I Need to Generate Some Referrals

[sman]

I say referrals are earned. Not asked for. And the ones telling you they are asked for are usually FOS marketers that never got a referral if they ever worked in the field.

Do a good job for your clients, answer your phone and provide good customer service and they will refer you to others.

And beware of any clown that wants to send you advice through PM's.

You asked on an open forum. If they can't reply on an open forum it's because it can't stand the light.

You will learn that most of the posters here are not producers.

Over time the real producers here stand out. There should be an asterisk by all the marketers so a new agent can know to avoid them.

Pretty much nailed it. When I first started in the business we were told to ask questions like, who do you know that just bought a home, had a baby, got married, etc (this was when all I did was life insurance). And if you were given a name(s) they called that a referral. I'm of the belief that's just a name with slightly more information than you had. Can that name be worked and cultivated into a sale? Of course. But that isn't a referral.

Here's what my referrals sound like.

My phone rings and I answer "Hello, this is Scott".

Caller - "Hi Scott. This is Jane Thompson. I was talking to Mary Smith about Medicare stuff and she said I should talk to you and you'd help me understand all of this mess and get me set up on the right plan."

There are a few variations of that phone call, but that's a referral.

With that said, we can certainly do things to increase the chances of us getting referrals. JD hit the nail on the head with this statement:

Do a good job for your clients, answer your phone and provide good customer service and they will refer you to others.

That's really almost all it takes. You can do little things like sending birthday cards, thank you notes, etc. Be proactive at AEP (if you work the Medicare market). And definitely let them know you welcome referrals if they feel you've done a good job for them.

If somebody is selling me something and they ask me for names of other people, I simply tell them if I appreciate the job you do for me AND I come across someone in need of your services then I will recommend you. But I'm not giving you the names and numbers of family and friends so that you can call them.

 

[Alston]

I don't get as many referrals as I would like either, but there are two things that have helped me so far, besides giving good service.

Stay in touch

Put something in the mail to each client 4 to 12 times a year. Email as often or more. Call at least once per year.

My focus is usually on cross selling, but I also get more referrals when I contact my clients more often.

Reward people who give referrals

Lately, I've thanked my clients who send me referrals with a handwritten note and $10 an Amazon card.

It doesn't help me get more people to refer me, but I get more referrals per referrer.

 

[jdeasy]

I don't get as many referrals as I would like either, but there are two things that have helped me so far, besides giving good service.

Stay in touch

Put something in the mail to each client 4 to 12 times a year. Email as often or more. Call at least once per year.

My focus is usually on cross selling, but I also get more referrals when I contact my clients more often.

Reward people who give referrals

Lately, I've thanked my clients who send me referrals with a handwritten note and $10 an Amazon card.

It doesn't help me get more people to refer me, but I get more referrals per referrer.

I've found that most referrers are repeat referrers. But it could be because I do reward them. I ask the referrer about their favorite restaurant. I then send them, or take them, a $20 gift card to that restaurant.

I would rather give them something they will use rather than a coffee cup or some trinket that they throw away.

 

[johndf]

Selling over the phone is different than selling face to face. Some people may agree some disagree, this is just my opinion over my years in this business. When I sit in front of you whether at your home or in my office, I am able to build trust, develop a personal relationship with you and get to know you and you me. I am old school. So asking for referrals for me has always been a lot easier because I make it more personal and as you know people buy from people they like and trust.

With that being said, selling over the phone creates a different dynamic, you have to develop that relationship of trust over phone. Obviously you have done something right, you have 1000 clients. Keep in mind its not only what you do during the sale but also after that will impact your success. A couple questions for you, after the sale do you ask for referrals from your new clients? If so what do you say and how do you say it. What do you do to follow up with your existing clients? 30 day follow up call, Thank You letter (hand written and mailed not emailed), quarterly newsletter to your client base, etc. You need to create
Top of the Mind awareness" with your clients. There is an old saying, "people don't care what you know until they know that you care". We make our clients feel like they are our #1 client and always give top notch customer care so that they have a pleasurable experience with our agency. We always reinforce that with them before we hang up with them.

