Steve Holmes
(Feedsy Co-founder)

As some of you may have heard Feedsy was a Gold partner at this year’s ifa Client Experience workshop in Melbourne. For me, I was very impressed with the extensive research that was conducted by MOMENTUM INTELLIGENCE. The research then formed a common thread throughout the day and linked every presenter to the findings, this made the content delivery quite compelling. More about the research below.

I would like to congratulate the ifa and Momentum Media for bringing together some quality presenters, whom certainly helped me, and I am sure all of the advisers in attendance.

About the conference:

The ifa Client Experience Workshop 2019, was all about helping advisers become that sort-after-title of the trusted source of financial advice in their community. To help them build rock-solid referral networks, and to develop a tribe of promoters who have fallen in love with their business.

The research – my notes:

It was very positive to hear that 94% of advice clients are satisfied, however slightly concerning that only 47% of advice clients will definitely stay put and would NOT consider switching to another adviser.

A great question was asked in the survey, “How did you find your adviser?” the response was:

• 52% of clients found their adviser by a friend or family member
• 12% were referred by their accountant
• 3% by their mortgage broker
• 2% web search
• 1% social media
• 31% other (perhaps a landing page? not sure…)

Importantly, they were also asked what is the likelihood of recommending their adviser to a family member or friend?

• A staggering 68% would recommend a family member or friend, so the question has to be asked, why don’t advisers receive more referrals? More on that below…

About the research:

Over 1,000 Australian advice clients and 0ver 300 non-advice clients have revealed that loyalty, engagement and education are major issues among financial advice practices and it was time to address these weaknesses head-on.

• There are gaps in understanding what services advisers provide
• Gaps in understanding how an adviser will help
• Cost was the most common reason for clients to disengage from their adviser

You can download the full research report here

Referrals – my notes:

Kim Payne from 9ROK started to present and immediately had everyone’s attention with her story around having a ‘guilt-free shoe account”. Kim described how she found this a useful catalyst for referrals to a Financial Adviser. The guilt-free shoe account is one outcome of some good advice that allowed Kim to pursue her passion for buying shoes.

We all have a passion, and this approach allowed Kim to make meaningful introductions easily. Don’t we just love to tell people about the great life experiences that we are having. The keyword here for me, which was another real take-away, was the word introduction.

Referrals vs introductions – these two words have very different perceptions, referrals are perceived that business will result when all we really want is a non-threatening, caring introduction and a further opportunity to help someone.

Kim also spoke about having a single landing page, maybe even with a welcome video, “you are here because someone cares about you”. Very nice. Kim. I love where you are heading with this, you also mentioned making the introduction should be all about the client. Instead of wording such as “a referral is the greatest compliment you can give us”, which sounds very familiar because we use that ourselves. It’s true, that statement is all about the advice business, Kim proposed that we use something like “do you have a friend or family member in a financial pickle”? Then lead to a referral landing page.

Looks like we are certainly on the right track with FeedsyReferrals, albeit a couple of wording tweaks, thanks, Kim.

To gain more referrals, Kim also provided some great tips:

• Lead with generosity, go beyond what you do to get prospects talking about you
• Referrals take place in real human conversations
• Referrals are like compliments, people don’t know how or when to give them
• WHO: Engaged clients
• WHY: To help people that you care about
• WHEN: A need is identified
• Meaningful comms, blogs, video and newsletters are required
• Know your ideal client

Referral Partnerships – my notes:

Deena Janes from Your Client Matters spoke about how the industry does not communicate its true value and how to gain referrals from existing clients. There were some compelling stats mentioned earlier in this post. 52% of referrals come from existing clients.

Case studies are the key.

Deena also spoke about some partnership mistakes:

1. Not referring first, be the first to start the referring relationship
2. Knowing how to refer clients (take control)
3. Qualifying the referral partner
4. Qualifying their genuine interest
5. Not continuing the conversation past the first meeting

 

Our Feedsy business card draw:

At conferences like this, we love to give away a Feedsy subscription to advisers that want to have more client engagement, in less time. This year we would like to congratulate Faraz Hassan from Top Finance Specialists for winning FREE setup of Feedsy and a 6-month subscription. We are looking forward to working with you Faraz.