What is Prospecting "Farming" (and how do I do it?!)

When I first started out as a Financial Advisor, I was taught a few things around Prospecting.

🌟 I was told that Prospecting was the most effective way to get new clients.

🌟 I was told that "key to success" was having enough people to talk to

I was taught that the general process should look something like this...

👉 Meet with someone

👉 Do a "comprehensive financial plan" on them

👉 At the end of the meeting, ask them: "was this helpful?"

👉 Assuming they said yes (because let's face it, who's going to say NO to your face??) you then ask for referrals

👉 Typical language is something like... "My team grows through referrals. Who do you know that might be open to meeting with my team?" And perhaps "feeding" names, or describing categories of people (my team works best with young families... who do you know that is a young family?)

My mentors had it right > I DID need referrals / leads in order to grow my business.

However, I really, really sucked at prospecting 😰. And because of this, I learned two things as I started to crack the prospecting code:

1) Asking for referrals in a meeting is what I would consider "hunting" for prospects. And if this is your ONLY (or main) way of getting referrals, you will never be able to jump off the hamster wheel of prospecting.

2) The language they suggested felt.... sticky. I couldn't help but think...

> Isn't growing my business MY responsibility? Why is it my client's responsibility?

OR

> I know I'm adding value, but is getting someone a term life insurance plan and a small brokerage account really such a MASSIVE impact? Do I really think they're so grateful that they'll just open their whole contact list to me?

Whether or not I was being a chicken, I still had trouble asking for (and getting) referrals for the first 2 years of my business. Instead, I relied heavily on LinkedIn and Cold Calling (which actually worked really well, but more about these in a separate post)

💸 Because I came from a consulting background, and because I was convinced I could make this career work, I started to think more deeply about how to generate referrals.

And that's when the idea of becoming a Prospecting FARMER hit me.

Why would I go out every single day and ask for referrals when I could instead FARM for referrals? 🤯 

The Farming goes something like this:

> Plant the seed

> Water the plant

> Eventually harvest the referral

And when you "harvest" the referral, you're ultimately getting inbound leads.

👏 How would it feel if you could shift your business to start getting inbound referrals consistently (without working harder or more hours?

When I cracked this code, I worked 2 days a week in 2021, ONLY worked with inbound referrals (didn't ask for referrals in ONE meeting all year) and still did $315k of production (and about $425k of revenue). 💸💸💸

That's when I determined that Prospecting Farming is the most effective way to build a sustainable (not to mention EASIER) financial planning practice.

There's a straightforward process to becoming a prospecting farmer. And I teach the exact step-by-step inside my coaching program The Financial Advisor Academy.

If this sounds like something you want to explore, fill out my short (<2 min) assessment and I'll reach out if you're potentially a good fit for the program: https://www.scottietaylorjr.com/explore

Scottie

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