In last Monday's post on Turbo charging your prospecting success, I referred to the opportunity to talk to clients about referrals.This led to this email from one successful financial advisor: "The last thing I'd do right now is talk to clients about referrals - given their portfolios, I'm struggling to maintain a positive tone in meetings with clients, asking for referrals would really be pushing my luck."

Along the same lines, during a recent roundtable with advisors, one participant said "If I raised the issue of referrals with my clients right now, they'd think I was nuts."

This attitude is understandable - but ignores an opportunity to plant low key referral seeds with clients going into the December holiday period.

The reason is quite simple - this Christmas, things will be different in many Canadian households.

If surveys of shopping intention are to be believed, there will be less presents under the tree.

There will be fewer people bragging about the returns on their investments.

And there will almost certainly be more conversations about financial advisors - and in particular who has been there for clients in the past while.

I've spent most Saturdays since mid September talking to investors. As clients whose advisors have fallen down on the job consider their alternatives and chat with friends and family, this will lead to a significant opportunity for some advisors to pick up referrals. Referrals initiated by someone looking for an introduction to an advisor doing a good job for a friend have always been an important driver of referrals, but this will be especially true this holiday season - in some instances, your clients will be asked outright how they feel about the job you've done and if they are comfortable recommending you.

There are three things to do to make these referrals happen:

Step One: Deliver proactive advice

To take maximum advantage of this opportunity, you first have to ensure that clients feel they're getting proactive advice, even given the awful markets of late - one of the most common complaints by investors is that their advisors have been too passive in the last while.

It's critical that you let clients know the alternatives you've looked at to their investments. For clients in mutual funds or managed money, you need to let them know what the managers of these funds have been doing.

Or consider tax loss selling. In a recent roundtable discussion with a group of experienced advisors, the one topic that has been getting a good response in meetings and phone calls is proactive advice on tax loss selling to recover taxes paid on previous years' gains. This opportunity is summarized in this article from the November 14 Financial Post:

Tax system can help ease losses - This autumn's stock market crash has produced little but bad news for most advisors and their clients. But as the end of the calendar year approaches, there may be an opportunity to salvage something through tax-loss selling.

Remember that you need to be the first to go to clients with these kinds of ideas, before they read about them or hear about them elsewhere. Even if you were planning to raise tax loss selling or the new TFSA account in a meeting, if your clients come in with a clipping such as this one in hand, you risk being seen as reactive to their questions.

Step Two: Get feedback on how clients feel

The second step is to get a temperature reading on how your clients feel - not about their investments, but about the quality of your communication (something you can actually control.)

At the conclusion of a meeting (or if that's not possible a phone call), one way to do this is to say:

"I wonder if I could take a minute to get some feedback on the communication you've received from me over the past while. How would you rate the contact you've got from me on a scale from 1 to 10, if 1 is low and 10 is high?"

If the response is 7 or below, then you follow up with: "Tell me, what kind of changes would you like to see to the communication you get from me over the next while?"

If on the other hand you get an 8, 9 or 10, then you can move on to plant the seed for referrals.

Step Three: Plant the seed for referrals

One way to introduce the subject is to say: "Recently, there have been some newspaper reports about investors who haven't heard from their advisors over the past while and are looking to move their accounts as a result. Should you be talking to a friend or colleague over the next while who is considering making a change, I hope you'll remember that I do have capacity to bring new clients on board in the period ahead."

You could leave it there - or to increase the odds of success, take the conversation further:

• "If you are talking to someone who is unhappy where they are, perhaps you could suggest that the three of us get together for a coffee early in the New Year."
• "Recently, I've identified the three traits shared by the clients I work with the best and find I can help the most. I wonder if I can spend two minutes going over these with you, should someone you're talking to be a fit for this profile."
• "I am always happy to sit down with anyone you introduce and give them an hour of my time to talk about their situation and perhaps suggest an alternative approach for them to consider."
• "I will be conducting a couple of luncheon workshops for clients early in the new year, at which I'll be discussing what happened in 2008 and the outlook for 2009. Many people find that a comfortable way to get a feel for my approach. Drop me a note with your friend's address and I'd be pleased to send him or her an invitation. If you're interested in attending, perhaps you can invite your friend to join you."
• "Please ask if it would be okay to send them a copy of my most recent newsletter, just drop me an email or give me a call with their name and address."
• "You've told me you found the articles I've been sending you of value. If they're interested, send me a note with your friend's name and email address and I'd be happy to add them to the distribution list for those articles."

There is no magic formula when it comes to referrals. By using this three step process, however, you will take maximum advantage of referral opportunities this Christmas - in a way that is comfortable both for you and for your client.