Thanks Prospect and Judge. My point in the thread is not me cutting out the middle man, but my clients giving the veteran FAs referral business and not me. I have no problems working in a team and quite honestly I excelled in team based approach while in the military. I also do not mind "sharing" business - especially if it is mutually beneficial relationship. My strengths have always included a hard work ethic and an ability to work well with others. I have been tested in stressful enough situations to know that I will not lose my composure at the office.

I guess I am being unfair towards my senior partners, but somewhrere on the site I saw that toughest competition is your fellow FAs at the firm. Is there a compelling reason for my seniors to teach me the nuts and bolts of how they attract clients? The ones I met seemed like good enough people and all, but from brief meetings I gathered that they still have increased production goals to meet.  

This website opened my eyes to the ways that new FAs are manipulated by seasoned veterans. Actually, I would not mind sharing a share of my proceeds and earning less money in this career, but I know that I signed a contract stipulating minimum account goals. The only thing the BM told me about teams was that the possibility existed and that some of the FAs did form teams. I am sure that the BM will give me some idea of how to conduct business at the firm.

FA Prospect- Congrats on the SB decision.  They are top-notch and you obviously have much going for you.

My comment was directed towards the period you are not licensed and run into a prime prospect.  You bring in a senior advisor to help bring in the account.  And perhaps you bring in a senior FA when you run into a very savvy investor or a complicated situation (i.e. estate planning) even when you are licensed.  No shame in bringing in the big guns for the appropriate situations.  Good luck.

I would recommend that on your first few accounts, you seek the assistance of a more senior advisor. Pick someone who projects the image that you most want to project. Let them do most of the talking. Clearly define, before the meeting, who will be doing exactly what. Find out what the advisor's favorite investments are and make sure that the proposal will be in line with what you feel is the best solution to the client. Explain the details of your arrangement to the client. Establish a term for the agreement (I dunno.... three years?), after which, the client is YOURS.

The purpose of partnering with a senior producer is to see what they do right and, equally important, what they do wrong. This will help you develop your own voice for the sales part of this job. Generally speaking, rookies will become quite cynical very fast if they expect the senior producer to be some kind of sales or investment genius. He / she has simply been doing this longer than you and has more contacts. That's it. Eventually, you will not need to use this guy anymore, so I would make sure that the client knows that this guy was brought in because of their "experience in situations like yours." After the relationship has been established, you should then focus on developing the relationship with the client. Rinse and repeat.

Don't exclusively work with one senior producer - date. You may find a perfect match and you may determine that the guy is a jerk. Ultimately, you may find that they are a snake - or VERY lazy (common problem among MANY $1 million producers when dealing with sub $5 million accounts), so set it up so that you can fire them. Remember 50% of the job is getting the prospect to meet with you - you have done most of the work.

The split should be 51% you, 49% them - this makes a subtle, but powerful statement of whose client this really is. If the potential partner won't go for it - then pick someone else. Plenty of others will accept this agreement.

Learn how they open accounts, how long they take to establish the relationship and how they deal with problems with the client. Understand their administrative process and learn from it. We used to say that this is a "sales job" - its now equally an admistrative job. They won't prepare you for that in training.

Thanks for the excellent posts, Judge and SF Broker. What you are
saying makes sense to me. I have no reservations about getting help
from the big boys and gals. Hopefully the BM and the production manager
can be counted on to be helpful as well. Earning large commisions would
be great, but really my goals are to be competitive within my hiring
class and make my production goals. If I am successful in this business
I know that the monetary rewards will follow. I really cannot wait to
get started!

If, by chance, your manager doesn't want you meetin' and greetin' prior to licensing, there's still another way to get exposure: Become a "Goodwill Ambassador" (GA) for the state/local Chamber of Commerce (CC).

In my area, a (GA) is someone who visits current Chamber members to see if there is a way the (CC) can help them. It's a way of solidifying the relationship between the member and the Chamber, as opposed to the member paying their membership fee and never hearing from the Chamber, again. Typically, your existing Chamber member will be an established business; thus, it stands better chance of meeting your minimum standards for becoming a client.

On the other hand, you could sell Chamber memberships. But your prospects would tend to be very small, very new businesses with few or no investable assets to speak of. (However, if your area has a number of software companies, you might make an exception and sell (CC) memberships to them. There aren't many types of start-ups that can start from zero to success, in such a short amount of time, like software firms. Unfortunately, my area doesn't have any software firms.) 

Just some thoughts...