New client acquisition is vital to a wholesaler’s business, however, it remains a mystery to us why few sales professionals have a consistent process that leverages their best relationships. As with other parts of the sales process, The Sequoia System is here to help. It breaks down the referral process into manageable parts, which are then made into actionable goals outlining your path to success.
Let’s look at the six-step process that makes up our system for referrals and new client acquisition:
1. Segmentation
2. Selecting Your Referral Sources
3. Preparing Your Approach
4. The First Appointment
5. Follow-through
6. Track, Measure, and Refresh
Segmenting Your Existing Clients
Before you can start asking around for referrals, you’ll need to identify the referral sources with the highest likelihood for success. As you probably know by now, at Sequoia we have a very distinct 80/20 segmentation model.
Our segmentation model for referrals requires you to first identify your ATLs, which are your Above the Line advisors. You should already be familiar with this segmentation from other parts of our System.
For those new to The Sequoia System, here’s a brief overview:
You’ll want to identify the 20% of advisors doing 80% of your business. To do the calculation, look at your gross sales ordered from your largest producer to the smallest. Starting from the top, see how many producers it takes to reach 80% of your sales volume. You can literally draw a line under this list, and these are your Above the Line advisors.
If you’re like most wholesalers, a few producers will account for most of the volume, and a large number of clients will be Below the Line, accounting for a much smaller part of your business.
Selecting Your Referral Sources
Now that you have your list of Above the Line advisors, you can begin the selection process of referral sources. Your ATLs, by definition, are most likely the advisors you’re most closely connected to, because of the large amount of business you do with them.
Pick the 20 Above the Line advisors that you know best, that trust you the most, and that you’re most connected to. These 20 advisors will be the primary source of introductions and referrals.
But high production by itself is not sufficient to determine the most promising referral sources. Now it’s time to go back through that list of 20 and filter them using the following relationship criteria:
Respect—You and the advisor should respect each other’s professional abilities
Mutual enjoyment—You like spending time with one another
Shared experience—You have common experiences in life and/or work
Reciprocity—Each of you contributes something to the business relationship
Trust—You’re both committed to honesty at all times
How many of the 20 ATLs meet the criteria?
If any of your 20 initial selections don’t pass the relationship criteria, you’ll want to change them out with other ATLs that do meet the criteria. The key here is not merely to identify 20 high producing advisors—it’s to find the right 20 high producing advisors that will lead to quality referrals.