EJ Cold Walk
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it is the LEAST shady way: you simply ask the prospect for their phone number in person! No one can claim you need to check the DNC if they verbally told you their ph#!
I see what you are saying newnew, but the mentality of it I think is wrong.
Shouldnt a good firm provide REAL marketing support instead of door knocking and cold calling?
I doorknocked a lot for about 2 years. I still go out once in a while. It’s a great way to fill up your pipeline quickly. In fact, for the next couple of months I should probably go out every day for an hour so I can build up the pipeline for Jan and Feb.
Maybe I'm unclear about the REAL marketing that RUL mentioned. Jones has a company that will do mailings for us at a discounted rate. They pay for 1/2 the postage if I want to do a mass mailing campaign outside that program. They have TV spots, radio spots, billboards, newspaper ads, postcards, etc camera ready and compliance approved. They do national advertising like Schwab, Fidelity, et al. We have a region ad pool that puts newspaper ads in the paper for us. They will direct people from the Jones website to a local FA if someone looks for us that way. We do advertising in the Yellow Pages. You know how much biz I've received from all that advertising done by Jones? Zippo. I'll bet if you talk to most vets in the business your best bang for the buck isn't in marketing. It's in talking in person with people. So whether cold calling or doorknocking is the name of the game, it's still a numbers game. Doorknocking is effective for me, so I still do it.Spiff- It's crazy but my location is GREAT! I get people that just stop in on their lunch breaks and I even get calls from the yellow pages ad.. I think it just depends on your market.. and your location within that market. Somethings work better than in one location/market than they do it others.
Miss JI do get a good walk in every so often. But you have to go out of your way to get to my office, so it doesn’t happen often. Normally when it does people say they have heard a lot of good things about EDJ so they want to talk to me.
Location can be a big help. If you are the only FA in a town, then you are going to get more walk in's. I think there are 8 or 9 other Jones offices within a mile of me, so it's not like I'm here by myself. I am one of the move visible ones though, so that helps.I see what you are saying newnew, but the mentality of it I think is wrong.
Shouldnt a good firm provide REAL marketing support instead of door knocking and cold calling?
[/quote]For an example of real marketing go to www.ifa.com or www.indexfunds.com. This is an RIA firm that’s already added $300 million YTD; mostly from their 200+ websites. The problem with most advertising is that it is too generic to identify a specific prospect with a specific need. In the case of index fund advisors - they basically know exactly who their prospects are and deliver tons of information, most of it automated and working round the clock. I would guess they spent $150-200k on their web development; but in just a few years they’ve raised $1billion in AUM with a rather simple story. They do no in person appointments and still charge 1% for what investors could presumably get for free with a Vanguard Retirement Target Date Fund. Ridiculous!
So you think the B/D they affiliated with offered them the money to do the advertising? Maybe even set up the 200+ websites to generate the clicks to drive the business? If you believe that you are fooling yourself. There’s not a company out there that will front that kind of money for marketing. Those guys made a bet on how to best generate interest in their business and it came through for them. Kudos to them.
Every firm has a specific way they use to generate prospects. Amex uses fishbowls and websites. Merrill uses cold calling. Jones uses doorknocking. Is one a better system than another? No. They're just different. Does that stop a Jones guy from cold calling? Or an Amex guy from doorknocking? No. Do whatever it takes to bring people in the door. There's your marketing strategy.[quote=Spaceman Spiff]So you think the B/D they affiliated with offered them the money to do the advertising? Maybe even set up the 200+ websites to generate the clicks to drive the business? If you believe that you are fooling yourself. There’s not a company out there that will front that kind of money for marketing. Those guys made a bet on how to best generate interest in their business and it came through for them. Kudos to them.
