Str8 commission in 2.5 weeks, NEED HELP

Huggy,

I read a book called "successful telephone selling in the 90's" by Martin Shafiroff and Robert L. Shook.  It has some great insights on selling over the phone.  It's out of print, but I found a copy at my local library.

Wow, man you get an A for effort on the phone. More then ever it seems damn near impossible to build this business only through the phone.

Just curious what firm and how old are you? Is your only previous experience in the music field? What is your history with out going into exact details.

Straight comm in one month?  Wow!  How in the world does your firm think you can afford to live, especially being a rookie in the biz?

"My boss loves to point out to me how different I sound when I talk about musicians (I'm a musician, and I love music). He says that I don't sound boring then, but I'm dead on the phone."

My guess it that you don't believe in what you are selling.  Am I right?

My advice:

Monster.com

[quote=huggy]

I need all the help I can get right now. I'm a rookie commodities broker and I'll be on straight commission by Christmas. Here's the breakdown of the job:

I make about 400 to 500+ COLD calls a day (easily 400). Usually I'll manage to speak to 15 to 35+ of the people I am seeking to reach, and with most, I'll manage to get through 25% of my pitch (I'll post my pitch later). Usually, people hang up or continually insist that they aren't interested once I get through the first quarter (which ends with the money part). I am constrained to using the script format, so no major variations are permitted. I don't feel that the script is bad anyway (there are 6 figure earners in the office and they use the same script format). Once a person expresses the DESIRE to open an account, then a package of forms and info is sent to them. One experienced broker told me that he has NEVER been able to close more than 1 in 10 people who even got to that stage. Now I can't even manage to get more than 4 packages out in a week (my best so far). The people I have sent packages to have not replied or answered my phone calls. I've only been a broker for 8 days, but I am becomming better able to see when it is pointless to send out a package. I already knew not to send out info to people who say "oh, can you just send me some info". Obviously, I am now in a position where the most I can expect to achieve is ONE sale a month. That's not good at all (each sale is about $360 commission).

I need help on the phone. I dialed nearly 600 times today, and pitched to over 30 people, and I didn't manage to send out ONE package. It annoys me to hear people tell me that I sound good on the phone, but I'm not getting any packages out.

I've gotten advice and have eagerly listened to the senior brokers, but frankly, only one of them seems to have any ability to adequately teach people how to develop greater presence on the phone. I tape record myself regularly now, and I can't seem to pinpoint it, but I can hear that I don't sound very powerful on the phone. I sound too soft. I don't really know how to improve that. My boss loves to say "you need more energy". The other senior brokers might say "just go in for the kill...don't hold back. Test the limits of what you can get away with". My boss loves to point out to me how different I sound when I talk about musicians (I'm a musician, and I love music). He says that I don't sound boring then, but I'm dead on the phone. I stand up when I'm on the phone and move around. I use body movements to accentuate what I am saying. I talk LOUDLY (he insists that we do). And I usually do go in for the kill so to speak. I just can't seem to generate any moving presence on the phone. I do have a strong interest in the commodities, but I feel like I just can't seem to move people. They just keep hanging up and blowing me off.

I need some help NOW. I need to pick up some insight if I am going to have a chance of earning a living as a broker.

Any advice?

Find a real company.  Where are you at?  Sounds like Ameriprise.  Is this the only way they let you prospect?  You need to build relationships and get involved in the community.  Send a package of stuff?  That bores me.

Sounds like a company that will bring a bunch of youngsters in and stick them in a cube with a phone and VERY little training.  1 out of 100 survive.  The rest of them fail and all of those smarta** brokers will just steal the accounts they brought in.

I prospect any way I like and I can provide my clients with answers to all of their financial needs.  I OWN MY OWN BOOK.  Now and if I ever leave (which I won't).  Sounds like they are trying to starve you out.

sounds like you need a new list.

Hey huggy…the reason why you’re having trouble is very simple. You do not believe in the product youre buying. Enthusiam doesn’t come from being loud and sounding good on the phone. You must be fully committed on what you buy for your clients.
You are doing 400 dials a day. Don’t worry…this is all a numbers game. If you do 30 pitches…theres NO WAY you wont open a few accounts. Good luck to you.

The best advice you'll ever get:

Call Edward Jones, even knocking on doors sounds better than your gig!

I had the same problem but I at least got paid something.  You may wanna try a sales assistant gig. 

I think this aggressive phone selling crap is more of a boiler room gig.

