Recently, I came across an article that outlined the critical role of technology in Barack Obama's remarkable presidential campaign.Among the key contributors to his success was the unprecedented $500 million his campaign raised online. The article discussed some of the innovative tactics that were used - one of which has direct relevance to financial advisors looking to attract new clients.Rather than asking for donations online, the Obama campaign's online advertising had the single minded objective of getting people to sign up for their email list, agreeing to receive more information. The reason for this was quite simple - obtaining an email address and the owner's agreement to receive future communication about the campaign was considered vastly more valuable than a single donation.

That's true when it comes to raising money for a political campaign - and it's also true when it comes to communicating with prospective clients.

When advisors talked to prospective clients in the past, it was normally with the view of doing immediate business - whether that was getting an order over the phone or obtaining an appointment to talk about the prospect's circumstances and portfolio.

During the mid 90s, some advisors changed direction and focused on getting prospects out to seminars featuring media celebrities such as Brian Costello, Jerry White, Garth Turner and Gordon Pape. This worked well for a period of time, until saturation kicked in and it became harder to get truly qualified prospects out (in some cases replaced by a growing number of "seminar junkies".)

These seminars worked because of the credibility of the speakers, due to the value that was promised in the ads promoting them and because showing up at a seminar was seen as less threatening than agreeing to meet directly with an advisor. For advisors who sponsored them, seminars were really an intermediate step between an initial conversation with a prospect and securing a meeting.

Even though mass seminars no longer work, the principle is still relevant. As we find ourselves dealing with increasingly skeptical investors, advisors need to reconsider how they approach prospects.

The ultimate objective hasn't changed - it's to secure a face to face meeting with a qualified and interested prospect. But advisors need to fundamentally rethink how to make that meeting happen. More and more, you will need to cultivate and nurture prospects by introducing more patience and upfront value to the communication with investors you hope to work with.

To read more about the background to this shift, go to http://www.strategicimperatives.ca/blog/?p=150

Note that if you obtain an introduction from a satisfied client or you have built a strong reputation as the go-to resource within a defined target community, the old rules might still apply and you can go for a meeting on the first contact. And of course if someone you talk to has already made a decision to move accounts or has an imminent need, you're going to try to meet as soon as possible.

With those exceptions, however, going forward in many cases advisors will need to introduce a distinct three stage process to build upfront credibility with prospects, replacing the direct request for a meeting on the first conversation.

Picking up on the Obama campaign's success, the first step is to secure a prospect's permission to communicate with them - agreeing to receive information you're emailing clients or to be put on the invitation list for informal breakfast or lunch sessions you're holding for clients.

Next, you need to ensure you're sending material that truly provides value and builds your credibility. Email has fundamentally altered our ability to provide existing and prospective clients with useful and timely information - the fact that we can email links to articles from credible newspapers and magazines has had a particularly big impact.

You can read more about building an email campaign to clients at http://www.strategicimperatives.ca/blog/?p=156

The final step is to approach prospects you've been cultivating about arranging a meeting. In some cases, you might reduce the commitment threshold by inviting prospects to a luncheon session for some of your clients before going for a direct meeting.

To read more about adding a prospecting component to client lunches, read http://www.strategicimperatives.ca/blog/?p=164

One of the things that has caused once successful companies such as the U.S. automakers to fail is attachment to the way they did things in the past, even when those things have stopped working.

That's also true of advisors - just because something worked in the past doesn't mean it's going to work going forward. A key to ongoing success for all of us is the willingness to adapt to new realities in the marketplace and to embrace new approaches - and to take away new ideas from a variety of sources, even if that source is the U.S. President.

To read the full article about how technology helped Barack Obama become President,

http://www.aiim.org/Infonomics/Obama-How-Web2.0-Helped-Win-Whitehouse.aspx