EP 55-Mark Maiocca on The Core7 Referral Methodology for Financial Advisors

David DeCelle  9:13

So as I alluded to in one of the blogs that I wrote, when someone is buying a home, they need a real estate attorney; they need a realtor more often than not; they need a loan officer, right? So for you, let's say I'm an advisor, I may say, Oh, yeah, you should call Mark, here's his information. Well, because they're in the process of wanting to buy a home, they're going to reach out to you. The challenge for us as advisors is that there's no financial planning season, like there is a tax season. There's nothing requiring people to work with an advisor and put together a financial plan. So one thing that I tell advisors is Listen, you need to have an open, honest and transparent conversation with any of your centers of influencer, your COIs, and share with them not only the types of folks that you want to work with, but also how to go about that introduction. And I think that saying that I mentioned about, we don't have a financial planning season, that's something that people will be like, Okay, I get that. Very rarely are people proactive in reaching out to an advisor. So I guess my question after sharing that scenario, do you guys spend time, or how do you spend time educating one another on Hey, here's how I receive referrals. Is it an email? Is it pass my card? Is it all go out and get lunch? How do you guys talk about that and cover that?

 

Mark Maiocca  10:36

To answer the first part, I always say, to make the introduction by email. It's the best way to connect, it's the easiest way to schedule, and you can get it off your plate. You can just copy everybody on it, they see the response, you know they're in contact, and you're on with your day. For how, that's where Core 7 is unique. We have set points in the process where with scripts, which make it most likely to refer. So I always give the example of me as a mortgage originator. When I do a pre-approval, I get the referral from the realtor. They send me the referral, and they introduce their closing attorney, because we're going to be doing the transaction. What I tried to do with every pre-approval is introduce the financial advisor, and that does what we call the crossover. Because, as you know, if someone's buying a home, they need a realtor, a mortgage originator, and a closing attorney, and property and casualty insurance agent, if it's not a condo. That's it; we don't need to bring a financial advisor in to get that deal closed and get a commission. But if we're doing a good job for the client, we're bringing you in. And so at pre-approval every single time I asked the question — first of all, I gather information upfront, so I know what they have and everything — but I'll ask the question, how's your relationship with your financial advisor? And I'll introduce it a little more and talk about how we work together. And that's how I introduce the advisor every single time. So when we're at this meeting, that advisor knows if I'm doing purchase business, that he should be getting referred.

 

David DeCelle  12:03

So this may just be like a gut feeling. I don't know if you track this or not. But how often do you find that that person will respond favorably to being introduced to that advisor? Is it one out of ten times, they say, ‘actually, I need one’ or ‘I don't have a good relationship’? Is it ten out ten times? How often are you able to find that opportunity when you present that opportunity?

 

Mark Maiocca  12:26

Very often, but it's probably — so with the group I've been working with, with a real estate agent is one of the founders, he created a lot of the process. When he does his buyer meeting, he tees it up, or he says, we want to make sure real estate fits into your overall financial plan, you may want to speak to an advisor. Mark might mention that when you speak with him for the loan. That little script right there by the realtor tees it up for me where they're expecting it; they know it’s coming. And with his deals, it's probably nine out of ten unless they're happy with their advisor already.

 

David DeCelle  13:02

So you're kind of bringing them through this whole system. And everyone — it's almost like a relay race where you're passing the baton, and you're kind of tapping them on the shoulder and handing it over from there. So what I'm hearing, for everyone listening too, I feel like a lot of advisors will have multiple CPAs, or multiple attorneys, or multiple whoever's. And you maybe get a referral or two or five in a given year, which is better than nothing, don't get me wrong; but what I'm hearing from you is, it seems like almost everyone, if not just the majority of people anyways, if they're doing business with one of you, they're probably going to be doing business with the other person because you guys are doing a good job teeing it up, you're integrating each other into your processes, and you're doing a good job edifying that next person in line. That way the adviser, for example, doesn't need to say, ‘Hey, here's why I'm so great,’ because the realtor and the loan officer had already done that. And then from an advisor’s perspective, what are some of the things that advisors can do to feed a loan officer with introductions as a part of their process? Because I'm kind of getting at the whole go giver, give to get sort of mentality where obviously, they can't just be on the receiving end, but they need to give you introduction. So one of the things that they can take a look at in their clients, financial plans, or lives that would then tee up a conversation with a loan officer, as the example?

