Ways Financial Advisors Can Follow Up With Potential Clients

Lead generation can play a major role in your long-term success as an advisor, but getting a prospect into your sales funnel is just one part of the picture. Once you make first contact, it’s time to begin nurturing that relationship so you can convert prospects into clients. Knowing how to follow up with a potential client can help you generate more sales as an advisor.

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How Your Follow-Up Strategy Shapes Prospect Conversion

A prospective client may be actively looking for an advisor to work with, but you might be just one of many advisors they’re considering. Just as the early bird gets the worm, the advisor who’s proactive about following up may be the one to land the client.

Why? Because you’re in their inbox and competing advisors are not. Each follow-up communication you send is an opportunity to start or continue a conversation with a prospect about their needs. You can build trust while demonstrating your knowledge and authority, answer prospects’ questions and respond to objections, underscore your unique value proposition and determine if you and the client are a good fit for one another.

You also have a chance to gauge the prospect’s interest in working with an advisor. Some leads may prove warmer than others and routine follow-ups can help you test the temperature. If a prospect seems cool on what you have to say, you can adjust the frequency with which you follow up so they don’t feel bombarded by an unwelcome sales pitch.

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How to Follow Up With a Potential Client

Developing a system or strategy for following up can help you avoid missed opportunities to convert prospects to clients. As you build your system, consider incorporating some of these best practices for following up effectively without annoying prospective clients.

1. Ask Prospects What They Want

One of the simplest ways to encourage prospects to be more receptive to your follow-up efforts is to ask when and how they’d prefer to communicate.

Say, for example, you’re using a lead magnet to encourage prospects to join your email list. Joining triggers an automatic email welcome message that briefly introduces who you are and what you do. At the end of the email, you could include something like this:  

I’d love to talk to you in more detail about your financial needs. When is a good time to connect and how do you prefer to get in touch?

You’re expressing interest and giving them some control over the communication between you.

The same closing message works with cold-calling if that’s your preferred lead-generation strategy. The goal is to let the client know you’re ready to chat when it’s convenient for them.

If a client isn’t specific about what they expect, it’s up to you to take the lead. For example, you can let them know that you’ll follow up within a certain number of days or on a specific date, and what communication method you’ll use. That puts them on alert and helps to build trust when your follow-up message arrives on time.

2. Don’t Delay

Timing matters when it comes to when you make your first follow-up effort and how often you follow up thereafter.

Leaving a prospective client hanging after they’ve filled out a contact form on your website or left a voicemail asking you to return their call is not the first impression you want to make. At the same time, you don’t want to appear too eager, as that could suggest to a prospect that you’re desperate for leads.

Following up with a call or email within 24 to 48 hours of initial contact can set the right tone. After your first meeting, you may follow up with the prospect later that day to thank them for their time and express your desire to keep the conversation going.

3. Use Multiple Contact Methods

Advisor marketing is about leveraging different resources to your advantage. Limiting yourself to a single follow-up method could hinder your progress with a client if the message goes unnoticed.

Some of the channels you might use to follow up include:

• Phone calls
• Texts
• Emails
• LinkedIn or other social media platforms
• Direct mail

SmartAsset Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP) can help advisors follow up with prospective clients using built-in outreach tools. AMP includes automated nurture campaigns that can incorporate email, text and call reminders, helping advisors stay organized and responsive without manually adding each prospect to a sequence. Schedule a free demo to learn more about how SmartAsset AMP can support your prospecting and follow-up process.

4. Automate

Automated workflows can increase efficiency and save time when following up with potential clients via email. You can draft follow-up messages ahead of time and schedule them to be sent at specific dates and times.

These emails don’t need to be lengthy; that’s what your regular financial advisor newsletter is for.

You can keep it short and sweet, maybe using something like this:

I noticed you joined our list to access our free e-book on retirement planning. Are there any questions I could answer for you? If there’s something you’d like to discuss, reply to this email or give me a call at [your number].

This is a no-pressure way to put yourself at the top of the prospect’s mind. It also includes a clear call to action, prompting them to reach out.

5. Provide Value

Prospects don’t want to be bombarded with pushy sales calls or emails that have absolutely zero value. One of the most effective ways to follow up with a potential client is to provide something useful in every communication.

For example, you might answer a question, share an interesting financial resource you found, offer to break down what the latest market trends might mean for their portfolio or overcome an objection. Choosing an approach may hinge on how well you know your ideal clients and what they’re looking for in an advisor.

