30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 16

It can be hard finding the motivation to network and cultivate relationships during this COVID-19 lockdown.

But it’s important to keep building bridges with centers of influence (COIs) — accountants, lawyers, insurance brokers, real estate agents, and other professionals — during this time. Otherwise, if you abruptly reach out to COIs later on, it can seem ingenuine. As financial services thought-leader and coach Bill Bachrach says in RIA Intel, those COIs “can see you coming a mile away.” Reaching out for referrals — but having little actual interest in their business and values — can be “an obnoxious approach.”

That’s why it’s important to slowly and patiently build these relationships now. “You want to establish ‘economic glue’ with them, learning how they are aiming to grow their business and how you can help them meet their goals,” says Brett Van Bortel, director of consulting services for Invesco US, in RIA Intel.

So how can you start building these relationships? We cover this in today’s tip.

Today’s Tip: Schedule a Virtual Coffee This Week

Tip #16: Referrals are an important part of the financial advisory business. This week, schedule virtual coffees with at least three contacts in a referral-based business, such as accountants or real estate agents, and discuss how you can mutually share certain clients.

We’ll be back on the blog tomorrow with another tip. Let us know how your virtual coffee meetings go!