Among the speakers at the recent Top Advisor Summit was Rick Claydon of Stonegate Private Counsel.

In the run up to the Summit, Rick shared a simple idea with me that has allowed him to follow up every meeting with a note within twenty four hours and had a dramatic impact on his productivity as a result.Like most advisors, he's always recognized the value of an immediate follow up note after meetings with existing and prospective clients, as well as the accountants and other professionals who serve them. The challenge is how to get these notes out quickly and consistently.

A couple of years ago he began using a service that has made a huge difference in his practice. For $80 a month, he subscribes to a service called Copy Talk (http://www.copytalk.com/).

After every meeting, he calls in and dictates a quick follow up note. The service offers same day turnaround with unlimited dictations per day; the only constraint is a maximum time of four minutes per dictation (so that occasionally he has to call back and break a longer note into two or three parts.)

The key to making this work is to build the follow up note into your routine - the meeting is not over until you have made the call and dictated the letter. Don't let follow up notes pile up - before leaving the office, take ten minutes to edit and send the notes that have arrived in your inbox that day.

Rick has built his business through referrals from accountants and has shared this idea with some of the accountants he works with as a way to bring value to the relationship. He told me that he is happy to share this idea with any advisor who finds it of value - note that there is a 30 day free trial to test this out. All he asks if someone signs up is to note that they heard about Copy Talk from him - the service relies on referrals to grow and offers a small thank to anyone who refers other customers.