Prospects
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Just curious where does everyone get their prospects? Does anyones firm provide lists, if so which firms?
I am a guy willing to work 14 hour days and I enjoy cold calling (as much as humanly possible) but I am trying to contact business owners and I am struggling to find prospects.
Any help is appreciated. Oh, I am also currently broke.
I work in a bank. I stick my hand out my door and catch the money as it flies by. I was once broke, too.
In your building, when you get off of the elevator on the 12th floor, you go to the right to get to your office. If you go to the left, there are two more businesses, both of them have owners. On the 11th floor, there are 6 business owners. On the 10th floor.....
Now when you leave your building go to the left and you'll see that there are 14 businesses on the next block. The following block has 12 businesses. When you get to the next street, make another left, you'll find 22 businesses in the next block.
Now, are you sure that you are struggling to find business owners?
[quote=Moneyguy877]Just curious where does everyone get their prospects? Does anyones firm provide lists, if so which firms?
I am a guy willing to work 14 hour days and I enjoy cold calling (as much as humanly possible) but I am trying to contact business owners and I am struggling to find prospects.
Any help is appreciated. Oh, I am also currently broke.
[/quote]
You may be tempted to dismiss anonymous’ response as simply a flippant or funny remark, but that would be a mistake. Well not the part about it being funny, but the part about dismissing it as flippant.
Once you really accept to your problem is not FINDING prospects but actively TALKING with them, you will be on the cusp of a huge breakthrough. If you allow yourself to believe that your problem is simply FINDING them, it’s much easier to make excuses to yourself about how you can’t be blamed for not being able to find any prospects - and if you can’t find them, what else CAN you do?
But once you accept that they are EVERYWHERE around you, you can’t let yourself off so easily as now the question becomes what are you DOING to talk with them? If instead of being simply “willing” to work 14 hours a day, you actually DO work long days, AND you spend most of that time talking with prospects or fighting to talk with them, you will see results.
You know, now that I think about it, you guys are right. Coming in I was willing to work hard to sell but i didn’t think I would have to work hard to find people to sell to.
I guess if making it in this business were easy everyone would do it, I was just shocked when I was told to make my own prospect list rather then given one. But I’ll find a way to get it done.
[quote=Moneyguy877]You know, now that I think about it, you guys are right. Coming in I was willing to work hard to sell but i didn’t think I would have to work hard to find people to sell to.
I guess if making it in this business were easy everyone would do it, I was just shocked when I was told to make my own prospect list rather then given one. But I’ll find a way to get it done. [/quote]
Not to beat a dead horse, but I want to be sure you are really clear on the subtle but critical distinction anonymous made and I tried to reinforce, because in your latest post you’re STILL complaining about how hard it is to FIND people.
You do NOT have to work hard to FIND prospects, especially business owner prospects - they are all around you, as anon said. Everywhere you look are businesses. ON this corner, down the block, around the corner , etc. Voila - you FOUND them. Easy.
The hard part is getting to TALK to them and close them. But if you think your problem is FINDING them, you’ll be taking your eye off the ball of trying to talk with all the people all around you.
Got it now?
And don’t worry that you were not given a prospect list. Lists are just that - lists. There’s a much bigger list called the phone book. That’s a list too. Too many want to believe that some magical list exists where you just have to call people up and take their orders, but it doesn’t happen that way. You can buy lists from lots of places, or get wholesalers to give you lists, but the point is this: it’s not about the list, it’s about YOU.
How long have you been at the firm before they “took away” your leads? Firms either give you leads or they don’t.
[quote=lambda]How long have you been at the firm before they “took away” your leads? Firms either give you leads or they don’t.[/quote]
I don’t see where he ever said his firm took away leads - just that he thought they were going to give them to him and they didn’t.
Yes, they never provided leads, they did not take them away. Just curious do any firms actually provide leads and if so who does, wirehouses? I don’t know why I assumed that they all did, maybe I saw to many movies.
I work for a fairly large regional firm.
Morphius, I get what your saying, your right, the prospects are out there, I just have to figure out the best way to talk to them.
I think I will try some door knocking even though I am young (22) and don’t work for Edward Jones. Do you guys have any other suggestions on how to get myself in front of people?
[quote=anonymous]
In your building, when you get off of the elevator on the 12th floor, you go to the right to get to your office. If you go to the left, there are two more businesses, both of them have owners. On the 11th floor, there are 6 business owners. On the 10th floor.....
Now when you leave your building go to the left and you'll see that there are 14 businesses on the next block. The following block has 12 businesses. When you get to the next street, make another left, you'll find 22 businesses in the next block.
