There are many ways to strike up a good conversation with a previous client (a worthwhile data base call.)

One very easy subject to discuss and break the ice with is that person's birthday. Calling on or around their birthdays will get you a warm response every time. Every time!

If you don't have access to their birthdays or if you know they were born in October but you cant to call them in April, there is one very important thing to keep in mind when you make these calls.

You are a tremendous resource!

Consider the words of Mathon the gold lender in the book "The Richest Man in Babylon;" "Many men come to me for gold to pay for their follies, but as for advice, they want it not. Yet who is more able to advice than the lender of gold to whom many men come into trouble?"

The truth is you have valuable information that almost everyone is interested in. Mortgage rates, home appreciation rates, credit, market trends, legislative changes etc. The list goes on and on.

So call your past clients with a plan. Sometimes the call will go so well you won't need your plan of what to talk about. Calling your past customers is one of those disciplines that is slightly awkward at first, but the more you do it, the more enjoyable and profitable it becomes!