More than one in four global wealth management clients plan to change advisors over the next three years, so it is imperative that you capture your share of those shifting client relationships.

We often believe that the key to growth in our business is just exposure. If more people are aware of our services, then naturally more people will hire us to perform those services. But the best businesspeople actually don’t proactively promote themselves very much at all. Why? Because they know that advertising is a tax paid by the unremarkable. You don’t necessarily need to spend money to gain clients. The best way to grow is for your existing clients to do it for you.

Globally, fewer than 1 percent of all businesses have an actual word-of-mouth strategy because almost all of us in every industry make the same mistake. We assume that if we just run a good practice and take care of our clients, they’ll naturally tell others about us. But that’s not actually the way people behave. All human beings are wired the same way: to ignore things that are average.

Now, of course, competency is important. It is what keeps your clients in place and prevents them from leaving, but to effectively get your current clients to recruit their friends, you ahave to give them a story to tell. And that story is almost never about what you actually do day to day. It’s not about insurance. It’s not about investments.

What you need to create is a “talk trigger,” which is a strategic operational choice designed to create conversations. It’s something that your clients do not expect, and because it’s different and unexpected, it causes them to want to share that story with their friends. An element of business growth that is universally powerful and has been since prehistoric times is word-of-mouth or referrals. So let’s stop taking word-of-mouth and referrals for granted and start making them happen with an actual strategy. What I’d like to share with you are four ways that can get your clients talking to their friends about you, which are based on my book “Talk Triggers.”

The first way to create word-of-mouth is with “talkable generosity.” This is when you give clients more than they expect. This word-of-mouth strategy is the easiest to implement day to day. One of the most successful talkable generosity programs in the world is done by DoubleTree by Hilton. Every DoubleTree hotel in the world has an oven behind the registration desk, and, at check-in, each guest is given a warm chocolate chip cookie baked on-site.

Before the pandemic, DoubleTree was baking and distributing 5,000 chocolate chip cookies every day. I partnered with Hilton on a research project. We surveyed their global customers and found that one-third of those customers told somebody a story about the chocolate chip cookie. This means that DoubleTree hotels benefited from 25,000 stories a day, which is why they spend less on advertising than any other hotel chain in their competitive set. The guests are the sales and marketing department, and the cookie is the story.

A second type of talk trigger is “talkable speed.” Simply be faster than your clients expect you to be.

There are 41,000 accounting firms with 20 or fewer employees in the U.S., and they all do exactly the same thing for essentially the same cost. How do you differentiate? One particular firm does it with speed. Bogdanoff Dages & Co. responds to all client phone calls and emails within five minutes, which is simply unheard of. It definitely creates word-of-mouth. In fact, it has dozens of reviews on Google, and almost all of those reviews specifically mention how fast they are, which generates client after client.

The third way to create word-of-mouth is “talkable usefulness.” This is when you are more helpful than clients expect. You anticipate their needs and provide utility that they may not anticipate. This is Joe Manausa. [visual] He is a real estate agent in Florida. Joe only works with people who want to sell a home; he doesn’t represent buyers. In the United States, real estate professionals get a commission of 5 to 6 percent if they help you sell your home. However, you can attempt to sell it yourself, and if you do that successfully, you don’t have to pay the commission. Now, what most real estate agents do is try to convince consumers that they should not try to do this without professional help. Joe does the exact opposite, and it’s how he creates word-of-mouth and new clients. He wrote a guide available for free on his website called “How to Sell a Home on Your Own.” I interviewed him for a book I wrote and said, “Joe, I don’t understand this. Aren’t you giving away what people need to not hire you?” He said, “Jay, what you don’t understand is that people get to about page 13 and think, Wow, it is really hard to sell a home on your own. What was I thinking? I’m not going to try this.” He’s a genius. This guide is his No. 1 source of new clients, many of whom were told about it by his existing clients. Can you provide your clients with a comprehensive guide to insurance, to investments?

The fourth way to succeed with word-of-mouth is with “talkable empathy.” This is when you treat your clients with more humanity and dignity and kindness than they expect. This is very important in this industry because you are involved in so many key life changes with your clients.

“Empathy” means to understand and share the feelings of another person. The key to creating word-of-mouth with empathy is to deploy it proactively.

I had an experience like this when I was in Australia. My wife was traveling with me, and we were headed there from Los Angeles. The gate agent scanned my boarding pass and said, “Mr. Baer, thank you for your loyalty. We appreciate your diamond status here at Delta. Have a nice flight.” That was nice to hear. But back then I flew so much, and I had heard that kind of statement many times. So, it wasn’t unexpected enough that I would tell you a story about it. Then she scanned my wife’s boarding pass and realized that my wife had very few frequent flyer miles. She said, “Mrs. Baer, I’d like to thank you for all you must be doing at home so that Mr. Baer can spend so much time with us here at Delta. I hope you have a spectacular flight.” We were in tears because not only did she completely understand our relationship dynamic and how important my wife is to the work that I do, but she did it proactively. We had never heard that before. And here I am telling thousands of people. Empathy is when you understand and share the feelings of another person. And when that happens, it’s like magic. It creates stories for you and your practice.

I have told you about the four types of talk triggers: talkable generosity, talkable speed, talkable usefulness and talkable empathy. You know that the best way to grow is for your existing clients to recruit new clients. And you know how important word-of-mouth is to your success. The data shows that six in 10 wealthy clients choose advisors based on referrals.

I hope you have learned that competency does not create conversations. We don’t talk about good. We talk about different. So be different. Give your clients a story to tell, something they do not expect. That story is called your “talk trigger,” and that talk trigger is the next wave of your success.