Now, are you sure that you are struggling to find business owners?
[/quote] Good post!+1 on this one too![quote=Morphius] [quote=Moneyguy877]Just curious where does everyone get their prospects? Does anyones firm provide lists, if so which firms?
I am a guy willing to work 14 hour days and I enjoy cold calling (as much as humanly possible) but I am trying to contact business owners and I am struggling to find prospects.
Any help is appreciated. Oh, I am also currently broke.
[/quote]
You may be tempted to dismiss anonymous’ response as simply a flippant or funny remark, but that would be a mistake. Well not the part about it being funny, but the part about dismissing it as flippant.
Once you really accept to your problem is not FINDING prospects but actively TALKING with them, you will be on the cusp of a huge breakthrough. If you allow yourself to believe that your problem is simply FINDING them, it’s much easier to make excuses to yourself about how you can’t be blamed for not being able to find any prospects - and if you can’t find them, what else CAN you do?
But once you accept that they are EVERYWHERE around you, you can’t let yourself off so easily as now the question becomes what are you DOING to talk with them? If instead of being simply “willing” to work 14 hours a day, you actually DO work long days, AND you spend most of that time talking with prospects or fighting to talk with them, you will see results.
[/quote]
Good post Morph.
On calling business owners:
There is a huge manufacturing business in our area that sits just off a major interstate highway. Working in large offices for most of my career as much as I try to keep my client's names confidential word gets out. A switchboard operator might announce that they are on the phone ( a no no but it happens) or they might stop in, or someone gets good at reading upside down. Regardless, word gets out. Over the years when other advisors hear that the owners of the huge manufacturing company are my clients they say "I was going to call them" or "I was going to stop in to see them." Such is the way with highly visible businesses. The difference between me and all these other advisors? I did call the owners of that business. And because I did, over the twenty years plus that they've been my clients I've done hundreds of thousands of dollars in production with them. I started with one partner, a $25,000 muni sale, and an admonition not to call back, he had 5 brokers and didn't need another, and that this one sale was a one shot deal. With nothing to lose, I called back 3 weeks later and did a $27,000 stock trade. The rest is history. Moral of story: Make the callI don't want to downplay the success EDJ has with doorknocking, but you can't just "try" it. It's just like any other marketing campaign. It takes time, effort, and some sweat equity to make it work. And you still have to call them after you get them. Let's make some assumptions. Let's say you want to get 5 new prospects a day. Sounds simple enough. In my area, 1 in 5 houses has someone home at any given time. So, just to get to talk to 5 people you have to ring 25 doorbells. Let's say that for every 5 people you talk to you get 1 good prospect. So, now you have to actually talk to 25 people to get to your 5 good prospects. Now we're up to 125 houses to get to just 5 good prospects. If you only average 3 minutes per house (which includes some decent conversation with those 5 good prospects) your looking at 6.25 hours to find those 5 prospects. Like I said, you can't just "try" doorknocking. It does work. Some days you might only get 1 good prospect. Some days you might get 10. You just never know. Oh yeah, you won't land all of those 5 prospects you're shooting for each day. You might get 2. And some of those will take years to finally turn. More power to you if you want to doorknock.Yes, they never provided leads, they did not take them away. Just curious do any firms actually provide leads and if so who does, wirehouses? I don’t know why I assumed that they all did, maybe I saw to many movies.
I work for a fairly large regional firm.
Morphius, I get what your saying, your right, the prospects are out there, I just have to figure out the best way to talk to them.
I think I will try some door knocking even though I am young (22) and don’t work for Edward Jones. Do you guys have any other suggestions on how to get myself in front of people?
the whole “list” thing is a huge mistake to me. sit down and right your own “list” of the types of businesses you want to work with. surely you frequent 3-4 places routinely. have a dry cleaner? go there and introduce yourself. local family restaurant where you eat once a month? go there.
nobody is ever going to give you a list that is remotely better than anything you created yourself. and it will not offer a better success rate than you would get doing the STRATEGIC doorknocking plan of action. either start calling from the phone book or start walking down the street in a commercial area.man we need a “correct” feature after the fact. i do know the difference between right and write.
Use the "post options" on the upper right of your post.man we need a “correct” feature after the fact. i do know the difference between right and write.
Here you go … https://www.lordabbett.com/us/home.jsp?act=home&site=broker a list that is quality & FREE. No more list to worry about. Click in the Intelligence picture, sign up and rock on.
Start dialing.