Embarassed to admit that i haven't made any new prospecting calls in about 2 weeks.  I've been making some follow up calls only.  Last week I had two meetings that resulted from cold calling.  One of the meeting resulted in transferring in $600K in a managed acct!!  This is my largest acct yet!!  

The second appt was for a $40K annuity.  

These results proved to me that cold calling does work.  You just have to actually do it.  Back to the phones today.

Mondays Calls: 260

Contacts: 44

Prospect: 1

Tuesdays Calls: 172

Contacts: 38

Prospects: 3

Didn't make any calls today.  Had a few client meetings.  Better luck tomorrow.

Had BNI this morning and Rotary this afternoon.  Had a client meeting too.  Was hoping for more time to call but I did manage to set one appt for next week. Tomorrow will be better. I have nothing scheduled besides cold calls.

Todays numbers"

Calls: 80

Contacts: 17

1 set appointment for next Monday!!

Calls: 318

Contacts: 57

Prospects: 0

Its amazing that I dialed the phone 318 times today and I didn't find one interested person...better luck tomorrow.  Planning on coming in tomorrow for a few hours in the morning to make calls.

This was my first Saturday making calls...I always thought people would yell at me for calling on a Saturday but no one said anything!  And I got a lot more people to answer than usual.  23%

Calls: 200

Contacts: 46

Prospects: 4

Appts: 0

I tallied up my numbers for October and Novemeber.

In Oct I made 3944 calls, spoke with 532, and only had one appt and brought in 0 assets.

In Nov I made 1664 calls, spoke with 292 peeps, had 3 appts and converted all to clients.  Brought in $265K with a bit more still in transfer.  I would like to beat this in Dec!!  Wish me luck.

I have lots of email addresses in my database.  Some are given to me when I cold call people, some are from people I meet at networking events and some are from corporate directories.  I would like to send out some type of email once a month or once every 6 weeks to these people.  But I don't know what to send.  I get several long boring newsletters...this isn't what I want to send.  What I am looking for is something that is only one page that is interesting.  Any ideas?  Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

I'll be back on Monday.

Organize! 

You and LS are in the same spot.

Maintain control over your prospects.

You read about the markets all the time, right? So - 500 day war says to batch the materials to read on the weekend. Do that.  If something sparks you as good to send - send it first thing Monday morning.  You can EVEN be really smart and say "Hi there, I read this article over the weekend and it made me think of you".  You can even have it send out at 4:45 AM and they will think you were up early in the morning thinkging about them.

Be sure to send the email blind CC.  People LOVE being thought of, reminded of, etc. and hate a "Hey there" email that goes to 23 other prospects.  In fact, that would be a really good way to lose 23 prospects - so be careful.

Break down your list of contacts to email by type.

You can do this easily with most contact system by adding them to a category - for instance, in outlook.

Create categories like:

Annuity

Bond

IRA/401k rollover - whether they be equity, blend, cons, mod, etc.

Fin Plan

529

Life Ins,

Etc.

Then, create distribution lists of people by type. Name them by type and number.

Annuity1 then add 24 names,

Annuity 2 and add 24names, etc.

Then - when you have a product call to make - run off a list by category - you have a great bond you can pull up a list of ALL the bond prospects to call.  Then print a list of all the bond prospects and call them  all day. 

Got a great Annuity piece because a wholesaler sent you something or your research team wrote a great piece? Then send it to each Annuity distribution list (one list a day to not break the 25 person barrier most firms have) and send it until you have gone through that distribution.

You know, if this were rocket science; we'd be launching rockets.....

What's your closing question and how many times were you able to get to your closing question out of those 800 plus contacts?

Thanks Taking for the feedback.  If I find a good article should I just scan it and attach it?  Will people open it?

King--When I call someone I say Hi this is MGold calling from XYZ firm here in town.  I am calling today because we currently have tax free bonds that are paying %.  Is that something you might be interested in?

If they say yes I try to set an appt.  If they won't set an appt then I say I will send them some info on the bond and tell them that I will follow up in a few days after they have had a chance to review the information.  On the call back I say Hi Mr. Smith This is MGold calling back from XYZ firm.  We had spoke a week ago, and I mailed you some brief information regarding tax free bonds. I wanted to get back in touch to see if there might be a time at your convenience that we could sit down and see if perhaps this investment would have a place in your portfolio.  If on the original call they aren't interested I move on.  

So I don't have an exact closing question.  Any suggestions?

Sounds really good. I know alot of people don't like the "Is that something you might be interested in?" because it's easy to say no, but I like it. Anybody that expresses interest after that question and you have a very legit chance if qualified.

With your process I'm sure you have alot of good prospects to work with, is this right? It sounds like having a stronger close would definitely convert these interested prospects.

Something like "we have X amount of these bonds left (or in inventory), would you like them all?"

 Or, "they sell in increments of X, would you like X today?"

Or, "what do you think so far about the yield of X tax free? Great, do you want to get started at the minimum for now?"

Or simply state the process is actually very simple to get started (if you're closing product), if you have about 10 mins would you like to get started? (works really good when said in a very laid back fashion, but it has to fit your personality)

When selling the appt (I don't really do much of), be sure to emphasize a quick meeting to go highlight a few things.. Or I'll drop off the info you're interested in and highlight a few points when I'm in the area tomorrow at 3 etc. They will likely refuse a long/confusing/pressured meeting. (of course ha)

Another way is explain the application process and give two options and let them pick. "Which way works better for you?"

