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The best advisors are on the hunt for names. Every time they’re speaking with clients, friends, family, COIs or anyone else for that matter, they’re probing for new connections. And they do this without anyone knowing.
When a client mentions playing golf or going on a vacation, ask them who they played or vacationed with. For instance, “who all went with you?” It’s the same type of question you’d ask a friend. Why not with a client?
Think in advance about questions you might ask. If you find yourself in certain predictable conversations with a client, such as talking about their grandkids, think of questions that might be more fruitful for name-sourcing, like how’s your team doing at work.
Sourcing names doesn’t take any extra time to complete. It simply takes more focus when seeing clients. It’s the best marketing tactic, especially for busy people.
You’ve been conducting client reviews the same way for a long time, so we expect this habit to take a little work. If necessary, make a note on your calendar beside each appointment as a reminder or put a sticky note on your desk ... whatever it takes.
Every member of your team, producing partners, support staff, interns, needs to learn how to ask “who” questions.
The more names you source, the more you’ll need to organize your findings. You can do this by CRM, by spreadsheet or by legal pad if you must. The key is having a central repository for listing client connections.
