[quote=newregrep]

WEST it's so good to hear from you.  Ricky stopped posting on this board, and I'm a little saddened.

How are you doing numbers wise?

[/quote]

To be honest, I have not been keeping track of my dials anymore.  I have been trying to concentrate on contacts, my daily goal is 50 contacts per day, but I have been averaging about 20-25.  I am dialing though Gryphon, so if I really wanted to find out my dials per day I could.  I would think that it probably is around 200 dials per day.  I have been leaving voicemails, so that takes away time from dialing.  I have a very little response rate to the voicemails that I leave, but something is better than nothing, right? 

How much assets have you gathered so far?  Considering you are still dialing and have a job, you must be doing OK!

Westwood, Ricky, NewRegRep and anybody else new to this game (lets face it until we have a book, its a game),

I've commented on a couple of your posts but have not really introduced myself. I too just started cold calling.  I appreciate all your posts because it feels good to know i'm not the only one feeling like crap one day and great another and trying to make numbers goals on contacts and dials.  Although i'm at a large firm, i'm the only one that is new and prospecting. rest of the FA's seem to just do referral business which is where i hope to get to. 

I see it helps you guys to have these posts to keep yourselves accountable and motivated and i think its a great tool.  What i propose is we work together to keep each other motivated, accountable, and reaching for higher goals in a slightly more formal way.   we can open up a shared google doc that tracks our statistics that we update at the end of each day and we can share ideas with each other.  i know in this business theres a lot of secrecy to keeping your best tricks to yourself but honestly i think  we're all in different geographic markets so doubtful that we'll be calling the same prospects.  you can still stay pretty anonymous by just creating a new google ID that isn't what you currently use if that is important to you.

might be a stupid idea but let me know your thoughts.  i find these forums helpful but the format of them is hard to keep track and i'd rather spend my day calling than flowing through hundreds of messages.

[quote=smokey]

Westwood, Ricky, NewRegRep and anybody else new to this game (lets face it until we have a book, its a game),

I've commented on a couple of your posts but have not really introduced myself. I too just started cold calling.  I appreciate all your posts because it feels good to know i'm not the only one feeling like crap one day and great another and trying to make numbers goals on contacts and dials.  Although i'm at a large firm, i'm the only one that is new and prospecting. rest of the FA's seem to just do referral business which is where i hope to get to. 

I see it helps you guys to have these posts to keep yourselves accountable and motivated and i think its a great tool.  What i propose is we work together to keep each other motivated, accountable, and reaching for higher goals in a slightly more formal way.   we can open up a shared google doc that tracks our statistics that we update at the end of each day and we can share ideas with each other.  i know in this business theres a lot of secrecy to keeping your best tricks to yourself but honestly i think  we're all in different geographic markets so doubtful that we'll be calling the same prospects.  you can still stay pretty anonymous by just creating a new google ID that isn't what you currently use if that is important to you.

might be a stupid idea but let me know your thoughts.  i find these forums helpful but the format of them is hard to keep track and i'd rather spend my day calling than flowing through hundreds of messages.

[/quote]

that sounds good.  I agree with you Smokey, PM me and we can schedule this together. 

I'll send you something tonight, in the meantime anyone else who is interested, speak up. it can be like a fantasy football league for new advisors, except it really counts.

I'd be interested in doing this...I am fairly new to prospecting as well.  Please include me on the details in a PM and we can be in touch that way.

I've gotten a bunch of messages already so here is what probably is the easiest thing to do. I'll set this up using Google Doc's. Anybody who is interested, PM me their google ID that they want to use for this (again you can create one just for this to maintain anonymity..., and I will share the file with those google ID's that I get). I'll create a basic template in excel and a word document that we can share ideas on.  I'm not 100% fluent with google docs so i'm not sure if it HAS to be a google id or just any old email address.

Obviously with everyone having collaborator rights, anybody can change any number so lets agree to abide by some sort of ethical standards, at the very least not change each others stuff....and be honest with your own.

i'm thinking of getting this formally kicked off on Jan 2nd because if you've been out there calling right now, with holidays on peoples minds, people seem to be a little more impatient on the phone, or my own attitude sucks but success rates are way down for me.

to summarize,  action item for you, if you're interested, PM me your Google ID and we'll move from there.

Hey guys, I will help you, be a cheerleader for you.

A good number of years ago, I went to a national meeting, the key note speaker that year was talking about something like your proposal.

The idea, is to have a partner, and be personally accountable and in touch with each other. You identify goals, production, and activities that generate the results. It is intense, like getting into a work out schedule. The chances of success are high.

One thing I'd say, is you must truly, and I mean TRULY be committed to your success. So, have no B plan in life, give that crap up... Shave your head, get a tatoo, yell it out the window, "being a financial advisor is who you are for life".

No quitting, no "bad days", no fear. Have a plan, then just EXECUTE it. Fear comes from lack of action, as a busy man never has time to be afraid. 

KILL< KILL<KILL!

For musical motivation, go to youtube and watch (Raised Fist, Friends and Traitors)... You'll need it.

Thanks for the support BFP!

Smokey:   I'll make an ID tonight and PM you.  This is a great thing we're doing guys!! I'm excited to keep a log of our journey and one day we will break out of our resistance level and succeed!

