If this works, it will solve all my problems

“If this works, it will solve all my problems.”

This is what Damian, an Advisor I’m helping said to me this week.

As you most likely know, I’m 100% committed to helping Advisors grow their insurance business, not just by providing what I consider to be the best training out there. But, over the last few months, I’ve realized that I need to help Advisors grow their referral business.

It is actually my #1 priority after my day job (at PPI). But, I find this additional work helps me there. As I help more people grow their referral business, I’ve learnt valuable skills for my day job, that I wouldn’t normally have had the chance to learn…and…

pssss…you guys keep sending me referrals or joining PPI in droves of late. So, thank you for that.

But, my focus has been on helping you grow through referral.

And, these conversations have been amazing.

Just this week I heard from an Advisor who’s been in business for about 10 years and their biggest problem is getting a consistent stream of new clients into their business, so they were naturally interested in my whole referral process (of not asking I should add).

And, I told them that if they follow what I’ve written in my 3 lengthy emails, which you can grab here in case you haven’t read them. And, I should say, you might need to read these emails a few times to make it all sink in. When I started reading this stuff many years ago, I read the source material about 10 times before I truly grasped it all.

Here are the 3 emails:

Read those a few times. But, basically the foundation of my referral strategy sits in my Capitalist Manifesto above for your reading pleasure.

I’ve realized that applying these to your business requires some guidance. But for those DIYers it is all there.

If you read those emails thoughtfully and think deeply, you’ll start to see a process emerge. Much like this Advisor I spoke to this week who said:

“If this works, it will solve all my problems.”

It’s interesting he said that, but I know why he said it. He told me in as many words. He was doing all these activities, throwing anything and everything at a wall to see what would stick.

By the way, side story. I did that as a kid with spaghetti. I think, if I remember it correctly, that’s how you could tell it was cooked. Throw it at a wall and if it sticks, it was cooked or vice-versa. I ended up emptying an entire pot of spaghetti for no reason at all. Didn’t work out for me in that case.

When you do that, you get frustrated. You’re expending all this energy on trying to get your next client, and it’s so tough that you give up. You then go back to what you were doing before because it doesn’t work.

Yet, had you stuck with that strategy over a 12-month period, I’m sure it would have changed your whole business.

Real sales professionals know exactly what they are doing to drive their results. But, they don’t know where it will come from exactly. They know if they do the right activities with the right people for the right amount of time, it will lead to the results they want.

This is what I believe and I can make you believe if you don’t believe me.

I’m here to tell you. If you want the business of your dreams. You can have it. If you believe it will happen, you will be right.

And…if you don’t believe you’ll ever be able to build that business…you’re right as well. You won’t do it.

However, if you believe in the process and run it. It works. 100% of the time. Now, it doesn’t always work, especially in the short term. Which is why it works. But those that stick to it, it always eventually works.

If you want to know more about how I do it, you can read those emails.

But, the first step to this process is something so boring that most people never do it:

Document what has happened.

Here’s what I want you to do for me (you don’t have to send it to me, just do it for yourself). Over the last 12 months, I want you to write down every single referral you’ve received, put the client’s name and next to that, put the person who referred the prospect and then next to that document if they became a client.

If you do that simple activity, you will be 99% ahead of the competition.

Then ask yourself, do I think I could get at least 1 more referral from each of these sources over the next 12 months?

If the answer is yes, what should you do?

Sit silently, twiddling your thumbs hoping the next referral comes in next week? No, of course not. I want you to put a plan together for those people.

What can you do for those people in the next 3 months and then the 3 months after that and then the 3 months after that and then the 3 months after that (for those tracking, that’s the next 12 months) that would do two things for you:

1. Move these clients/referral sources closer to you - I call this relationship lift.

2. Create a moment or event that is both “memorable and meaningful.”

And the way to supercharge this is to find ways to drive value into their personal life and/or businesses (if applicable).

That is a very broad thought process. But, again, most Advisors I talk to are so busy “in their business” that they don’t spend time working “on their business.”

But, that’s not you. You will take the time to think about how you can move these people closer to you.

So, please do that simple exercise for you. You don’t need to send the list to me.

But would you do me a favour?

If you put the list together, send me the following message:

“I have completed the first step in my journey of getting a consistent stream of referrals so I don’t need to worry about where my next client will come from.”

I want to know that you are on your way to success.

If we take one little step each week together, you’ll have crossed the whole Gobi desert before you know it.

I want to help you succeed. Please take the first step with me.

See you next week,

Andrew