The most effective way to garner new high-net-worth clients is through referrals. While most advisors get most of their referrals from their clients, getting referrals from other professionals, such as attorneys and accountants, regularly produces considerably better results. There are many ways to build relationships with other professionals that can lead to advisors getting high-net-worth client referrals. One proven methodology is Ultimate Rainmaker.
“One of the reasons Ultimate Rainmaker works well is because of the set priorities,” says Homer Smith, Director of the DK Family Office Practice, founder of Konvergent Wealth Partners, and co-author of Optimizing the Financial Lives of Clients: Harness the Power of an Accounting Firm’s Elite Wealth Management Practice, “Addressing the goals and concerns of wealth clients is the number one priority. It’s, therefore, critical to provide the very best solutions to wealthy clients. Then, helping accountants and attorneys excel is number two. Last in line are the advisors. By working hard on the first two priorities, many advisors will be more successful than they thought possible.”
The reason for exponential advisor success by using Ultimate Rainmaker is the Law of Reciprocity. By playing an essential role in accountants and attorneys being more successful, advisors benefit by being introduced to their high-net-wroth clients.
To help accountants and attorneys excel, advisors have first to understand them. Included here is gaining insights into their practices, goals and aspirations, concerns, and what they are good at and not. “The key to learning about other professionals is the discovery process,” explains Anthony Glomski, principal and founder of AG Asset Advisory Family Office and co-author of Your $5 Million High-Net-Worth Practice: Guidelines for Sourcing and Working With the Wealthy During the Covid-19 Crisis and Beyond, “by developing a deep knowledge of an accountant or attorney, I can then identify ways to help them significantly grow their practices.”
While customization is almost always essential, several approaches can deliver substantial business-building support to accountants and attorneys. For many advisors taking these approaches and modifying them based on what they learned during discovery is the way for them to deliver exceptional value.
One approach is to show accountants and attorneys how they can add more value to their high-net-worth clients. By educating the accountants and attorneys on how to use a discovery process for wealthy clients, they will regularly find opportunities to deliver more value. This process will simultaneously enable advisors to identify ways their expertise can benefit these clients. The result is that this approach often leads to them getting high-net-worth referrals.
A related approach is for advisors to help accountants and attorneys leverage their current high-net-worth relationships to get many more client referrals. Again, helping them master discovery is essential. As accountants and attorneys get new high-net-worth clients, very likely, a percentage of those new clients will benefit from the services and products of advisors.
Another approach involves helping accountants and attorneys become thought leaders. There are different strategies advisors can use to make this happen. One of the easiest is to curate content that matters to the high-net-worth clients of specific accountants and attorneys and provide it to the professionals for calculated distribution. Well-thought-through content will enhance the stature of the accountants and attorneys, often leading to them getting more business. Because of the Law of Reciprocity, the advisors are probabilistically getting introduced to their high-net-worth clients.
These three approaches to helping accountants and attorneys excel are solid places to start. Once advisors are proficient with these approaches, they can incorporate more sophisticated and often more effective approaches.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and chief content officer for High-Net-Worth Genius. He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs and select professionals.
