When you say annuitize your business are you simply referring to doing fee-based biz and C - Shares?  

[quote=KingBobby]

[quote=FADavo]I have had 90 dials take me 5.5 hours before - no joke.  I have also blown through 150 dials in 2.5 hours - all seems to depend on the number of gatekeepers and then number of actual contacts.[/quote]

Dude, you're taking way too long, and you said you have to 'step up your closing for appointments?' What are you chatting about? You should easily get through 90 dials in less than 2 hours. Call and close for what you're calling about, (appt., product info, bond sale etc). Plenty of time to chat them up after they're clients or they rightfully take advantage of your offer.

[/quote]

whoa whoa whoa...  Do you know the details of those 90 calls?  Do you know my contact ratio?  Do you know anything about what I do on the phone or why those calls took so long?  Seems a bit presumptuous...

As in, if I told you I talked to 45 people, created 8 prospects (2 of which I have closed for over 7 figures total) that I qualified on the phone, that day,  for a total of almost $3 million and added an additional 3 people to a drip list?  

I understand that most would look at my numbers and say they are "down" because my dials are not high, but thats because I am a champion list maker and on bad days my contact ratio is 20%.  My average contact ratio over the last month is almost 30%.  Im pretty good at getting past gatekeepers and I am very good at making lists that have no bad numbers.  I bet I only get a fax machine or dead person once out of every 150-200 dials.

I think your "thoughts" are predicated on a paradigm "average" created in your head or in the industry as a whole.  Thats fine, but it doesn't apply universally.  

That day was the absolute best cold calling day I have ever had thus far (in my infant career).  

I understand this is a numbers game but, though I am "new", I picked up very quickly that DIALS mean absolutely nothing.  You can dial 4500 numbers a week and get nothing accomplished other than get a trophy for the rawest fingertips.  The "numbers" that matter in this "numbers game" are those that count how many people you talk to.  Thats it.  You can take the rest of the freaking numbers and shove them.

Dials numbers (Y) as you see them on this website represent nothing more than the average that it commonly takes someone to reach X number of people, X being the number you need to succeed.  You are simply looking at the wrong variable.  Y doesnt matter.  X is all that matters, and beyond X its how many people you close out of X.  

If I can Dial half the numbers, talk to twice as many people and close 50% better than the average person, than who gives a shiz how many dials I make? 

also, I will add that 45 minutes of that was spent with a person that eventually ended up literally ASKING if I would help them with there 750K in investments while they ran their business that is going to kick another 6 figures a year at us to manage.  

Time well spent?

[quote=FADavo]

whoa whoa whoa...  Do you know the details of those 90 calls?  Do you know my contact ratio?  Do you know anything about what I do on the phone or why those calls took so long?  Seems a bit presumptuous...

I think your "thoughts" are predicated on a paradigm "average" created in your head or in the industry as a whole.  Thats fine, but it doesn't apply universally.  

[/quote]

No moron, my advice was based on you saying this,

"I need to step up my closing for appointments.  I feel like I have been soft about it lately.  Still getting some results, but my numbers have been down (dials) which means my results have been down..."

^^ If that's not true and you're ratio's are in fact solid, then disregard my advice and go on feeling better. Cheers.

Cool, so you made the assumptions and I am the moron.  Got ya.  Carry on.

FYI, this is generally a thread for encouragement, not one where we attach pre-existing notions to people we don't know.  

I admitted that I need to close better.  How that relates to my best and worst day is the same way Ted Williams AVERAGE batting average relates to his best day (hitting 5 home runs in 6 at bats) and his worst day (striking out 5 times).  That is, there is nearly ZERO correlation and absolutely no causation.

Making assumptions is one of the three things I promise my clients I will never do, which is one of the reasons they love me.  

So call me a moron all you want.  I'll wager my Doctorate and acquisition rate says otherwise.  

[quote=FADavo]

Cool, so you made the assumptions and I am the moron.  Got ya.  Carry on.

[/quote]

You said you need to step up your closing and that your numbers are down. You followed that with,

"I have had 90 dials take me 5.5 hours before - no joke.  I have also blown through 150 dials in 2.5 hours - all seems to depend on the number of gatekeepers and then number of actual contacts. "

Anybody with a lick of successful call experience would be able to quickly decipher your problem here. If you didn't preclude your activity by saying your numbers are down, closing is down etc, I'd think ok, it's different but working for him. But that wasn't the case. Going forward I'll be sure not to direct advice or possibilities of improvement your way champ.

I hate to see a really upbeat thread ruined by childishly snide pokes.  In addition, calling someone a moron due to a misunderstanding seems radical.  C'mon guys.  Don't make reading this thread a poor use of our time.  Great effort All The Way!

[quote=Itainteasy]

I hate to see a really upbeat thread ruined by childishly snide pokes.  In addition, calling someone a moron due to a misunderstanding seems radical.  C'mon guys.  Don't make reading this thread a poor use of our time.  Great effort All The Way!

[/quote]

What a valuable post, keep up the great work!

Just taking a few minutes away from the Super Bowl to update…been a while. I’m in the rhythm and getting ahead with this blitz. Been booking meetings and finally this week got some closing meetings. I said that I was going to nail between 10-15M in new assets from cold calling by June 22nd and I will…..

I’ll update on a more regular basis and to keep it simple. I will only mention meetings booked and business done and won’t post contacts and prospects as just to keep it focused of the key aspects…

I just wanted to thank all of you for your support and look forward to reading about all of your successes going forward.

