I went back as far as a year in the prospecting posts, and thought I would more or less summarize all the good suggestions to see if anyone had anymore to add:

1. Build a prospecting list.  Use SRDS, Title Insurance Co.  Use Census tract Income info to identify A list streets in  and C neighborhoods (I thought that was a particularly good suggestion).  Paid lead lists that were well spoken of: FMIN, Response Card Marketing, Postmarkdms, Responsemail.com.  Get lists from the mutual fund companies your firm sells.

2.  Networking.  Get out there.  Join clubs and do activities that are interesting for you, ie. the kennel club if you are a dog owner, a horse riding club if you like hourse and would like to learn.  Other suggestions: get involved with charitable organizations, alumni clubs, civic organizations in your area.  Make contacts with people that can give you good referrals:  CPA's, lawyers, real estate brokers, local bankers.

3.  Marketing.  Seminars.  Focus the mailings to a niche market and pick a topic suitable for them. Specialize with a certain group, ie people between 60 and 80.  Make it affordable, but not cheap.  It might take thousands of invitations to get 20 people, so send lots of invites.

4.  Marketing.  Systems.  Only Brolyes and Bill good seemed to have more genuine posts for them than against them.  Can be expensive and difficult to implement.

5.  Advertising.  Seems to have little success.  Most people who write coulmns, advertise in local papers and on local radio seem to have had no resulting leads.

6.  Cold walking.  Seems to work for the EJ guys.  I Just interviewed with the SSB branch manager in my area and he said some of his new guys have had some good success cold walking businesses, but they have shied away from residential.

7.  Activities.  The more active you are in prospecting, the more success you will have.  Set up a system to track your activities, ie a points system, x points for every outgoing call, y points for every callback, z points for every client contact, a points for every meeting or b points for every hour of meetings.  Set a goal to uncover x$$ of assets every week.  (Having come form a sales background, I can testify to how important it is to be a "high activity individual" as all my bosses have pushed me to be).

8.  Always ask for the business.  Always ask for referrals.

If I missed anything or there are some things here that have not worked for you, let's hear it.  Also if there is anything that can be refined, like exactly how to go about building a network of CPA's and lawyers, I know that would give me some insight as well.