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Picture the scene: an eerie quiet, gloom lies heavy in the air, somewhere in the distance a door creaks open, then bangs shut, although there is no sound of footsteps.

Unfortunately, this is not the beginning of my Halloween themed short-story competition entry, but the reality of many advisers' offices around the country at the moment.

The credit crunch and general press-induced panic about the state of the financial services industry at the moment means most of our bread and butter clients are too worried about being able to afford their weekly shopping and petrol to give much thought to their long-term financial needs.

There is no denying these are tough times for most advisers, consumers are rarely approaching us for updates, let alone for further purchases and therefore, to make sure that your business weathers this storm, you need to get back to basics.

For many advisers there must be a temptation to go into a client prospecting frenzy, desperately trying to pick up new customers from wherever they can. While this is completely understandable, you must also acknowledge that this approach leaves you open to the possibility of neglecting your existing client bank, running the risk of leaving them feeling vulnerable and abandoned at this difficult time, and perhaps losing them altogether. Most importantly, your existing clients continue to have financial needs - despite the current economic climate and this, more than ever, is the time at which they need you to guide them.

If you think about it from the point of view of a simple application of the law of averages the more clients you see, the more business you will do. Start off by establishing a realistic and attainable strategy for how many client meetings you can book.

Say you settle on two a day, that is 10 a week and 40 a month, certainly enough to guarantee that you will not be sitting around twiddling your thumbs until the industry gets back to some form of normality. Obviously, the real art of the strategy needs to be in how you actually get in front of the clients, and there are a number of methods that you can employ in order to do this.

There is a protection shortfall in the UK at the moment and this is one area that can still be capitalised upon. Sadly, there are very few industries that remain untouched by the current financial circumstances of the country and therefore more consumers are recognising the very real importance of redundancy cover.

Similarly, there is more necessity for clients to heighten their awareness of what the ramifications may be if they fail to protect their families with adequate critical illness or disability cover for the major breadwinner. Lord knows, there is enough scaremongering going on already at the moment, but some of your clients may need you to run through what the potential issues and risks of not having ample cover in these areas may be to them and their family in the long-term.

Likewise, if your clients have been too busy paying attention to their day-to-day finances to attend to their holistic affairs in their entirety, they may need guidance from you to point out that, for example, some of their pension funds are expensively charged but badly performing at the moment.

Another point to bear in mind when you approach your clients is that their circumstances will have undoubtedly evolved with the passing of time. Young couples or singletons for whom you helped to secure a first mortgage might now be parents, or planning a move to a larger property.

Older clients may now be welcoming grandchildren, or beginning to plan towards retirement. Your client bank is made up of hundreds (or thousands) of people with constantly changing financial needs as your clients mature they will have ever shifting priorities in their lives. If your strategy means that you are in constant contact with your clients, for annual updates or just reminders about areas which require attention, you will be the person they think of first to help them manage their financial affairs.

These may be more difficult times to offer financial advice than we are used to but, with effective forward planning and client management, you could end up not only keeping the ghouls from your door, but even conducting more business than in previous years.

Steve Braidford is recruitment and development director of SimplyBiz