How to Generate a Consistent Stream of Referrals From CPAs and Financial Planners

By Mike Baker

Two of the most important questions by loan officers today are, "When is the market going to turn?" and "What will be the best way to compete when it does turn?" No one really knows when the market will turn; however, most top producers aren't worried about what they will do because they're already doing it. The advantages they have is that work at receiving referrals from CPA's, Financial Planner's, Attorney's and other professional advisors. Not only can they create an annuity-like stream of referrals, but they can also act as a buffer against the onslaught of Internet competitors.

Yet, even with all those advantages not everyone has mastered a method for professionally approaching and creating long-term, strategic partnerships with these potential referral gold-mines.

In this article you'll discover a strategy that 95% of the top superstar loan officers use. They do it year after year regardless of what the market is doing. They do it by increasing their advice, knowledge and presentation as well as leveraging technology to create a referral stream from professional advisors such as CPA's and Financial Planners.

First, you need to have a clear understanding of the unique psychology that drives the mind of the professional advisor. You must understand the mindset of your prospective strategic partners if you want to be successful. Let's take a moment to step inside the mind of your future referral sources.

First realize this: Both CPA's and Financial Planners get most of their business from referrals. It is not at all unusual to find a Financial Planner who has a cluster of family members as clients (parents and children and other relatives). And a CPA will have a group of CEO's and business owners that all golf together or belong to the same industry association. You will also find attorney's that have many of their clients looking to them for all sorts of advice. You'd probably be surprised how many loans an attorney can refer you.

Now add to that dynamic the fact that their business is relational - not transactional. That means they do business month in and month out with their clients for many years. And that long-term relationship is the core of their financial security and professional esteem.

You also need to factor in this psychology: These advisors get to know all of the nitty-gritty details and embarrassing bits of information in their client's financial lives. As the relationship builds over time, clients place more and more trust into the hands of their financial advisors. This trust often becomes dependence -- a business owner won't make a major business decision until he has talked with his CPA and/or attorney and clients won't move or invest their money until their Financial Planner has given them the go-ahead.

Once you blend all those elements together you can begin to see why CPA's, Financial Planner's, and Attorney's closely guard and protect their client relationships.

They rightfully see themselves as the guardians of their client's financial health, wealth and future. They shoulder an incredible responsibility. In fact, in many cases they can be held financially liable if they give out bad advice that leads to financial loss.

Now you can also see why traditional approaches to creating strategic referral partnerships (like lead swapping and expensive lunches) may not be enough to capture their respect. They have too much to lose by giving a referral. Their professional reputation and image is on the line every single time they entrust a referral to anyone. And what they stand to lose isn't just a single transaction. It's several years of future income - not only from the offended client, but from all of the friends and family members of that client as well.

So, before you can ever expect to get a steady stream of referrals from one of these professional advisors, they have to see you as an equal -- not as "just another lender". They must immediately perceive you as a financial professional who has the same authority, stature and professionalism that they demand from themselves. You need to be perceived as a professional who can help their clients make truly informed decisions... decisions that keep their clients long term financial future and best interest in mind. Until that happens, there will be no consistent stream of referrals. You may be saying that this is a tall order and would take too much time for you to develop the confidence and skills to meet with these advisors…not so…here is a simple strategy that works.

In addition to joining their associations, attending their meetings, advertising in financial publications, you should also use technology to create a professional and authoritative image in the mind of prospective referral partners. Things like faxing, emails, voice broadcast, the Internet, and a good customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Ideally, you want to establish credibility before you are ever formally introduced to the professional advisor. That way he or she isn't thinking, "Who are you? What do you want? And why are you wasting my time?" Basically, you are probably going to be viewed as an interruption at first.

It's critical to begin by building name recognition and an image of being an expert with an effective fax campaign. Make your first fax a brief, executive summary that alerts them about changes in the market, ways to save their clients money on loan cost, important criteria besides rates and fees they should take in to consideration and more. You can even have a graphic designer help you create a professional fax because you want to be sure you come across with a professional image.

It's important that you put some text at the top that says something like this, "The purpose of this fax newsletter is to save you time and money by summarizing and interpreting economic news and trends that influence interest rates."

The key is to get them to know who you are when you call them. Keep the first call low key. Don't ask for referrals immediately. Your goal should be to establish a pro to pro connection. Try to set up a personal meeting to begin taking the relationship to a higher level, but don't push it. You can always close on an appointment at a later date. Make sure your faxes have valuable and up-to-date information.

Your primary goal here is merely introductory, but now you have their email and can begin emailing valuable information on interest rates and mortgages.

Email is the perfect carrier for urgent or fast changing news that will be out-of-date by the time you send by other avenues. You should give the emails you send out a name that carries this tone of urgency with it. It's important to give the email an "urgency title" such as "Marketwatch" or "Breaking Mortgage News."

You get the idea. Be seen as the professional "loan consultant/ trusted advisor" who has his or her finger on the pulse of the market, not just another "loan officer/application taker".

Now that the financial advisor is beginning to perceive you as a fellow professional, it's time to step up the relationship. You want to become the first Loan Consultant these professional advisors call when they have a question about their clients' real estate financing needs. It's also important that you have this information on your web site as well.

Load up your web site with resources, tools, articles and perspectives that the advisors and his or her clients can use to make wise and informed decisions. As "information overload" continues to increasingly confuse consumers, you want to be the one place they know they can turn to for rock-solid advice that will always put their best interest first.

Either by letter or a personal call, let the professional advisor know that this resource is available to their clients as well.

Now, keeping up with a large database of potential referral partners can create a logistics nightmare for both you and your staff. True, if you could at least let them hear your voice on their voice mail updating them on a market trend or asking if there is any other way you can help them it would go a long way towards strengthening the relationship, but who has the time to do that?

Now, thanks to Voice Broadcasting (VB), you do. It is now possible for you to leave one personal message alerting your Strategic Partners to an eminent rate hike - or drop, wish them a Happy Holidays, remind them to send you referrals, ask if there is a way you can help serve them or their clients better, and have hundreds of personal messages in your voice sent out at any time. You record one message and it goes out to 600 or however many clients and referral sources that you have.

This is important because sometimes technology can leave us wishing for the "human touch". VB is the one technology you can use to really create and maintain high-touch, high-quality relationships with thousands of people at once.

Maintaining and cultivating all of those different partners at different stages in the relationship -- without hiring a huge, profit-eating staff is challenging at best. That's why you need a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to make this system run.

CRM is the thread that holds the entire tapestry of this marketing effort together. Fortunately, it is a technology that many of you are already using everyday. CRM includes software programs like ACT, GoldMine, SalesLogix, Mortgage Quest and others.

In conclusion, you need a more careful and professional strategy when approaching CPA's, Financial Planners and Attorney's. The extra effort can pay huge dividends. Just one year of putting this strategy in play can create a residual stream of referrals that lasts for years to come and gives you a buffer against internet competitors.

Mike Baker is CEO of The Mortgage Coach as well as an industry speaker and author of Mortgage Power and Loan Officer Recruiting. He can be reached at 949-340-0706 or visit his web site at www.mortgagespeaker.com.