Participants:
Steve Wershing
Julie Littlechild
David DeCelle
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Welcome to Becoming Referable, the podcast that helps you become the kind of advisor people can’t help talking about. I’m Julie Littlechild, and on this week’s show, Steve and I are joined by David DeCelle. David is the president of Model FA, a coaching and consulting company, and marketing agency that helps advisors grow their businesses. Now, in our conversation, David examines some of the most relevant aspects of making yourself referable from confidence to likeability. He shares tactics, very granular tactics that will help you to humanize different touchpoints with clients, and with prospects. And he explores how asking just the right questions and tracking client responses can help you to demonstrate commitment in a very meaningful and tangible way. And from there we discuss the best approaches when asking for referrals, starting by ensuring that a given client is open to providing referrals, and then taking a really interesting look at how you can use your client’s social media connections to get introductions, and when you shouldn’t. And with that, let’s get straight to our conversation with David. Well, I am pleased to welcome David DeCelle today here. Welcome, David.
Good morning, David.
Appreciate you both having me. I think it’s cool seeing reciprocity live. I know right around when this podcast drops is when our podcast with you, Julie, should be dropping as well. So, it’s always fun to collaborate with similar folks in the industry.
It is. I know. When we had our conversation, there was so much in there that I was like, “Oh yeah, I got to dig into this more when we talk.” So, really excited, but hey, we’ve got a bunch of questions for you, but I thought it might be helpful if you could start with just a quick overview of your business, and how you really help advisors because I know you do.
Yeah. Good question. So, at Model FA we are a coaching and consulting company, and we also have a marketing agency as well. So, what I would tell you is we have certain methodologies around advancing relationships, getting folks to that raving fan status. We have referral strategies as well. We do a lot of consulting on advisors, building their brands. We do website work, we do lead generation, all that type of stuff, but what we don’t have, and this is very much intentional is we don’t have like, hey, here’s our 12 month curriculum.
So, typically when we start off, and we’re working with someone, we start off with what we call a practice diagnostic call, where our team is just asking a bunch of questions, really getting us an idea of what the advisor’s challenges and opportunities actually are because let’s say hypothetically I’ve helped folks, and our team has helped folks anywhere from getting more referrals to getting right between the ears, to getting back in shape. Because oftentimes if they’re struggling in business, there’s an underlying issue that we need to dig and find out what that is. So, it’s more of like an all encompassing approach as opposed to, hey, put out this content, or ask these questions to be able to get more introductions.
It’s really trying to figure out like what’s at the root cause? What’s the root cause of the reason why you’re not where you’re at? And what we found in working with is it allows us to extend the relationship a little bit longer because it’s not like, hey, you’ve gone through our program, best of luck. It’s hey, well, what’s going on now? What’s going on now? What’s going on now? So, that’s a little bit of a brief overview. And of course, as we all been talking about before we click record, we push out a lot of content ourselves on podcasts and blog. And so, at modelfa.com if you’re looking for a taste as to how we help folks, there’s a lot of great content there that if you actually take action after consuming the content, you can certainly benefit from it.
Well, it is a lot of great content, and I’ve been listening to your podcast. It’s great stuff. And since you bring it up, and since it’s of course the object of our podcast, what do you think are the most important aspects of making yourself referable?
That’s a good question. I think if it’s a few different categories, some of which are more kind of up in the clouds that I’ll kind of start with and then get more specific, and of course, feel free to cut me off along the way if I can dive a little bit deeper in anything. I think it first starts with the passion and belief in what it is that you do. If you don’t have confidence in the product or service that you are providing for your client, it’s going to be tough to have the confidence to get introduced to more people, and to ask to be introduced to more people. I think in addition to that-
Actually, David, since you invited me to interrupt, let’s dig into that a little bit. So, what does confidence sound like versus what kinds of things might advisors project that would betray a lack of confidence?
So, again, and I can go in a couple different directions there. I think specific to the business, if an advisor is not going back in sort of case studying out some situations that they’ve worked on with clients, and actually seen mathematically and emotionally the impact that they’re having on that particular person or that particular family, it can be tough to really believe in what it is that you’re doing. So, if you’re just allocating their portfolio, getting some insurance in place, and saying, “All right, see you next year,” but not actually going back and reviewing, “Wow, I changed this person’s life. They came in, they were stressed out. They were unaware of certain planning strategies that they should be taking advantage of.” And now you have to understand like, okay, well where’s their emotional state at currently, and the impact that it had on their plan. Wow, I have a very important role. So I think going back and reviewing and just reminding yourself the impact, I think that’s number one.
