Thursday, Feb 24th

352 Dials

15 Contacts

1 Good Prospect

As I said before, today was a shitty day ratio-wise.  I was working off an old and dated list, and tomorrow will be starting with a new list, so hopefully my #'s improve a lot.

Also, had a few good follow-up calls made with prospects I generated earlier this week...so not all bad.

great efforts com!  352 dials is awesome...but you did have a bad contact ratio.

what is your pitch? and what is your usual contact ratio?

Friday, Feb 25th

264 Dials

20 Contacts

2 Good Prospects

3 Weaker Prospects

Much better ratio with the new list, weaker prospect is someone who might have $ tied up right now or something but would like to talk a month or so down the road...more like a pipeline prospect

[quote=newregrep]

great efforts com!  352 dials is awesome...but you did have a bad contact ratio.

what is your pitch? and what is your usual contact ratio?

[/quote]

Thanks, last week, besides Friday, 350 dials was about the norm.  The list I was using had a lot of disconnects, fax #'s, etc.  Like I said, I only started my new position last week, so I am hoping that my contact ratio is more similar to what I had Friday.

As far as pitch, I do not have one down in stone just yet, but something along the lines of this...

[opening] Hi this is ____ with ____.  The reason for my call today is that awhile back you had requested some info on the markets, and I am checking to see if your still open to ideas.

....then I ask if they are familiar at all with managed futures, and try to start a discussion on their benefits/drawdowns, get them to ask questions, and finally try to send them some info.

Monday, Feb 28th

316 Dials

18 contacts

3 weaker pospects

A ton of no-answers today, and those who i talked to were not biting...rough day to say the least, so hopefully i can rebound well tomorrow.

Also, i cannot get past a gatekeeper to save my life, and given that a lot of the people i call are businesses, i think this contributes a ton to the low contact ratio...if anyone has any thoughts/advice that would definitely help.

questions/comments/critiques/etc always welcome

When faced with a gate-keeper always ask for the person like you are golfing buddies.
If they say their name - “Hey Sally is Rich in?”. If not just say “Hey is Rich in?”. This at least works for me a good bit.

[quote=Hacksaw]When faced with a gate-keeper always ask for the person like you are golfing buddies. If they say their name - "Hey Sally is Rich in?". If not just say "Hey is Rich in?". This at least works for me a good bit.[/quote]

Sounds simple enough, I'll give it a try today.

When it comes to gatekeepers I agree with Hacksaw.  I always say, "Hey Karen, Is Jim in?".  As long as you're not trying to be too slick, it works half of the time.

You get passed the gate keeper once like that, and trust me, it'll be the last time. My admin, she gets mighty p'd off and trust me, for every 20 that try that, maybe 1 of them is actually lucky/good enough to pull it off. I'm a bigger fan of sending a very good hand written notes, in a very well done/clever envelope. Inside, you ask for  a few minutes, will be calling soon. Then, when you call, you say I sent a letter, just wanted to follow up, and leave a message if they ask. You'd be surprised at the fact that writing well written hand notes, with a clever envelope strategy is a VERY rarely used but effective strategy. Be unique, and be professional, while showing off some sort of knowledge/expertise. Very successful and wealthy people admire that kind of stuff...

BFP,

I'll try that next time.  the problem is I'm calling nearly 300-400 businesses daily! 

[quote=newregrep]

BFP,

I'll try that next time.  the problem is I'm calling nearly 300-400 businesses daily! 

[/quote]

ditto

Tuesday, March 1st

305 Dials

28 Contacts

3 Weaker Prospects

Com,

Good job, but your contacts per dial still seem kinda low...but your activity level is awesome!  What is your followup mechanism and prospect management system beyond the initial call?  The money is in the followup.  Keep up the good work.  I think you will be pleased with your results!!

[quote=StoneColdMutha]

Com,

Good job, but your contacts per dial still seem kinda low...but your activity level is awesome!  What is your followup mechanism and prospect management system beyond the initial call?  The money is in the followup.  Keep up the good work.  I think you will be pleased with your results!!

[/quote]

Thanks for your comments

My contact ratio is definitely improving, but my prospect generation still sucks...today im at 148 dials as of now, 18 contacts already, with only 1 weaker prospect...im trying some different things in my pitch still, kind of a trial by fire.

