Clients By Referral (Group)

CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® allows anyone to tap into the #1 client referral training experience in Australia at a low cost, in their own time and from any location. This program isn’t your average, old-school elearning filled with ‘back’ and ‘next’ buttons. We’ve taken over 15 years and over 5,000 participants through CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® before offering this online version.

What is this program all about?

CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® is a training program dedicated to the skill of client referrals. Its goal is to help professional advisers have the confidence to engage their clients in an effective client referral process. This is not a pushy, salesy, ‘American’ style process. It is designed for Australian professionals working in a modern client-centric environment. It involves both new personal skills in discussing referrals with clients, as well as the development of supporting collateral and processes in your business. It’s been tested with thousands of participants for more than 15 years and consistently gets results.

Let’s hear directly from the program’s creator, David King, to learn more. Click here to switch to the Solo version of the program.

What is the difference between the Solo and Group versions?

CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® is available in two versions.

• Solo. Individual professionals can purchase and undertake a ‘solo’ version of the program. You undertake the program on your own, at your own pace.
• Group. Companies can purchase group enrolments (minimum of 4 enrolments) and undertake a ‘group’ version of the program, where a group of learners from the same company undertake the training experience together. One person in the group is designated the ‘coach’, who will receive an additional training module to help guide the group through the training as well as organise group meetings through the training experience.

This is the Group version of the program. It is suitable for a group of 4-20 learners from the same company, who will undertake the program at the same time as a group. Click here to switch to the Solo version of the program.

How does the Group version work?

CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® Group version is hosted in a private online portal which is branded to match your company branding. Your learners can login from any browser, including mobiles, to access the program (although we recommend using a desktop or laptop where possible). Your learners work together through six ‘phases’ of content. Each phase consists of:

1. Online module: A 60 minute interactive, online learning module to learn the theory for that phase
2. On-the-job tasks: 1-3 tasks for learners to complete on-the-job to implement change or practice new skills
3. Group meeting: A task to attend a group meeting to practice, discuss and share ideas

Each phase is allocated two to three weeks of time (so the entire program can take about 16 weeks), but your group can move at their own pace to suit their requirements and availability.

1 – What’s included in the online modules?

The online modules are fully interactive online learning modules. Across the six modules (one module per phase) you will find…

✓ Over 30 x sections with over 6 hours of information, templates and downloads
✓ Over 30 x HD videos presented by referral expert, David King, including several example role-plays
✓ Over 10 on-the-job tasks to focus your next steps in the implementation process
✓ A personal journal for each module, automatically capturing key discoveries
✓ Over 200 key insights highlighting critical information, tips and advice
✓ Case studies, templates and downloads to build new processes

2 – What’s involved in the on-the-job tasks?

Each online learning module includes 1-3 on-the-job tasks. These tasks help learners to implement changes in their mindset, skills and processes.

Tasks spell out the steps for each learner to take in that phase to make change. These tasks turn good intent into good actions! Tasks include…

✓ Creation of new business collateral or processes to support your client referral skills
✓ Ways to practice new skills and find your own personal approach to client referrals
✓ Developing marketing ideas and reviewing case studies from other businesses

3 – What’s the purpose of the group meetings?

In the Group version of the program, each phase includes a task for a group meeting. Your Group meetings will be scheduled by your group’s coach, typically in the 2nd or 3rd week of each phase. These group meetings allow your group of learners to reflect on the concepts and tasks involved in that phase. Learners may share ideas, help each other overcome hurdles, celebrate successes or make group decisions about new processes in their business.

Group meetings can be held face to face or virtually and typically require 30-60 minutes depending on the size of your group. Your group meetings are also an excellent opportunity to test out next skills with some practice ‘role-plays’ about referrals!

What content is covered in the six phases?

1. Phase 1 | Myths – This phase is about why so many professionals struggle with client referrals – because they are relying on myths, not facts. In this topic we examine the common myths behind client referrals and reveal how client referrals really work.
2. Phase 2 | Profiles – This phase is about the main focus of your referral discussions with clients – educating clients about who you want to be referred to. We examine a concept called ‘referral profiles’ and show you how to develop short, effective and memorable descriptions of your ideal clients. Once you have your referral profiles, you will be ready to start discussing referrals with clients.
3. Phase 3 | Discussions – This phase is about helping you find a set of comfortable, yet effective, phrases to use with your clients when discussing referrals. You should have completed phase 2 (Profiles) and have your referral profiles ready to go. In this topic you will develop a ‘discussion roadmap’ to give you confidence and direction in your referral discussions.
4. Topic 4 | Introductions – This phase is about finalising your discussion roadmaps so you can handle any situation. The first situation we examine is when you receive a referral! We look at how you manage this process to a high quality introduction. We then review example referral discussion and look at how to handle some unusual situations.
5. Topic 5 | Process – This phase is about creating a referral process in your business. While your referral discussions are the centrepiece, they need support both before and after the event. So in this topic we look at issues of timing of discussions, prompts and reminders for discussions and marketing ideas to promote referrals with your clients before and after your discussions.
6. Topic 6 | Success – This phase is about wrapping up your entire client referral process. We look at several best practices among top professionals who regularly receive referrals. You can also compare your referral process to several example businesses and how they implemented and adapted ideas from this experience.