Cheers!!

what metrics should we use? luckily with holidays coming up, there will be some time to set this up so lets set it up correctly, although as anything, it will probably change with time...

the metrics i currently use are:

# Dials - (while annoying to track, its a good thing to monitor to see how many dials it takes to get you to the numbers you want on the below metrics)

#contacts (how do you want to define a contact?) my firm defines it as on the phone for more than 30 seconds, i define it as someone who at least has given me permission to call back, email or mail

#leads (again how to define) is this once you qualify a contact

#appointments (face to face or phone appointments where you actually discuss material things

#accounts open (pretty obvious)

any other suggestions? (emails, mail sent, seminars, networking activities?) or do you want to keep it simply cold calling.  i've found i have to have at least 4-5 prospecting activities to keep sane, but we don't have to include those. 

i've gotten a couple google ID's so far but the more people we get involved, the more interesting this will be so start sending those ID's.  i'll most likely set this up on the weekend.

This is how I define different metrics in my own practice...this is just how I've done it, so maybe just think about it as food for thought:

1. # of Dials: (obvious)

2. # of Contacts: I consider a contact as someone who listens to my pitch and then gives me an answer.  For example, I start my pitch as "are you and investor?, and if so, would you be open to a new idea?" If I get past this point, I qualify that as a contact.

3. # of Leads: Also # of prospects...I qualify someone as a prospect if they let me send them information.

4. # of Appointments: Obvious...mine are all phone appointments.

5. # of Accounts Open: Again...obvious.

I think it would be a good idea that, before we start, people outline their initial phone call scripts, who they're calling, and follow-up process(materials mailed, when to go for appointment, frequency of contact, etc etc).  This way we can get a good critique before starting to track on the 2nd.

Thoughts?

[quote=ComBroker]

This is how I define different metrics in my own practice...this is just how I've done it, so maybe just think about it as food for thought:

1. # of Dials: (obvious)

2. # of Contacts: I consider a contact as someone who listens to my pitch and then gives me an answer.  For example, I start my pitch as "are you and investor?, and if so, would you be open to a new idea?" If I get past this point, I qualify that as a contact.

3. # of Leads: Also # of prospects...I qualify someone as a prospect if they let me send them information.

4. # of Appointments: Obvious...mine are all phone appointments.

5. # of Accounts Open: Again...obvious.

I think it would be a good idea that, before we start, people outline their initial phone call scripts, who they're calling, and follow-up process(materials mailed, when to go for appointment, frequency of contact, etc etc).  This way we can get a good critique before starting to track on the 2nd.

Thoughts?

Hey guys,

I think this is a great idea. I will also set up a google id today. I will also reach out to Ricky because I think it'll be great to have all the callers on this forum.

Sounding interesting.  I will PM you guys.

finally should dollars be tracked? Assets brought in? Net new assets? AUM? however yu want to define it?

I would be open to that, but I am also not an FA.  I trade my client accounts which will be mainly transactional, and of course the payout from everyone else(assuming you guys are all FAs) will be much different.

For what we are doing together, I will be mainly fund-raising for a managed futures program(at first) and then will look to bring in AUM for myself.

I don't mind sharing exact assets brought in, incentives collected, commissions collected, etc etc

Dollars should definitely be tracked.  I will have all these information by this weekend, why don't we all agree on a time to set this up, let's say by sunday evening?

1) # of dials

2) Who are you calling, and how? (product vs service, your minimum $)

3) # of contacts (whether or not they are interested)

4) # of prospects (qualified for dollar, interest and willingness to invest)

5) # of appointments

6) # of accounts opened

7) Monthly AUM.

Let me know your thoughts gentlemen.

the setup should be easy, just an excel document with the metrics that we've agreed on.  Each rep will fill out their daily numbers and we can see whats working and whats not.  Sunday is a good deadline.

[quote=newregrep]

Dollars should definitely be tracked.  I will have all these information by this weekend, why don't we all agree on a time to set this up, let's say by sunday evening?

1) # of dials

2) Who are you calling, and how? (product vs service, your minimum $)

3) # of contacts (whether or not they are interested)

4) # of prospects (qualified for dollar, interest and willingness to invest)

5) # of appointments

6) # of accounts opened

7) Monthly AUM.

Let me know your thoughts gentlemen.

[/quote]

I agree with this, especially your definition of whats a 'contact' and whats a 'prospect'.  I have not been qualifying my prospects thus far, leading to A LOT of wasted time and effort.

i've got about 4 or 5 google ID's now. Who I dont have is rickey and newregrep, or bigfirepower if you're just interested in monitoring it.  please send it soon or let me know if you're not joining. also open to anyone else who reads this.

I'd love to charge you each $50 to play and give the total to the winner but unfortunately there is no possible ways of checks and balances to it will just have to be integrity with no prize at the end other than your own success :)

I know the $50 buy in made my fantasy football season a lot more interesting...

Guys, I'll volunteer myself to mentor, be a sounding board, referee, etc.

If you guys are doing "activity" based goal setting, make sure NOTHING is subjective.

For example, what is a "prospect"? That is subjective unless clearly defined.

Contacts, dials, appointments, new accounts, aum, gdc, those are not subjective. 

If I was doing your project, I'd create a point system for each, as a way of leveling the playing field. That way you can go for total score, and do a little bit of apples to oranges comparisons. Granted, your first effort might need some tweaking later, so be flexible.

If anyone needs confidential communication, by all means PM me.