Last week I got this email from an advisor: "I'm a regular reader of your blog. You recently wrote about how the current environment will lead to unhappy clients moving to new advisors. My question is what I should be doing to attract those unhappy clients."In today's environment, there are two keys to bringing clients on board - first having an effective story to tell and second telling it well.

For your story to be effective, it has to be compelling, differentiated and credible. Note that to really resonate with prospects, you need all three of these ingredients - your offer has to be motivating, it has to differ in some fashion from what prospects are hearing elsewhere and it has to be believable. For one example of a positioning that resonates with clients today, take a look at the November 3 commentary "Translating crisis into opportunity"

Once you have crafted your message, the next step is doing a good job of communicating it to prospective clients.

Here are seven things you need to bear in mind as you think about ramping up prospecting activity:

1. Take a different approach to referrals

Given performance over the past year, many advisors can't conceive of bringing up the subject of referrals with clients.

And indeed, recent interviews with investors suggests that many are reluctant to initiate referrals with friends, as even those for whom advisors have done a comparatively good job of positioning their portfolios have seen significant declines. Furthermore, in light of volatile markets, many clients are cautious about jeopardizing their friendships should a referral not work out.

As a result, your approach in talking to clients about referrals needs to change. Rather than asking for clients to identify people they know who are worth approaching, your focus should be on letting clients know you're open for business should someone they know ask for a recommendation. You also need to plant some seeds as to how best to make those referrals - rather than simply suggesting that their friend call you or giving you their friend's name and phone number, consider suggesting that you start by sitting down for coffee with them and someone they know who is considering making a change.

2. Make bringing clients on board a process, not an event

In today's environment, one off conversations don't cut it. Bringing up the topic of referrals once and expecting that to be sufficient or meeting with a prospect for an initial meeting and hoping to close the sale on the spot may work on occasion, but more often you need to see those initial conversations as the start of an ongoing process of low key communication and follow up.

That means finding different ways to keep the referral issue top of mind with clients, without being a pest. And it means being patient in communicating with prospects with whom you've met on an ongoing basis, just as you would with an important client.

3. Position yourself as a source of insight

More and more advisors are sending emails as a way of keeping clients and prospects informed - the ease of communicating online combined with the vast array of articles we can send makes using email an attractive way to go.

In recent conversations with investors, there are some signs of "article fatigue" - some investors are beginning to feel overwhelmed with the volume of material they're receiving . One solution is to position yourself as more than a source of information who sends relevant articles, but as a source of insight who conveys their meaning. If you're sending an article or report, write a one paragraph summary in the cover note telling clients and prospects why it's important and distilling the key message down to a few sentences.

4. Reduce the risk of meeting

Your main goal when talking to prospects is getting face to face - nothing else really counts. Especially in the early stages, prospects can shy away from meeting, sometimes because they're concerned about it being an unpleasant experience, sometimes because the advisor hasn't sold the benefit of sitting down, sometimes because they're busy and question whether it will be a good use of time.

In these situations, advisors need to look for ways to reduce the risk of meeting. Call a prospect you've talked to in the past on the phone and perhaps met with and tell them you've going to be near the area where they work a week from Thursday - and ask if they have 20 minutes for a coffee to talk about what you're telling your clients right now. Or invite a prospect to a client luncheon workshop in your boardroom, where they'll be one of eight or ten people in the room. Remember, when you're asking a prospect to meet, they weigh the likely value against the commitment and potential risk - so one way to increase the odds is reducing the commitment you're looking for.

5. Provide a catalyst for action

In a post earlier this fall, I wrote that converting a prospect into a client requires trust in your knowledge and trust in your integrity ... but often it also requires a catalyst for action to get the prospect off the fence. That catalyst can be the offer of fresh insights into the opportunities that exist today, a discussion of how you're applying the leading edge investment process used by endowments such as Yale and Harvard or something as tried and true as the offer to provide an alternative point of view on their portfolio. Whatever route you go, look to lead with something that the prospect is likely to see as clear value compared to what they're getting today.

6. Adopt a prospecting mindset

The market events since September have left many advisors shell shocked. To be successful in bringing new clients on board, you need to bring focus and energy to prospecting. That might mean adding a brief mention about being open to new clients to the end of client meetings or carving out two or three hours a week to follow up with prospects you've talked to in the past who weren't ready to move then but might be today.

7. Approach prospective clients with conviction

No matter how many conversations you have with prospective clients, you're unlikely to be successful if you don't come across as confident in the advice you're providing or have a gloomy outlook. Most people want to work with advisors who are positive and on balance optimistic about the future - note that this doesn't mean pretending that there aren't issues and problems but you can't appear to be overwhelmed by them. Given recent markets, some advisors might find that a challenge - just remember that if you don't project a reasonable level of conviction and balanced optimism, you can't expect to impress prospects and bring new clients on board.

The bottom line - it's only by making prospecting a priority that you'll have any success tapping on the opportunity to attract new clients. For more on attracting new clients, refer to the Sept 2 post on "Five essential strategies to win new clients", about building and managing a prospect pipeline and the October 9 post "Turning market woes into prospecting opportunities", focused on conversations to let clients and prospects know you're open for business.