For follow-up, the initial call i try to send them info, either in email or snail mail, then set an appt in the future to call them and go over any of the programs i showed them, then if they are still interested i set up an appt to conference call which ever program manager they are attracted to, and we look to close the prospect together.

I've definitely been discouraged this week, but plugging away...yesterday i dropped 3 of my best prospects, and my 5 good prospects per day goal has not really been going too well.

oh well...onward

Hey, if something works, then work it. But, making 300-400 dials, with little to show for it is not only exhausting and demoralizing, but it doesn't get you closer to success. But, if that IS working, then ignore folks like me, or these colleagues of yours whining about you asking for 200k....

Another thought... Why not try both. Find 10 decent candidates per day, then send the hand written note. Do both, see what happens.

There is the scientific method in our biz, and there is the physical method. The latter is generally the most successful, as the scientist prospector is too busy thinking, and not dialing enough. But, there does come a time where if you add some science to the physical repetition (just do it), you can see exponentially and mathematically consistent returns upon prospecting. When you do that, you feel INVINCIBLE. I've had that moment a few times in my career, and it is the most satisfying feeling in the world. 

Good advice BFP.  Perhaps get a list for next week ready and send out a hand written note to 10 business perday.  That will be 50 mailed for next week and call 10 of those monday tuesday and so on. 

I will definitely try that.

Com,

how do people usually react to managed futures?  It's not a very familiar product and maybe your clients feel it's too exotic to have an interest in.  Maybe you can lead with an old AGE pitch and present the product at the meeting. 

[quote=BigFirepower]

Hey, if something works, then work it. But, making 300-400 dials, with little to show for it is not only exhausting and demoralizing, but it doesn't get you closer to success. But, if that IS working, then ignore folks like me, or these colleagues of yours whining about you asking for 200k....

Another thought... Why not try both. Find 10 decent candidates per day, then send the hand written note. Do both, see what happens.

There is the scientific method in our biz, and there is the physical method. The latter is generally the most successful, as the scientist prospector is too busy thinking, and not dialing enough. But, there does come a time where if you add some science to the physical repetition (just do it), you can see exponentially and mathematically consistent returns upon prospecting. When you do that, you feel INVINCIBLE. I've had that moment a few times in my career, and it is the most satisfying feeling in the world. 

[/quote]

Very intruiging(cant spell for sh!t haha) concept of the science-physical.  My contact ratio has been way up recently...i think a lot of the problem was working an old and out-dated list. 

Now, I just need to practice my pitch and how I convey it on the phone to convert those contacts into prospects.  One day at a time though, like I said before, right now I am doing some trial and error to see what works/doesn't work.

[quote=newregrep]

Good advice BFP.  Perhaps get a list for next week ready and send out a hand written note to 10 business perday.  That will be 50 mailed for next week and call 10 of those monday tuesday and so on. 

I will definitely try that.

Com,

how do people usually react to managed futures?  It's not a very familiar product and maybe your clients feel it's too exotic to have an interest in.  Maybe you can lead with an old AGE pitch and present the product at the meeting. 

[/quote]

People are usually fairly intrigued by managed futures, but right now I am working on a specified list.  My company set up individual websites that would offer a commodity trading eBook, futures investing newsletter, etc etc, and captured the people's info.

So, I am pitching people that have an interest/have had an interest in the past with the industry, so managed futures is a little more familiar than you would think.  Problem is, the leads I'm working are a few years old..so either they are disconnected phones, or people that have been in the markets but got chopped up by a broker, etc etc...but I can still find some pretty good accts through these.

From what I understand, you don't get any of the new fresh leads from these websites until you show that your going to work your a$$ and close some accts, which is what I'm doing now.

Wednesday, March 2

251 Dials

35 Contacts

2 Good Prospects

1 Pipeling Prospect

2 Callbacks with some promise

My morning started off slow, but picked up in early afternoon...had a good follow-up from a cold call last week, that looks like my 1st real good closing opportunity early next week, but I lost another good prospect in a follow-up today...oh well, guess that will happen.

Dials were lower than usual because my contacts were way up and I had a lot of good conversations.

Overall, very happy with the day.