Number two is more of a confidence in general type of conversation where… So, I put together this list that’s a part of our program. It’s called the C3 list. And essentially what this is, is it’s a way the three Cs are folks need to commit. They need to be consistent in order to ultimately build confidence. And that bodes true in three main areas of your life. Your personal life, your professional life, and what you’re doing to serve others, that portion of your life. And what I found when I was an advisor, and a lot of advisors that I come across. If business is rocking and rolling, but your personal life is a little out of whack you’re going to feel a little off kilter and that’s going to affect your confidence. If your personal life is spot on, but you’re not making any money. Obviously, you’re going to feel a little off kilter. And if you’re doing those things in a great way, but you’re not intentionally trying to serve others and moving their lives forward again, you may feel off kilter.
So, essentially what this list does is it has you do two things to move your personal life forward, two things to move your business forward, and then one thing to move others forward every single day. And that could be personally waking up at a certain time, working out, eating clean, reading, something like that, limiting technology around family. Your professional life it could be asking for introductions a certain amount of times, producing a certain amount of content. It could be making a certain amount of outreaches on a daily basis and then moving the lives of others forward. That can be just a simple random act of kindness. It could be calling two people to check in to see how they’re doing.
And what I found is when you’re operating on all three of those cylinders and you’re committing to that process, you’re staying consistent to that process. It ultimately breeds confidence to where you couple that innate confidence that you’ve built with the belief in what you do. That then results in confidence to ask for introductions to be able to serve more people. But if one of those things is missing, you’re going to struggle in getting to that place where you have this referable experience, and you’re confident to prompt your clients to send some folks your way.
So, I’m interested because right at the outset you mentioned the idea of people getting right between the ears and all of that. How often do you find that the issue that people think they’re coming to you to solve is not really the issue at all because everything that you just said I think probably relates back to that as well.
So, I think that the issue that they come to us for is still valid, but they oftentimes, I’m going to use a word that I learned a little while ago that I love continuing to use. They have scotomas, they have blind spots. The issues that they come to us with, whether it be marketing or referrals or getting folks to the raving fan status or their practice management, those are very much valid, but there’s a reason why they haven’t done those things yet. Because as I mentioned earlier with our content, with your content, with all the content that’s out there, the answers are out there for someone to improve. The things that they’re struggling with. The problem often becomes, okay, well, why are you not taking action on the content that you are consuming? And therefore I would say close to 100% of the time, Julie, their issue is valid, but we need to identify why are they not progressing on their own?
Typically, it’s either we need to filter this information into an action plan. And other times it’s, well, you had two meetings yesterday that ate up hours. What else did you do? How come you weren’t working on these things? And those are the things that we tend to address and dive deep on because we want to make sure that any change that occurs is actually sustainable. And if they’re going to fall into their bad habits, they’re going to be paying for coaching forever, and we don’t want that, and they don’t want that. We want to eventually coach them out. So, if we’re getting at that root issue, we drastically increase the likelihood that that’s possible.
I love that. I couldn’t agree more, and you know it’s going to be a good interview when we don’t even let you finish answering the first question that we asked you, which I think was Steve’s question.
Yeah, exactly. Julie, I’ve had three cups of coffee this morning, so feel free to turn off my microphone whenever I get out of line.
But it was just about you mentioned confidence as one of those aspects of making yourself referable. Are there other couple of high points before we dig in?
Yeah, so I was going to get into the likability factor. You need to genuinely like and care about your clients, and you need to be able to get your clients to really like you. So, if you think of you in the middle of a circle, and your client at the middle of a circle, you have your family, you have your friends. For those listening to audio, I’m expanding the circle as I’m mentioning each of these. You have your family, you have your friends, you have your trusted advisors, and then you have your acquaintances, you have your clients. So, your clients are on your outer circle, typically. But if we look at your client’s circle, your clients have themselves, their family, their friends, their trusted advisors. And you need to make sure that you are in that trusted advisor, and that friend circle as opposed to on the outskirts of their circle, and that comes from, or that’s made possible by, I should say, making sure that you’re connecting with them on a personal level.
