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This is a tough business. You must find your own clients. Youmight envy those private bankers who are sent prospects from theircommercial bank branches, because you've got to fill your ownpipeline. But bear in mind that you have a skill possessed by veryfew other people: You can look someone in the eyes and ask them formoney. That scares most people.  But you still need toprospect.

6 reasons strategies are successful

You've seen it all before: You try something, it works. Theagent at the next desk tries the same thing, and it doesn't work.You ask experienced producers the secret of the universe. Theyreply: "Everything works and nothing works." Here are six reasonssome strategies succeed over others:

1. Perseverance.  "A Californiaadvisor told me: "You can chop down a tree with ahammer."  Perseverance works. Many newer advisors trysomething until it's almost ready to produce results, then abandonit because it's not working.  They put a series of failedstrategies in place when sticking to one and making smalladjustments would have delivered success.

2. Proactive.  You must drivenear-term results.  "I've asked clients for referrals. I'mwaiting for them to come in."  That's not a proactivestrategy. As an example, walking through an industrial park,knocking on doors and asking to speak with the business owner –that's proactive.  Why? Because if you want to ramp it up,you knock on more doors.

3. Attracts your target audience.  Fewpeople still say: "I'll take anyone." You have an ideal clientprofile. Assume you are looking for prospects in the wealthiest 10%of your community.  Now assume you held a seminar andinvited the general public. If 10 people attended and they were across section of the community, only one person qualified as yourideal client.  What do you do with the other nine? Whatdid it cost to get them through the door? It's better to find agroup made of your target prospects, then get on their agenda.

4. Delivers the message.  Educationalseminars are important. They can attract an audience. But sometimesthe message gets lost. What's the message? "Do business. Dobusiness with me. Do business with me now."  You need tolook at your strategy or presentation and ask: "Is that messageobvious?"

5. Cost-efficient.  Money is tight.You might get a cosponsor to help with expenses, but they want tosee you have money on the table.  If every prospect whoattends an event costs $100 in expenses and one in 10prospects becomes a client, that new client costs $1,000 inspending.  How much revenue did they bring in? You need astrategy that can be effective without bankrupting you.

6. Measurable.  Your office likelydoes lots of measuring.  How many prospects in yourpipeline? How many appointments did you have this week? You need to have some way of knowing if your strategy is working.Put another way, if you are implementing four prospectingstrategies, you want to know, strategy by strategy, which ones areproducing results.

Think and act strategically

There are people who don't take their job seriously. They "wing it." But you are different – you employstrategies for prospecting and find those that work for you.

Bryce Sanders ispresident of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. He provides HNWclient acquisition training for the financial services industry.His book, "Captivating the Wealthy Investor" can be foundon Amazon.

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