 

Mark Maiocca  14:27

There's the obvious stuff that every advisor knows. And this is why the relationship is sometimes lopsided, because the loan officer isn't doing some of those things that I was talking about to cross sell over. But the advisor many times needs a lender to do a cash out refinance, to free up some debt, to free up some more money for investment, to lower the rate. So there's a lot of opportunities there. And those are going to come a lot; those just happen. A good advisor identifies those all the time and they benefit the advisor because they help the client. What we look for, and again, it's all about that crossover from real estate silo to financial silo. If you said to me, Mark, I'm a financial advisor, I want to work with you, what's the number one thing that I can do to better your business? And I would say, when you're talking to your clients, when you're calculating their net worth or talking about that stuff, ask about real estate? And then say something like, Zillow says your house is worth $500,000; Zillow is not always accurate. How's your relationship with your realtor who specializes in equity assessments? And if you can introduce my realtor, it doesn't have to be when they're doing a transaction, just introduce them so they get into the realtor’s web. That's the best thing because now the realtor sees me as — it eliminates the food chain. I don't have that many referrals for realtors, because they come to me when they're already all set. They go to the realtor first. But you got the financial advisors, the trusted advisor, that you talk about this stuff on a quarterly, or whatever the annual review, or whenever you're speaking to the client, and you're able to ask about real estate. And if they don't have a realtor, an introduction by email to a realtor to just add them to their list and stay in touch, is a home run to a realtor. When I tell realtors that, they're like, awesome. And here's the part that made this the best. This is what changed the game for me, is the realtors that got that, said all right, what can I do to make that financial advisor want to refer me every single time and execute the process? And I was like, well, I get all the financial as a loan officer, I have all the financial information. I can refer the advisor a lot, if you just make sure I get the referral. So that made the realtors stop giving out three cards and encouraging [unclear 16:46], you really should go with Mark because they were like, if I get it to Mark, he's going to get it to David, the financial advisor; David's going to be happy. So when David's talking to his clients, he's going to ask those real estate questions that are going to help me and that's how the whole thing built.

 

Patrick Brewer

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David DeCelle  17:51

So it sounds like you guys are doing a good job with having structure around your meetings for accountability purposes, I should say. And it sounds like you're also doing a good job empowering one another to know what to say or what to ask the client so that you can identify opportunities for one another. And it sounds like you also have a good understanding as to who can feed who, and who's most likely to be able to feed that other person with introductions. And knowing that even if I'm giving referrals to the realtor over here, and I'm not getting any referrals and return from the realtor, knowing through your frequent meetings on a monthly basis that the referral that you got from the loan officer was actually kind of a referral from the realtor as well. So it sounds like there's a lot of synergies around the frequency of meeting and the accountability with the empowering of question asking or data to be able to say, Hey, you got to go and look at this, or you got to talk to this person. And then on a quarterly basis, you're going ahead and measuring the actual results. So let's talk about some of the results quickly. So like with your group, as the example we’ll highlight that one, I guess two questions. How much business have you received from your group, and how much business has the group as a whole produced as a unit in terms of total commissions, revenue, whatever you want to call it?

 

Mark Maiocca  19:15

The quarterlies, we really just started tracking them in the past couple years. But my number one group, that one that kind of started the whole thing, it's averaged over the last 10 years over $150,000 in income for me. The realtor’s been about the same, maybe even a little more. One year the advisor had 70 referrals, he closed like 35 of them; a little tougher to really see how to calculate the exact so we rounded it up. It was like 50 to 75 average each year. And the advisor, the one that we gave the most to, he actually moved up and went into the wholesale side. So he passed it on to somebody else who didn't really embrace it as he did. The PNC, they've done really well. We only had a three-month litmus test where the closing attorney, which is the best referral for PNC on a purchase, gave them 25 policies in a three-month period. And they said it was $6,000 in revenue. The estate planner didn't track, they didn't fill out the lead tracker very well, but the advisor gave them a ton of business; I would guess that was — we use $700 for estate plan, sometimes it's a little more; they were up over 50. So all in, we're netting probably about $500,000 a year, every year from that group. And I hate to say this, but that group has had an accountant for only two of the last of the eight years.

