Raising AUM - vets only
34 RepliesJump to last post
The only number that will always be variable is the assets of the account. Typically it take me 94 dials to set an appt. and 426 dials to open an account(though some of those accounts are no where near $300,000…) There are others on this forum that will tell you the same(I started tracking once I saw TAKINGNAMES numbers to see if i could beat it).
But some accounts are $25k (bond orders,fixed annuity…etc). so it would take quite a bit more calls to get to $6 million for the year…
Ok - First thing Tuesday morning I'll be cold calling. What's the pitch to make these numbers work?
Who are you calling? What time of the day etc. I'm calling business owners with a muni pitch and the numbers are ok but not as good as yours. Your assistance would be appreciated. It just seems to me that if those numbers where true there would be no brokers failing.The problem is most brokers don’t get to the second day of calling, nevermind the second week or month.
I had a friend call for 2 days and tell me it didn’t work…
Keep in mind my numbers are average… so even though I average an apppt every 94 dials, sometimes i go for 200-300 with nothing, then bang, bang , bang…so being an average skews the numbers on a day to day basis…
I don’t call business owners(yeah I know I should, but not a lot in my area). I call corporate directories and residential…
My residential pitch, is as basic as Bill Goods, I call on a shorter maturity with a rate that is double the current 3 year rate and is insured…
[quote=Herman Munster]
Northfield - Are you telling us that you're gathering $6,000,000 per year in new assets ($500,000 per month) with four hours of cold calling per week? <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
There's no f_ing way those numbers are right. The day I start believing that is the day I'm sending $1,000 checks to a TV preacher for holy water.
Who are you calling? What’s pitch?
I’ve been cold calling for years. It works but you need to crank out massive numbers. One hour per day is not going to do it unless you’re calling your wealthy family.
[/quote] Yes, these numbers are accurate and time tested. The caveat is the variability of the average account size. $300k is the average I use because that is what my average clients gained from cold calling turns into. Not always immediately, sometimes after 2-3 years of developing, sometimes after 6 months. If your just selling an initial product (ie muni, preferred, CD, etc) and don't go back almost immediately to develop the relationship, then your average account size is maybe $50k. Also, cold calling is almost never going to bear fruit unless you do it consistently, religiously for 2-3 months. Most folks simply give up long before then. The original poster was looking for advice to jump start his biz and generate asset flow between now and the end of the year. Cold calling is the best route to get this accomplished imo.[quote=chief123]The problem is most brokers don’t get to the second day of calling, nevermind the second week or month.
I had a friend call for 2 days and tell me it didn’t work…
Keep in mind my numbers are average… so even though I average an apppt every 94 dials, sometimes i go for 200-300 with nothing, then bang, bang , bang…so being an average skews the numbers on a day to day basis…
I don’t call business owners(yeah I know I should, but not a lot in my area). I call corporate directories and residential…
My residential pitch, is as basic as Bill Goods, I call on a shorter maturity with a rate that is double the current 3 year rate and is insured…
[/quote]
+1… over the past few years I have hired 98 people, more than once I have had them get up to go to the bathroom with in an hour or two only to disappear… maybe they are still in there… this isn’t even accounting for what Chief is talking about, 1 or 2 days or a week and then giving it up…
we did a little experiment in the office earlier in the year, anytime a guy hung up on one of us or blew one of us off (without saying never call back) we traded those names at the end of the day and with in a week one of us would call that number again (always businesses)…
more than 60% of the time the guy was qualified on that call and/or listened to an idea… I was talking w/ one of my guys, who calls them back now himself, and he claims he has over 5 accounts of guys who originally, or at one point, hung up on him…
persistence does pay but so does not getting offended if someone is too busy to talk… be persistent, and reasonable, and I can assure you will see what I am saying is true…
I assume that you’re going to keep your market focus the same, if so
the cold calling does work but Chief is right. You have to do it long
enough for it to bear fruit. (And A+ to him for keeping stats!) If
you want to change your market focus, figure out a way to adapt Sam
Richter’s Book to recruiting clients instead of businesses- it’s “Take
the Cold out of Cold Calling”.
If your focus remains the same, I offer some perspective from the other side of your office. Many moons ago I was a sales assistant to a rep who was only making $1.5M a year with two assistants. (He’s up to $6M a year and 5 assistants in two states, but that is another story.) I’ve also worked on the sales desks at product providers.
Assistants will make or break you getting to the next level. The fact that you’re even hired them is a great move, but take a long, cold brutal look at what you have them doing. This is provided that they’re no wasting their entire day on forum boards… Can’t tell you how many seriously bad assistants I’ve wasted my time with or ones that were little more than monkeys. You might believe how many reps I’ve dealt with that claimed that they’re not making enough or no AUM rolling in the door only to give their assistants no real responsibility or worse, micromanage them to death. Do they only answer the phone and file? Can they communicate clearly, in writing and aloud? Do you find yourself taking over their tasks? Are they licensed/registered? Paid peanuts? Do they know what AUM even is? Do they know how to reinforce the sale every time they talk to the client? Are they aware that they should be?
Dave didn’t get to where he is by accident. When I worked for him, the division of labor was clear and was spelled out to the client. He was the brain trust, developed their plan and presented it for the sale. (The planning department created the physical plan based on his specs.) That’s all he did. The assistants did literally everything else, and were paid accordingly. He would get involved if there was a problem we couldn’t handle, but that was rare. He NEVER filled out paperwork, we did it all in advance of the close. Once the client had bought, we walked them through singing paperwork and what it all meant. We followed up on the business and communicated status to the clients. Leveraged resources to fix issues and communicated that too. We were the experts. He even told the client this. Our knowledge level rose accordingly, and so did his comp and AUM.
The best asssistants are the ones that have the sales skills to be reps but can’t handle the pressure of a commission only income. They should have the potential to take your low level activities off your plate but tailor it to your focus. Have them do some of the calling and qualifying of your prospects. Have one become a paraplanner. Get one registered so you don’t have to take the unsolicted trades calls.
Let the bashing begin…
Dave is the producer I worked for.
Katherine Vessness offers more detail here on the same office set up. http://www.producersweb.com/r/VA/d/contentFocus/?adcID=bb9a030313a881b2f02b1bba7251406f
is that some code?
Anyone else read “Take the cold out of cold calling”… looks interesting(as all those books do).
Uh, no. Waywrd1 is her screen name (I’m guessing an Alter Bridge fan!). ECA is just the name of the company. Not sure what it stands for.