Standing out from the advisory crowd is down to firm’s core offering
If you’re not getting referrals without asking for them, your business needs an emergency overhaul.
Jason Pereira, senior financial consultant at Woodgate Financial & IPC Securities Corp, said this failure relates back to your firm’s core offering and means you simply aren’t doing enough to rise above competitors.
This is just one aspect of developing an award-winning business development strategy Pereira will discuss during a Wealth Professional webinar on July 11, along with panellists Zachary Sikorski, director, Sun Life Financial; Susan Latremoille, wealth advisor, The Latremoille Group, Richardson GMP Limited; and Diane Nash, wealth advisor, NASH Family Wealth Management, National Bank Financial.
Other topics include: lead generation strategies; driving growth through commercial strategy and operational strategies that support successful sales.
In terms of the first topic, Pereira said the number one priority is referrals - client and professional – and that the thought of being trained to ask for them is simply “amusing”.
Instead, the award-winning advisor believes if you are not getting referrals without asking for them, then your company is not referrable in the first place.
He said: “When you look at some of the referrals we’ve gotten over the years, they are from people who deal with a ton of advisors. We get referrals from mutual fund wholesalers, from compliance officers, from head office people who basically see hundreds of advisors and still choose to send people to us.
“The reality is that if that’s not happening, if you’re not being selected by people who have a top-down view of countless advisors and being that first referral without asking for it, then you’re not referrable. You’re not doing something that is standing out enough from everybody else.”
He added that his firm receives countless referrals every month and is surprised by the lack of marketing and publicity advisors do in order to tell potential clients about the work they offer.
He said: “It goes back to the core offering. What is it exactly that you’re doing and executing for clients and how well can you communicate this.”
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