 

David DeCelle  20:41

Well that’s cool, too, because that's not your only stream of business. So for everyone listening, all those numbers you shared, it's not like that's what everyone made in that year. They have other avenues of business, like client referrals, their own marketing, other one-off networking events, things along those lines, repeat business. So you can start to quickly do the math. If you can hang out with seven people and bring on an extra 50 to 150 grand, it's kind of a good group to be a part of. Especially when you start to think about the lifetime value of that client, as they purchase more property or continue to add to their accounts. Obviously, the ongoing AUM fee, or changes in insurance needs, things like that. So a lot a good opportunity, when you actually have a core group of people that you can also be direct and transparent with and say, Hey, the way that you went about that introduction wasn't good, and here's why. As opposed to someone just every month saying, Oh, well, I gave out your card. That's how a lot of, folks who are listening, their COIs are handled, which is ‘Yeah, they always say they hand out my card, but I never get phone calls,’ right? You got to reestablish expectations; you got to reestablish what that relationship involves, and start talking about potential exclusivity in working with each other, so that — like, there's advisors on our team that I've come across, that they'll link up with a CPA, for example, and they'll actually put each other on their websites. So it legitimizes it even more, it’s, Hey, this person is an extension of me; there's no stronger referral than that, when they're already quote, on your team, so to speak. So you can get pretty deep with those relationships, both in reality and optically to the folks that you're serving.

 

Mark Maiocca  22:29

Right, and here's just another thing; this isn't to go too deep. I started a second group with some newer people. And it may say, Well, you get two groups. There's no overlap, because what it is, is it's a different real estate agent. So that realtor’s referring me and all that realtor really wants me to do is refer the advisor that refers to that realtor. So it's like, I have the group that does a ton. And they, there's just a long past clients and people coming in, and that one just is always flowing. But if you do it right, and you have an advisor and some financial side people with a good database, and a good realtor — I don't advise doing it until you get one going really well. But you could start another and give some benefit. Because it's funny, you mentioned you might get five a year, and that's good, but it should be better. My surveys of people are so bad. I mean, I asked financial advisors, how many referrals Have you got from your loan officer? And the answer is usually zero.

 

David DeCelle  23:31

Seriously. Yeah, I know, a lot of advisors can get frustrated with you guys, so to speak, but I feel like it's obviously on their end for not doing a good job empowering these folks to identify opportunities.

 

Mark Maiocca  23:45

I agree with you. Plus how about the fact that introducing a financial advisor does two really obvious things. Number one, it helps the client. One of the best thing you can do is refer a financial advisor. In my opinion, the better advisor, of course, is better, but even just having one that's going to just get you organized is a huge benefit. But the other thing is, if you don't refer the financial advisor, and this is their first home, and they have a child, first thing they're gonna do is go buy life insurance. They're going to find a financial advisor that you may not know who may bring their team in. So you may lose the client, even if you did a great job on that original loan. So it's always good to kind of keep them in your network.

 

David DeCelle  24:27

The more ingrained you can have them with your own team of folks in all these industries, the stickier that relationship is for the entire group. If you don't do that, you're just susceptible to risk that someone else swoops in and introduces their team. So great, great point. So transitioning slightly over to your favorite book. We've had a couple guests that have mentioned this book, so I'm always curious to hear why it's your favorite. So for everyone listening, really trying to promote learning in our industry, outside of our industry, so more general personal development, other industries, like the tech space, different biographies of folks — that you can take these principles and apply it to your business as opposed to just reading up on industry related white papers and things like that. Obviously, those are important and we got to make sure that those are integrated into our habits and consumption of information. But there's so much power in consuming books outside of our industry as well. So your favorite book, just one of my favorite books as well, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Tell me why you chose that one?

 

Mark Maiocca  25:28

Well, I read it every year. One of the reasons it's my favorite is there's a chapter called “The Law of the Mastermind.” It kind of talks about what we're talking about here where, like Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, all these people were in a mastermind helping each other, referring business. And that was one of the things but the whole book is unbelievable; just the way that your mindset, what a man can think, and believe, he can achieve something like that. And it's true, because it just, they talk about the secret and all that and the universe. And I don't know how much I believe that the universe is there. But I believe that if you stay focused on something, and it's good, that just your brain will subconsciously take you there. There's also a great chapter on the subconscious, which explains all that, but I read it every year. I mean, I have my first copy, which is like ripped, it's all highlighted, dog eared, but it's the one that I always read, because it has all my notes.

 

David DeCelle  26:25

Love it. Yeah, I love it for all those reasons. I also love how timeless it is. One of the things that actually frustrates me is I don't know why that's not required reading in school. Come on, it is a fantastic book that allows people to elevate themselves and believe in themselves, and understand that when you believe and you combine that with hard work, great things happen. Appreciate you sharing that. So before we wrap up and head into the after-hours portion, Mark, for anyone who wants to connect with you or learn more about the methodology that we discussed today, where's the best places for them to go and check you out.