What problems can this program help solve?

CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® is explicitly designed to overcome the major ongoing referral challenges experienced by professional service businesses, such as…

• Aware that referrals are important, but not making them a priority?
• Struggling to obtain personal, significant introductions to new prospects?
• Anxious about the impact of referral requests on existing client relationships?
• Experiencing reluctance within your team about discussing referrals?
• Lacking a consistent, repeatable referral process for all advisers to follow?
• Have no supporting tools and collateral to encourage discussions?
• Unaware of the requirements for an effective referral discussion?
• In need of strong marketing ideas to support your referral process?
• Unsure how to effectively communicate ideal referral types to clients?

What happens after purchase?

After you purchase this course, you will be sent a detailed email outlining the next steps for your group. This includes information about selecting your coach, organising your learners and selecting your program dates.

• Please double check you enter your correct email address (this is the cause of 99% of “unreceived” emails).
• Please check junk/spam folders for the email.
• If you do not receive the email within 15 minutes, and you have checked your junk/spam folders, please email [email protected]

Frequently asked questions?

Who should undertake the program? Who is the program suitable for?

This program is designed for ‘professionals’ – people who give advice to clients. Typical participants are financial advisors, accountants, lawyers, consultants or other ‘advice giving’ professionals. Ideally, learners should be professionals with client interaction and responsibilities. Typically, ‘back office’ or support staff would not undertake this program as they do not have the ability to directly engage in client discussions. However, support staff who are transition to a client-facing role may undertake this program to upskill in advance of their new responsibilities.

Learners on the program should also be ‘good’ learners. This typically means…

• They have the time and capacity to engage in the program requirements
• They are keen and willing to learn new skills
• They are available for the entire program (or the majority and are willing to catch up)

How long does the program take?

The program is split into six phases. Your group can move at their own pace. Typically, groups take 2-3 weeks per phase, but this can be accelerated or slowed by your group to work around availability. Generally speaking, phases one and two should be completed back to back, as should phases three/four and five/six.

If your group needs to work around availability, this means that the most natural times for breaks are after phases two and four. So, for example, you could complete phases one and two and then pause the program for a few weeks (say, over New Year or Financial Year End) and then restart the program from phase three.

How much effort / time is required by learners?

The program is designed to take about one hour per week. Some weeks are a little less. In addition, in some weeks, the allocated time is used during existing client meetings (so no extra time is required).

What if a learner gets sick, has holidays or joins late in the program?

That’s OK. As this is self-paced learning, the learner can simply ‘catch up’ by completing the missed content until they are up to speed with the group. The group coach can also assist with a short 1:1 catch up with that learner too, to fill them in on missed group meetings.

What’s the ideal size for a group?

The Group version has a minimum enrolment of four learners, including the coach. We generally feel that a group size of 6-12 is ideal, but you could manage a group of up to 20 (although it may become harder to organise the group meetings with so many people). If your organisation has more than 20 people, we would recommend splitting into multiple groups, each with their own coach.

Who should be the ‘coach’ in the Group version and what do they do?

The coach has three tasks.

1. Hold the participants accountable. The coach should ensure everyone is completing the online modules, their on-the-job tasks and attending group meetings. So the coach needs to be someone who is empowered to hold participants accountable.
2. Organise and facilitate the group meetings. The coach also sends out the invitation for the group meeting and facilitates the group discussion.
3. Prepare examples and organise processes. The program also helps your company develop some new collateral and processes. The coach is encouraged to prepare some examples of these materials and to take responsibility for ensuring changes are implemented in the company.

To assist with the above, the coach receives access to a separate training module to brief them on all these requirements. The coach can also reach out to David with questions or for advice through the program (see below for more on this).

How long do we have access to the program contents for?

All learners have access to the program contents for 12 months.

What if we want to enrol other learners in the future?

That is fine. After your initial group purchase, you can either purchase additional group enrolments or solo enrolments (perhaps for a single new employee who needs to catch up).

Who wrote the contents and what is their experience?

CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® was designed by David King. David was the founder and CEO of Vue Consulting, a well known professional services training consultancy in Australia during 2005 to 2020. David and his team at Vue Consulting developed specialised training programs based on key commercial skills for professional advisers – sales, referrals, productivity and relationships. Over the years, Vue Consulting trained over 7,000 professionals in Australia. David was also a popular presenter at conferences, speaking at over 300 industry and company conferences.

