without Breaking a Sweat
March 31, 2009
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Do you know which of your clients refer their friends and family to you? Are they your satisfied clients?
You believe that all of your clients are satisfied, which is why they continue to do business with you. So, something other than satisfaction is the basis for a lack of referrals.
A study conducted by Advisor Impact indicates that while satisfied clients may be loyal, they won’t necessarily refer. The clients who refer their colleagues and loved ones are the clients who are engaged. According to the study, these engaged clients are not only more likely to refer friends and family members, but they are more open to cross-selling opportunities and will invest a larger share of their wallet with their advisor.
Now that you know a key ingredient to referrals, how do you go about engaging clients? While product offerings and customer service are important aspects to engaging clients, creating deeper client-advisor relationships has a more significant impact. The most effective way to improve relationships is to create a goal of touching your clients a fixed number of times per year.
The magic number of annual contacts is debatable, but I believe high-net-worth clients should have 12 to 24 contacts per year with their advisor. This can be overwhelming if you multiply the number clients you have by 12, 18 or even 24 annual contacts. You are easily looking at thousands of touches annually but, with the right plan and technology in place, touching your clients 24 times per year can be a cinch.
To start engaging your clients, create a client communication plan. Let’s assume you have 200 clients and 20%, or 40, of these clients are your A-list clients. You want to touch them 24 times per year and the remaining 160 clients 12 times per year.
Start your client communication plan by setting a goal for the frequency of client reviews. The Advisor Impact study found that 84% of clients with more than $500,000 in investable assets expect two or more reviews per year and 43% expect four or more reviews annually. Using this information, plan quarterly reviews for your A-list clients and semi-annual reviews for your other clients. That equates to four touches for A-list clients and two touches for the remaining clients.
Now the question is, “How will you contact your clients the rest of the year to reach your goal?” There are dozens of ideas you can consider, but I recommend a mix between educational and appreciation events. The Advisor Impact study indicates that financial reviews are the highest rated form of client contact, followed by educational communication and finally appreciation events. Keeping this in mind, I’ve included a sample client communication calendar to get you started. The activities in red are specific to your A-list clients.Display article as PDF for printing.
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