[quote=FreeLunch]

I need some help

Once I get cold calling, I get in a good rythm and can do it until I do get 25 contacts or good leads.  Being only a few years in the business, I am not so much involved in account maintanence as I am in the need to cold call or prospect

Can people who actively cold call please share with me how they time block?

When do you cold call?  Is it structured, or is it sporatic? 

[/quote]

A guy doing $95,000 in T12 should be rewarded with his own cold caller. Get the firm to pay for 2 cold callers, dedicated only to you.

I don't understand you Hull.

You bash me on my other post but it looks like this is a compliment?

You should try and be smarter rather than assumes people want your kindness.  I don't think you notice your lack of insight.

ANY ADVICE FROM GREAT COLD CALLERS OUT THERE?

I REALLY WANT ADVICE AND NO CRITICISM LIKE HULL LIKES TO DO.

WHAT ARE THE SUCCESSFUL BROKERS OUT THERE DOING TO PROSPECT BY PHONE?

ANY GOOD ADVICE - MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO PROVIDE FEEDBACK

I do it in chunks - 30 min at a time.

I set aside a time block to make calls and I also have a hard time getting started but once I get going I get rolling pretty quickly.  So what I try to do his start off by calling people that I want to talk to and save the iffy ones for later.  After getting a few appointments at the beginning the not interested people I call later don’t bother me much.

You definitely should time block however much time you want to call for, which ultimately will be decided by how many dials you want to make.  It should be the only thing you are doing during that time.  The times that you call at really depends on the types of numbers you are calling.  I would also suggest that you print out all the numbers you will dial, maybe 100 a sitting or so, and not open your door until ALL 100 have been dialed.  Repeat every day.  

[quote=FreeLunch]

ANY ADVICE FROM GREAT COLD CALLERS OUT THERE?

I REALLY WANT ADVICE AND NO CRITICISM LIKE HULL LIKES TO DO.

WHAT ARE THE SUCCESSFUL BROKERS OUT THERE DOING TO PROSPECT BY PHONE?

ANY GOOD ADVICE - MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO PROVIDE FEEDBACK

[/quote]

With your phenomenal production, shouldn't YOU be teaching US how to cold call?

Make your calls unique. Read the local Biz Journal and call successful owners - for example, " IF you like to play golf and are looking for investment ideas, let's have lunch near your office. I am looking for a few good new clients, and like to align that with golf - what are your thoughts?".

The focus will pay off ( eventually from referrals, bigtime, later on, as you have a focused center of influence group). In the short term, it is more fun to be " selective " in choosing clients. Even non- golfers will take the lunch bait, as many non or weak golfers feel slightly inadequate or at least would like to improve their golf " social skills. "

You can also just start taking lessons yourself and talk golf - but don't misrepresent your ability!

I set aside a time block to make calls and I also have a hard time getting started but once I get going I get rolling pretty quickly.  So what I try to do his start off by calling people that I want to talk to and save the iffy ones for later.  After getting a few appointments at the beginning the not interested people I call later don't bother me much.

I actually take the opposite approach. When I block time to call and see a laundry list of 75 people to dial, I start with a ocuple client call backs to get going... I then start calling the 'iffy' ones, or the ones who I believe may be douchebags but have serious money.

After running through some of the calls, I then 'reward' myself by calling on a couple of 'warmer' leads and go from there... Not exactly perfect, but mentally I get the difficult calls out of the way and then finish up with the calls I am looking forward to making...

stay off this site, keep a daily call tracker, don’t leave until you hit your daily goal.

Block out the time with zero interuptions. Dial as many times as you can for an hour and then take a five minute break. Have your SA or receptionist hold ALL incoming calls. There can be a few exceptions for family or important calls you may be expecting. However, it's important not to be interupted.

Start early 7:30 am calling businesses. Take a half hour break at 8:30 to call a few clients to get an early morning trade or two. 9am it's back to prospecting. ETC ETC. Organize your day in this way, however best suits your needs. You could cold call all morning and meet with clients every afternoon.

Here's my way of doing this:

Prospect, presso, pitch

Prospect for new clients

Make presentations to existing clients

Pitch prospects.

What is a presentation or a pitch? Anything that moves the client or prospect closer to a sale. It could be a fact finding call or a call to set an appointment to do fact finding. It could be a product presentation/pitch. Call, present, close. ASK FOR THE ORDER! Fixed income products with a time constraint fit well here, ie new issue pref stocks. Also strategy UITs and bonds.

