How to Grow Your Ideal Client Community Twice As Big In Half The Time

How successful are your current client acquisition methods? Are you adding new clients as quickly as you’d like? How much effort are you willing to make to increase the number of new clients you’re adding per week and per month? Does your rate of client acquisition depend entirely on you, the trusted financial advisor? Are you struggling to convince potential clients to join your Ideal Client Community?

If so, don’t worry—you’re not alone. Most professionals in our industry approach client acquisition backwards, and in a way that puts undue burden on the advisor. I’m here to tell you that there’s another, better way—by focusing on exceeding client expectations, providing an extraordinary client experience and letting your team do substantially more of the heavy lifting.

Believe it or not, humans are wired to let others know when they’ve had a truly extraordinary experience. Whenever we’ve got good news, unique news, or know something that might be useful to others, it’s human nature to spread that news among those we routinely interact. Ask yourself this: When was the last time you saw a really excellent movie, or had an extraordinary meal at a restaurant? Did you tell anyone about your positive experience?

The same principle applies to client referrals for your financial services business. When you provide an extraordinary client experience, many clients will take notice and refer you—without being asked—to everyone they know. We call these Unsolicited Client Referrals (UCRs).

UCRs are like an unexpected gift. After making the effort to impress a client, your client took the time to share the positive experience with someone they know, without you being there or even asking them to. As a result, you got an unsolicited call from a potential client. UCRs are always a pleasant surprise, and you can do things internally that will substantially increase their likelihood.

You can always assume that UCRs are a result of exceeding your clients’ expectations. It’s unlikely that a client would ever risk their own reputation to refer someone who isn’t exceeding their expectations. Clients who aren’t impressed simply don’t bother providing any referrals. So any measurable increase in your rate of UCRs means your team’s efforts at skillfully exceeding client expectations are effective.

Sure, you could go buy a client list from an advisor who is closing up shop, or promote yourself through a seminar, or sponsor a series of dinners for potential clients, or throw money at an ad campaign and hope the phone starts ringing. But once you get the clients, you still have to provide them with quality service—so why not focus on making that service as extraordinary as possible, and let your current clients market for you instead? After all, your current clients probably already know more people than you could possibly ever serve!

There are many different ways you and your team can start providing an extraordinary client experience immediately—and we discuss many in-depth in our free course, The Only Game In Town: 10 Game-Changing Strategies for Financial Advisors. Some improvements might be as simple as a routine tidying of the office before clients come in, or making a bigger deal about the gracious and friendly way people are treated when arriving at your office. Others are a bit more in-depth—like reworking the reports you present to clients during client progress meetings, so that they are clear, simple, and provide the answers your clients most want to know.

When you devote your resources to exceeding client expectations and creating an extraordinary client experience, you’ll not only acquire new clients faster, but you’ll also enjoy several secondary benefits that come naturally as a result of your efforts. Check back in a couple days when I’ll outline the top ten benefits of unsolicited client referrals.

In the meantime, let me know in the comments—what are some immediate actions you could take to improve your client experience and increase unsolicited client referrals?