I learned a lot from talking with this guy. It improved my sales skills. He spoke at a former company I worked for... Eric Lofholm

http://www.ericlofholm.com/

I have a book called Red Hot Cold Calling right now, and it doesn't seem to hit on the areas I am most concerned with. Right now, I'm skeptical about books. The guys who write them don't seem to be on top of the selling game except when it comes to marketing their books. I'll look that book up anyway. At least I know that someone has used it. Thnx.

[quote=Kool-Aid Lover]

Huggy,

I read a book called "successful telephone selling in the 90's" by Martin Shafiroff and Robert L. Shook.  It has some great insights on selling over the phone.  It's out of print, but I found a copy at my local library.

It's a commodities brokerage. I won't disclose the company name, but it isn't a boiler room. BUT, it is definitely not a place for people who're afraid to close. Anyway, I'm 29, have no past experience in this kind of work, and I've never worked in the music industry either. I play guitar and have been in bands, but never for pay and never with a contract. I wouldn't agree with you about the difficulty of selling over the phone. I believe it's just a gap in knowledge and experience here. Remember that line on boiler room about $25K months? Well, two of the senior brokers put up $50K in Sept. 05 (they got 50%), and that isn't nearly as good as the numbers coming out of the LA (main) office for the top brokers. The point is, I know that the money is there. The issue is the learning curve. I can learn fast, I can learn faster under pressure. Most of my professional work experience has been in the social services, which means that I am very skillful at getting people to cooperate, even while they are drunk or high or ready to literally kill someone. I've delt with it, and just got tired of getting paid $10.67 an hour to put up with all of that and to deal with unappreciative supervisors.

[quote=executivejock]

Wow, man you get an A for effort on the phone. More then ever it seems damn near impossible to build this business only through the phone.

Just curious what firm and how old are you? Is your only previous experience in the music field? What is your history with out going into exact details.

Just as an FYI, ALL of the other "lesser" brokers tell me that I sound REALLY good on the phone. Obviously, I'm not impressed with myself. My boss just happens to be unusually good at closing people and initiating business. Ironically, even though my boss continually picks at me, one of the senior brokers told me that when I first came in to interview, they were very impressed and actually argued about who's team I should be on. I didn't know all of this until this weekend. I know that my boss is trying to kick me into the next gear, and it's working. He actually insisted that I sit right in front of him, and he doesn't have a problem calling me out so to speak. I like his approach because I'm the same way. I just have to fight my "I don't give a f**k" attitude. Believing what I'm pitching is a given. Being concerned about arguing my point isn't always an issue, but it needs to be here.

[quote=Mike Damone]

"My boss loves to point out to me how different I sound when I talk about musicians (I'm a musician, and I love music). He says that I don't sound boring then, but I'm dead on the phone."

My guess it that you don't believe in what you are selling.  Am I right?

Don't ask me. Apparently, they don't want "normal" performers. In fact, from what I gather, VERY few people who have sat in that office have lasted more than a year. They seem to be very favorable towards me, however. Hell, two of the senior brokers have taken me out and payed my tab (they spent over $100 out of their pockets, so that saids alot to me). One literally lectured me at his apartment that I am one of the best they've seen, and that they are certain that I will succeed IF I just put my best effort into it. I feel the same (not to be arrogant, but I want to and expect to be the best in the office and ultimately in the company). But who really knows? They certainly do. I can spot a bullsh*t operation very quickly, and they don't belong to one. It's just not easy.

[quote=exEJIR]Straight comm in one month?  Wow!  How in the world does your firm think you can afford to live, especially being a rookie in the biz?[/quote]

Oh my god...

Do you work at JT Marlin?

This is one of the most interesting posts I've seen.  Bank Rep, I echo your comment.  I do a lot of cold calling but I could learn from this guy.....man.

Huggy, this post is almost hard to believe.  It sounds like it's straight out of Boiler Room.  I commend your discipline, if you get canned or burn out because of $$$, you should be able to get a job with a reputable wirehouse with that work ethic and drive.  You also will be marketing a broader menu of more palatable and understandable investments.  In addition you'll probably make more $$$.  We have a guy at the firm I work for making the # of dials you are and in his 2nd year did over $400k gross = about $200k income to him.  He's going to be a million dollar producer by his 5th year if not earlier.  You should also be able to pass the series 7 fairly easily if you have your series 3 commodites license.  Peace

Huggy,

Also you asked for some advice, I'm setting appointments cold calling and meeting people doing less that half the dials you are.  You might want to check out my approach under the cold calling thread.  I don't know how it would apply to your situation, since I don't sell commodities but maybe it'll help.