Vue Consulting wrapped up its journey in 2020 when David’s other company, Tribal Habits, started to expand. Tribal Habits is a ground-breaking online learning platform for Australian and New Zealand organisations. It allows companies to easily build their own online training programs on any topic, plus combine that with over 500 ready-made training programs including lawyer-approved compliance modules.

When David closed Vue Consulting, the demand for its flagship course – CLIENTS BY REFERRAL® – remained strong. So the program was updated into its current form and hosted with the Tribal Habits platform.

Do we have any access to David for coaching or help?

Yes! Your group coach is able to email David during the program. Your coach may send through draft collateral for review by David, or just ask questions about specific challenges or opportunities faced by the group. Please note that your learners cannot contact David directly – all group questions should come via your coach. Access is via email only.

What do participants have to say about the program?

“For most businesses, client referrals are the single most valuable source of new business. A clearly defined, effective strategy for encouraging client referrals can have a significant impact on your reputation and growth rate.”

“Having undertaken this course, I am now confident that I have a structured process that will assist my business in asking for and receiving referrals.”

“The course is tailored so that it doesn’t impact significantly to work time whilst still being able to interact with other professionals. The constant feedback and reminders were also really helpful in keeping me accountable.”

“Receiving referrals is something we had talked about as a business for many years, but with little success. This course provided me with the tools and confidence to put in place a genuinely repeatable, ‘natural’ sounding process to put referrals at the forefront of my clients minds. Probably the most important thing is that I’m comfortable using the process and discussing referrals with my clients.”

“I had a fear of asking for referrals before undertaking this course. I’m now finding it less daunting and having a process and positioning it correctly really helps.”

“Without hesitation I recommend any serious business engage Clients By Referrals to open their doors to new clients by referral!”

“This was a fantastic course! I felt that I already had a method in place to ask every client for referrals. During the progress of this course I feel I have learnt a lot of valuable soft skills that have carried forward into other areas of work.”

“The benefit of having, and understanding a flexible framework to work to cannot be understated. By continually practicing and refining the techniques taught it is amazing how quickly it becomes second nature.”

“The Clients By Referral training gave me the confidence and skills to ask for referrals and ask effectively to maximise success. During the course while I was practicing my skills I got some real success. Referrals is a subject I feel that I can confidently have with all of my clients with no awkwardness and my clients have been responding positively – I have already started receiving more referrals.”

“This course has a bewildering level of knowledge when it comes to absolutely anything referrals related. However it’s the way in which this knowledge is passed on that makes this course an extremely effective one.”

“Clients By Referral is insightful, engaging and memorable. The break down of the training sessions over a period of time was absolutely invaluable to allow the “bedding down” of the process with clients and learn piece by piece the valuable tools provided by the course.”

“This training was relevant to our business and had a practical component which can be used in our interactions with clients. Having a systemised approach which flows will allow us to discuss client referrals with clients.”

“Clients by Referral is an enjoyable and efficient way to develop a rock solid client referral process and at the same time grow the confidence to make it work. Unlike other experiences, I found this program easy to follow and implement, and I fully expect it will make a big difference to my business.”

“This is a fantastic course that has enabled me to integrate a consistent, relaxed and friendly conversation about referrals into my client appointments. It has been really well received by the clients and has already provided me with a number of referrals in just a few weeks since implementing some of the concepts the course recommends.”

“If you do not have a really good referral process or the one you have seems wanting, then this course is for you. Excellent material, system and trainer. I now feel comfortable with referrals and more to the point so do my clients.”

“I found it really refreshing to hear that straight out asking a client for a referral puts them on the spot and rarely works. So it was great for me to learn other ways in which you can promote you are looking for new clients in a more friendly and less confrontational way.”

“We are a referral only business, so asking for quality referrals is essential to our business. This course helped us put some processes in place that have made a big difference to the way we ask for referrals and making sure we turn the referral into an actual meeting.”

“Before the course I was putting my clients under pressure to find people to refer to me. After the course I feel that the clients can work with the referral piece at their own pace. Rather than focusing on getting new clients we are concentrating on helping people who need our help at a certain time in their lives.”

“This training experience has provided invaluable insight into how to ask for referrals in a consistent, effective and successful manner. I wish I had completed this many years ago!”

“Our business growth is driven by referrals, and whilst we have been receiving referrals from clients, there has been no system in place to ensure these continue and are of a high quality. The Clients by Referral training provides a common sense, practical approach to ensuring that clients are aware that we are looking for referrals, they should be thinking about referring family/friends, and the kinds of people they should be referring.”