 Appreciations to KingBobby, Harkham, TheMachine, MadMatt, Push Forward, Albertp86, DTA, 6yearsin, ECD, BondGuy, FADavo, YounGun, LongShot and Itaineasy for your comments…..helps keep this guy going when the call sheets look a mile long and the dial fingers starts to hurt……..All The Best to you All

All The Way.

Thanks for the mention ATW.  I have been doing a call campaign myself.  Made the list myself, and has been pretty rich so far.  Good contact and qualified prospect lead ratio.  There is not really enough data to say these are statistically significant, but so far I have had a 32% contact ratio, and of those 21% are qualified prospects.  So dials to prospect ration is about 7%.  My goal is to get 5 prospects a day...qualified for money and interest.  If it takes 5 dials on one day and 400 the next who cares?  Bottom line is to get the prospects and put them in the pipeline.  I will keep doing this until I get 100 solid prospects that are actively followed up and closed for business.  It is essentially Mullens model from "Million Dollar Financial Services Practice".  Rock and roll and keep dialing!

This is really starting to look good. Been getting pretty good at getting new meetings from the cold calls and now i'm doing the 2nd-3rd closing ones. Got 200K done this evening and must say....it's taken a sh#& load of work and stuff to get confident with the process.

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for all the encouragement....there;s a big hill to climb till the summer and time flies by....so back on the phones in the morning.....just want to get 10-15M done by then and catch my breath......hope everyone is having a good week....keep working...

All The Way

Pretty good week.

Got 200K in new assets.

Did 4 new meetings this week with about 1.4M is potential business, and got 5 meetings booked for next week. so all in all, a good week.

Next week, the goal is to book 8 new meetings during the week from cold calls and open another new account. Momentum is building and good prospects are coming in so this should be an interesting end of month.

Good weekend to all

All The Way

Great posts. How are you building your cold call lists? are you purchasing them? my branch manager is getting me a list to split with the other trainees, we'll end up with about 1,300 each but that won't last me very long. Thanks!

Ulairi,

Yeah….I build my own residential lists. Takes longer but I know the areas. More often than not, the calls hit the homes that fit my market. I only call homes that are no more than 20 minutes drive to the office.

Usually I get my first meeting booked from a cold call after about 25 contacts. And out of 100 calls I get about a 30 contact hit rate…takes time to build a list, but all my meetings are held in my office so I stick to homes that are close to the office. So far it is working.

And yes...1300 names will go fast so best to get something up and running to keep the calls flowing....

Good luck with your efforts, keep us posted.

All The Way

[quote=All The Way]

Ulairi,

Yeah….I build my own residential lists. Takes longer but I know the areas. More often than not, the calls hit the homes that fit my market. I only call homes that are no more than 20 minutes drive to the office.

Usually I get my first meeting booked from a cold call after about 25 contacts. And out of 100 calls I get about a 30 contact hit rate…takes time to build a list, but all my meetings are held in my office so I stick to homes that are close to the office. So far it is working.

And yes...1300 names will go fast so best to get something up and running to keep the calls flowing....

Good luck with your efforts, keep us posted.

All The Way

[/quote]

Great job ATW you are killing it.  What script are you using right now to get people into your office off a cold call?  I have been using a preffereds script but am not having much luck getting second contacts.  Would love trying something new for a little while to mix it up

[quote=BigRedFan]

[quote=All The Way]

Ulairi,

Yeah….I build my own residential lists. Takes longer but I know the areas. More often than not, the calls hit the homes that fit my market. I only call homes that are no more than 20 minutes drive to the office.

Usually I get my first meeting booked from a cold call after about 25 contacts. And out of 100 calls I get about a 30 contact hit rate…takes time to build a list, but all my meetings are held in my office so I stick to homes that are close to the office. So far it is working.

And yes...1300 names will go fast so best to get something up and running to keep the calls flowing....

Good luck with your efforts, keep us posted.

All The Way

[/quote]

Great job ATW you are killing it.  What script are you using right now to get people into your office off a cold call?  I have been using a preffereds script but am not having much luck getting second contacts.  Would love trying something new for a little while to mix it up

[/quote]

What are you pitching on your calls? I'm pitching fed tax exempt income and I get pretty good responses with that.

Greetings to my buddy Cold-Callers,

Had a good day. Booked a new meeting and had  a meeting, got the Ok to present a proposal next week, could be 300K.

Also got 2 meetings in the morning, going to get an agreement to make a proposal for 80K and the second meeting is to sign 70K.

Been slugging away, truth is....a bit tired...got crap hitting the wall because i didn't build enough business and I'm off the dole. Oh well......as Pacino said to that young lawyer in The Devils Advocate....how to you deal with pressure......take a BIG WIFF.....I'm going all the way....all the way.

All The Way...I said

Ok, picked up the 70K this morning and got the other prospect receptive to review a proposal for 80K. Tomorrow...no meetings and a clear day of cold calling , calls backs and appointment setting.

Got some momentum going, hopefuuly will get some meetings with bigger prospects to build AUM faster...either way......just  focussing on activities and not thinking much of anything else...it all adds up and sales attract sales...so R-I-N-G...R-I-N-G.

All The Way

Are you leaving voice mails on cold calls? I'm thinking about trying just leaving my name, my firm, and that I would like them to call me back at my number. It just adds 30 seconds to a call and if they do call back at least I'll know they have interest, which is one of the big three requirements I have. Just wondering if you've tried that and have had any luck.