My guess is this isn’t a valid posting guys.  600 dials per
day?  That’s 50 per hour for 12 hours.  Sure that’s possible
but not if you are taking the time to talk with someone once you get
them on the phone.  The most I’ve ever seen anyone do is 40 per
hour with an automatic dialer at a collections agency.  For a
broker the most I’ve ever seen is about 35 over a long period of time.



My guess if it is real, it’s a scam.  The bigget brokers are just
letting him make the dials for them so that they can make the sale when
he’s given up in 3 months.

Beagle,

I have reached 100 dials in an hour when there aren't a lot of people home.  I frequently get 50 dials in a little over 1/2 an hour if I don't get too caught up with people on the other line.  More commonly though I probably average 70 an hour, dialing each # by hand.  I think this is possible in a 10 hour day. 

You're probably right about the senior brokers scamming him though.

You wrote:

"I frequently get 50 dials in a little over 1/2 an hour if I don't get too caught up with people on the other line."

Isn't part of the goal of cold calling to actually get caught up on the line with people?  If you can't spend a few minutes talking with them, how do you expect to ever get a relationship built?  I'd rather invest my time chatting it up with the secretary/receptionist or with the prospect than cramming in another 30 dials.  The next time I called I would much rather be remembered than start all over because I rushed through everything.

Beagle said:

Isn't part of the goal of cold calling to actually get caught up on the line with people?

Reply:

No.  The goal is to set an appointment, get some financial information to qualify the prospect and build a little rapport.  I don't want to assume, but it seems like you haven't done much cold calling or haven't had much success with it, because almost all of the people I end up getting caught up in conversation with never set an appointment, even after several calls.  This is common knowledge among cold callers

Beagle said:

I'd rather invest my time chatting it up with the secretary/receptionist or with the prospect than cramming in another 30 dials.

Reply:

Go, ahead.  You'll end up wasting your time.  I want to talk to decision makers long enough to ascertain whether it's worthwhile enough for us to meet, attempt to set an appointment, respond to any resitance, try to set an appointment again, if no sucess send a business card and move on.  The more sales attempts you have in a given day the better your success.  I'm not the greatest cold caller in the world but I am keeping very busy with appointments.  I also am taking the advice of guys who are very successfull and following their lead.  Bottom line is most people are going to hate you calling them anyway, find the gold in the dirt and move on, it's a numbers game period.

To each their own.  I’d rather invest my time getting through the
gatekeeper a little more than others and you might be surprised how
many prospects call me back when they have a few minutes.  Just my
style. 



Interesting though that you instantly took this to a personal level and
felt necessary to bash my business and be-little it.  Interesting
way of handling things.  You might consider exchanging ideas and
ways of handling things instead of making it personal?



Notice the initial poster fell away?  I still stand by that he/she wasn’t a real poster.

If you are cold calling, try a different angle. There’s an FA in our office who is in by 6:30am and is calling on executives and small business owners. Usually he is leaving messages for them to call him back. I am amazed how many people actually do ( a quick aside- by working for a top brokerage with great name recog. definately helps things out). He gets about 6 callbacks per week, sets meetings with about 4 of them, and is poised to close about 35MM in cash management business in Jan/Feb. Obviously, managing corporate cash doesnt pay big bucks. But gettting a shot at the 401K, pension plan, deferred comp, and personal money does make careers.

I used to do that, and if you pump out the numbers-which you can early in the morning with few distractions-and leave a clear, courteous message, it is suprising how many calls you get back.  It also helps if you can call a list with some affillitation in common, say from an alumni directory from your alma mater.  That way you work a mention of that in the directory, and it will increase your callback rate.

Being with a big name firm? It may help less than you think.  I was using this approach when I was with AGEdwards, and at a time when they were far smaller and less known.  But hey it can't hurt.

Yeah it's crazy. The guy gets CEO's of local companies to call him back. If anyhting, they are curious about what he's pitching.

JoeDaMan, I still beleive that it helps to have a well-identified, public recognition of your firm. Throwing out the constant bickering we all have about our firms and their pros/cons, I still feel that calling on prospects and saying you are from ML or Morgan Stanley, etc- will get you a little farther into the phone call. And thats not me being a label $lut or anything. Its just more powerful than "this is John FA, calling with local planning firm..."

beagle,

my tone was not intentioned as an insult.  Most people that I have talked to which have done a lot of cold calling have expressed the same approach I outlined as being what has worked.  Sorry if it came across that way.

As for name recognition, my opinion is that it hurts you more than
helps in the call back feature.  When calling someone outright it
might help but if hoping for a callback I think it really hurts. 
My firm is not known by ANYONE.  We’ve been around since the
1930’s but we are very small so very few actually recognize our
name.  My firm sounds like that of a law firm.  If I leave 30
messages in the morning or early evening, I’ll guarantee you 10 calls
backs any day except early Monday morning calls.  The vast
majority don’t have a clue for the reason of the call but if I said
Merrill Lynch, they would know what the call was all about and ignore
it (just my opinion).



