Workshopping your approach to referral partnerships

Appearing on The ifa Show ahead of presenting at the Adviser Innovation Summit in June, Financial Adviser Scale Squad founder Adele Martin suggested that advisers should look beyond traditional referral relationships and instead consider workshops as a value-add offering.

“If we want to grow and attract ideal clients, one of the best collaborations is working with centres of influence,” Martin said.

When it comes to the traditional way of doing things, Martin suggested that some advisers feel like the mortgage broker or real estate agent or accountant or whoever they decide to reach out to end up steering the ship in that relationship.

“It feels like I don’t control that, and largely you don’t, because if you’re just going to them and sort of putting your hand out, like, can you refer me clients, or going back and forth, you might be in a growth phase and not have much to give back to them. I find that’s a hard way to grow because you can’t control it,” she said.

As a way of building a more collaborative relationship, Martin explained that workshops can be a valuable tool by allowing the advisers to get in front of that partner’s clients and being able to demonstrate exactly how you can deliver “real value”.

“It could be on, you know, retire with confidence, retire early, invest with confidence, a workshop that you’re giving to their clients. And you’re doing it with a workbook and the workbook can be co-branded,” she said.

“So, it is a real value-add for their clients because at the moment, they’re probably just sending out a generic newsletter. If you can come and show value, that is a great way for you to be able to get in front of their clients.

“This really elevates your authority and expert status because you get to use the trust that the centres of influence have spent time building. If you’re presenting a workshop to their clients, you get to leverage the trust that they have built.”

Martin argued that advisers can even look beyond financial services for partnerships with some working with gyms or even collaborating with medical associations to get in front of their ideal client.

However, choosing your subject and audience is extremely important, with Martin warning that taking the wrong direction could have your insights falling on deaf ears or simply attracting the wrong clients for your practice.

“We had one that did it for a workplace once and the reason why it didn’t work was because a lot of them were in their early 20s, which was not their ideal client,” she said.

“You just have to make sure when you’re doing this. I mean, if people have done sort of events and stuff before and it hasn’t worked, that could be why.”

To hear more from Adele Martin, tune in here.

To secure your ticket to the Adviser Innovation Summit in June, click here.