretty cool. Now, here's what I decided, by the way, with that. If I use that as copy on my website or sales page, that's me bragging, but if I say from Michael Schmidt, San Mateo, California, I’m not bragging. I’m just quoting.
James: Yeah, there's a proverb about that from King Solomon in the Bible. I can't remember the verse, but I know it's in there. If you google it, someone else says something. Also as a copywriter, you're right, so “Who's next?” is very similar to “Who else?” Some of the most effective advertisements of all time have used the “Who else?” headline.
A specific example for financial advisors who are listening to this and want to google it and read the ad, because I was studying it yesterday, it's “Who else wants a screen star figure?” Now, that's old-timey, basically movie stars. Who wants to look like a movie star, have the body of a movie star? But that headline, the “Who else wants?” has been used again and again and again. [23:12.2]

I think one of the limiting beliefs that financial advisors have when studying copywriting or marketing is they fail to understand how, again, that principle strategy can be applied elsewhere. The “Who else?” isn't just limited to a blog article or an email or a LinkedIn post. It's not just the written word. It can be spoken, too, so “Who else do you know who would like to receive this value?” or “Who is next? Who would you like me to connect with?” That is a principle that has been used in marketing for over 100 years at this point.

Bill: Yeah, and if I could add to that, I like that, and the way I teach it, it is kind of “Who’s next?” and the bullseye of asking, if you think of a target and I know you'd like to shoot a little bit, so if you think of a target, the bullseye is going to be “Who else? Who’s next? I have some ideas.” Right? [24:08.1]

In other words, “I’ve come prepared with who might be next, because I know your family in the area. I know people, your business partners or whatever. I know people you know,” and that's the bullseye of “Who’s next?” or “Who else?” Then if you go and move out of the ring, out of the target, the next ring out of the bullseye would be those just stereotypical, money-in-motion, life-event kind of places.
The key here is that whenever you're asking for introductions, what you don't want to do is just leave it at that “Who else?” What I mean by that is “Who else do you think should know about the work we do?” or “Who's the next person to experience this great value? I have a few ideas to run by you,” right? Letting them know you've come prepared and then have some very specific places, because the goal here, James, is to get them to picture people in their mind's eye. [25:02.2]

When you say, “Can you think of anybody else that should know about what we do?” yeah, they usually draw a blank. I mean, occasionally lightning strikes and it works, but not usually. But if you say, “I’m hoping we could brainstorm a little bit, see if we can identify a few folks that you think should at least be aware of the work I do. I have a few ideas I’d like to run by you,” and I could use the other people who should know or the next person to benefit, they'll often get curious, like, Who are you thinking of? Right?
I could say, “I’ve got a few categories of people we do some pretty important work for. In fact, you're in one of those categories. Can we bring--” “What category am I in?” Right? It actually can create a little bit of fun in the mix as you let them know you've come prepared, and that's one of the biggest adjustments that I’ve made in my system over the 30 years. It’s emphasizing that, being prepared, coming prepared.
The advisors that I coach or just hear from time to time are not doing well in what they think they're doing and asking for introductions. They're not prepared for the conversation. They're just really throwing it out there to see if any of that spaghetti sticks against the wall. [26:09.7]

James: That's Marketing 101, too. You're appealing to the other person's self-interest. I had a conversation with an advisor two or three weeks ago, and by the time this episode comes out, this is all long gone, but I was working on some content-marketing stuff, a good content-marketing issue, pushing that pretty hard, and it ended up being a success.
One of the things I said in one of the emails was that long copy tends to out-convert shorter copy, and this advisor responded and was like, That doesn't work, wouldn't work on me and I wouldn't read all of this. I was like, Actually, I can guarantee you that I could write a 10,000-word sales letter and you would read every single word. He was like, Oh, yeah? I doubt it. I don't remember what he said. He definitely didn’t believe me, right? [26:56.1]

I said, “Oh, I can do it. I would say this sales letter is all about”—and I put his name—“you would read every word of it. If it was 100% about you and your life, yes, you would absolutely check it out.” So, there's a huge lesson there and he did concede that he would read it. Score for me, I guess. I won that one.
Bill: The adage here, and you know this, I’m preaching to the choir, but for other people to hear, you hear “How long should it be?” Long enough to get the job done, as long as it's interesting and relevant, right? If what you're writing is relevant and interesting, it has to be both, people will read it.
What I’ve found, and I’m curious, we're a little off-topic here, but I think people might find it helpful, for website copy, long website copy, generally speaking, is not so good. What I’ve learned is that when I’m developing website copy, I’m developing it for skimmers and readers. In other words, I know people are going to skim it. Most people will probably skim it first, so you’ve got subheads. Lots of subheads, right? [28:01.4]

James: Right.
Bill: Then you have something underneath it that if people go, “Oh, I’m interested in that,” then they can read it. Then the text is there. Making it visually appealing for the skimmers and then having the right words for the people who are really seeing interest in it. I don't know if that makes sense.
James: The term for what you just described is called a double-readership path. The subheads, this is a super-advanced copywriting tip right here. This might fly over a lot of people's heads, but this is gold, right? If you wrote out your sales letter in just subheads, and I actually do this on my sales letters where I say, “Here's what this is. Here's why you should listen to me. Here's why you should be interested. Here's what to do next,” so people can see exactly. It's the readership path and that's all done in subheads.
For someone who is a financial advisor, wanting to get more clients, it could be something like, “This is why I work with dentists. I discovered these mistakes that dentists make when planning for retirement. Here's the way that I solve them. Here's why you should listen to me.” [29:03.7]