There’s a great book that they always recommend a gentleman by the name of Ivan Farber who’s been on our podcast a couple times. He has a book called Conversations. And oftentimes I find that advisors are too regimented in their process to where they unintentionally eliminate the human component. And when you do that, your client’s only going to want to meet with you once or twice a year because there’s nothing really else to talk about. But if you’re catching up on the things that you’re both passionate about, that are in common, or things that you’re working on in your personal lives. And if you call and check in with them, or if you’re shooting them a text, or sharing a resource, and you have other reasons to communicate outside of financial planning, that puts you in a totally different category in their mind, which therefore makes it much more likely that they’re going to be open to making an introduction if they’re prompted.
Certain people will give introductions unsolicited, but more often than not, you need to be able to prompt them, but it all starts with the confidence, the belief in what you do. And then ultimately the likability factor, in my opinion, because if they don’t like you, why are they going to… If they just use you for your financial planning knowledge and nothing else, they’re going to be much less likely to make some introductions throughout that relationship.
Well, that’s really interesting because we all know that to get a client requires that they know, like, and trust you, but it sounds like what you’re saying is that know, like, and trust has to be a two-way street.
100%, and I feel like a lot of advisors stop at that know and trust stage, and they overlook the likability stage.
Well, that might relate to another question I wanted to ask you because I saw that you had talked about humanizing touch points with your clients. I imagine that feeds in to the whole issue of likability, but I love that you always have frameworks, too. I’m a big framework fan, but kind of before, during, and after the meeting. Can you talk us through what that looks like?
Yeah. So, I’m a big fan of video, and let me share with you how I would integrate that. So, let’s say Julie, you were introduced to me through Steve, and I gave you a buzz and I said, “Hey, Steve connected us,” and we end up booking a meeting. Well, before that meeting there’s things going through your head, there’s things going through my head. Whether you’re male or female, younger or older, successful or not, have worked with an advisor or not, there’s a certain level of intimidation that you’re going to feel most likely before that meeting because it’s almost like walking into a doctor’s office. There’s these… They’re not like the butterflies that we say when we say we have butterflies, but there’s something going on. So, how do we ease that? How do we get them to know, and like us a little bit more than they did on that phone call before that meeting?
So, what I suggest that advisors do is think about the first five minutes of a meeting after the small talk. You’re typically talking about your firm, and your process, and how you work with folks, and things like that. What happens is you have that conversation so much that you don’t even know this, but your passion, your energy, and your tone gets a little bit suppressed because it’s repetitive. So, what if instead you capture that in a video where you don’t mention the client’s name or the prospect’s name, that way you can repurpose this, an evergreen video, and you say, “Hey, before our meeting, I’m going to shoot you a quick email. There’s going to be a quick three minute video in there that will give you a sense as to how we operate, and what to expect in that meeting.”
And you capture all that in that video that you include in the email, but what happens there is they’re seeing your face. They’re hearing your voice. They’re getting a sense for your mannerisms. As you can see my hands going crazy right now on video. So, they’re getting a sense as to how you operate. So when they walk into the office, they already feel like they know you. The other thing that you can do is in that email, add a quick PS. And if you were featured on a podcast, or you have a podcast, or you wrote a blog, include that, so they can spend more time with you in a leveraged manner.
The other thing that it accomplishes is that that five or so minutes that you typically spend talking about that stuff, that is now freed up to connect with them on a personal basis. And the last thing that it does is if they disagree with you on any of those things. If you’re not aligned philosophically, if they don’t want to go through that process. If you waited till that meeting to do so, they’re not going to end that meeting after seven minutes. They’re going to take up that full hour. But if they find that out in the email ahead of time, they may cancel the meeting, which is great, then they weren’t going to become a client anyway. So, now you have that time freed up. So, that’s an example on the front end.
Now, on the back end, what I would always do is once I finish that meeting, let them know, “Hey, I’ll send you a follow up and schedule the next meeting.” And in between I’m going to make sure to connect with them on whatever social platform that I can find them on. So, I can start to… Social media does a great job of leaving clues as to what they’re interested in. And then they’re going to spend some time scrolling through your profile to see who you are as well. So, they’re getting all these little mini interactions with you. So, one of my beliefs is that trust and likability is not purely just based on the lapse of time. It’s based on the accumulation of experiences. So, what you’re doing is you’re allowing them to accumulate a lot of experiences on the front end to up that process of likability and trust.