When I'm done presenting or pitching life gets real simple, back on the phone prospecting.

The goal is to always have a full pipeline of people to presso or pitch.

By the way, presso and pitch is the same thing. I don't pitch clients, I present ideas. I pitch those same ideas to prospects for their consideration. I then help them make the right decision.

It's simple, but not easy.

Bond guy, this is interesting. Aren't you already successful and doing pretty well? So do you just keep growing your production forever, or does there come a point where you have enough clients? Are you at a wirehouse where all of your basic support needs are delegated? I could see your routine as generating almost endless income - makes me think about my own (comfortable but complacent) situation.

Absolutely true about selling ideas, then helping with the less important details.

[quote=GolFA]

Bond guy, this is interesting. Aren't you already successful and doing pretty well? So do you just keep growing your production forever, or does there come a point where you have enough clients? Are you at a wirehouse where all of your basic support needs are delegated? I could see your routine as generating almost endless income - makes me think about my own (comfortable but complacent) situation.

Absolutely true about selling ideas, then helping with the less important details.

[/quote]

Growing production forever? Yes and no. I still use the same prospecting routine i've always used. That's the first rule of success, don't change what works. However, I do a lot less of it than I use to do.

As a rookie and for about the first seven years i did 70 hour weeks as a minimum. Today I have two schedules, fall/winter and spring summer. Fall/winter is about 40 hours a week. It's flexible to meet client or business needs. I'll put in more time when needed. Spring/summer is about 25 hours a week with either Fridays or Mondays off. Again, flexible. Lately it's been work 1/2 day Friday and take Monday off.

Bill Good said you can either keep growing and make twice as much or you can work half as much. I liked that and embraced it. I'm doing the work half as much, yet still growing the biz. I'm teamed with my wife, no slouch in the production dept in her own right and we have excellent help.

Have enough clients? Never! Sh*t happens. Three weeks ago a client of 22 years fired me because she was unhappy with the fees in her fee account. That she will be charged the same fee or more by her new advisor was lost on her. Another tranferred away because he was convinced we had shorted him by a fraction of a share in his $600k mutual fund portfolio. Literally, a fraction of one share. This guy, every month, would manually enter his reinvested share totals into his computer. Not surprisingly his numbers didn't match ours. We went through this thing from one end to the other and found nothing wrong from our end. Still, he said it was us and off the account went to SB. Frickin old people! These are my last two acats, three years apart, so we don't lose many, but you never know.

We get our fair share of referrals. Mrs. BG is doing an appointment with one tonight. About $150k. Also much of the biz is on automatic. For example I just got a notice at lunch time today that Philly is calling some water bonds. I have $700K of those bonds, so there's $700k available for July production. And on it goes.

Cool. The nice thing, generally, about old people is, once they trust you, they stay forever.

Those annoying analytical types with the Quicken, they deserve to destroy themselves.

Having your spouse as trusted associate must be a huge lever for both of you.

Taking Good's idea, there is also the most efficient mix, platform, etc.

I am dying to know if you are with a wire house, independent, or non b/d affiliated.

[quote=GolFA]

Cool. The nice thing, generally, about old people is, once they trust you, they stay forever.

Those annoying analytical types with the Quicken, they deserve to destroy themselves.

Having your spouse as trusted associate must be a huge lever for both of you.

Taking Good's idea, there is also the most efficient mix, platform, etc.

I am dying to know if you are with a wire house, independent, or non b/d affiliated.

[/quote]

OK, I don't see what difference it makes.

I'm with a regional. I've worked for both regionals and major wires and prefer regionals. We looked at going indy and LPL almost got the nod, but decided we could better serve our client base with the choice we made. That, and as said above I'm looking to work less, not more. Being indy is a lot more work.

Kind of what I thought, and not surprising, given your interest in Bond World.

Don't think it makes much difference either, there are too many options that I have been thinking about, but what defines us is the moment, and how we relate to our best clients each day.

Yeah, being Indy is a lot more work.

[quote=BondGuy]

…Another tranferred away because he was convinced we had shorted him by a fraction of a share in his $600k mutual fund portfolio. Literally, a fraction of one share. This guy, every month, would manually enter his reinvested share totals into his computer. Not surprisingly his numbers didn’t match ours. We went through this thing from one end to the other and found nothing wrong from our end. Still, he said it was us and off the account went to SB. Frickin old people! These are my last two acats, three years apart, so we don’t lose many, but you never know.