 

Mark Maiocca  27:01

The best way is mycore7.com; that's my core, the number seven.com. There's a lot of free tools, you can book an appointment with me, you can find a group, there's a section that you put your information in. If there's a group in that area, we can make the introduction to the group leader; you can start your own group. It's all right there, it's pretty self-explanatory. Go there, watch the intro video. And then just, I'd say 75% of the site, we give away for free. So you can go to that site and use a lot of the tools without having to join or anything.

 

David DeCelle  27:33

Awesome. Thank you for that. So before we wrap up and head to the after-hours portion, if you found this episode to be valuable, three things: number one, also check out our blog that I wrote on COIs and our previous podcast about COIs. When you take those two resources plus this, combine them together, and then actually do something with the information of course, you can really have a positive impact on your business. Number two, if you did find it valuable, go ahead, hit the share button and share it with some of the folks within the industry. Also with this episode, specifically, it would be valuable to send this to the current referral partners that you have in case it's something that you're interested in all doing together. So send it to your CPA, send it to your attorney, send it to your loan officer, realtor, property and casualty insurance folks, and see if you can get people on the same page and help each other as a result of this episode. Number three is if you go ahead and leave us a review on iTunes, that would be super helpful as it relates to visibility for us to be able to impact more of people like you. So if you go ahead, leave us a review on iTunes, take a screenshot of that, and shoot me a text at 978-228-2338. Again, that's 978-228-2338, you'll get an automatic reply and it will basically have a link for you to go ahead and enter in your name so you get added to my contacts. And then beyond those automated messages, you can chat with me. I send out text messages in the mornings and the afternoons as hopefully inspirational and planning oriented. But if you go ahead and send me that with the key word, My Core 7, what I'll do is I'll go ahead and as a thank you put everyone in a drawing who does that and you'll get access to the digital portion of our Accelerator coaching program. That has a bunch of videos, so when you combine that with all the stuff that Mark is offering as well, you'll have a lot of tools necessary to be able to grow your business at a faster rate than you may be now. But it all comes down to, of course, consuming that and then actually implementing it. Don't be an information zombie and just listen to this stuff. Mark, we're gonna head into the after-hours portion. Buckle up, I got some funny questions to ask you. But nonetheless, I really enjoy and appreciate your time today.

 

Mark Maiocca

Thank you I had a good time.

 

 

After-Hours

David DeCelle

After hours, let's rock! So I got a few questions, just rapid fire, to see really what your responses are, and they're totally off color, they're not professional, and we're just gonna have some fun. So first one, would you rather be born with an elephant trunk? Or a giraffe neck?

 

Mark Maiocca

Elephant trunk.

 

David DeCelle

Elephant trunk? I gotta know why? Do you like peanuts?

 

Mark Maiocca

It's more of a long neck. I have one already; any longer would be —

 

David DeCelle

So you've been just troubled thinking about that. That's funny. Would you rather forget who you were? or forget who everyone else was?

 

Mark Maiocca

Forget who everyone else was.

 

David DeCelle

Always want to know who you are. I like that. Would you rather be gossiped about or never talked about at all?

 

Mark Maiocca

Gossiped about. Good, bad, ugly, doesn't matter.

 

David DeCelle

Any publicity is good publicity. This is kind of a totally unrelated sort of, would you rather, but kind of interesting. Would you rather never laugh again? Or never use your smartphone?

 

Mark Maiocca

Never use my smartphone.

 

David DeCelle

See, I feel like that would be so — I guess it doesn't say you can't use your laptop. And my MacBook is kind of like my smartphone. So I would choose that too.

 

Mark Maiocca  31:08

Well, if I had to give up technology, I mean, I don't know how I’d make money. But I'd rather obviously be able to laugh.

 

David DeCelle  31:17

Speaking of laughing, and this would be funny to watch. It'd either be fun to watch and the other one would be funny to listen to. So final question. Would you rather fight Mike Tyson or talk like him for the rest of your life?

 

Mark Maiocca

I think I'd rather fight him.

 

David DeCelle

Yeah, something tells me that that'd be a quick fight. I don't know which one would be standing but it would be quick either way.

 

Mark Maiocca

I think it would be the rest of — Either way, it's the rest of my life.

 

David DeCelle

Man, awesome, man. Well, I appreciate the fun today for everyone who stuck around for the after-hours portion. Hopefully there were a couple chuckles maybe got you thinking as well. So I appreciate you sticking around, and Mark, again, thank you for your time.

 

Mark Maiocca

Thanks, Dave. Those awesome.

 

David DeCelle

Take care.