Now, keep in mind, those are all subheads, right? Under “Here's why you should listen to me,” the body copy would be “I have the certifications. I've been in business for this long. People have called me this. I’ve got this award, this award and this award.” But the skimmers wouldn't read that, right?
But the skimmers would read, “Here's why you should listen to me. Here's who I help. I work with dentists. Here are the biggest mistakes that dentists make,” and they would know that that's who you work with. You have identified mistakes that they're probably making, and you obviously have some credibility because you're talking about it. Even if they never read it, right, if they never read the body copy and they just skim, the double-readership path—that's the term for it—takes care of it, so that is what you're describing.
Bill: Yeah, I do that in my book The Language of Referrals as well, because they may not be interested in every type of scenario or the subhead of a particular scenario might attract someone. I want people to read my book, and so I make sure that there's lots of whitespace and there's lots of sub heads, and when you dive into The Language of Referrals, you can see “What do you want to look at?” [30:09.8]

You don't necessarily have to read it from beginning to end. You could have a particular situation or challenge or opportunity, and you dive into the book and say, “All right, where does he address that?” and that's where that double writing that you talked about comes from. Anyway, we got a little off-track, off-topic, but it's still related.
James: Absolutely, and I think that's something that financial advisors, if you can google that and figure that out. I know I’ve been saying that a lot in this show, but there are certain things where I say I can't do them justice in a single podcast episode.
Bill: Yeah.
James: I do want to wind this episode down. I have a great question for you that I’m personally interested in. What is one important piece of advice you'd like every listener to take away from our conversation about referral marketing scripts?
Bill: Yes. One. I only get one, huh? I would have to say that it would be, you want to make everything that you say and do related to this as client-focused as possible and not advisor-focused. Let me give you a couple examples. [31:11.2]

The old way of asking for referrals or introductions was “Let me tell you how I get paid. I get paid in two ways.” All right, most people hate that, don't want to do that, and I’m all with you on that. When people come to me for coaching, they say, “How do I do it without looking like the creepy referral guy?” right?
But with that said, many of your clients like to help you as well. Julie Littlechild out of Toronto, Canada, actually studied this. She found that, messing the numbers a little bit, but it's roughly 67% of clients who make introductions do it to help the other person. So, we know that that's the prime reason why people will make introductions. It’s to bring your value to others.
James: Just to be clear, the other person is the person that is being referred, not the advisor, right? [31:58.8]

Bill: Yes, the client wants to help the other person, right? That's the main reason that client is making that introduction, 67%, and 33%, do it because they want to help their advisor. Some of our clients do like to help us. They do want to help the advisor, right?
What I like to do is to capture both energies. How do we make it about “Help me help others”? And now we're capturing both energies of, yes, they want to help other people with your value and they don't mind helping you help other people with your value. To me, that's the best place to come from, the most effective place to come from around introductions.
James: It’s hard to beat, being 100% market-focused. That is aligned with my marketing philosophy. It's something I wish more advisors did. It's frustrating when they don't, because I’ve seen the results. You've seen the results. If you focus on what people want and what their expectations are, and what they want to do, your life would be so much easier. You're just fighting an uphill battle if you ignore your market. [33:03.3]

Bill: Amen.
James: Where is the best place for advisors to get this magnificent book that should be out? Can you refresh my memory on the date that you said preorder and order? When is that?
Bill: As we're recording this, James, it's a little up in the air, but our launch date is March 27, so we believe that the preorders will be available by the time this comes out. Essentially, go to LanguageOfReferrals.com. www.languageofreferrals.com. It'll take you to the page, describes the book in little more detail, so you know what you're getting. Then if it's available for preorder, it'll say preorder. If it's available for purchase, it'll say go ahead and purchase. That's kind of where we are with that, LanguageOfReferrals.com.
If you want to just shoot me a question or want to know more about things, just go to bill@referralcoach.com. It's my direct email, bill@referralcoach.com, and I’m happy to take your question. [34:01.2]

James: LanguageOfReferrals.com. My voice is cracking like Justin Bieber before puberty. It's been a long day. I’ve been talking all morning. That sounds like a plan. This episode should drop on March 25. That will be a Monday. The 27th will be a Wednesday. Financial advisors put it in your calendars to check that out. This is something you don't want to miss.
And the cool thing is, by purchasing early, you can help Bill climb the charts, I assume, on Amazon, which means it's going to be exposed to even more people and you’ll help even more people, and you'll make the industry stronger and that's something that you want. You don't want other financial advisors out there being creepy and asking for referrals the wrong way -
Bill: Right.
James: - and giving you a bad name, financial advisors, because that's what happens, because then people think, Oh, all financial advisors do this, or they have a bad experience and it makes you look bad, so make the industry stronger. How did I do it? Did I solve that well?
Bill: It’s great. I totally agree. We all want to be ethical and appropriate, and graceful and professional, and when we do that, we all look better. [35:02.7]
James: All right, thank you so much for doing this. You're a returning guest. I love having returning guests that are a proven concept. I know what to expect. And, seriously, financial advisors, make sure you take action on this. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and I will catch you next week.

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