Best Way to Prospect at Wires
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I am a true newb at MSSB, I do have my my 7 and 66 from a position I was at in a bank. I have maybe $2MM worth of client accounts but that ain't much.
I was planning to build my book purely off pounding phones all day and try to pitch tax free munis and also do a seminar something like once a quarter.
What are some best practices for starting out fresh at a wire? My take is to do 100 calls a day and hope to get 3 or 4 appointments out of that.
100 calls? What are you going to do with the other 10 hours of your day?
Seriously, I would say 250 at minimum. You will have disconnects, wrong numbers, no answers, and feisty gatekeepers. I came back from Warren thinking 150 dials would do it. I WAS WRONG! After treading water for four months I now make 275 to 350 calls a day.
As far as seminars they can be beneficial. However, they are a pain to set up. You have to get them approved through compliance before you can even begin to advertise them.
The best advice I can give is to talk to the vets in the office and follow their guidance. It doesn’t matter what you pitch. It matters what you believe in. Your passion has to come through on the phone. If you pitch tax free munis you better know them and believe in them. You also have to make sure you have the right target market for munis.
Newguy - what kind of results are you getting with 275-300 dials a day. How many times do you get your pitch off, how many qualified prospects a day?
What are you pitching?
Thanks, I’ll keep all that in mind. I have no problem pounding phones, I’ve been in telemarketing boiler rooms before and none of that bothers me.
How many appointments do you get from your 275 - 300 dials? What type of production did you do your first year? How long since you went to Warren? I am still pre-Warren right now, I head up in mid-November.364 dials = 15 warm leads = 1 client after 9 contacts. I think that = $8 per dial.
[quote=Sportsfreakbob]
Newguy - what kind of results are you getting with 275-300 dials a day. How many times do you get your pitch off, how many qualified prospects a day?
What are you pitching?
[/quote]I average 9 qualified prospects per week. I am just beginning to make some real headway. My first three months my production was nearly nothing. The last three months I have made some jumps. I am six months out of Warren, building my book from scratch in a town where I knew zero people as I moved for a family situation.
Everyone said this would be a tough industry, but I still thought people would throw money at me. That is not the case. The training program is solid, but no training program can prepare you for the day the bullets start flying! You have to keep smilin'and dialin'!
You will need to do more than 100 dials per day, but more importantly, you will need to call every day. Don’t skip days because something comes up and you think you can make up the calls later in the week. You have to be consistent – make sure not one day goes by that you don’t pick up the phone and make some calls.
Cold calling is tough and it never gets any easier, but it works. I read somewhere on this forum that you never get better at cold calling, you just learn to suck less. I think that’s pretty spot on. My best clients are all the result of cold calls. It works. It works. It works. Don’t waste time with mailers, networking, seminars, websites or any other types of activities that will keep you away from calling on prospects and meeting with them.
Wirehouse culture can be very distracting. You’ve got management micromanaging you, wholesalers pitching you, compliance lecturing you, vets telling war stories, trainees bitching about why cold calling is a beneath them… everyone’s got their own agenda and NONE of them have your best interests in mind. It is almost guaranteed that NOT ONE of the people in your office will be a signifigant presence in your career within 5 years. (branch managers move on, trainees wash out, vets take checks to go to other firms, compliance officers lose their minds and jump off bridges). Don’t waste your time with them. When it comes to prospecting, you will learn far more by doing it rather than talking about it.
Stay focused on what you can control – making dials. Do it enough and you will succeed.
I have to say this seems like the best advice I could get. I am using a fairly simple approach to this. I looked into the seminars and such but just seemed too time consuming for such little results. To me if I can just hammer out dials all day and get to as many people as possible that something has to work and it seems by far the fatest way to reach the most folks. I really appreciate all the thoughts and encouragement. I start production in December so I'll keep the forum posted on what happens. Thanks again for the advice.You will need to do more than 100 dials per day, but more importantly, you will need to call every day. Don’t skip days because something comes up and you think you can make up the calls later in the week. You have to be consistent – make sure not one day goes by that you don’t pick up the phone and make some calls.
Cold calling is tough and it never gets any easier, but it works. I read somewhere on this forum that you never get better at cold calling, you just learn to suck less. I think that’s pretty spot on. My best clients are all the result of cold calls. It works. It works. It works. Don’t waste time with mailers, networking, seminars, websites or any other types of activities that will keep you away from calling on prospects and meeting with them.
Wirehouse culture can be very distracting. You’ve got management micromanaging you, wholesalers pitching you, compliance lecturing you, vets telling war stories, trainees bitching about why cold calling is a beneath them… everyone’s got their own agenda and NONE of them have your best interests in mind. It is almost guaranteed that NOT ONE of the people in your office will be a signifigant presence in your career within 5 years. (branch managers move on, trainees wash out, vets take checks to go to other firms, compliance officers lose their minds and jump off bridges). Don’t waste your time with them. When it comes to prospecting, you will learn far more by doing it rather than talking about it.
Stay focused on what you can control – making dials. Do it enough and you will succeed.
[quote=newguy44]
[quote=Sportsfreakbob]
Newguy - what kind of results are you getting with 275-300 dials a day. How many times do you get your pitch off, how many qualified prospects a day?
What are you pitching?
[/quote]I average 9 qualified prospects per week. I am just beginning to make some real headway. My first three months my production was nearly nothing. The last three months I have made some jumps. I am six months out of Warren, building my book from scratch in a town where I knew zero people as I moved for a family situation. Everyone said this would be a tough industry, but I still thought people would throw money at me. That is not the case. The training program is solid, but no training program can prepare you for the day the bullets start flying! You have to keep smilin’and dialin’! [/quote]Are you finding like Gaddock, that it takes 8 touches to open a account? Or are some of your product calls yielding account quicker?
I made cold calls years ago before the do-not-call list crap came out. How do you get around that today? Do you just call businesses?
Check your inbocxI average 9 qualified prospects per week. I am just beginning to make some real headway. My first three months my production was nearly nothing. The last three months I have made some jumps. I am six months out of Warren, building my book from scratch in a town where I knew zero people as I moved for a family situation.
Everyone said this would be a tough industry, but I still thought people would throw money at me. That is not the case. The training program is solid, but no training program can prepare you for the day the bullets start flying! You have to keep smilin’and dialin’!
[quote=newbieFA1079]
I am a true newb at MSSB, I do have my my 7 and 66 from a position I was at in a bank. I have maybe $2MM worth of client accounts but that ain't much.
I was planning to build my book purely off pounding phones all day and try to pitch tax free munis and also do a seminar something like once a quarter.
What are some best practices for starting out fresh at a wire? My take is to do 100 calls a day and hope to get 3 or 4 appointments out of that.
[/quote] The best way to prospect at wires is the best way to prospect anywhere. Just do it.What you can't go around, you go THROUGH. In this case, you go through the lists via a DNC filter. You use the filter, and you call the non DNC numbers. This tells you not only who you can talk to - but MORE IMPORTANTLY who you need to get to another way. Man, it's not rocket science.I made cold calls years ago before the do-not-call list crap came out. How do you get around that today? Do you just call businesses?