Financial advisers looking to establish referral networks with clients need to understand the process is about relationship building rather than selling yourself, according to accounting practice owner Peter Fry.
“When you’re dealing with outsourcing or experts in another field, you’re always looking to see how do those people operate, how do they react, how do they talk to their clients and how do they interact with you,” Fry told delegates at the Association of Financial Advisers 2011 National Conference.
“And in this, like goes with like so therefore if someone clicks with you and your methodology, process and relationship with the client, they then can easily slot into your network because you know if you deal with them, your client is going to get the same sort of treatment. It’s not a sales process.”
Fry said the potential business relationship between a financial adviser and an accountant could be assessed in a very similar way to the relationship professionals had with their own clients, and in that regard it was very personal.
“The relationship between an accountant [and client], and to a simpler degree, but on a very different sort of focus, a financial planner, is very personal. It’s [about] trust. As an accountant you tend to be the centre of their financial world so to speak,” he said.
“That relationship you build up with your client is as much … about your personal relationship and personality. Not everyone clicks.”
From a consumer perspective, what was required from an accountant and a referred expert was an immediate solution, according to electrical mechanic Gerard Ruivencamp.
“If I ring up Peter and say I’ve got a problem with this and this and this, he’ll know he can get this sorted out and then you’re relying on him to bring that source in,” Ruivencamp said.
