By combining LinkedIn AI “cloning,” in-depth center-of-influence relationships, virtual educational events, and second-opinion campaigns, advisors can create an integrated and repeatable path to new business.

Editor’s note: This article is the fourth in a multipart series focused on building a successful, sustainable financial advisory firm. The series explores foundational practice management strategies, client service models, and business development approaches, offering insights designed to give your firm an “adrenaline boost” for growth. Please check out the first three articles in the series: “The future of your firm starts with a clearly defined foundation,” “Turn prospects into believers: Onboarding that converts 85%,” and “From process to pipeline: How current clients can drive new revenue streams.”

In the previous article in this series, we shared several strategies for leveraging your client base to drive revenue growth and new client acquisition. Here, we will walk through several effective growth strategies that do not originate with your current clients. Taken together, the strategies from both articles can form a single integrated growth engine.

What works (every time) is installing intentional, repeatable prospecting systems that match your personality, niche, and capacity, and then executing them relentlessly and consistently.

Here are four strategies we have used successfully and now teach to other advisors through our coaching program.

Using AI to ‘clone’ yourself on LinkedIn

Even with top-notch prospecting systems (such as the LinkedIn mining technique described in our previous article), advisors still face one limitation: time.

This is where AI-enabled prospecting tools can create leverage.

Imagine cloning yourself, having “another you” prospecting all day, every day—reaching out to new prospective clients, nurturing old prospects, and building relationships while you go about your day.

Since 2018, we have evaluated several outbound AI-driven prospecting engines. We currently use CoPilot AI (not Microsoft Copilot) to put that LinkedIn “cloning” process into practice, and it has helped us bring in millions of dollars in new assets under management. Advisors who want to explore CoPilot AI can reach out to me at Libertas Wealth for a discount code.

CoPilot AI gives advisors the ability to do the following:

• Automate personalized connection requests
• Deploy multistep follow-up campaigns
• Run long-term nurture messaging
• Manage replies efficiently in one dashboard

Used correctly, this isn’t spam. It’s automated scaling.

You define your messaging, control the tone and compliance, and decide who enters the funnel.

Five to 10 minutes each morning, at most, is all we’ve ever spent managing hundreds of monthly touchpoints while our AI “clone” continues prospecting for us all day long.

Building a COI process that actually works

Most advisors have centers of influence (COIs), but very few have a system to prospect for, consistently cultivate, and create real connections with COIs that actually generate referrals.

Early in our careers, many of us were taught the same COI playbook: Meet five to 10 attorneys and CPAs, get together with them once per quarter, bring something of value, send clients their way, and hope to get referrals in return.

First, the traditional COI playbook demands too much. If your calendar is already full of meetings with prospects and clients, who has room for quarterly lunches with all of those professionals?

Second, it doesn’t work. Why? Because you seldom build close relationships with any of these professionals. It’s all small talk and surface-level connection. That is not the kind of relationship that generates mutual business growth.

So, what does work? Yep—you guessed it. Another system. Another process.

Strong professional relationships aren’t built over random lunches or casual coffees. They’re built through intentional structure.

At our firm, we begin with a two-part interview designed to gather the following information:

• Who they serve
• How they think
• Where their expertise begins and ends
• Whether their values truly align with ours

Once complete, you’ll know whether the COI is worth including in your network. Then you can decide which professional (attorney, CPA, banker, real estate agent, insurance agent, etc.) earns a spot on your “starting team.” These are your primary sources for advice and the relationships that receive the vast majority of your referrals.

You can still have a second CPA or attorney in your network. At our firm, we refer to these people as our bench. It gives us backup in case something happens with the primary relationship. That bench may also include professionals who specialize in specific areas, such as a CPA who works primarily with business owners and another who focuses on individual tax returns.

The point is to focus on fewer, deeper relationships so you can give—and get—more.

Once the questionnaire is complete, which typically requires two meetings, we take all of our COIs through a mock version of our full onboarding process. It is the same process we discussed in the second article of this series, using the same presentations we use with real clients.

