🎯 How to Get More Referrals, Fast

Hi there,

In case you missed it, SA is off the greylist and the Reserve Bank published the latest Monetary Policy Review last week, saying that SA’s inflation is low and the Rand and bond market are strong. For advisors, this is a good time to assure clients that borrowing costs might go down, creating a good environment for long-term investments.

This week in Seed Analytics Advisor Connect:

How many referrals are you getting from existing clients?

CRM expert Massimo Ianniruberto says financial advisors should be getting 50-60% of new business from client referrals. He explains how it all works in this video. 

Let’s break it down into 4 steps…

1. Identify your happiest clients

As lead guru Neil Patel explains in this video, the best time to ask for referrals is when a customer is happiest. How do you know if they’re happy? One way is to run a simple Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey – those “How likely are you to recommend us?” surveys.

If a customer has a high NPS score or you have some other way of identifying your truly happy clients, find a simple way to mark or tag them as “Happy” or “Referrer” in your CRM.

2. Automate your reachout

Most CRMs allow you to automate emails or messages under certain conditions. You can set up an automation to send an email asking for a referral automatically whenever a person is marked as a “Referrer”.

Start with an authentic message like: “Hi [Name], I’m glad you’ve had a good experience. If you know someone who could benefit from similar advice, feel free to introduce us – it would mean a lot to me.”

3. Track who referees who

Once you get actual referrals, create a field in your CRM’s intake section to track who referred the new potential client. This helps you keep track of your best advocates.

4. Close the loop with a “thank you”

You can even build automations to send a “thank you” the the original referral if someone they referred actually signs up and becomes a new client.

Measure, Refine & Repeat

Naturally, this all depends greatly on what CRM you use (or if you even use one). But the concept remains the same even if you don’t use a CRM: identify happy customers and reach out only to them.

Customers who are not as happy? That’s an opportunity to figure out how to make them happy, and then ask for referrals.

You can keep reviewing your system every few months: Which clients referred the most? Which messages converted best? Use those insights to fine-tune your outreach and double down on what really works for you.

Don’t have a CRM? We found 3 that work well for advisors and brokerages — see our Online Tools section a little further down. 👇

As a South African financial advisor, your long-term success depends on aligning your client mix and product exposure with your strategic goals. A simple yet powerful way to do this is by auditing your Assets Under Management (AUM) across product categories — including living annuities, retirement fund assets, discretionary investments and endowments.

Seed Analytics’ Strategic Practice Audit helps you visualise this breakdown, revealing whether your current client and product mix supports your intended business direction.

Seed Analytics’ Strategic Practice Audit makes your AUM data-driven and actionable, so you can identify where your practice is today and where you want it to go next.

Investment Service Consultant (CPT) @ Allan Gray

Financial Adviser (Robertson) @ Discovery Limited

Client Relationship Manager (CPT) @ Stonehage Fleming

Health and Benefits Consultant (CPT) @ WTW

Advisor Liaison Consultant (DBN) @ Ninety One

Business/ Broker Consultant (CPT) @ Discovery Limited

Broker Consultant (JHB) @ Fedgroup

Did You Know? On this day (30 October) back in 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his now-famous interpretation of The War of the Worlds that caused a mass panic as people thought it was live reporting of an actual alien invasion. The events meant the story lived on in people’s memories for decades.

Till next time,

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe to it here.