I did a blanket hit of all of the divorce and family law attorney’s in
my area.  I was getting over a 50% call back ratio during those
calls and a large percentage agreed to meet me.  The vast majority
assumed I was with another law firm!  Imagine 50% of your calls
actually getting through to the person you were trying to get! 
The best thing was that I knew they had a few minutes to talk or they
wouldn’t have called.  

[quote=blarmston]

Yeah it's crazy. The guy gets CEO's of local companies to call him back. If anyhting, they are curious about what he's pitching.

JoeDaMan, I still beleive that it helps to have a well-identified, public recognition of your firm. Throwing out the constant bickering we all have about our firms and their pros/cons, I still feel that calling on prospects and saying you are from ML or Morgan Stanley, etc- will get you a little farther into the phone call. And thats not me being a label $lut or anything. Its just more powerful than "this is John FA, calling with local planning firm..."

[/quote]

yah but you don't say "I'm John FA with a tiny little local planning firm...."  See beagle's post.  It's all positioning baby! ;-)

[quote=Beagle]My guess is this isn't a valid posting guys.  600 dials per day?  That's 50 per hour for 12 hours.  Sure that's possible but not if you are taking the time to talk with someone once you get them on the phone.  The most I've ever seen anyone do is 40 per hour with an automatic dialer at a collections agency.  For a broker the most I've ever seen is about 35 over a long period of time.

My guess if it is real, it's a scam.  The bigget brokers are just letting him make the dials for them so that they can make the sale when he's given up in 3 months.
[/quote]

I haven't been here in months because I've been working myself silly. I have managed to open 3 accounts, should have another come in on the 23rd, and might upgrade two of my clients and get a new one in two weeks. This job isn't a scam, but obviously the senior brokers will inherit my clients if I leave. 

I focused on developing a solid work ethic, on eliminating my reluctance to keep dialing, and on accepting "no's" without obsessing about what I did wrong. All of these things have helped, but I'm not sure how close I am to being able to maintain a certain level of sales (I want to work up to reliably earning not less than 10K every month within the next 18 mos.)

As far as dialing goes...YES, I DO DIAL THAT MUCH!!!! One former broker at our firm left and was hired by another firm who were astonished that he had been doing so many cold calls daily and was comfortable doing it. I actually like cold calling, and would LOVE it if I was highly skillful at it. I have to admit, I love to sell, and I've found more motivation in that than in the being the most skillful at trading the markets. But I still love trading and would like to learn more about trading the markets at some point.

For now, I'm obsessed with becoming a stellar salesman.  I've learned a lot more from two of the senior brokers at this point, and the third senior broker is cool and does drop valuable advice to me fairly regularly now. As for my boss...I don't know. Maybe he knows exactly how to help me and I just don't see it, or maybe he just loves to pick at me. Who knows? Anyhow, one of my senior brokers spotted this thread and asked me if that was me...LOL! Well, Adler, I was referring to you...you've been very helpful, and one day I'll be able to pay your tab at the bar!

[quote=dude]

This is one of the most interesting posts I've seen.  Bank Rep, I echo your comment.  I do a lot of cold calling but I could learn from this guy.....man.

Huggy, this post is almost hard to believe.  It sounds like it's straight out of Boiler Room.  I commend your discipline, if you get canned or burn out because of $$$, you should be able to get a job with a reputable wirehouse with that work ethic and drive.  You also will be marketing a broader menu of more palatable and understandable investments.  In addition you'll probably make more $$$.  We have a guy at the firm I work for making the # of dials you are and in his 2nd year did over $400k gross = about $200k income to him.  He's going to be a million dollar producer by his 5th year if not earlier.  You should also be able to pass the series 7 fairly easily if you have your series 3 commodites license.  Peace

[/quote]

YES, it is really that way. I don't dial 600 calls EVERY day. I can't anymore, but back when I started, I really did dial 500 to 600 calls a day...people didn't stay on the phone long enough to make a difference Anyhow, I make between 300 to 400 calls nowadays, and I've decided to kick my calling up a notch. I work over 60hrs. most weeks. I really don't have choice. The office motto is "Smile and Dial". The leads are NOT warm. They aren't necessarily the most qualified either, so you have to weed through them. But think about it: if you can earn 6 figures doing this, you can earn much more if you get to speak to even more warm and/or qualified leads? Probably much more.

This all sounds like a suckers game.