A desire to increase communication with clients and prospects outweighs concerns about timely, concise, or understandable communications, the SEI poll found.

“Frequent and meaningful communication, delivered in a variety of ways, is the best method to build lasting trust between advisers and clients, which ultimately leads to stronger relationships,” said John Anderson, Head of Practice Management for the SEI Advisor Network.

“Meaningful” communication is critical; the poll found nearly half of advisers (42%) have discussed referrals with fewer than one-quarter of their clients.

The poll found that prospecting techniques are clearly changing. SEI reported that none of the advisers surveyed said they cold-call or “pound the phones” for new clients. However, one in five advisers said they have introduced themselves to at least one prospect in 2011 via one of the major social networks: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  SEI said the adoption rate of social media is slow due to some broker/dealers prohibiting use of the sites, but that might not be the case much longer (see “Making Social Media Work”).