By Corrie Driebusch, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 6, 2014

When Amy Parvaneh was just starting her career as a wealth manager, she dropped $15,000 on a trip to Monaco to prospect for high-net-worth clients at an elite investment conference.

She came home without a single new lead. “It was a waste of my time and money,” she recalls.

But from that experience and others like it, she did take away some lessons. For instance, she learned not to spend too much time with any one prospect–in fact, 10 minutes is plenty for an initial contact and to make a lunch date for later. She also learned that financial advisers think alike and arrive in droves at big-ticket conferences such as the one she attended, crowding out each other and scaring off wealthy prospects.