Same thing when talking about funds, if they ask about fees, explain share classes and let them decide, and proceed with the application. (assumption close, not my fav but works) -- or with div. reinvestment or take the income options, same thing.

Just throwin some ideas out there for people to look at or rewrite, Good luck..

Thanks King!  I appreciate your feedback.  I havve yet to close over the phone without meeting a prospect.  I don't know if I can do it.  I like meeting with people.  I know it takes longer but I like seeing and getting to know my clients.  In November I had three meetings and I turned all three into clients so I had a good conversion ratio...Hopefully this will continue.  But now I just need more appts.  Todays calls sucked.

Calls: 260

Contacts: 49

Prospects: 1

I made follow up calls to 16 people that I have spoken to or mailed info to before.  I got two out of the 16 people to answer and They both told me to call back in January.  

Had office meetings yesterday that i had to attend.  Didn't have a lot of caling time.

CAlls: 105

COntacts: 16

Prospects: 1 but not for awhile.  Called him with a muni bond and said the rate sounded good but won't have any liquidity til April.  Said he has about 500k.   Going to keep in contact with him til then.

Today was a waste.  Met with 401K prospect.  Small account.  Spent more time talking about her credit card debt.  

Calls: 116

Contacts: 17

Prospects: 1

Thursday and Friday will be very busy,  Rotary and BNI tomorrow.  Mandatory compliance meeting on Fri.  Will try to  make as many calls as I can.  I know that I need to just keep plugging along but its hard when I don't even have any booked meetings to go through.  Going to call existing clients to set acct reviews.  Going to try to sell some insurance and see what other assets they all have.

Hey very...very inspirational post. Could you please give me a PM if you feel better about contacting me that way, on how you are getting your leads. I would really appreciate it. Thanks MGold, this is truely wonderful work

Thanks for the comment Harkkam...I have been getting my leads from jigsaw.com.  The site is free.  You create a user name and pass word and it has several large corporate directories from businesses in my area.  For free you can see the address and telephone number...You can pay to see email and a few other items but I don't.  I think the information is added to the site but others so it might not always be completely accurate but for me so far it has been.  I have been calling on two hospitals in the area.  I know that their 401Ks are w Fidelity and they have a really good match but most of these people don't feel like they are getting any service from Fidelity so I am trying to show that I provide that.  And I thought if I called employees from the same company hopefully word of mouth would spread eventually.  I am trying to locate individuals that will be retiring soon and want to moe their 401K when the time comes.

I was calling today but just spilled my bottle of water on my office phone and it won't work now...I think it just needs to dry out for a bit.  Managed to get some calls in before I did that...Klutz.

Calls: 204

Contacts: 21

Prospects: 1

14 of the 204 calls were follow up calls.  I have a really hard time getting people to answer on the 2nd or 3rd follow up call...They ask me to mail them information and then it seems like they just disappear.  Guess I have to be persistent.

Yesterdays Numbers

Calls: 261

Contacts: 40

Prospects: 1

Today I had Rotary and Bni and a client meeting so there wasn't a whole lot of time for calls but I made some...found 0 prospects tho.

Calls: 149

Contacts: 18

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a client that I have had for a little while...She has about 350k with me.  We transferred her money in from SmithBarney...Her husband left his accts there...I want to try to get the husband to transfer in too.  I have never met the husband in my office and I don't really know how to approach the situation.  I have seen the statements and he has about 1 million.  She has told me that she has suggested to her husband in the past that he use me, but he hasn't done anything about it..I will bring it up tomorrow and hopefully we can figure something out.

Calls: 249

Contacts: 39

Spoke with 2 people who said they just reinvested there CD money and wished I had called them last week!!  So frustrating.  So I have several people that i have spoke with in the past that asked me to mail them info...then when I call back I can never get a hold of them,...so I want to send them some information in the meantime...everyone talks about dripping but I don't know exactly what to send...market research?  I don't want it to be too heavy or boring...just something so they see my name again.  Any suggestions?

I have no appts scheduled for next week with new prospects...kinda bummed about that. 

Planning on coming in tomorrow to make some calls...have a Rotary volunteer event at 6 Am but that should be over by 9 or 10 so I can come in after that.

Happy to Holidays are almost over and its time to get back to work.  

Yesterdays numbers:

New Calls: 265

Contacts: 38

I also tried following up with people that have requested info in the past.  I called 18 of these people and only spoke with 2 that said they were going to pass right now...at least I can take them off the list but wasn't the answer I was hoping for.

Yesterday I started writing down every response I got when I pitched the bond...Over the weekend I am going to look through this forum to  see how others have replied to these common objections.

I made a new list yesterday...I am excited to give it a shot...Its all business numbers....so far I have only been calling residences.  Thinking its time to switch it up.  

Can you give us an update on where you are with your business at this point?

AUM, Years in Business, Avg. account size

Sure SC

AUM: $2.1M

Started in the business in June 2011, so about 6 months in

I have 47 households so thats about $44K per household.

Whats with all the narcissism on this site?