Advisors in their early and mid-career stages always need to be prospecting. You might have a loyal clientele, but everyone loses clients through attrition. People die, they move, or they find an advisor they like better. You need new business to grow and to at least keep your business as good as or better than last year. So, where should your new business come from?

One obvious answer is through attracting new clients. Cold calling people you don’t know is one method, but that is just one form of prospecting. There are plenty of others, such as leveraging your relationships with current clients for new business.

Insurance advisors logically think of insurance as their primary product line. That’s what you open new accounts with, right? Years ago, different types of financial professionals each had their own product line, and no one went beyond their own backyard. Insurance advisors sold insurance, stockbrokers sold stocks, and bankers took deposits and made loans. Today, most financial professionals can do anything and everything. This means you can bring on a new client with one product, something they need. Then you can expand the relationship to include other products they need. Getting a client to do business across product lines is called “increasing wallet share.”

Insurance advisors have a big advantage compared to traditional financial advisors working at banks or brokerage firms, and it rarely gets talked about. While traditional financial advisors generally seek out people who already have a pool of money — the starting level might be $250,000 in many cases — insurance professionals can work with people who have yet to accumulate substantial financial assets — like a newly-minted medical doctor who has no savings, lots of college loans and is just starting to earn a great salary. Put another way, you can help people who have managed to save $250,000 or more, and you can also help people who haven’t accumulated assets but now have abundant cash flow and disposable income.

How can you find these people?

1. Selling up and selling down.

You have some great clients. They like you. You are doing all the business you possibly can with them. They have parents. They have children. They have an extended family of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Your client might think of the husband, wife and child as their family unit, but there are plenty of people in the extended family who you could help.

2. Enter social media.

Years ago, it was forbidden for agents and advisors to use social media. Now firms say everyone should have a social media presence, learn the rules and post regularly. OK, you are already doing that. Here’s how you find new business. When people comment on your posts, engage with them. Invite them to be connections. Meanwhile, you should be commenting on other people’s posts. The objective is to get a dialogue going.

3. Let your current clients know you are adding new clients.

There are many reasons your current clients are not sending people to you. One is they assume you have all the clients you need. You live well, so you obviously are successful with your current base. Your friends are not sending prospects because you always seem so busy with work. They think asking you to help a friend would be an imposition, so they don’t suggest you to their friends. Say things like: “It would be great if I could add more nice clients, people like you.” Share anonymous stories about how you helped someone either solve a problem or avoid making a big mistake.

4. Meet your client at their office for portfolio reviews.

Years ago, doctors made house calls. There is prestige when your financial advisor or insurance advisor comes to you instead of you going to their office. If you visit your client at their office, they will brag about it. They will introduce you to the people who sit around them. You can ask your client to tell you more about them later.

5. Look for people with a problem.

Financial professionals are often told to seek “money in motion.” They are looking for someone who inherited a lot of money or got a big signing bonus at work. There aren’t many prospects like that around. Instead, find your clients by looking for people with a problem they need solved. Ask them, “Who do you know who uses professional money management and is dissatisfied with the relationship? I would be interested in talking with them.”

6. Who are the clients you lost?

You know the story. A client calls and says, “I’m leaving.” Another advisor promised them the world. How did that work out? Think about it: If you couldn’t deliver the world, how could this other advisor? They can’t. So, call the client you lost six months ago and ask if everything worked out as they hoped. Let them know they were an important client. You wanted to confirm they are all right. They might regret leaving, but pride stopped them from calling you. Now you are meeting them halfway.

7. Who are your best clients?

How did you originally get them? This isn’t my idea, but I think it is great. A successful coach would say: List your best clients. Now write down how you got each one. You’ll probably discover that there is often a common strategy among several of the names. The coach then asks: “When was the last time you used that strategy?” The answer often is “I haven’t done that for years.” There is a message there somewhere.

8. Do all your friends know what you do for a living?

You might say “Of course.” Do you know what they do? You again say, “Of course,” but you would be wrong. You knew what they did 10 years ago when they started with that company, but they might have climbed the corporate ladder or transferred into a different division and role since then. Try this exercise, which I learned in the field. Sit down with a friend when time is on your side. Maybe you have coffee or drinks. Mention the name of their firm and the job title you remember. “I’m curious, what do you actually do?” They might laugh and say that their job has changed considerably since then. After they explain what they do, they will likely return the favor or perhaps not. But you can say, “You know I work at (firm). When you tell your friends about me, what do you say that I do?” They will probably be caught off guard and say that you sell insurance. “That’s part of my job,” you can respond. “Now I also do (this) and (that).”

Your current clients along with your network of friends and acquaintances can be fertile ground for prospecting and finding new clients.

Bryce Sanders is president of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. He provides HNW client acquisition training for the financial services profession. His book, “Captivating the Wealthy Investor,” is available on Amazon. Contact him at brycesanders@msn.com.