When sharing any information, remember the golden rule: be helpful. You may have to spend some time showing a prospective client what they can expect from working with you before they’re ready to commit.

6. Personalize Your Follow-Ups

Prospective clients may be turned off by a generic or cookie-cutter approach to follow-up communications. While you may use email templates to draft your messages, they should be considered the foundation you build your message on rather than the final draft.

As you follow up with clients, consider how you can tailor the message to their needs, interests, fears or who they are personally. For example, if you’ve had at least one meeting with a prospect in which they discussed a specific concern, such as rumored Social Security cuts or the rising cost of long-term care, you could mention that in your message and share a helpful news article, calculator or similar resource.

This type of message shows that you’re listening and paying attention, and that you truly understand the prospect’s pain points. You can also reference other memorable points from your conversation, such as hobbies, work or their family, to illustrate your attentiveness and interest in who they are as people.

7. Track Follow-Ups and Prospect Responses

Keeping track of each follow-up communication can help you avoid contacting a prospect too often (or too little). Your customer relationship management (CRM) platform may include tools that can help you track each message sent and each response received so you can see at a glance where a prospect is in your pipeline at any given time.

This can be helpful in implementing the next tip, which is developing an exit strategy if a lead seems to be going nowhere. The follow-up data you collect in your CRM can help you assess the viability of each lead, which ones are in need of further attention and which ones you may need to place on the back burner.

8. Have an Exit Plan

Some prospects will never become clients, and it’s important to recognize when it’s time to put your follow-up plan on hold. Setting some metrics can help you evaluate when a client simply isn’t interested.

For example, you might stop following up if a client:

• Hasn’t returned any of your phone calls since your first contact
• Does not respond to email queries or doesn’t open the emails you send (this is a metric you can track through your email marketing provider)
• Initially expresses interest in working with you but then goes silent

One commonly used sales tactic to get a response from leads who have gone cold is to send an email telling them they’ll be removed from your email list if they don’t respond. They’re often worded something like this:

Subject line: Is this goodbye?

I’ve noticed that you haven’t been opening my email newsletters. If you don’t find my messages valuable, I can unsubscribe you from my list, no hard feelings.

If you’d like to continue receiving updates on market trends, firm happenings and the latest financial news, hit reply to this message and let me know. And if you’re not an email person, I’m always ready to chat about what I can do to help you reach your financial goals.

Give me a call at [your number].

This message makes it clear to the prospect that you won’t be following up further and it gives them a clear CTA on what to do if they want to stay in touch.

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Don’t Limit Follow-Ups to Prospects

Following up isn’t just for prospective clients. It’s also something you should be doing with your existing clients.

Regular communication, even if it’s a simple check-in message, lets clients know that you haven’t forgotten about them. It’s also an opportunity to chat about any changes the client has experienced since your last meeting, share information about new products or services your firm is offering and confirm your next scheduled meeting (or invite them to schedule one if there’s nothing on the books).

Clients may be particularly interested in hearing from you during periods of increased market volatility. An April 2025 Wealth Intelligence Report from J.D. Power found that only 56% of investors reported their advisor using “high-touch” communication methods, such as phone calls and in-person meetings, to discuss market turmoil spurred by tariff policies. Fifty-seven percent said their advisor used “low-touch” methods, such as text messages, emails and direct mail.

That suggests that nearly half of clients aren’t hearing from their advisors in times when they may need reassurance the most. Among the investors polled by J.D. Power, 52% said they felt well-guided during the volatility; 31% said they were getting some, but not enough, support while 7% were frustrated by the effort their advisors were making to stay in touch. ¹

The takeaway? Effective and regular communication supports client retention and loyalty, and it provides reassurance to your clients that you truly care about their outcomes. Staying connected with routine follow-ups and more frequent follow-up interactions during periods of market uncertainty could lead to more referrals and sales if you consistently exceed client expectations.

Bottom Line

Knowing how to follow up with a potential client can take time and practice to get the formula down. These tips can help you approach follow-ups more strategically so you’re not wasting your time or a prospective client’s.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

• Building a digital footprint matters, as prospects turn to online searches to find financial advice. You might have a professional website, social media accounts and an email list that you use to attract clients, but those aren’t the only tools at your disposal. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
• Compliance is an important aspect of client communication. Regulatory rules require advisors to maintain accurate records of client communications and use appropriate language in marketing messages. Reviewing marketing and communication compliance guidelines for advisors can ensure that you’re not inadvertently breaking any rules.

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