[quote=squash2]

So is the Tennison/DeSoto/Bill Good system... that 25 pitches a day?

Sometimes I wonder if the success you have comes because you have a wirehouse brand behind you as opposed to LPL or and indy firm name...

[/quote]

The Tennison/Desoto/Bill Good system is to make as many phone calls as you can per day. Good seperates himself from the other two in that he believes that mass calling works regardless of product or service. The other two, Tennison and Desoto became multi million dollar producers pitching tax free bonds, opening accounts, and then penetrating those accounts.

 I found these guys around 1990 and simply cloned their business process. Others in my peer group have done the same. And, as i've said many times i'm not the most successful guy in my peer group.  The messege - this works! It worked in the eighties for tennison and Desoto. It worked in the ninties and beyond for me. And, here we have DMAN, who started during the huge market downturn of 2008, and it's working  for him.

Tennison doubled his production after going independent.

Squash, if you believe this won't work, well then, you are right, it won't. Find another way.

I am shocked that if it does and is easily repeatable and anyone can do it then why is there such a lack of success in the financial world?

As a newbie you always think there is something behind the curtain that is not being told

The curtain would like to tell you that there is sooo much more money going on behind the scenes in other products....

Getting rejected over a 100 times a day for 3-5 years is not easy palmpre.  There are very few people who put up with it for that long a period.  Most flame out after about 3 months, or they see enough success to just 'get by' and flat out stop prospecting for new business.  And the ones that can do it for that long are very very successful. 

That's the problem, there are no secrets. Everyone thinks there is, but there's not. DMAN can tell you it's about dialing the phone and asking somebody to buy something. i will tell you it's the same thing. No secrets, no great mystery, just do it!!!

The reason  for lack of success is that people don't do it. Why? Because as  I've said over and over, this business is simple, it's just not easy.

What does that mean? It's simple  to figure out that all you have to do is pick up the phone, dial it, and then ask the person on the other end to buy something. And, it's simple to figure out that you have to do that over and over again as many of times as you can every day. And, it's simple to figure out that the people you call have to have money. All that is simple to figure out and build a plan.

Now comes the not easy part - doing it!  Making those calls. Finding a product, bond ,preferred stock etc to bet your career on - not easy.  Picking up the phone and dialing it - not easy. Asking the rich guy on the other end of the phone to buy today - not easy.  Asking the stranger on the other end of the phone for 50, 100, 250, 500k on a phone call-not easy. Sweating until the money comes in-not easy. Getting blown off the phone by a jerk and making the next dial- not easy. Doing it all again tomorrow - not easy. Doing it every hour of every day for five, six, or seven years - not easy.

The reason for the high failure rate in our business is because for as simple as it is, it's not easy to do.

Reread DMAN's post and pay careful attention to the part where he says They all thought i was crazy when i would go to the phone center and make cold calls after spending a long day in the training classes. Understand the true meaning of that statement. That's committment! That's what it takes.

[quote=BondGuy]

Squash, another thought here is this: DMAN's process is different than yours. he picks up the phone and asks people to buy something. Just from the way he expresses himself i can tell he's for real.

Here's a little exercise for yourself: Find a fixed income product you like, a bond, a CD, a PFD, whatever. Now write a little script pumping the benefits. Next make a list of 25 people to call today with that product. These can be prospects or clients who you believe would be a good match for the product. Last step make the calls!!! Close every one you call! That is, ask them to buy.  This is the way i run my business, and sounds like the way DMAN runs his.

Do this exercise and I guarantee you that you will sell some of that product today. Not tomorrow, not next week, today. Spendable income made today!!!!

Next step- never stop dialing. If you call 25 people a day and ask them to buy you will become incredibly successful. But don't be limited by my numbers. 25 is fantastic- more would be better.

Now you ask how does this work?

You ask 25 people per day to buy your product. You close big, 50k or 100k minimum. After-all, it's a great product. After a month you've positioned a million dollars and you move to the next idea. You keep doing this every day for the next five years and then one day, that first million dollars you placed comes back to you. The bonds are called, or the PFD is called, or the CD matures. Now you've got a million bucks to place. Add in a 2% sales credit and you've got 20k done in one day. More like two hours of one day. Now some more time goes one and you have 2 or 3 million dollars coming due in one month. Whoo hoo!!! Or you have 4 or 5 million coming due in one month. meanwhile back at the salt mine you are continuing to add at least a million per month to the pot. And so it goes in the fixed income business. Add in some trades that make sense, appointmentments for financial planning that develope from the book, and referrals and all of a sudden you've got yourself a business! A big business!

How hard is it to place a million a month? It's ten people investing 100k. Think you can find ten people per month to buy your very best idea? CD rates are at 1%, people are clamoring for alternatives. Yeah, a 6% BABs looks really good right now.

Simple, just not easy.

But doable?

You betcha!!

[/quote]

This is a perfect description of what I have done over the past three and a half years.

The question of why everyone doesn't do it is answered when Bondguy says " its simple just not easy". I asked an advisor why more people don't make it in the business when I started studying for the 7. He said "you dont understand how hard this business is". I responded to him saying "I know its hard, you have to put in alot of hours etc." He stopped me and repeated "No, you dont understand how hard it is". I remember going back to him about 3 months after I started prospecting full time and saying "I think I now understand what you were trying to tell me 3 months ago". I dont know how many times I wanted to quit during the first. year. That is why I think you cant have a plan B in this business because it gets real easy  to go to that plan when things get tough.

The other reason I think so many fail is they never find a prospecting plan and stick with it. You dont know how many times I have gone as far as to tell fellow rookies the exact script I use. These are guys who worked at my firm and had heard the managers say " you need to talk to DMAN, he is opening alot of accounts". I would explain the entire Bill Good cold call system to them. They all said I am going to do it but none ever did or did it half heartedly. They have sinced gone to plan B.

I was lucky. I identified a system at the very beginning of my career and stuck to it. I didnt care who bad mouthed cold calling. I knew it would work if I did it enough. I had every confidence in that and that is what helped me hang on. It took awhile for me to build critical mass but after you learn to open that first account over the phone then the sky is  the limit.

DMAN,  awesome stuff!  To be clear, do you mind giving us the script?  I think I have a good idea what it is based on BondGuy's previous posts, but it would be great if you could confirm/reinforce what you use.  Dials and Contacts per day?  Business ... Residential...or both?  Thanks to both you and Bondguy!! 

Lead Nurturing/Lead Followup. 

Let's say you are following the Bondguy/Bill Good/The Judge process of cold calling with a product and generating leads that are interested in the product pitch conversation starter and allow you to mail them the initial information.  So you have qualified on the phone, and mailed your initial information.  Based on the numbers I have seen, roughly 10% of your contacts should end up in your lead file and 10% of these will become clients.  Makes perfect sense from the standpoint of the law of large numbers, but what is your process in terms of followup after the initial Call and Mail?  Do you simply call after the mailer goes out to confirm receipt and ask for an appointment?  What if they aren't ready at that time for an appointment.  Or, do you mail them something else?  How do you determine when to kick someone out of your pipeline?

Or, are you simply not even worried about lead conversion at all and merely doing enough lead generation via dialing with the hopes of "running into a client" that is hot for your offer?  Thanks!

I think Bill Good's first book has a great system for that, except instead of index cards I use my CRM. but it works great and allows an organized way of track keeping.