May 18th, 2010 by Dan Richards, ClientInsights.ca

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Given markets over the past year, today should be a great time to be bringing new clients on board — after all, history shows that clients move when they’re unhappy, not when things are going well.

Advisors need to do three things to take advantage of this opportunity:

1. Conviction and confidence

Many advisors tell me they have seen an erosion in confidence around their ability to provide good advice and serve clients well. Being confident in the value you bring is the necessary first step to prospecting success.

2. Priority

Second, you need to carve out the time to focus on prospects, whether it be two hours a week or twenty two. In my conversations with advisors, many say that existing clients consume all their time and there’s no energy left over to focus on prospects. This is sometimes avoidance behaviour, ignoring the reality that almost every advisor will see client defection in the period ahead and that new clients will be needed just to maintain assets at the existing level.

3. Approach

Finally, even advisors who are talking to prospects about providing a second opinion report that the response is often an indifferent one. Even if you bring confidence in your advice and give prospecting priority, you need an approach that responds to today’s investor reality.

That approach has to address the level of skepticism that marks many of today’s investors — they’re not just dubious about their own financial institution and financial advisor, many are skeptical about all financial institutions and all financial advisors. As a result, even investors that aren’t all that happy are often reluctant to move, not sure it would be better elsewhere and taking a “devil you know” view towards making a change.

The result is that with many investors, you have to earn the right to get them to share their statements and give you the opportunity to provide a second opinion.

If you’ve been communicating with prospects regularly over the past couple of years, chances are you’ve earned that right.

And if you’ve built recognition, credibility and visibility in the community a prospect belongs to, this may not be an issue.

But if you’re going at this from a standing start, you will often need to start by building trust.

Here’s how one Chairman’s Club level advisor went about doing this last fall.

In late September, she approached her clients and said: “Given markets over the last while, my team and I are spending a lot of our day staying on top of all the available information on what’s happening. Going forward, I’m going to be selecting one article each week that I think is particularly useful and sending it on Friday afternoon to any clients that are interested in getting this. The sources of that article could be as diverse as The Wall Street Journal, the Economist or a commentary from a leading money manager. Is this something you’d be interested in receiving?”

The response was overwhelming positive — clients were anxious, the sources she talked about were credible and she was sending only one article.

She then approached prospects, explaining that she was sending one article each week to any clients who were interested and would be happy to extend this to that prospect as well. Again, she got a very positive reaction.

Six weeks later, in early November, she began following up with these prospects. She asked them if they had any questions on the most recent article she’d sent and also asked if they’d like to schedule a time in the next two or three weeks to sit down and talk about what was going on in the markets and about their own situation. While not everyone she talked to jumped at the offer, the response was generally very positive — even people who didn’t want to meet right then generally left the door open to talking in early 2009.

Every advisor is different and no approach will work for everyone. Just bear in mind that to capitalize on today’s prospecting opportunity, you need conviction about your value, the right level of priority and a process that is aligned with today’s investor reality. Put those three things in place and you too will see new clients come on board.

For more information about Dan Richards, visit http://www.getkeepclients.com

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About ClientInsights.ca A breakthrough in client communication Not long ago, clients read what you sent them. Today that's changed. In the You Tube world we live in, many investors would prefer to hear from a portfolio manager directly. And instead of reading an article on tax saving or estate planning strategies, more and more Canadians would rather watch an expert discuss the topic. Clientinsights.ca was developed in response to these changes - to deliver information in the form that investors want to receive it. It provides over 150 short video interviews, each about 4 to 6 minutes - you can email them or watch a video along with clients to start a meeting. No matter how you use it, Clientinsights.ca is designed to help you take client communication to a higher level. Dan Richards Founder and CEO, Clientinsights.ca Read more from the author/contributor here.