This morning, people who are tuned into the financial markets (the economy is making most people tune in) are waking up to hear several pieces of BIG news:

On the good side, hurricane Ike didn’t pummel the oil rigs as bad as feared so the price spike in oil seems to have abated. On the negative side, 3 mega financial companies have put the fear of god into investors as Lehman will be filing Chapter 11, Bank of America is buying Merril Lynch, and AIG sought $40 billion from the government to stay liquid.

It’s chaos. War, a mortgage crisis, oil up and down (mostly up), mounting national debt, the cost of healthcare and college rising with no end. And in the middle of a presidential election when people are forced to think about these things, fear and anxiety can cause major paralysis in your customers and potential customers.

So what are you to do? Offer comfort. Offer hope. I was deep in the muck when the stock market crashed in 1987 and again in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. These were a times of sheer chaos and fear. Many, many financial advisers ran and hid under their desks rather than calling their customers to provide perspective and a calming voice. Not surprisingly, they lost many, many clients. A few truly customer focused financial advisers picked up the phone. Even though they were also scared, they spoke to their customers.

The ones that stood by their customers were the big winners. Today, your customers are fearful. Take the opportunity to talk to your customers. Send out letters with your vision and an optimistic voice to potential customers. In chaos, change occurs.

Posted by: Steve Banis