Bill Cates
Bill Cates, CSP, CPAE, is the President of Referral Coach International and the author of Get More Referrals Now , Beyond Referrals , and Radical Relevance . He is the founder of The Cates Academy for Relationship Marketing(tm) , as well as the host of the popular podcast www.TopAdvisorPodcast.com . Bill is offering PowerAdvice readers a complimentary guide www.MultiplyYourBestClients.com . For over 25 years, Bill has helped financial professionals move from incremental growth to exponential growth by communicating more compelling value and multiplying their best clients. Thousands of financial advisors are using Bill's Relationship Marketing System(tm) to enhance client engagement, create more effective personal introductions, and communicate more relevant and compelling value. Plus, Bill has coached some of the most successful advisors in our industry. Before starting his current business, Bill built and sold two successful book publishing companies. Bill is also the founding member and leader of the Million Dollar Speakers Group. In 2010, Bill was inducted into the prestigious Professional Speakers Hall of Fame (with such members as Ronald Reagan and Colin Powell). A highly sought-after international speaker, Bill Cates has spoken at the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table six times, including the main platform in the United States, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, and India. Learn more here .
Articles by Bill Cates
- Business Growth
Why Your Financial Advisor Business Isn’t Growing: The Advocacy or Relevance Gap
Understanding which gap is holding you back can help you focus your efforts in the right place.
- Business Growth
The Trust Advantage: Why Social Proof Matters More Than Ever for Financial Advisors
They are looking to trust someone (maybe you) with their goals, their dreams, their retirement, and in many cases, their family's future.
- Business Growth
They’re Not Saying No: Why Financial Advisor Prospects Don’t Respond
Well-Crafted introductions can break through a lot of barriers. But they don't always eliminate the inertia keeping the prospect stuck.
- Business Growth
Why Your Best Clients Aren’t Referring Your Best Prospects
Have you noticed that most clients tend to refer laterally and down on the economic ladder?
- Business Growth
Stop Asking for Referrals. Become the Advisor Professionals Want to Recommend.
Why Some Center of Influence Relationships Produce Referrals… and Others Never Do. According to a recent report from Invesco Global Consulting, top-quartile advisory teams maintain an average of 4.3 formal strategic partnerships, more than twice the
- Multimedia
Your Next Client Was Referred to You. Then They Googled You.
Molly shares what advisors can do to strengthen that next step and make sure their marketing supports the tried and true referral process.
- Opinion
The Boiling Frog Myth Is False. The Lesson for Advisors Is Absolutely True.
Where in your life or business are small, almost invisible changes quietly moving you farther from where you want to be?
- Business Growth
Why the Best Advisors Will Build Bionic Practices — Not Artificial Ones
I think a better question is this: If everybody has access to the same technology, how am I going to stand out?
- Business Growth
Getting More Referrals Starts With Something Surprisingly Small
So, here’s one of the simplest ways to turn those quieter clients into highly effective advocates.
- Business Growth
Referrals Aren’t Dead. Bad Referral Strategies Are.
And thanks to AI, half the content on the internet sounds like it was co-authored by an intern working with a robot at 2 o’clock in the morning.
- Business Growth
Referrals Don’t Happen by Accident—They’re Designed Through Client Experience
Feel natural, but NOT accidental. It’s a crucial distinction that could transform the quality and quantity of clients you attract.
- Business Growth
Most Advisors Miss This: The First 90 Days That Drive Future Referrals
It’s a chance to deepen engagement and make yourself not only indispensable, but genuinely referable.
- Business Growth
You Can Make More Money—You Can’t Make More Time
As advisors, we optimize portfolios… and we often waste hours. Let’s INVEST the next couple of minutes to develop a new take on time.
- Business Growth
Make Referrals Feel Natural: Strategy That Gets You Shared More Often
You want to be flexible. So, here’s one of the simplest ways to turn those quieter clients into highly effective advocates.
