deekay - I don’t know about your RIA, but I had to file with FINRA. they get $675 a year from me.



As for the coffee mugs - all sorts of people brought swag. Just gave them away to the first five finishers. Simple.



hedge212 - I think we’ve already established that you are trying to sell your listing service. But tell me again how you are being creative by using the method that everyone uses? Walk me through a typical creative, phone session.



I am more than happy to eat crow when I am wrong - I do it often because I’m married. Just tell me how cold calling is so creative.



Once again, I wasn’t knocking it, just saying that it was uncreative. Not exactly tearing you down there buddy!

Cold walking or calling -- introducing yourself to somebody and asking for their business -- seems a lot more upfront than asking your friends to invite their grandparents to a seminar .... or, worse, hanging around intensive care units under the guise of helping people.

[quote=buyandhold]

Cold walking or calling – introducing yourself to somebody and asking for their business – seems a lot more upfront than asking your friends to invite their grandparents to a seminar … or, worse, hanging around intensive care units under the guise of helping people.

[quote=buyandhold]

Cold walking or calling – introducing yourself to somebody and asking for their business – seems a lot more upfront than asking your friends to invite their grandparents to a seminar … or, worse, hanging around intensive care units under the guise of helping people.

Can you explain how Edward Jones is a get rick quick Ponzi scheme? I think I understand your motives with the comment but better to have you explain them.

[quote=Moraen] [quote=buyandhold]

Cold walking or calling -- introducing yourself to somebody and asking for their business -- seems a lot more upfront than asking your friends to invite their grandparents to a seminar .... or, worse, hanging around intensive care units under the guise of helping people.

Back to cold calling… was reading Chris Gardener’s book… he made 200 calls a day and landed some huge accounts from it… I know naysayers will say, but that was before the DNC… well now you know the list is smaller and when you get to the end of it you can start over…

[quote=buyandhold] [quote=Moraen] [quote=buyandhold]

Cold walking or calling – introducing yourself to somebody and asking for their business – seems a lot more upfront than asking your friends to invite their grandparents to a seminar … or, worse, hanging around intensive care units under the guise of helping people.

Back to my question 3 pages ago.  Who in the hell cares about being creative?  What the hell does creativity have to do with opening accounts?  All this talk about creativity makes me think Morean is a little light on his toes....

Bottom line: Cold calling is labor intensive. Using creative methods that take up less of your time - Not as labor intensive. It’s called working smarter, not harder.



Being creative is another way for working smarter. How’s that?



I also find it odd that someone named Baba Booey would question anyone’s sexual orientation.

[quote=voltmoie] Can you explain how Edward Jones is a get rick quick Ponzi scheme? I think I understand your motives with the comment but better to have you explain them.

[/quote]



Let’s see: General partners recruit like crazy, throw brokers at the wall until they stick. Those brokers gather assets, wash out. New brokers come in and say, “oh, your old broker messed up. sign this switch letter”. Using the new broker to generate more commissions. Rinse. Repeat. How does that sound?



Not a get rich quick scheme for the broker. But for old Jimmy boy and his crew.

The creativity in cold calling comes from how the calls are handled. A good cold caller is creative because they handle themselves with confidence, are adept at handling objections and are adaptive with their responses, tone, and listening skills.   

How much time do you spend talking on the phone?



I go to a run, run 3.1 miles, meet two attorneys at the end. I got exercise, was not in the office.



Seminar - qualified prospects already with a level of trust



Oh, and I don’t use flyers. And paying for lunch (I never do dinner) quite inexpensive, especially if you find some wholesaler to buy it.



Go to a hospital, spend time with people who are suffering - really, you think that’s labor intensive.



I’ll tell you this. I spent eight years in the infantry, been to war and done this. If you think that volunteering to help people is “work”, then I feel for you.



And if I spend ten hours a week at the hospital and get a total of $3.2 mil in assets for helping cancer patients parents - I think that the hours you spend dialing will garner you less goodwill and assets than my time.



Really? There’s no comparison.

If you don’t know who Baba Booey is then you just made my point.  I’m bored with you on this thread.  Move on.

[quote=Moraen]How much time do you spend talking on the phone?

I go to a run, run 3.1 miles, meet two attorneys at the end. I got exercise, was not in the office.

Seminar - qualified prospects already with a level of trust

Oh, and I don't use flyers. And paying for lunch (I never do dinner) quite inexpensive, especially if you find some wholesaler to buy it.

Go to a hospital, spend time with people who are suffering - really, you think that's labor intensive.

I'll tell you this. I spent eight years in the infantry, been to war and done this. If you think that volunteering to help people is "work", then I feel for you.

And if I spend ten hours a week at the hospital and get a total of $3.2 mil in assets for helping cancer patients parents - I think that the hours you spend dialing will garner you less goodwill and assets than my time.

