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If you are like most advisors or planners you probably don't like to cold call or spend hours prospecting. What if there were ways to get people to contact you, instead of you constantly prospecting for new clients?
Many of you are probably saying I get my new prospects from referrals. To that I say fantastic! Referrals are a very cost-effective and profitable way to increase the size of your book or portfolio.
But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that only 10-20% of you have a specific strategy to encourage your clients, centre of influence and friends to give you a steady flow of referrals. And in my opinion you can achieve a much higher level of success if you implement multiple lead generation strategies.
So how do you get your prospects to come looking for you? Try these 3 strategies and you'll be off to a good start.
1. Writing
Writing and being published is a powerful way to get people to seek you out. Have you ever thought of writing articles or columns for free and finding places to get them published? There are many organizations with newsletters that they send out to their members that you might be able to write for.
Many web sites will gladly publish your articles for free; for example ArticleCity.com, ArticleHut.com and Ezinearticles.com. I published an article on Ezinearticles.com a few months ago and received inquiries from as far away as New York, (click here to see my article)
If you can't find places to publish your articles, you can create your own monthly newsletter printed or email version. I know many of you have those canned newsletter that you get from your head office or broker. Most of those newsletters are kind of dry. I recommend a newsletter with content that is targeted to your client and customer profile.
You can also get really ambitious and write a book. Yes a daunting task, but possible.
2. Public Speaking
The great fear of many people is a very effective way to attract high quality leads. Make a list of clubs, associations, and community groups and offer to speak for free at their meetings. These kinds of groups are always looking for guest speakers.
There may also be opportunities to speak and get paid for it. Recently I offered to do a free one hour presentation at a business school. The executive director asked me to expand the course to three hours and offered to pay me. I jumped all over that opportunity have a captive audience for three hours.
3. Publicity
Getting your name printed in the newspaper or being interviewed on TV or radio to give your opinion or comment on an issue is a coup if you can pull it off. You can actually implement a specific publicity campaign to get the media to seek you out.
A few months ago I sent one of my articles to the Free Press. The next day a reporter called me to get my comments on a story he was working on. The reporter quoted my comments and my name in his article. This kind of publicity can build your credibility in the eyes of your prospects.
The objective behind these three strategies is to position yourself as an expert in your field. When you position yourself as an expert, prospects will start to seek you out to offer you their business. They will stop seeing you as just another planner or advisor and more as a trusted professional. When people seek you out they instantly become warm leads because they have identified themselves as being interested in your products or services. You'll spend less time cold calling and chasing new leads.
What advisor wouldn't like that? | 
How To Get Prospects To Seek You Out, Instead Of You 
Just For Laughs
