I wouldn't do it and they do need to be licesned.

Just a thought but it seems your hiring someone to do the hard work you don’t want to do. No? Why not do it yourself. They also don’t need to be licensed, they only need to be licensed to discuss individual securities and give advice.

Theres a company in my area that does this for insurance and financial service businesses in the area. Im the new guy at my office so I have to make my own cold calls, but I dont see why it would be a bad idea to have someone call for you. I know they have their own leads and im not sure what the costs are associted.

Theres a company in my area that does this for insurance and financial service businesses in the area. Im the new guy at my office so I have to make my own cold calls, but I dont see why it would be a bad idea to have someone call for you. I know they have their own leads and im not sure what the costs are associted.

If they have the leads how do you know they’re only selling for you? To maximize profits I’m thinking they’re calling the same people for diff Advisors.

Yeah they probably are. But their name is pretty well known so they may be doing some kind of decent business. If they arent producing quality prospects I think they would be figured out and people wouldnt use them. I dont use them, nor would I at this point, but they do exist.

Your job is to sell. If you don’t like that job you shouldn’t be doing this.

I dont think it hurts to hire a college intern to maximize your call contacts…just make the intern generates a possible lead try to get him to qualify, send some info and just make sure your the one following up.

I’ve used callers off and on throughout my career. The payoff is leverage. However, to get there is work. The callers have to be trained and have to be supervised.

My best success using callers is hiring temps to call seminar invitees. Either mail call mail or, call mail call works here.

The firms that will allow callers or temps have strict policies in place regading their use. Pay attention, not a good place to cut corners!

Here are some things to consider before you hire anyone: As you already know, there are a lot of headaches anytime you have to hire anyone period. But in your case, the biggest things I see are training and getting them to do it like you would. Then, there’s the situation of them knowing how to think on their feet if someone throws them a curve ball that they can’t answer on the phone but you could. And the final thing to consider is paying them. With all the crazy new laws, there’s no telling what you would have to pay in terms of insurance . . . etc I would say keep that money in your pocket.

If they aren’t in your office; how are they communicating with you? Email? Will your compliance team be in a snit if they see lead information being generated outside of their control?
How does their caller ID show up to the prospective client or suspect? If it’s THEIR ID - how will they call YOU back? How will their calls back be handled? Who is managing the scripting? Who is doing the followup contact work (emails, mailing, calls, setting appointments, doing confirms, etc.) How is THAT being communicated to you. Are they identifying as calling for you - as someone pointed out, or selling appointments to multiple advisors? Are they breaking DNC laws and is your name in the mix? What if they call on your firm’s clients; firm DNC lists, or one of your colleagues accounts and your name is in the mix? You ready for that battle? I’d like to be in the front row to watch that play out. These are some of the things you’d better know and think about up front.

Based on the responses, this looks like a hot topic. And, there are some very good points made. I have had good results using someone to make calls. Even from offshore sources. However, the targets had to be well defined, no DNC, no accents, and scripted. The key is to remember that the point of Lead Generation is to generate a lead. That’s it. Seems simple, but many try to take it further than that and that’s when things go south. The rest is up to the professional.

WOW, this thread started a year ago, but I thought I would chime in. To those that ranted that the advisor’s job is cold calling, wrong. The advisors’ true job is conveying the credibility and trust desperately needed in a relative short amount of time (half hour meeting) to take over the management of the clients finances. When the advisor is making the calls, this erodes the credibility and trust right out of the chute. ANNNND, NO, the kid/college student you hire to make those initial cold calls do not need to be licensed…unless they are giving any advise or guidance. I do not believe in scripts, but the ‘call template’ they are abiding by should only convey the advisors’ accolades and reason why the person being called would benefit from an initial meeting. I do agree with MRKEVINP, strategic targeting, NO accents, But NOT SOUNDING SCRIPTED. This is the key. And this is where you have to hire the right person. Not to rant further, but this person probably shouldn’t be hired based on typical hiring practices. I don’t care about their grades, their financial experience, or even where they worked prior. I am the target prospect. Am I moved enough that they can get me to leave my home during my free time to come in and talk to a person that I know will try to sell me something?
I came here to help and to make alliances with people I can stand OUTSIDE of my pond. I’m not going to pull punches when hear the spoutings coming from those that sound like some firm’s SALES MANAGER. I have yet to meet one sales manager that has a freakn clue. That goes for compliance too. I’m independent because I finally realized I was independent anyway, and my affiliation with a firm was only hamstringing me. I have never had to be bailed out by a crap bank, for stupidity and misdeeds for example.

ProGun1. I think you are a little off here when you say that cold calling erodes the trust and credibility of the advisor. I think advisor’s believe this story the tell themselves because it gives them an excuse not to call. Every advisor has to prospect and to just sit back and get referrals or hiring someone else to do it for you because it’s so difficult is kind of a cop out in my opinion. To say that the advisor is to too busy to do so is also another cop out. Every advisor can at least carve two hours out of their day to make a few dials. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The hard part is picking up the phone it’s that simple. If you want to hire someone then hire a junior advisor who can help you get in front of someone. If you just hire a cold caller they’ll burn out in a few months and you’ll get nothing from it. Cold calling is a long term commitment and it takes at least six months to land 1 client from it if you are targeting the right people.