Let Me Introduce Myself

Art by Doris Liou

For Joe DeNoyior, client referrals have played a crucial part in his three-decade career as a retirement plan adviser. “It’s super-important for my business’s growth and, frankly, for getting the right kind of business,” says DeNoyior, president of Washington Financial Group, a unit of Hub International, in McLean, Virginia. “A ‘warm’ introduction from an existing client usually leads to good new clients.”

The Art of Connecting

Here, we share how several experts succeed at connecting with new business.

1) Proactively look for client connections. Early in his career, Mark Ray did research to identify companies in industries that might do business with one of his plan sponsor clients. He then approached that person about a possible referral. Ray, a retirement plan consultant at Praxis Consulting in Sacramento, California, also would make note of potential new clients within close geographic proximity of a current sponsor client and ask that sponsor about them. “More recently, I identify companies I would like an introduction to and then directly ask all of my sponsor clients what they might know about that company,” he says.

Client referrals have played a significant role in Compass Financial Partners’ growth, says Kathleen Kelly, managing partner at the firm in Greensboro, North Carolina. One means by which she and her team connect with a particular plan or person is to check LinkedIn. Here, they may identify an existing client who knows the client of interest. This has been her best way to identify those types of connections, she says.

When Matt Demet wants to ask a sponsor client for a referral, depending on that person’s style, he may do it during a meeting, or after the meeting over a glass of wine or beer, or by email. “When I want to send an email, first I identify, through tools such as LinkedIn, that the client is connected to a company where I’d like an introduction,” says Demet, senior vice president – business development at Spectrum Investment Advisors in Mequon, Wisconsin.

“I’ll send an email that says something like, ‘I notice that you’re connected to Tom at [Company X]. I think we could add value there, based on our homework. Are you comfortable with giving us an introduction?’” Demet continues. “However you contact a client, one of the important things is to always give them an out. Let them know that if they’re not comfortable providing you with a referral, that’s OK.”

2) Make new connections via job-changers. “An area we’ve been very fortunate to have really contribute to the growth of our business is referrals when a key client contact leaves one company and goes to another,” Kelly says. “Often we’ll hear from that person, saying, ‘Hey, I’m settled in here, and I’d love to introduce you to the team.’” She and her colleagues always know when such a contact is moving on, and they sometimes reach out to that person after the job switch. “We’ll say, ‘We see you left ABC Company, and we’d love an introduction to your team at your new XYZ Company,’” she says.

Washington Financial Group gets about 10% of its new business through client contacts in new jobs, DeNoyior says. “We stay in close contact with professionals at our clients who may leave one organization and go to another,” he says. “We’re hoping the CFO [chief financial officer] or director of human resources [HR] who is moving to another organization then introduces us to their new business.”

3) Organize educational events for employers. Washington Financial Group has the most success getting client referrals by encouraging current clients to invite their peers to educational workshops the advisory firm presents, DeNoyior says. Pre-coronavirus, it had 11 sessions planned for this year, with five running five hours each and the rest one hour each. The sessions focus on topics such as fiduciary responsibility and new trends in retirement plans. “This way, the potential clients get to see what you’re made of before you try to pitch them on any business,” he notes.

Spectrum Investment Advisors will ask client contacts about business groups, such as local CFO roundtables, they might be involved with, Demet says. “Perhaps these groups bring in outside speakers, and, if they do, I’ll ask if they’re looking for one. Are they interested in a talk about the impact of the SECURE [Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement] Act on employers, for example?”

Follow Up

Once a plan sponsor client says he is comfortable making a referral, Ray asks him to make a brief introduction via email to the key contact at the prospect. Ray suggests that the email mention a few points including the length of the client’s relationship with him and the reason for making the introduction. Ray then follows up with the client prospect within two business days.

“Where it goes from there is based on how the plan sponsor is most comfortable handling it,” Demet says of how referrals proceed. “We ask, ‘How can we make this easy for you?’ We have a one-page overview of our services, which the contact can give to the potential new client if they want to do that. We also can send them email text content, which they can change if they like.”

Washington Financial Group follows up in a couple of ways with client prospects who come to one of its events. “Once we get them into the ‘family’[—i.e., on the mailing list—]we send them our content 12 times a year,” DeNoyior says. That monthly content is in the form of a podcast or a blog article on topics of interest to sponsors.

“We also follow up with them personally, if we’re past that ‘warm introduction’ phase,” he adds. “We reach out by phone, maybe quarterly, depending on where they are in the [new-business] pipeline. Generally, we start to see pretty soon if there’s a potential for us to help them.”

If a client contact has changed jobs and agrees to introduce his new colleagues to Compass Financial Partners, how does Kelly prepare for the meeting? “The first thing I will do is have a debrief with my contact, to understand the lay of the land at his new organization,” she says. “I want to understand his new employer’s philosophy about its retirement benefits, how it measures the success of the plan, and the level of service the sponsor has been receiving from its current adviser and recordkeeper. It allows us to be better prepared for the meeting: It is beneficial for me to have a clear perspective on what resonates with that audience.”

Kelly then assembles the Compass team she thinks will be best able to address that sponsor’s needs at the meeting: This could include a communications specialist, for example, or Compass’ chief investment officer (CIO). “Then, at the start of the meeting, the first thing I’ll do is go around the table and ask the committee members to each talk about what they think is working with their plan and what isn’t, and what they’d most like to hear from us about,” she says. “That gives us the opportunity to present new ideas and observations that are relevant to that committee. It makes the meeting much more about them than about us.”