Really? There's no comparison.[/quote]

Moraen please stop!!!  You're trying harder and harder with each reply to defend your prospecting technique and your ship is taking on more and more water, with every reply.

I hope you have tremendous success with your prospecting technique. I really do!! But, man you sound like you need a hug!! 

[quote=Moraen]Of course you will. And that’s fine. I never said that my techniques are for everybody. But neither is cold calling.

And I’ve only used about half of those.

What I’m saying is that there are alternatives to cold calling. But people don’t want to use them. Hell, I would assume that half the people on this board have taken a marketing class at some point in their lives.

I’ll stick to what works for me, you stick with what works for you. All I’m offering is a little insight into how I work.

My methods have allowed me to grow my business with very little effort. And the things I do are fun.

For example: I gave away five coffee mugs at a road race for Autism speaks. Spoke with two trust attorneys. This was two weeks ago. Since then, we’ve begun work on three special needs trusts.

I spent two hours three miles from my house. I gave away five coffee mugs and now I will be earning close to $20k in fees. Not a bad two hours. I could have spent that time on the phone and POSSIBLY got some business. Spinning my wheels, boring myself to death.

Whatever works for you. Just don’t tell everybody that they HAVE to do it your way.

What kind of seminars did you run?  How did you market them?

[quote=brandnewadvisor]

[quote=Moraen] I’m sure some of these have been re-hashed over and over. But here goes:



There are two worlds: the broker world and RIA world.



I will point out some methods in each that work other than cold calling.



Broker world - find attorneys and CPAs (not CPAs and attorneys with established practices). Try to find recent graduates who are also looking to grow their businesses. This can be difficult as most attorneys and CPAs don’t know the first thing about marketing.   Before you try to flame, notice I said “most” not all.



Get a will from them, or send a friend or family member to get a will from them - this builds trust. And makes them want to do a good job too.



- Become and expert on anything. I don’t care what it is. Helping divorced men deal with the amount of alimony they are paying, helping divorced women deal with managing finances. Helping newlyweds merge their finances. Something that does not necessarily have anything to do with investments. TELL people this is what you are good at. The more obscure, the better. You don’t want to be like everybody else.



- Ask your friends to come to seminars. If they are young that’s great. Ask them to bring a grandparent or parent to a seminar. Grandparents love spending time with their grandkids. They probably don’t get to do it often when the grandkids are grown up. Instant access to the older crowd. If you have ten friends bring grandparents, that’s a lot of old people at a seminar.



- Find people you work well with and capitalize on it. I work well with professional women, so the majority of my clients are professional women. You may work best with biker guys, or plumbers. What do you have a background in? Did you used to work for a general contractor in college? Talk to them. Go ask if you can help out on the weekends. Tell them, “you miss getting your hands dirty”. If you’ve never worked, what about your fraternity? Or bong smoking group? Does someone know someone in a band?



- If you have no friends, no family and have never worked - cold call.



RIA world - All of the above, but you can also write articles.



- Blog on websites



- Create a neat, FINRA - compliant, interactive website



- Use social networking sites and Twitter to drive traffic to your media (articles, podcasts, etc.)



- Write a book, write an article (once again, become and expert)



- Create brochures that brand your business



- Sponsor a road race. Give t-shirts out at a road race. Any kind of event.



- Volunteer to help people who are having trouble with their finances (bankruptcy, debt, etc.) This gets you in front of some people who are NOT having trouble with their finances and they look at you as a huge help and a nice person.



- Write a newsletter



- Volunteer at hospitals to help families that are having difficulty paying their medical bills (usually terminally ill patients).



- Be controversial



- Be controversial, but true to your own thoughts and feelings. Find something you don’t like about the industry and set out to change it… could be anything. This separates you from “the rest of them”.



- I hear people complain about Suze Orman and some of the other people who are using mass media - don’t get left out. Make a creative podcast that allows you to make an impact.



Once again, I am not all of that creative. These are things I thought of in ten minutes. You can’t tell me that people who can come up with some colorful posts on this board can’t be creative enough to find alternative methods of engaging prospects.



I will reiterate - cold calling works. It’s not for me and I have generated much more business from utilizing relationships and skills I’ve gained in other places in my life.



Think about it.[/quote]





I sent you a PM asking this, but I thought I read somewhere that they weren’t working well, so here goes:



I am putting together a business plan for my second interview with a firm, and I wanted to get an idea of how exactly you handle finding business by volunteering at the hospital. I was trying to think of places to volunteer in the community anyways, and this sounds like a phenomenal idea. How do yo do it, though? How do you find prospects through this?



I also wanted to let you know you have posted some of the most helpful prospecting tips I have seen on this forum, and I thank you for that. It’s been a tremendous help for me. My hopefully future boss wants me to come to the next interview with an idea of how I will build my business and get people in front of me. The road race promotionals idea is another great one. My husband is actually huge into marathons and other races (he’s a wheelchair racer) so that would work great for me.



I appreciate you taking the time to share these techniques.