How to create a repeatable, referral-generating onboarding process for new clients

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. For financial advisors, the first impression is vital. Nearly half of all clients who leave their advisors did so within the first two years of the relationship.¹ Asset consolidation is also more likely to happen early on; one wealth management group tracked how much their assets grew in the first three years of client relationships and found that, on average, 75% of the growth took place in the first six months.²

Client onboarding is where advisors make their first impression on clients. But according to Max McQuiston, a practice management consultant at Capital Group, it can be a missed opportunity. That’s because many advisors focus only on what they need to get from clients and not enough on what clients get from them.

“During onboarding, you want to become an expert on your new client. You’re focused on what you need to get from them: answers to questions, forms filled out, assets transferred in, a list of goals and fears,” he notes. “And that’s all important. But what feeling are they getting from you?”

Even if advisors have considered the client experience during onboarding, many fail to create a formal, documented, repeatable process. “It’s not enough to make one new client feel good,” McQuiston says. “You need to make sure every new client feels good. Are you setting your team up to do that?”

Many advisors don’t realize that the onboarding process represents a critical opportunity to get referrals. “In our experience working with thousands of advisors around the country every year, referrals from brand-new clients can represent as much as a third of all the referrals a firm receives in a given year,” he says.

Here’s how advisors can make the client onboarding process repeatable and a potential source of referrals.

Make onboarding “remember-able”

New clients can feel overwhelmed with countless to-dos and intimidating jargon like “ACATS transfer,” “IRA rollover” and “1035 exchange.” ³ Advisors need to offer simplicity and clarity. As McQuiston points out, “You might understand everything in your first conversation with your new client, but that’s because you’ve had that conversation hundreds of times. How many clients do you think you’ll onboard in a lifetime? How many advisors do you think a client will be onboarded by in a lifetime?”

Give information to clients in digestible amounts instead of all at once. Provide one central place they can go to easily find everything they need, instead of having some documents mailed, some given in person and some emailed. “If you want clients to have a memorable experience, make things ‘remember-able,’” says McQuiston.

One effective way to help clients get oriented and organized is the 30-60-90 document. Adapt this template to show clients what they can expect in the first few months of working with you. 

Document your onboarding process

The best advisors document their processes. Capital Group’s 2024 advisor benchmarking report showed that high-growth advisors are 31% more likely than average advisors to have standard operating procedures, or SOPs, in place.⁴

“Do you have a list of questions that work well at drawing out the most important information? Write them down,” says McQuiston. “Is there something that often becomes a bottleneck because clients take a longer time to do it? Move it earlier in the process.”

While creating your onboarding SOP, consider:

• Your team. Have them take ownership. First, get team members’ input so that you can assign them roles they excel in and enjoy. Then, make sure each new client feels like everyone’s new client by announcing new clients in emails and during team meetings.
• Your clients. Ask yourself, “What are the questions I get so often I could record myself saying the answer to play when they call?” Identify the misconceptions and concerns that most commonly arise later in client engagements and address them during onboarding.
• A feedback loop. Advisors recognize the importance of client feedback but “rarely ask new clients how they felt about the onboarding process,” McQuiston notes. “You’re missing your best chance to improve your process and also get an early sense of what the client is like so you can cater to their preferences moving forward.” Make sure to get feedback from your own team, too.

Set yourself up to generate referrals from the start

Everyone has a different how when it comes to referrals, but the when is equally important: start setting yourself up for referrals at the beginning.

The key to doing this is reinforcing your niche from the start of the engagement. “And because you’re in the honeymoon phase, it’s during those first few months that you might have the best shot of getting a referral,” says McQuiston. “But you need to ask!”

Here are some questions you can ask to reinforce your niche and set yourself up for referrals:

• What drew you to us? What made you decide to go with us over some other advisor? (Gives you insight into how prospects perceive you, which may inform how you brand and present yourself moving forward.)
• Now that we’ve been working together for a few months, how would you describe us to a friend or family member? (Gives you a chance to hear and then influence how the client articulates your value proposition on your behalf.)
• Since you know what we specialize in and how we work, do you know anyone else who could use our services? Would you be willing to make an introduction?

In psychology, the primacy and recency effects tell us that people remember beginnings and ends more than what’s in the middle. Clients are no exception. Create a system to make the best first impression possible so they never second-guess their decision to work with you.