It's tough to see many positives about the kinds of markets we've been going through over the past while - there's no question that there has been considerable pain and anxiety. Taking a contrarian stance for a moment, let me point out three good things about the market correction we're currently going through.

First, it has become evident that a bubble had developed in the US real estate and subprime finance markets - in its own way no different than the tech bubble of the late 90s. What we've learned is that the earlier bubbles are pierced the better, yes there is pain today - but nothing like the pain we'd see a year or two down the road if things had continued on.

Second, the correction has brought client expectations back to reality in a way that any number of conversations with advisors never could. Last spring and fall, many advisors told me that return expectations had started spiraling up, fueled by the strong markets of 2003 to 2006.

Finally, I believe that the current correction sets the stage for the next big prospecting opportunity.

Experience shows that most clients change advisors in tough times, not good times - it's then that they become disenchanted with the current situation and are open to making a change. The past twenty years have seen a number exceptional opportunities to bring new clients on board. In the late 80's, you had bonds yielding double digits, in the mid 90s you had GIC rates halve from 12% to 6% and investors flock to mutual funds. With markets off 25% over a six months period, the fall of 1998 was a great time to prospect - as was late 2002 and early 2003.

It will take a number of things to capitalize on the opportunity to bring new clients on board in the period ahead - although given how shell shocked many clients are, it may take a period of stability before some investors are in the mood to pull the trigger and make a change.

In the ideal world, you have a story to tell in terms of how you positioned client portfolios to provide some level of protection from the full force of the turmoil we've seen of late. You don't need to show a positive number for November to January, but you should be able to make the case that clients would have been better off with you than where they are now; if you were over weighted in US banks, you're going to be challenged to hang on to existing clients, forget attracting new ones.

Beyond this, you need to be able to articulate the approach that has yielded these results - whether it be in your underlying investment philosophy, a disciplined asset allocation and rebalancing process, how you pick stocks and construct portfolios or the way you go about selecting and monitoring money managers. In the absence of a clearly defined process, clients will often conclude that your success was driven by good luck rather than good planning. Consider developing a simple one pager outlining how your investment process benefited clients in these trying times.

The third piece to the puzzle is the ability to show prospects how you communicated with your clients over the last month, beyond sending an email or letter (which many clients have come to take for granted). The more specific and concrete the activity you took to reach out to clients since the start of 2008, the more persuasive your commitment to client communication - and the clearer the contrast to what prospects have received from their current advisor.

Bear in mind, clients who make a change were typically on the fence before the recent events, with the last six weeks the final catalyst for people who already had doubts about the relationship . Consider as well that very often, client dissatisfaction stems from the level of attention they're receiving and feeling taken for granted. (In research with clients who made a move from one advisor to another in the past, performance was the key driver of change only 40% of the time - the majority of the time the main reason for change was for improved communication, to work with an advisor who better understood their needs or the desire to feel like an important client).

Take some time today to think about people that you've talked to in the past year or two about the possibility of working together. Now may be the time to revisit that list and make the call to see how those prospects are weathering the storm - and whether they might be interested in your brand of umbrella.