Every firm has a specific way they use to generate prospects. Amex uses fishbowls and websites. Merrill uses cold calling. Jones uses doorknocking. Is one a better system than another? No. They're just different. Does that stop a Jones guy from cold calling? Or an Amex guy from doorknocking? No. Do whatever it takes to bring people in the door. There's your marketing strategy. [/quote] Spiff - the firm is an RIA firm. Since you don't appear to understand what that means: they don't have a broker-dealer and are an independent entity owned 100% by an individual. They have grown over 40% in 10 months, so I'd say what they are doing works far better than fish bowls or cold walking. Effective marketing is never a bet. Every detail of every campaign, site, etc. is tested for number of vistits, time at the site, page views and so on. Armed with the right statistical data they likely leveraged the money available to get a return on investment that was scientifically proven to work. So...there are better systems than what you mentioned; as cold walking, calling and other types of uncontrollable marketing (non-systematic with significant deviation from one rep to another) have always proven to be the most innefective. However, if you get someone who's talented and hard working they can still make it work. Lastly, if you think spending a couple hundred thousand to build a multi-million dollar business is a lot - then I'd guess you don't run one. Big practices take big money to build.Sorry, my bad. I’ll rush right down to my local bank and borrow $150k and get started on those website designs. I’m sure if it worked for those people it will work for my business too.
He didn't say open a porn site spiffy. A decent site can be had for 4-10k, non e-commerce.
Does Edward Jones financial advisors uses any specific script for coldwaking? Is there any training material prepared by EJ for this purpose?
Knock knock. Who’s there? Spaceman Spiffy, I work for EDJ’s and would like to see your portfolio of investments. (cheery, smiling) GET THE HELL OFF MY PORCH!!! Bang, bang, bang…Run like hell, but don’t forget to stop at the next house…
[quote=Broker24] I opened over 80 accounts (about 3.5mm) in my first year that way. It
wasn’t the ONLY way I opened accounts, but it worked quickly (which is
what you need early on).[/quote]
Broker 24…and what way was that? Cold walking, calling, postcards?
[quote=shadow191]
Name a firm that provides all the marketing support and gives you a prospecting plan all laid out for you. I think that group is very small and select, maybe Bernstein? Even Goldman Sachs has their people cold call. I work for a wirehouse and can get just about any type of marketing support I would need. the boss will pay for advertisements, seminars, whatever. I still got started as a cold caller because I learned it was just the fastest way to get people in the door.[quote=RULiquid]
I see what you are saying newnew, but the mentality of it I think is wrong.
Shouldnt a good firm provide REAL marketing support instead of door knocking and cold calling?
[/quote] [/quote]I thouht Gold man Sachs was the “creme de la creme”. I find it hard to believe that those kids from Harvard would be required to wear out their leather shoes out in the snow.
Knock knock. Who’s there? Spaceman Spiffy, I work for EDJ’s and would like to see your portfolio of investments. (cheery, smiling) GET THE HELL OFF MY PORCH!!! Bang, bang, bang…Run like hell, but don’t forget to stop at the next house…
There are a couple of posts in the beginning of this thread that allude to the amount of time a new EJ advisor will spend doorknocking. Of course, this thread, just as most others, quickly turns into a proxy argument regarding peoples opinions of this and that. And of course, everyone’s opinion is the right one!
I've recently been hired by EJ and will begin studying for the Series 7 on 2/2. I will be doorknocking soon and was hoping to get some insight from those that are doing it and/or have done it. First, generally speaking how much time will be spent per day cold walking to get those 25 quality contacts? How many doors, roughly speaking, would one knock on to get those 25 quality contacts? What have historically been the best days/times to go doorknocking? There will obviously come a time when your work day comprises of doorknocking, appointments, and follow up calls, in addition to any other peripheral tasks... I guess the main question is: What does a day in the life of a new Edward Jones FA look like? I appreciate any experiential advice that can be given. As for all the argumentative, snide, condescending, one-sided, useless remarks that are bound to show up....as the great Tina Fey says, "You can suck it!"Bud,
In the beginning, figure on 6-8 hours of doorknocking. Then it starts to scale back as time goes on and you get clients and appointments. It seems like you will doorknock forever, but ask and veteran, and they can barely remember their doorknocking days.