I read his book “Prospecting Your Way To Sales Success” long ago and actually implement his cherries and pit strategies to this day. Excellent philosophy on how to run the prospecting side your business. I’m not as anal about hiring a separate computer programmer though. I have personalized ACT! with letters, next call back, etc. and have my assistant do the mailings. I didn’t see the necessity to plunk down $10,000 for his system tough- The book is pretty thorough. To keep in touch, I mail out about 250 newsletters per month, (to new prospects whom I’ve spoken with) which is a good drip for me. My monthly phone callbacks are muck more effective (and cheaper) than mailing the same prospects every month.

  Stok

I believe Bill to be the “Go To” guy for what’s working today. Like Stok, I bought the book, implementing much of it’s content, which I find to be excellent.

As for buying the system, it was problamatic at my firm. All the letters have to be vetted by compliance and the cost of mailing even with me picking up the tab was a stumbling block.  My  firm, at the time PW, put up roadblock after roadblock until i finally got the picture. This is strange considering the fact that there are UBS brokers using the system. Point is, don't move forward without the full support of your firm. Lastly, my take on the system is that you are either all in or not. The mailings are the key to making the thing work. People I know on the system send between 5,000 and 10,000 pieces a month. $2,000 would be a low end est of your monthly cost. Regardless, probably worth every penny.

[quote=BondGuy]I believe Bill to be the “Go To” guy for what’s working today. Like Stok, I bought the book, implementing much of it’s content, which I find to be excellent.

As for buying the system, it was problamatic at my firm. All the letters have to be vetted by compliance and the cost of mailing even with me picking up the tab was a stumbling block.  My  firm, at the time PW, put up roadblock after roadblock until i finally got the picture. This is strange considering the fact that there are UBS brokers using the system. Point is, don't move forward without the full support of your firm. Lastly, my take on the system is that you are either all in or not. The mailings are the key to making the thing work. People I know on the system send between 5,000 and 10,000 pieces a month. $2,000 would be a low end est of your monthly cost. Regardless, probably worth every penny. [/quote]   Did you implement a mailing campaign?

[quote=Broker24][quote=BondGuy]I believe Bill to be the “Go To” guy for what’s working today. Like Stok, I bought the book, implementing much of it’s content, which I find to be excellent.

As for buying the system, it was problamatic at my firm. All the letters have to be vetted by compliance and the cost of mailing even with me picking up the tab was a stumbling block.  My  firm, at the time PW, put up roadblock after roadblock until i finally got the picture. This is strange considering the fact that there are UBS brokers using the system. Point is, don't move forward without the full support of your firm. Lastly, my take on the system is that you are either all in or not. The mailings are the key to making the thing work. People I know on the system send between 5,000 and 10,000 pieces a month. $2,000 would be a low end est of your monthly cost. Regardless, probably worth every penny. [/quote]   Did you implement a mailing campaign?[/quote]   Yes. DM is a numbers game. A large mailing, done every month, is needed. I mailed a minimum of 2000 pieces a month.   It works. A 1% to 2% response rate is the norm. Using 2000 pieces as the min that will give 20 to 40 responses. Some campaigns will work better than others. The variables need to tweaked one by one to figure out what works in your area. For me, Muni bond mailings had the highest response rates. For another broker in my office it was invites to his twice a month dinner seminars.    Some brokers have done mail/call to highly targeted lists with success. This means mailing out no more that 25 pieces a day.

Bond Guy:

  I have been using the Gorilla for 10+ years and would love to get a 2% response rate on a Mass mail letter.  I just ran the old Elliott and it returned .5% for the first wave.  What is working for you to get those type of responses?  

[quote=IndyEDJ]Bond Guy:

  I have been using the Gorilla for 10+ years and would love to get a 2% response rate on a Mass mail letter.  I just ran the old Elliott and it returned .5% for the first wave.  What is working for you to get those type of responses?   [/quote]   The rates I quote are historic. That is, over time. We've not done mailings over the past six months as our firm undergoes an acquisition. Though I doubt much has changed over that time period. We've been doing mailings for 17 years.   Not every mailing gets a high response. Yet, overall my numbers are plus one percent, and approaching two percent on some mailings. BTW, I include "remove me from your list"' responses in my response rate numbers. We've tried everything to nail down why one mailing does better than another and haven't come up with anything that would stand up as a reason.    All my mailings are the same thing, basically an Elliot variant.   If you are on the system and not getting results, then you need to direct your question to Bill Good. I'm sure he can help you tweak your program.   Lastly, like others here I took a solid look at BG's system and passed. Not because I wanted to, but because my employer at the time wouldn't cooperate. Yet, because I live in an area that is, if anything, over prospected, I've received just about every BG letter ever published. As Bill says, why reinvent the wheel when you can clone what works. That's what I've done.   And just to cover the base, I've given BGM thousands of dollars over the years for tapes, CDs, and one Master Class. The Master Class absolutely saved my career. But that's another story.