One firm built a network. The other just had a list.
Let me tell you about two firms. Both estate planning. Both doing solid work. Both had referral partners.
But one of them was growing twice as fast. And it had nothing to do with their marketing budget.
Firm A had referral relationships. A couple of financial advisors they’d known for years. A CPA who sent someone over every now and then. They appreciated those connections and stayed in touch when they could. But that was the extent of it.
When someone asked, “Where do your referrals come from?” the answer was always the same two or three names.
Firm B had something different. They had a referral network.
Same financial advisors. Same CPA relationship. But they didn’t stop there. They started thinking about who else is sitting across the table from their ideal client at a pivotal moment in their life.
And that’s when they reached out to a real estate agent.
Think about it. When someone sells the family home after losing a spouse, who’s in that conversation? A real estate agent. When a couple downsizes to move closer to their kids or into a retirement community, who’s helping them through that transition? A real estate agent. When a young family buys their first home and suddenly realizes they need a will, who just helped them sign the biggest contract of their life? A real estate agent.
These moments are already happening. Every single week. And in every single one of them, someone could be saying, “You should talk to an estate planning attorney about this.”
Firm B set up a lunch with two local agents. Not a pitch. Just a conversation about the kinds of clients they both serve and how they could help each other. They started sending a short quarterly update to those agents with tips they could share with their own clients. Simple things like “5 documents every new homeowner should have in place.”
Within a few months, those agents were making introductions. Not because they were asked to. Because they finally understood how the two worlds connected.
Firm A is still waiting on the same two people to send referrals. Firm B built a web of professionals who are all having conversations with the same families, just at different moments.
Here’s what I want you to think about this week.
You probably already have a few solid referral partners. That’s great. Don’t take that for granted.
But ask yourself, who else is already talking to your ideal client that you haven’t connected with yet? Who’s in the room during a major life transition, a home sale, a relocation, a first-time purchase, and could easily say, “You should call my friend who handles estate planning”?
The firms growing fastest right now aren’t just maintaining referral relationships. They’re building referral networks. And that changes everything.
Connecting the dots so the dots connect you,
Laura Lee