Now, in that follow up, again, I would do a quick video because perhaps Julie was the only one who showed up and her spouse wasn’t able to make it. So, I’m going to send a video follow up, “Hey Julie, great to meet you. Here’s what we had discussed. Share this with your spouse before our next meeting. That way they’re caught up to speed.” Again, it puts a face to the name for that person who is not there. And then I’m going to add another PS based on something personal that we discuss. So, Julie personally, I love to cook. Let’s assume that you love to cook as well. If we connected on that, I’m going to add a PS with a link to my favorite recipe. I’m going to say, “Hey, let me know if you end up choosing to cook that. I would love to hear how it comes out.”
So, it’s little things like that. So, when you think about it, I had the phone call, I had the video, I had the PS, I had the meeting, I had the video, I had the PS, I had the social interactions. So, before we even present our recommendations, they’ve had seven to 10 interactions, and I say seven to 10 based on how many platforms you’ve connected with them on. So, they’ve had seven to 10 interactions with me. If they don’t like me, or if they aren’t starting to like me at that point, cool, they’re going to cancel the meeting, and I’m going to save my time. But if they go through all those different interactions and still come to that next meeting, they’ve kind of already made their mind up that they want to work with you. So, emotionally they’re bought in. Now you have to back up that decision with logic with the plan that you put together and the portfolio that you construct for them. So those are just a few quick examples as to how to humanize the process along the way.
Yeah, and now a lot of what you’re talking about is how to get intimate with clients, and how to get closer to clients, and those kinds of things. But you also make the point that you can’t necessarily be really high touch with everybody. Can you walk through the framework you have about focusing on the relationships you really want to get that close with?
Yeah. Great question. So, what I would tell you is that what you just said, and where you found that is true to a certain point. So, oftentimes advisors are extremely intentional with their service model, and it’s down to a science. They don’t really have to think about it anymore. They have a system for it, and they could load up the system. And as long as your system is well thought out, you’re not going to feel overwhelmed because you know every step that you need to take. Where they’re not intentional is they’re not intentional typically with the experience component, and they tend to connect well with the people that they naturally connect well with. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore all the other folks. So, when I say you can’t bring everyone through this process, what I mean is you can’t bring everyone through this process when you first start because quite frankly, you don’t know what the heck you’re doing yet, and you haven’t done this in an intentional manner, in a sustainable fashion.
So, my suggestion is to start off with a list of 15 to 20 prospects or clients that you’re intentionally moving the relationship forward. And then what you’re going to find is that book that I talked about, Conversations. That’s not only going to be relevant to advisor A who I’m talking to today. That’s probably going to be relevant to all the advisors that I work with. So, you start to build a database of these tools that you’re using where you can capture them categorically. So, you’re like, okay, here’s all the resources about this topic. Here’s all the recipes I like to share. Here’s all the books that I like to share. And then what ends up happening is it becomes easier. And when you get the responses from the clients, and the prospects feeling appreciative of that, you get that little dopamine hit to make you want to keep going.
And over time it becomes just part of how you operate on a daily basis. And then at that point you can start to bring everyone through this, except for I would be sure to only bring folks through this who are your As or Bs clients. C or below in my opinion, should either be farmed out to another advisor, sold off to another practice, or just gotten rid of altogether. And that’s something that on an annual basis you should take out that bottom rung. So, you want to make sure that when you’re investing your time, energy, and resources it’s towards clients and prospects that if there were two of them, you’d be fired up. So, that’s kind of how I think about that, Steve?
Hi, it’s Julie here. I hope you’re enjoying the episode, and just wanted to pause to share some news. The team at Absolute Engagement recently launched Engagement By Design, our weekly newsletter. Our focus is to bring you valuable ideas, not only from our team, but from experts across the industry. Each week, we’ll share articles to help you engage with your clients, your prospects, and engage your mind. And we always include something a little different that we hope will make you see the world in a new way. To sign up, go to www.absoluteengagement.com/newsletter. That’s absoluteengagement.com/newsletter.
