Henry has developed an effective marketing plan. His next step is to devise a system for managing the prospects that will come his way as a result of that marketing — a pipeline of prospects who are not yet clients.

Throughout our discussions, Henry has discovered that knowing how to manage the people in his pipeline will ensure those that those who resemble his ideal client will get the right amount of attention.

Henry also has learned that:

> most advisors have too few people in their pipeline for too short a time;

> the most successful practices have 200 to 300 prospects in their pipelines for up to two years;

> strong practices have a method that progressively deepens and strengthens relations over an extended period of time;

> keeping track through a client relationship management system is essential to sales pipeline management.