Last week, I got a call from a broker at Nesbitt Burns who had been a student in a course which I teach in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. He's been in the business for a couple of years, has had good success in obtaining initial meetings with prospects and has built a terrific pipeline - but has�run into problems�converting conversations into clients. In sales training vernacular, he is having difficulty "closing the sale" with these prospects.

Over the years, I've learned that it takes three things to bring a new clients on board.

• 1. First, they have to be confident in your knowledge and expertise.
• 2. Second, they have to be convinced of your integrity and professionalism - you have to win their trust.
• 3. Finally, in most cases there has to be a catalyst for change - this last step is where many advisors stumble.

Occasionally, this catalyst comes when clients become fed up with their existing advisor and initiate a change without prompting- all advisors need to do in those cases is be positioned as the prospect's backup choice. More often, advisors need to help trigger the decision to make a move.

As we talked about the challenges of converting prospects to clients, I was reminded of a conversation with a top producing advisor at a conference that I spoke at in San Francisco in August of 2001. The markets were eighteen months into the deep tech correction; in talking to advisors in attendance, I heard nothing but doom and gloom - until I spoke to one particular advisor.

"I'm having a great year" he said. "I've already brought over six clients with over $10 million and have a number of others in the hopper". As we talked further, he described his formula for bringing clients on board.

At the beginning of each year, he identifies�thirty five to forty�prospects for special focus in the coming twelve months. He ramps up contact with them and provides the same level of communication that he would his top clients - the same number of phone calls, offers to meet and invitations to client events and breakfast and luncheon workshops in his boardroom. His goal is simple: he wants these prospects to hear from him more than from their existing advisor.

A few months before we talked, he called these prospects with an offer: "Earlier this year, I began using a leading edge, state of the art approach called Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the true risk in client portfolios. The insights from this have been very helpful and in a number of cases we're realigned investment strategies as a result I'm calling to see if you'd be interested in joining me in my office for a sandwich over lunch sometime in the next few weeks and in applying this to your own portfolio - all you have to do is fax over a recent statement a few days beforehand".

Not every prospect took him up on this offer to look at their portfolio, but a fair percentage did. Three reasons drove this - first, many of these prospects were unhappy and already thinking of looking around, second he gave them a concrete reason to sit down and finally, he'd built credibility leading up to this call. (This advisor had called up some prospects cold and made a similar offer - and had virtually no success).

And while not everyone he met with brought their accounts over, a substantial number switched - because he had not only build confidence in his knowledge and integrity but also provided a concrete reason to make the move.

As you think about your strategy for converting prospects to clients, take some time to reflect on your process to build credibility with prospects and the catalyst you're giving prospects to transition their accounts over. Beef up the trigger to make a move and you too may find new clients close behind.