For many advisors, the holidays aren’t just a time to relax – they’re also an opportunity   to reflect on the last year and to think about the year ahead.

And as you give thought to 2011, something you might want to consider is what you can say to more effectively get prospects’ attention.

A couple of years back I chaired a conference at which one of the speakers was a woman who’s built her business around successful entrepreneurs.

When approaching business owners, some advisors talk about taking a wealth      management approach to provide comprehensive financial advice, working with existing professional advisors to provide integrated advice around their finances.

In this woman’s view, this approach is too vague and generic

Getting in the door with business owners

Her experience is that to get busy business owners’ attention, you have to focus on          something that’s specific and that is causing real concern and frustration – and so is a hot button for them.

She suggested saying something like:

 “A common concern for many of the successful business owners I work with is      increasing the interest rate they get on cash balances in their company bank accounts.    

 Are you satisfied with the interest rate you’re getting on your bank balances?”

Almost always the answer is no. Sometimes it leads to a short meeting with the owner,   on other occasions she gets passed off to their VP Finance or Comptroller.

But the fact is that this increases her chances of getting in the door. And even if she        initially meets with the comptroller, she inevitably gets in front of the owner.

Tapping into prospects’ hot buttons

The same principle applies to other prospects.

When approaching prospective clients, some advisors talk about their plan based approach to hitting client objectives or their focus on building conservative portfolios that allow clients to sleep at night.

The problem with these is that they’re fairly generic.

Consider instead two words that given today’s level of investor anxiety will get through   to many prospects.

Those two words – Managing risk

So you might start by saying something like:

  The major focus of the work I do is helping clients manage the risk in their portfolios.

By saying this, your goal is to get prospective clients’ attention

  Do you mind if I ask what you’re doing right now to manage the risk in your investments?

Most prospects will have difficulty answering that question … but asking it does two important things. First it gets prospects talking and second it gets them thinking.

Next you might go on to say:

  Can I tell you a bit about my approach to managing risk in client portfolios?

Once you’ve got a prospect’s permission, you can continue on:

  My approach begins by getting real clarity on each client’s long term objectives.

Once we’ve done that, we construct a diversified portfolio to achieve those objectives     with the least risk as possible – we focus on something called risk adjusted returns,  employing the same methods to optimize risk and return as the most sophisticated             pensions funds.

In fact the academics who devised the principles we use to construct portfolios have       won the Nobel prize for their work in this area.

 Again, your objective is to get a prospect interested enough to want to hear more.

You could go on to say:

  In our process, we identify tradeoffs – in some cases we may have to revisit your             objectives to keep risk to an acceptable level.

 And then finally, we monitor risk in portfolios on an ongoing basis – and where necessary make adjustments as the environment changes.   

Other hot buttons

Remember, to get a prospects attention today, you need to focus on their hot buttons – managing risk isn’t the only one, but it’s a big one.

Other hot buttons include saving taxes and protecting assets.

And sometimes you’ll run into someone with a disabled grandchild or who has a charity they’re attached to, so their big concern is how to take care of that grandchild or that         charity.  

So when you’re planning to talk to a prospect in 2011, beforehand take two minutes to write down the answers to two questions:

First, how can I tailor my approach to this prospect’s hot buttons?

And second, if I don’t know what his or her hot buttons are, how can I find out?

Over time, those two minutes to focus on the issues that motivate each prospect could    just be the most valuable time you’ll spend over the course of your week.