LOL.

I dk'd for the first 18 months, wound up with basically two or three accounts. Maybe four. Of course, those four accounts referred me to millions upon millions of dollars of assets. I am here today because of door knocking, and doing county fairs. I'd do neither now.

Theme is ... Everybody's different, you'll get no consistent answer here.

I'm just the opposite of Lock, I've been out for many years now and anytime I need some new people to refresh my pipeline, I go doorknocking.  In fact I'm planning on doing a lot of it between now and the time snow starts to fly here in the midwest. 

One FA's stats don't really mean much to another FA's stats. Lock is right on with that.  There isn't a good rule about sales cycles or turning prospects into clients.  I've got folks that I doorknocked once, called them and now have $1 mil+ with me.  I've got others who I thought had a good chunk of money that I chased for a couple of years who ended up with $75K.  

I can tell you what I'm looking for now and that may help - 1 good prospect every time I go doorknocking.  I don't really care if I talk with 10 or 25 people, but I'm looking for 1 prospect that I think will turn into something.  I don't always get that person as a client, but they're still a solid prospect.  And they're going to have to tell me to go away and stop calling before I let go of them. 

If you're opening accounts from doorknocking, keep at it.  Some folks never see any success from it, so they stop.  I've never had any success at cold calling, so I don't do it much.  I think you have to do what brings the most folks in the door. 

Ahh, a subject that fascinates me. My three person team, I think this direction is for us. We live in a smaller community that is walkable, and we're quite visible in this little town. We have a great retail location, but we've only been here for 18 months. I suspect it takes at least 3 yrs before people are willing to call us, or stop in. So, in the meantime, walking the neighborhood occassionally might make sense.

Be interested in hearing what strategies, introductions work best. What kind of pre planning too, would make sense. The Ed Jones guy here used to walk door to door, and after he got what he needed, he quit walking around, he's offered to tell us what streets he never got to, so we don't just retrace his steps.  

Don't worry about retracing his steps.  People move, become unhappy with their advisor, die, etc all the time.  If I were you I'd just start with the neighborhoods that you think might give you the best returns and start there.   The difference between you retracing his steps and the next new EDJ guy retracing his steps is that you can actually prospect his clients. 

Doorknocking doesn't have to be an all day event.  When I go it's usually in 2-3 hour blocks at varying times of the day.  It depends on the neighborhood I'm going to hit.  Older homes with a lot of Crown Vics and Town Cars, mornings 9-11.  Newer homes with SUVs or family cars, afternoons/early evenings or Saturday mornings. 

Intros are pretty simple.  Tell them who you are, where your office is, and what you do.  Tell them you'll be in touch, or if you want to be a little more aggressive, invite them in for an appointment.  Ask enough questions to figure out if they're worth pursuing.  Find out where they work.  Who they use for their investments.  Do they buy munis.  Anything that gives you a reason to call them back.  Make sure you get permission to call them so you can bypass the DNC restrictions.  Jones tells us to call them back two weeks later.  If it's a good prospect, I don't want to wait two weeks.  I want them to remember me and that they are interested in talking with me.  If it's just an average prospect who you plan on having to drip on for a few months, then two weeks works fine. 

Man this brings back memories.

Doorknocking was easy to do but if you don't have a pipeline in place, (ie what to do next with that person), then it's futile.  Sit down and draw out a plan of what you're going to do with that person after you've met them and sent your "thank you" note.

(I've been through the EDJ training for this...LOL)