In today's gloomy economic climate, if you're convinced the best way to prove your worth at work is permanently parking yourself at your desk, it's time for some fresh thinking.

"There's a generation of brokers who don't see their clients on a regular basis, who only deal with them on the phone or by email," says David D'Alessandro, the former chief executive officer of John Hancock Financial Services and author of Executive Warfare. "This is an excellent time to pay them a visit—at their office, at their home, whatever it is going to take to make them feel confident that you care about them."

D'Alessandro is not alone in his thinking. With financial sector layoffs becoming a more common occurrence, smart financial advisors are taking decisive action to secure their positions and preserve their livelihoods, says Barbara Herman, senior consultant with Diamond Consultants Executive Recruiters, a Chester, N.J., financial executive search firm. While advisors at the big houses are generally secure if their books of business don't waver, maintaining that status quo is becoming a tougher balancing act, she says.

In fact, those who are bringing in the lowest numbers—the fourth and fifth quintiles, especially—are at the biggest risk, says Nicholas Ferber of Sanford Barrows Group, LLC, a Hollywood, Fla., financial recruitment firm. Those who have a transactional mix of business as opposed to a more fee-based business are also at greater risk, as are those who are getting customer complaints, Ferber adds.

That's why brokers need to focus on building stronger relationships with clients instead of getting anxious over their next sale, D'Alessandro says. Recent drops in the markets have made clients nervous and they need to feel as though their advisors are concerned, as well. "They don't blame the market," D'Alessandro says.

"They blame who represents the market or the fund because they have no one else [to blame]. That's the only human face they get to encounter, so it has to be a face that takes their concerns seriously."

In this market downturn, advisors need to get back in touch with their customers and start having conversations about the issues that are important to them, whether that includes account rebalancing or other strategies to address market conditions and the individual's own circumstances, such as job loss or steep reduction in retirement or college savings, Herman says. Advisors need to ask clients questions about their own careers and financial goals. They need to find out if there are concerns that their clients have and are not immediately sharing with them out of fear. Eliminating any distance or discomfort in the relationship is critical to keeping clients feeling confident in an advisor's ability and perceived commitment to them, she says.

That can be tough, Herman says, because, in this market, financial advisors' own portfolios are often being affected, as losses hit the large financial institutions so significantly. So advisors need to find ways to calmly speak with their clients about strategy, as well as convey how they are being affected.

Make It Personal

In addition to jittery clients, spending cuts can make it tougher than ever to keep those lines of communication open. Support staff who do not directly produce revenue are often the first on the chopping block, resulting in fewer hands to provide the all-important services like regular communication, prompt follow-up and other attention to detail, says Herman. She thinks those tasks are getting short shrift on the part of the firm, but they're often a fact of life in these tumultuous times, she says.

Cash may be tight, but this isn't the time to be cheap, says D'Alessandro. "Even if you have to go out-of-pocket to get extra service help, do it. The cost of getting service help versus losing 10 good clients is chump change," he says. That may mean hiring a part-time or virtual assistant or someone to help you develop regular email and printed updates to your client base, as well as answer phones and schedule face-to-face meetings. He also tells advisors to give their cell phone numbers to their best customers and take their calls—even when it's inconvenient. "When you go to your top customers and say, 'Here's a special cell phone number, and only 10 people have it. Call me 24/7 if you have a problem and I'll get you an answer as soon as I can,' that makes your customers feel special, like you really care about their worries," D'Alessandro says.