How financial advisers get steady introductions from accountants and solicitors

The way to get steady introductions from accountants and solicitors is to treat ten of them as a system instead of a hope: choose ten named individuals at local firms, earn a meeting with each by a personal approach, agree on one page how an introduction is made and how their client is kept informed, report back after every single introduction, and sit down with each of them once a quarter. The part almost everyone skips is the reporting back, and it is the part that decides whether a second introduction ever arrives. This article walks through each step, and then through the annual review, which does the same job for referrals from existing clients.

Why most introducer relationships produce nothing

Ask an adviser where their clients come from and the answer is nearly always "referrals and introducers". Ask how many introductions their top accountant sent last year and the answer is usually a guess. There was a good lunch once and both sides said the right things, but nothing was ever agreed, so nothing reliably happens.

Look at it from the accountant's chair. Their client mentions, in passing, that they ought to see someone about their finances, or that they are buying a house. For the accountant to introduce you, four things have to be true at that moment: they remember you, they know exactly how to make the introduction, they trust that you will respond quickly, and they are confident they will not be embarrassed. An introduction puts their reputation in your hands. If the last client they sent you vanished into silence, and they only found out how it went by asking the client six months later, they will not risk it again.

So the work is not persuading professionals that you are good. It is removing every reason for hesitation at the moment an introduction could happen.

Pick ten, and name the person

Ten relationships is about as many as a small firm can run properly. Fifty is a mailing list, and mailing lists of accountants do not send clients.

Write down ten local professional firms whose clients regularly arrive at a moment where they need you: accountants with business-owner clients; solicitors doing private client, family and conveyancing work; estate agents, if you arrange mortgages. For each firm, name one individual, usually a partner or the head of the relevant team. "Harrison and Co" cannot introduce anyone. Sarah Harrison can.

Next to each name, note what you already share: a client in common, a networking group, a mutual contact on LinkedIn, a child at the same school. Then rank the list by how warm the route in is, and start at the top. Keeping this list somewhere better than your head matters more than it sounds; a simple pipeline with a next-contact date is enough, and our plain-English guide to CRM for small businesses shows how to set one up without buying software you will never open.

Earn the meeting with a personal approach

This is business-to-business relationship building, one person to one person. There are two routes that work.

The first is a warm introduction through a shared client. If you look after someone whose accountant is on your list, ask them: "I would like to meet Sarah, as we clearly look after some of the same people. Would you be comfortable introducing us by email?" Most clients are pleased to be asked, and an introduction from a client the accountant values gets a reply.

The second is a follow-up after meeting at an event. A chamber of commerce breakfast, a local business group, a seminar. Within two working days, send a short message that mentions something specific they said and asks for 30 minutes over coffee near their office. Connect on LinkedIn with a one-line personal note the same day.

What does not work is the template email to every accountancy practice in the county.

In the meeting itself, spend most of the time on them. Who do they act for? What do those clients ask about that falls outside their remit? What has gone wrong when they have introduced clients to advisers before? That last question is the most useful one you can ask, because the answer is nearly always "I never heard what happened", and you are about to fix that.

Agree the process on one page

After the meeting, send a one-page note setting out how introductions between your two firms will work. It should cover four things.

How an introduction is made: an email to you with the client copied in and one line on what they need, or a booking link the client can use themselves. The easier this is, the more often it happens.

How fast you respond: you contact their client within one working day, and you tell the introducer you have done so.

How their client is kept informed, and how the introducer is: you ask the client at the first meeting what they are happy for you to share, and with their agreement you tell the introducer when you have met and what the next step is.

What happens if you are not the right firm: you say so promptly, to both of them, and say why.

One subject deserves a sentence of its own. How introductions are rewarded, if at all, is a compliance question for your firm; settle it there first. The process above works the same way whatever the answer is.

The one-page note, like the page on your website that explains all this for introducers, is a document with your firm's name on it. Every template and page we describe here is a starting draft, and it goes through your firm's or network's financial promotions sign-off before it goes anywhere.

Report back after every introduction

This is the step that separates a partnership from an acquaintance, and it takes two minutes.

The day the introduction arrives, thank the introducer and confirm you have contacted their client. Within two days of the first meeting, send three lines: shared with the client's agreement, we met on this date, and the next step is this. When the work is complete, close the loop: the work is done, and the client knows to go back to the introducer for their accounts, their will, their conveyancing.

None of these messages says anything about advice. They are process updates, and they do something no brochure can: they show the introducer, repeatedly, that a client handed to you is looked after and that they will never be the last to know.

If you do one thing from this article, save these three messages as templates and send them every time, including for the introductions that go nowhere.

Review each relationship every quarter

Keep a simple tracker: introducer, date of last contact, introductions this quarter, the status of each, date of the next catch-up. Once a quarter, ask each active introducer for 20 minutes. Go through the introductions since last time, ask what went badly, ask what their clients are asking about now, and offer one useful thing.

The most useful thing is often a talk. Thirty minutes in plain English for their clients or their team, on the process itself: what actually happens when you see a financial planner, or the steps between an accepted offer and getting the keys. They host, you speak, the slides go through your sign-off beforehand, and their clients leave knowing your name and face.

After two quarters the tracker will show you something uncomfortable and useful: three or four of the ten produce almost all the introductions. Put your time into those, and replace the quietest names with new ones. Writing the whole routine down so that it survives a busy month is exactly the kind of thing we cover in how to systematise your business.

The annual review is the same system, pointed at clients

Existing clients are your other introducers, and the annual review is where that relationship is either kept or quietly lost.

Run it as a routine. Six weeks before a review is due, send a personal invitation with a booking link, how long it takes, and what you will cover. Two weeks later, a reminder. After that, a phone call. Afterwards, a short summary of what was covered and the date of the next one.

The end of a good review is the natural moment to ask for a referral, because you have just spent an hour being useful. The ask that works is modest: "Is there anyone you know who is at the point you were at when we first met? I would not contact them myself. If someone comes to mind, pass on my details and leave it with them." The client stays in control and the friend decides for themselves.

Make sure the introduced client finds what they expect

An introduced client still looks you up before they call. They search your name, and they find either a network template identical to fifty other firms, or a site that shows the adviser's face and qualifications, the firm reference number linked to the FCA Register so they can check it themselves, a plain page on how you charge, a page on what the first meeting involves, and a link to book a first call. The second version confirms the introducer's judgement. The first makes the client wonder.

Your Google Business Profile matters for the same reason, since it is usually what appears when someone searches your name; our Google Business Profile guide covers the setup. And speed matters most of all for mortgage enquiries: an introduced buyer with an accepted offer should hear from you inside the hour, with a holding reply covering the time you are with other clients.

We build this whole setup for advice firms, from the introducer page and tracker to the enquiry handling and review invitations, and you can read more on our financial advisers and mortgage brokers page.

Where to start

If you change one thing this month, write the three report-back messages, get them approved, and send them after every introduction from now on. It costs nothing and it repairs the relationships you already have. Then write your list of ten names, and book the first coffee.

If you would like a second pair of eyes on it, book a free 15-minute call and we will talk through your setup, or run our free business audit to see where your firm is losing enquiries and introductions right now.