And so, if you think about what it means to deliver an extraordinary experience, kind of that wow factor. I imagine that the things you’re talking about feel nuanced, and small. But to me, that’s a wow moment. I mean, how do you think about those moments in a relationship that really can help you stand out?
So, what I would say is I am always very impressed when I’m going through someone else’s sales process or service process. And I always get feedback from folks who are impressed when I bring them through what I’m about to say. When the person who’s running the conversation, so the advisor in this case. When they ask a client something that seems somewhat meaningless and arbitrary, like we talk about cooking, right? Or we talk about rock climbing, or we talk about whatever the heck it is. And you don’t spend much time on that, but you take that mental note, or you take that actual note, and then something in your follow up references that they’re like, “I didn’t even remember that we talked about that.” This guy or this gal really listens.
So, I think that the wow experience starts with asking great questions. You don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of time on that answer. It just seems conversational. And when you follow up on that particular item, like as an example I’ve had some clients in the past just to use this as the example who say, “Oh yeah, I’m taking the CFP exam in seven weeks.” I’m like, “Oh, cool. What date is it?” And they say it, and I’m like, “Nice, good luck.” But while they’re saying that I’m going to my calendar and I’m making a note the day before, and they’re getting a phone call for me. And they’re like, “No way you remembered.” It’s like, “Well, my calendar helped me out, but yes.”
So, it’s those little things that quite frankly just show that you give a you know what where they’re like, “Wow, David actually cares.” I think those things are wow moments. So, oftentimes when people, when advisors think about experiences, how do we create a great client experience? Their immediate thought may go to lunches or client events or gifts or whatever. And they’re like, “Okay, this can get expensive.” And those things have a place. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discounting that at all. But some of the best ways to get clients to love you don’t cost anything. It just costs the time it takes for you to actually care.
Yeah, that’s really interesting, and Julie and I, of course, are all about the questions. We’re big believers in the idea that it’s the questions not the answers that are most important. It’s interesting to hear how you think through some of those questions ahead of time, and make sure that you note the answer so that you can take some action on it. That creates a lot of value. So, that’s really interesting. So, there’s a lot that we’ve been talking about in terms how to nurture those relationships with our clients. Let’s talk about centers of influence as well. I know that you have a mastermind approach to nurturing relationships. How do we apply that to centers of influence and drive more referrals?
So, what I would tell you is that very similar things, so I won’t repeat some of those things, but I’ll share with you how it differs. With that being said, we have a podcast called All Things COI, and we have a blog called Re-energizing Your COI Relationship. So, everything that I’m going to say right now can be reinforced if you want to continue down that path by just Googling those Model FA, and then those titles I just mentioned. So with that being said, I believe gone are the days of having five different CPAs where maybe you get a referral from each of them per year. I view it as it needs to be much more tight knit.
I also believe that CPAs and attorneys aren’t the only COIs out there. Oftentimes, when we think of COI, we think of CPA. But a COI, all that really is, is a center of influence. So, you need to figure out with the folks who you are trying to serve, business owners, physicians, whoever, what other influential people in their life do they seek advice and guidance from? So, if they’re executives, perhaps it’s a head hunter, or recruiter, or a business coach. If they’re a business owner, perhaps it’s an M&A firm, an HR company, a payroll company, a marketing firm, and those people aren’t yet inundated with advisors like CPAs and attorneys are. But even with CPAs, and attorneys, you need to have a CPA for individual folks, for business owners, for M&A transactions. For attorneys, you need to have an estate planning attorney, a business attorney, a divorce attorney, et cetera. So, you can have multiple people in that category, but they have to have different focuses. So, that’s just to start how I think about COIs.
How to manage those relationships, you need to figure out, well, how can I add value to my COIs beyond just the referral back and forth? And then how can I make that relationship much more predictable so that I can start to forecast my business growth from these people. So, I think now is the best time of year. I don’t know when this is going to be recorded, but we’re recording it on… Excuse me, released, but we’re recording it on December 3rd. So, it’s a perfect time to reach out to your existing COIs, and say, “Hey, Julie. Hey, Steve. As we round out this year and head into next, I’d love to get together, learn about how your year wrapped up, and what your focus is heading into 2022. Me to do the same as well, and figure out how we may be able to help each other moving forward.”