- Business Growth
Clients Do Care Who You Are but Only After You Earn It
They SAY that your clients don’t care about your story. I think that advice is incomplete and it could be costing you the trust
- Business Growth
Advisors Are Wasting Prime Website Real Estate
Think of it as the billboard for your website. It won’t tell your entire story. It shouldn’t try. But it does have a very important job.
- Business Growth
5-Second Test That Exposes Weak Advisor Headlines
Think of it as the billboard for your website. It won’t tell your entire story. It shouldn’t try. But it does have a very important job.
- Business Growth
You Managed Everything … Except This Moment That Costs You Clients
Financial advisors are highly trusted by business owners.
- Business Growth
Visual Roadmaps That Move Prospects Across the Bridge
Sometimes the biggest growth opportunity isn’t finding more prospects, it’s making it easier for the right ones to move forward.
- Business Growth
Advisors Who Earn Steady Referrals Share These Three Traits
Look at the highest-performing referral pros across decades, firms, and business models, three common denominators show up every single time.
- Business Growth
Clients Who Can Explain Your Value Become Your Best Advocates
I want to expand on this concept of getting your clients to speak the value aloud and apply it to a strategy that will make you even more referable
- Business Growth
Grow Your Practice by Helping Clients Leave a Legacy
Jeffrey has elevated strategic philanthropy to a fine art, and in doing so, unlocked a powerful pipeline of wealthy clients.
- Business Growth
Stop Chasing Prospects. Start Attracting the Right Ones with a Clear, Credible Message
Cut Through the Noise: Transform Your Marketing Message 1.
- Business Growth
Why Clients Panic, Freeze, or Self-Sabotage—and How Neuroscience Helps Advisors Respond
As a financial advisor, you know that helping your clients manage their finances is about far more than crunching numbers and reviewing asset allocations.
- Business Growth
How Julia Carlson ‘Fired Herself’ To Build an 8-Figure Advisory Firm
“To grow to an 8-figure business, you have to fire yourself – let go of doing all of the things that you think you
- Business Growth
7 AI-Powered Referral Strategies Top Advisors Swear By
Not yet be able to ask for introductions in a truly human, authentic way, but it can lend a hand to make your referral process smarter and more efficient.
- Research
How Your Brain Shapes Your Advice: Neuroscience Strategies To Build Trust and Ease Client Anxiety
Your clients’ brains – as well as YOUR brain – that offers insight into the way we think, feel, and act around money.
- Business Growth
Why ‘Great Service’ No Longer Wins Clients: The New Rules of Deep Financial Advisor Engagement
Why empathy, thoughtful communication, and personalized experiences are now the keys to standing out – to attract and retain ideal clients.
- Business Growth
How to Become the ‘First Call’ Advisor: Lessons from Guiding the World’s Wealthiest Families
What can financial advisors learn from those guiding the world’s wealthiest and most complex families?
- Business Growth
If You Own the Problem, You Own the Business: What Top Advisors Do Differently
How clarity of purpose, the right words, and emotional connection can transform an advisor’s business and make competitors irrelevant.
- Business Growth
Why Your Referral Machine Stalled — And How To Restart It for Consistent Growth
One that’s authentic, intentional, and repeatable, is what creates consistent growth and steady introductions to right-fit clients.
- Business Growth
Michael Kitces Reveals What Actually Works for Financial Advisors Today
How do today’s top advisors cut through the noise, establish credibility, and attract clients in a way that actually works?
- Business Growth
The Real Money Thieves: How Limiting Beliefs Rob You Blind
The real danger came from an invisible thief that had been holding one of my fellow hostages captive long before we stepped foot in that bank
- Business Growth
Women Will Soon Control Most U.S. Wealth. Is Your Practice Ready?
How the financial industry has historically overlooked women clients and what needs to change to better serve and retain them.
- Business Growth
How Relationship-First Advisors Are Building More Sustainable Practices
They came to you through one undeniable fact: human-to-human connection still drives this business.
- Business Growth
Is Your Digital Marketing Strategy Wasting Time and Money?
Where to focus your time, energy, and marketing dollars, the answer is both old-school and profoundly human: building trust, one relationship at a time.