This step typically takes three to four meetings:

• Meeting #1: Mock introduction call and discovery meeting
• Meeting #2: Mock education meeting
• Meeting #3: Mock financial-planning meeting

In our case, we also take them through a fourth mock meeting to explain how we work with business-owner clients who are within three to five years of selling their businesses, including discussions about business transition and exit planning.

Why do we go through this entire process, investing so much time and effort in these relationships?

Because while most COIs think they know what we do as financial advisors, you’d be surprised how many don’t really understand what we do or how we do it. And confidence creates referrals.

When a CPA or attorney deeply understands how you serve clients and experiences it firsthand, referrals happen naturally.

You’re no longer just a name. Now you’re part of their starting lineup—the go-to advisor in their network for financial planning and investment management advice.

Virtual events and webinars

Educational events remain one of the most powerful trust-building tools available to advisors. Since COVID, more people prefer participating in virtual events from the comfort of their home or watching recorded replays on their own time.

While I wouldn’t completely abandon in-person events, virtual events offer several advantages:

• Lower cost
• Broader reach
• Permanent replay value
• Endless repurposing opportunities

They also elevate your firm’s credibility. But the key is positioning. These are not sales presentations. The goal is to educate and provide as much in-depth information as possible, which builds trust more effectively than any sales presentation could.

Topics should be timely, relevant, and client-centric. Here are a few examples:

• Proactive stock market updates during times of uncertainty
• Explanations of the latest government legislation in plain English
• Tips for managing sudden wealth from an inheritance, the sale of a business or property, stock grants, or even a record-breaking lottery jackpot

Webinars on longer-lasting evergreen topics like the following can also live online and serve as ongoing prospecting tools:

• Retirement-income planning
• Tax planning for current or prospective retirees
• Estate-planning strategies
• College funding, Social Security, and long-term-care strategies
• Other topics that are integral to your specific advisory practice

When planned and implemented well, webinars create authority at scale and feed every other prospecting system simultaneously.

The second-opinion campaign

Sometimes growth doesn’t require creative systems or complex innovation. You just need permission to help someone in need.

Offering someone a second opinion on their retirement plan is simple but powerful for several reasons:

• It feels nonthreatening.
• It is informative, not sales-focused.
• It is polite.
• It is genuinely helpful.

Whether delivered through email campaigns, direct mail, educational content, or a conversation in line at the grocery store, the message is simple: “Would you object to getting a second set of eyes on your retirement plan?” 

The question is purposely phrased as “would you object” because people generally respond with “no” if they feel uncomfortable.

In this case, however, because the ask is so passive, people rarely say “yes” unless they’re completely happy with their financial advisor or have another understandable reason for not being ready … yet.

Speaking of “yet,” here’s an important mindset to adopt: Every prospective client is either a “no,” “yes,” or “not yet.”

Always keep this in mind. If the answer is not “yes,” then it’s likely “not yet,” and you can follow up with a question such as, “When would be a better time to touch base? And please don’t feel pressured. We’re all busy.”

Naturally, don’t forget to put a note in your CRM or calendar to follow up.

And while no one likes rejection, I’d recommend changing your mindset so you can graciously accept a clear “no.” When someone says “no,” you can stop spending time on that prospect (and they’re likely just as happy that you’ve moved on).

For those who are interested or not ready yet, the offer may come as a relief. So many people don’t know how to find good, authentic financial advice. Sometimes, all it takes is someone opening the door to an enjoyable and productive process.

While each of these strategies can be highly effective, none of them is enough on its own to fuel powerful growth. The real power comes from layering them into a consistent, repeatable approach.

Prospecting is not about discovering one perfect tactic. It is about building a multilayered system that can be followed, measured, and improved over time.

When advisors create repeatable processes, use automation where it makes sense, and commit to consistent execution, growth becomes less random and more manageable, predictable, sustainable, and even enjoyable.

If you are the best financial advisor in your market and provide thoughtful, ethical, high-quality advice, becoming skilled at marketing and prospecting is not just an advantage; it is essential. I view it as part of your obligation to the yet-to-be-discovered prospects who could benefit from your guidance.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and the sources cited and do not necessarily represent the views of Proactive Advisor Magazine. This material is presented for educational purposes only.