By Mark Harris, Vice President of Strategy

As advisors, we spend a lot of time thinking about and perfecting our story. The story of how we started our firm, how we found our passion in the industry, how we help clients and more. This should be familiar to us as advisors. If it’s not, I highly encourage you to spend some time on your story. That said, the focus of this article is not our story but our clients’ stories.

Storytelling, or “stortselling” as some refer to it, is a powerful tool, especially when it comes to signing up new business. I’ve had the pleasure to work with many highly successful advisors, and one theme that always seems to emerge is that they are great at sharing client success stories. While certain stories more readily apply, these advisors are able to pull out components of numerous stories and connect with their audience. They lean on prior client experiences and feedback to craft these stories. While the outcomes should be positive, it’s important to be transparent with prospects and mention challenges that were overcome as part of the financial planning process. We want prospects to connect with us and feel comfortable that we can help them address any financial situation.

Equally important as advisors being able to share our clients’ stories is our clients being able to share their own stories. This is imperative for creating a positive referral network. From a psychological perspective, making referrals can have a positive impact on both the giver and the receiver. In addition to the advisor receiving a referral and being able to help more people, clients can benefit from the positive feedback of giving referrals and the emotional satisfaction of helping people who they care about.

However, data shows that there is a significant gap in the number of clients who provide referrals, roughly 25% to 35%, whereas only 3% to 5% of referrals actually end up meeting with an advisor.* Advisors can greatly improve those odds by sharing stories with clients and working with them to create their own. Tracking completed projects and other past experiences can be important in framing these stories. Asking for feedback on specific planning items will not only allow the advisor to hear the client’s thoughts, but also the client will almost unknowingly create a story that they will then share with other potential referrals. 

This concept loosely parallels the idea of a movie trailer. It’s one thing to hear a movie is good, it’s another to watch the trailer. Let’s be honest, which one gets you more excited? Spoiler, it tends to be the movie trailer. Or at least the movie trailer gives you a better idea of what to expect.

Roughly one-third of our clients, if not more, want to make referrals. Despite our clients’ best intentions, in many cases, this doesn’t come to fruition. Some clients are nervous about making a referral given the potential blowback of the referred party having a negative experience. Others will make referrals but struggle to elaborate on how their advisor is truly better. The phrase “I like my advisor,” while positive, is not overly convincing. The missing component in both scenarios is clients being comfortable with telling their own story, or at least a portion of it.

As advisors, our goal is to positively impact our clients’ lives. Unfortunately, impact is not always easily measured (it goes well beyond dollars and cents)–and that’s why stories are so important!

*Data from Kitces.com: https://www.kitces.com/blog/ways-to-ask-for-referrals-financial-advisor-questions-marketing/

This material is intended for informational and educational purposes only. No representations or warranties, either express or implied, are made regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. Reliance upon information in this material is at the reader’s sole discretion.

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