You have 1000 clients, keep in mind something that most agents forget. It cost more to get a new client than maintain an existing client. Take care of your existing clients and you will get referrals. But also do not be afraid to be proactive, call them up to see how they are doing or wish them a Happy Birthday or for a review and ask them for referrals. Best of Luck.

 

[ktmorgan]

I work f-to-f and not over the phone. That's actually an advantage your case. That being said I'm looking for ways to sell more by phone right now too (all info you may have to do that is highly appreciated).

But with that sort of client base you could probably live the rest of your career on them and their information alone. Honestly, you should never have to spend another penny on marketing ever again.

I don't want to give you what might be obvious advice. But I always gather as much information from my clients as possible. All the members of the family's names, addresses, phone #'s, emails, anniversary's, how long they've lived in their homes, children, schools they to go, birthday's, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, dogs, cats, favorite thing they do for fun, everything I can think of that is relevant to that particular client..etc.

Then I do the same thing for the Beneficiary's... phone, names, addresses, emails, birthday's, children, extended family, what kind of business they're in ...etc. Then I do the same thing for the Contingent Beneficiary's.

I then make calls the to the Bene's and Contingent Bene's to introduce myself and let them know that they are the Bene's and Contingent Bene's of my client in case they didn't know. That allows me to have relevant, light or deeply probing discovery calls with them. In the process I let them know who I am, my background, where they can find more information about me and what I've done for my client and what I can do for them in case, or if they ever have the need for anything. I can also explain what their rights and responsibility's are as Beneficiary's/Contingent.

You'd be surprised how often they don't even know that they are the Bene's or Contingents to my client. And very often they'll come right out say something like "I'm so glad you called we we're just thinking about this..or that." Then it's an easy cross-sale, side-ways sale to them.

Then I make calls to all of the extended family and others they may know. I'm not shy about letting people know how I can help them and if they might know of others who might need my help too. Also where they can find me and more about me online at any of my SocMedia channels or with FINRA or the DOI. It can become like spider web of information, traffic and leads.

With all of that information added to my CRM I then develop a well rounded and deep profile of each client and everyone connected to them. Then cards, letters, graduation gifts, gift cards go out to everyone for everything. Then everyone is placed on a drip email campaign with my upcoming Seminar's, Webinars, personal speaking or networking events and everything I put on my Blog or when I publish something somewhere.

I believe every Producer should have a Blog at a minimum. Publish there regularly and then use all of Social Media as "spokes" that lead back to the "hub" which is your Blog/Site. Publish on your Blog and then re-purpose that piece to every "spoke" of your Social Media to drive traffic back to your Blog/Site. This becomes more a conversation of your Digital Marketing strategy, which is majorly high topic itself. Producers who do not use a digital strategy are obsoleting themselves.

Use video too. Even it as something as simple as a Facebook Live session or Instagram or you filming yourself with your smartphone posted to Blog, Twitter or Linkedin...etc.

Video doesn't have to be an expensive production event, it can be but it doesn't have to be. As humans we're conditioned from watching TV to watch video very carefully. Video done correctly can be extremely powerful because people begin to feel that they know you very intimately before you've even had a chance to met them or speak to them.

Do that with regularity and soon you'll find that you'll also have an additional streams of income of your Blog/Vlog alone. The crawler bots of Google and all the rest of search engines will find you and gauge your traffic. Soon they'll begin to pay you for access to that traffic. Some Producers make as much or more from those streams of income than they do from production. It happens man, believe me.

Do that and the referrals will flow. Or you will generate your own referrals by being a very thorough gatherer of information. With that kind of client base you have a metric-**** ton of Gold to mine.

Good Luck

BTW: Do yourself a favor and learn Snap too, the chill'en's and young'uns love it...I don't get it myself, but they love it. Then if you choose to you can get into whole Affiliate Marketing thing too, but that's whole different bag of worms.

I am looking to generate additional referrals. To give a bit of additional info; I am a captive agent, and I have about 1000 clients, mostly middle market (50k to 150k) a year. It is primarily term with some GUL in the mix. They are all sold over the phone, but I get maybe 2 to 3 referrals a year.

I know I am missing out on a huge amount of additional business. I would love some thoughts to ramp up referrals. I am considering soc, but any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[NewbieNewbie]

There is a ton of good stuff in here. Thank you all.