So then you meet with this guy or gal and you’re going through that stuff. And you say, “One thing that I’ve noticed that’s been super helpful in some of the other relationships that I have is, A, understanding beyond just an introduction from me. What is it that… What else, excuse me, throughout this year are you looking to improve upon?” So maybe it’s, hey, we need to beef up our marketing. Maybe it’s we need to hire more people. Great, I got a recruiter. I got a marketing agency that I can introduce you to. Would those introductions be helpful? And vice versa.
The other thing that I would suggest is, hey, would you be open be it on a monthly basis preferred, or preferably, excuse me, or on a quarterly basis to have more of structure in getting together because I find that there’s a lot of energy at the beginning of the year, and it tends to dwindle over time. So, if we have these stop gaps already scheduled in, it’s going to increase the likelihood that I’m able to help you get here, what you just mentioned, and you’re going to be able to help me get here, and we can review our calendars, figure out who we’re meeting with. I also want to spend some time with COIs in this interaction talking about, hey, how do I know if someone’s going to be a good introduction for you? What data points can I look at? So, if it’s a loan officer, this is an easy one. If I ask the interest rate that they’re paying on their mortgage, and I know the interest rates are down here, it’s an easy introduction. So, for you COI, what sort of data or what sort of things that the client may say would trigger me to ultimately give that referral, and I want to go ahead and share that with that COI as well. So
I think it’s about having structure. It’s about adding value beyond just giving referrals back and forth, and it could be personal development stuff. It could be other people in your network that’s going to be helpful to them. And even though let’s say the marketing agency crushes it for them, they’re getting the value from that marketing agency, but they’re associating that value with them. If you’re suggesting a book or a podcast to them, they’re getting the value from that resource, but they’re associating that value with you.
So, it comes down to structure, buy in from that COI, and the fact that, hey, let’s actually help each other grow and not just grab lunch once or twice a year, and maybe think of each other in between. And if you are open to that, this is going to be fantastic. And if you’re not, that’s totally okay, too. I’m looking for something a little bit more structured. So, you have to be okay with foregoing those one or two referrals every year to be able to partner up with someone who is actually focused on growth and open to having a more streamlined and structured relationship. And then you add all that stuff that I said previously with the clients and advancing the relationship, and that will result in fantastic COI relationships.
I love that idea. I just want to shine a light on the idea of asking them what those questions are because we talk about that with client referrals, sort of talk triggers. What are the things that are going to get your clients to refer? But you can’t have that conversation with them in the same way that you can with the COI. So, yeah, I love that idea. One of the things I wanted to make sure we did just before we wrap up is get really granular, and you and I had a conversation about asking for referrals, right? And we’re always sort of never ask, never ask, never ask, but the way you positioned it, I actually said, “No, no, I quite like that actually,” because it was a different way of going at it, which is a good reminder that it’s never black and white. So, what’s your approach, your recommendation for asking for referrals if you’re going to do that?
Yeah. So, and I believe it was you who brought this up if I’m not mistaken when you’re on our podcast, and it’s funny because I had heard this before when I was an advisor where 20% of folks will never give referrals no matter what you do. 20% of people they’ll hand over their phone and say, “Yep, grab whatever number you want.” Obviously, exaggerating. And then 60% is where you really make a difference in where you build your wealth. So, the question then becomes, well, how do we approach that 60%?
So, if you were to go in after a first meeting or even after they signed on as a client, you’re like, “Great. What other people can I serve?” That’s a little too much, in my opinion. I believe that you should first figure out if they’re open to making introductions if and when they come across an opportunity to do so, and if the answer is yes then you have free game to bring it up whenever you want. Now, once they say yes, you’ll say great. So, I’m sure some folks that you know closely, maybe there’s opportunities to work with them at some point in the future. Let me spend some time and share with you the types of folks that I tend to work best with and what qualities they tend to have because most likely you’re not going to know what their portfolio looks like. So let me give you those intangibles to serve as a filter.
So, you go through that conversation and you say also with LinkedIn and social media these days, oftentimes you find connection points that you wouldn’t otherwise know. So, now that I know that you’re open to making introductions, in the event that I come across someone that I think could be great to work with, and I see that you’re connected with them in some way, shape, or form. Would you be open to me just reaching out to you and seeing if you actually know them so that we could perhaps bridge that gap in an introduction as opposed to me just reaching out cold? Would that be something that’s okay?
