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It goes something like this:

“Hi, Joe. It’s Paul from ABC Advisor. I’m calling for two reasons: firstly, to wish you a happy Thanksgiving before the season starts getting crazy, and with all we’ve had going on, I was wondering, how are you, and Beth, and the children doing?”

It’s just that simple. Save the “how are you doing” until you get to that point. You’re calling for two specific reasons. That way, if he’s in a rush, he can just respond pretty succinctly, pretty abruptly—”We’re doing fine”—knowing that there’s one more thing that you need to mention to him.Then you can simply say,

“It’s that time of year when we review a number of our clients’ holdings. I wanted to let you know everything looks great. We’re happy with the way things are set for end of year. I look forward to connecting with you next year, but just wanted you to go into this Thanksgiving season knowing that everything here is looking great, and wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving and merry Christmas season.”

Use words to that effect to just let them know that you have looked at their stuff and everything is doing fine.

You can also use similar wording if you have reviewed their stuff, and you’re going to come back to them before year-end. You can simply, again, follow the first step: let them know who you are and that you’re calling for two reasons.

“Firstly, before the Christmas season starts getting crazy, I wanted to wish you and Beth a happy Thanksgiving and Christmas season. How are you and the family doing?”

And then, secondly,

“I’ve reviewed your financial circumstances—I’m looking at the details I have in front of me right now—and while there’s no immediate urgency, there are some points I want to come back to you about before year-end so we can take care of them before 2021 closes out. In the meantime, enjoy Thanksgiving, and I’ll be back to you in early December.”

You can see how easily that flows, and you have signaled to them, I’m watching your stuff, there’s something we need to do, and it’s imperative we do it before year-end.

And then, finally, for that person who might defer with something that’s not specifically urgent, just let them know,

“Hey, I’m calling for a couple of reasons: firstly, to wish you a happy Thanksgiving before the season gets crazy, especially with all we’ve had going on. How are you and Beth and the kids doing?”

“Secondly, I’ve reviewed everything I’m seeing in front of me here. There’s nothing immediately to take action on, but I just wanted to give you a heads up: we can either take some steps to take care of some things now, if you like, or I want to come back to you the first week in January with these same ideas, assuming nothing much has changed between now and then.”

And those are three simple ways you can call up a client to let them know that they are on your mind; to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and Christmas season; and let them know, wherever they stand in one of those three scenarios, you’re aware of it and want to take action.

So, to do this most effectively,

1. Don’t overthink it. Don’t overthink what they’re going to think of you. Just use these examples to make a succinct call. Get to the point, and let them know that you are watching their stuff.


2. Write out a list of clients. Make a short list that you want to call for the next four days, or maybe over the next couple of weeks, before the Thanksgiving season really is just around the corner.


3. Make the calls. Just do it. Just make the first call. See how easy it is. See how appreciative they are.

It’s that time of year when, more than likely, they’re going to thank you for your call, thank you for the attention that you’ve paid to them, see how you’re doing, and then finish off this year seeing your being helpful to them and having you top of their minds when the next year starts.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.