If they already said that they’re open to introductions, they’re most likely going to say yes to that. So then moving forward you can ask them knowing that, “Hey, you said you’re open to it.” And if you find that they’re connected to someone on LinkedIn or whatever social site say, “Hey, do you actually know John Smith?” I’ve come across his name a few times, and I’d love to reach out, but obviously reaching out cold is a little bit more difficult than reaching out through a warm introduction. Would you be open to bridging that gap for us? So, it starts with identification. It starts with clarification, right? Are you open to identifying opportunities as they come up in your world and me feeding some names for lack of a better way to put it and then actually following through on what you just found out they’re open to doing, and you can do that moving forward because they gave you permission to do so.
Now, you’re not coming in hot and being like, “Great, who’s 10 people that you know?” You have to be very, very focused on that. But I think it all starts with having a referable experience that we’ve alluded to today and then figuring out if it’s someone that you should ask for introductions from or not based on their response to that question.
And there was one other element that I recall you mentioning, which was having really done your research as well. So, it’s not just, hey, I saw your new John Smith, but I saw John Smith works at this company. We’ve had a lot of success in solving these problems for people who work, and to me that feels very targeted, and you have a solution. To me, that demonstrates something that it’s an authentic outreach to say, “I think I could help this person.”
So, let’s say, for example, someone wore as an executive at Amazon, and you see on LinkedIn that they’re connected to Jeff Bezos.
You’re not asking for that connection.
You’re not getting that referral. Even if you have the audacity to ask, you’re not getting that referral.
I’m going to cross it off my list.
There’s a difference, and this is the point that I think you’re teeing up, Julie, there’s a difference between being connected to someone, and their overall connectivity. So, if you see that they grew up in the same area, they used to work at the same company, and they’re also friends on Facebook outside of LinkedIn, the likelihood that they know them is pretty high. But if you see that they worked at the same company, there was six month overlap, and they don’t live in the same area, and they’re not connected on any other platforms. Even if that may be a great prospect, you’re better off not risking the relational capital with that person by… Basically, you want to make sure that if you’re going to feed them a name or two names you know that they know them. Otherwise, it’s a missed opportunity, and you can’t… After they say, “Oh, no, I don’t actually know them.” You can’t come back and say, “Oh, okay. No worries. What about this person?” It’s like, okay, that’s not genuine. That’s not genuine.
Exactly. And it’s not, hey, do you know this person because clearly they make a lot of money so they’d be a good prospect. There’s some other reason that makes you the right person. But yeah, and I wanted to end there because I think some of these things are just so tactical, and being able to bring it down from the referable experience, which is where we all believe you need to start down to getting much more intentional about some of this direct outreach. So, appreciate that. Hey, maybe we could just end, you mentioned a few things at the beginning, but what’s the best way for advisors to reach out, and learn about the work that you do?
Yeah, for sure. So, the website Model FA, that’s where all of our content lives. I would use that as a resource to be able to find some topics that go a little bit deeper than perhaps we were able to go today with other podcasts and other blog that we have. They can email me at david@modelfa.com or they can shoot me a text at 978-228-2338, and that’s a service that I provide that every day you get some sort of motivational or inspirational note. So, when you text me that you can just say, hey, and then you’ll get an automated response that has a link to just put in your first and last name, so it gets added to my contacts. And then beyond that, it’s actually me texting.
And then where I connect with people the most, where I’m able to most learn about them and vice versa is on Instagram, which is just @david_decelle, and if you don’t have Instagram, you probably have LinkedIn. So, you can connect with me on there, but I’m always open to having a chat and for that 15 minute call. It may turn into, hey, let’s explore what it’s like to work together, or it may turn into, hey, here’s some resources based on our conversation that you should go and explore. So, regardless of how that phone call shakes out, you will leave with something valuable to make sure that you’re in a better spot than before that phone call.
That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today-
Yeah, thank you, David.
… and sharing these ideas.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Okay. Take care.
Awesome. Thanks.
Hey, folks, Steve again. Thanks for joining us on Becoming Referable. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please do us a favor and rate us on iTunes. It really helps. You can get all the links, show notes, and other tidbits from these episodes at becomingreferable.com. You can also get our free report, Three Referral Myths That Limit Your Growth, and connect with our blogs, and other resources. So until next time, so long.