Struggling
I just finished up my year in the business. My production numbers weren’t very good, I really enjoy my job, work very hard and have a great pipeline but I’m discouraged. I’ve heard that production less than 50k your first year is an indication you probably won’t make it in the business. Anyone in the forum that struggled in the beginning to finally succeed?
It would help if you could give some background information. What type of channel are you in (bank, wirehouse, indy)? Production less than 50k has a wide range. Was it 10k or 49k? What market are you targeting? What do your daily activities look like (how do you prospect, how many dials do you make, how have you been getting the clients you have)? How are you getting prospects through your pipeline? If you get in front of someone and don't close them, why do you think it didn't happen?
Post some of this stuff and maybe some people will have some suggestions for you.45k, EDJ, Midwest, 80% cold calling via phone, 20% cold knocking. Sell ce and open end mutual funds, annuities, stocks and muni’s. Try to make at least 100 cold call per day. Do a lot of follow ups on pipeline. Try to contact my pipeline often with idea or economic news.
Cold calling technique. I try to qualify and then set appointment. 95% of the time on qualifieds with interest I send out card with some type of info that is relevant and then they fall into the follow up routine.If you are really making close to 100 cold calls a day I believe you will be successful if you stick with it.
You try to make 100 cold calls per day, but how many people do you actually get to talk to? There’s a big difference. I could make 300 calls per day and knock on 50 doors, but if I only really talk to 5 people, I might as well just stand outside my EDJ office next to my little stand-up CD rate sign and shake everyone’s hand that walks by.
I'm not at EDJ, so I have no idea what an average first year gross production number should be. As far as your pipeline is concerned, there will be a point where you need to just say, "Mr. Prospect, we've been talking for a few months now and I've been very happy to provide you with my ideas and perspective from time to time. But I have many other people I need to help, so unless you're ready to make a move, I think it's time to part ways as friends". Some other guys on here might have a better way to word that, but you've got to make them make a move because if you don't, you know you might not even have a need for a pipeline anymore. Do you actually ask for the order? If you're contacting your pipeline with economic news, that's not going to do much. Are you able to find their pain? That's what you need to do. Most of the time, their pain is not that they aren't getting appropriate economic news. At EDJ, what is the point where you are shown the door?I agree with Snaggletooth, it does not matter how many dials and knocks you make, you need to speak to 40 qualified prospects per day. If you are doing this, following up consistently, and asking for the order, you will be fine. I know right now it is difficult to see, but if you are working, accounts will just start to roll in. Prospects you thought were great on day 1 and frustrated you after 6 months of contact will finally come in when you least expect it. Personal info, I did $14m first 6 months (no family, no connections, no personal network going in), $56m next 6 months, $159m 2nd year, on pace for $196m 3rd year. Continue to work and you will be successful.
Blue are those cumulative numbers? Either way extremely impressive and inspirational.
not cumulative, that is per year
Bluetag, what is your definition of a qualified prospect? How do you maximize your chances of getting contact info for qualified prospects so you don’t waste your time contact non qualified ones?
Person with money with an immediate need. To maximize your time you have to find the prospects hot button quickly and avoid asking yes or no questions. Instead of asking “did you have a plan for this bear market?” (they will answer yes and you have no where to go) ask “what is your advisors (never use broker) plan to deal with this bear market”. No one knows the answer to that question. Briefly give your process for risk management (don’t use broker terms like risk management to a prospect) and ask when can you meet in person to discuss their portfolio. There will still be many prospects who you will waste time with, but finding what interests the prospect, what they do not feel they are currently getting, and how you are different will cut down on wasted effort with people that will never bring you money. In my humble opinion.
Unfortunately, most new advisors do not have the opportunity to concentrate on fee based right away. You have to meet the minimums and more importantly eat. Typically you HAVE to start out primarily transactional and then migrate to fee based later. As for measuring progress with AUM, that is great as long as you are hitting your bogeys, your manager is looking closer at production, regardless of what he/she may be telling you.
I was commenting on life at a wire. May (sounds like it is) be different at an Indy firm. At a wire, you do not “pay your own way”, the firm provides you with a salary regardless and if you don’t produce you are a liability to the firm.
Rarely do they look past the hurdles just because you concentrated on fee business. And yes, wire managers, Indy managers, regional managers love all fee based business that you bring in because if you fail, they get it.Thanks for all your feed back. I track my contacts as well. On average I only talk to about 25 qualified prospects per day. I do about 1/2 A shares and 1/2 C shares on mutual funds and have done about 200k in VA business. I do ask for the order but I’ve got to say lately I think I’ve pushed a little too hard and scared some deals off. I have found where people I talked to 6 months ago will come in a transfer their accounts to me. The last couple of months I’ve had a lot setting in cash and haven’t been able to get them off the fence.
I am going to start on Monday to put in more hours, more dials and more contacts. Thanks Go KU!If you are having trouble getting people off the fence, try this. What is your favorite Mutual Fund? (Don’t answer on the board). Run a hypo starting 10 years ago and show long term performance. Next show what the results would have been if money was added EACH time the market pulled back (5%,10% whatever you chose). Then tell the client that the market has pulled back and it is time to put SOME (don’t want to scare them) money to work and the most successful investors put money in when everyone else thinks the sky is falling. Then tell them you will call them again when a. things look better to add even more, or b. when the market pulls back again to add even more. Condition your clients to expect advice.
Kuj…what have your mentors and/or supervisors recommended? Have you approached them to evalaute your prospecting and clsoing techniques?
I wouldn't give up yet. In the beginning it is extremely frustrating. As long as your managers are Ok with your numbers, keep on going.
For the fence sitters that are firmly entrenched, as Blu has suggested it's time to stop the portfolio management approach and just sell'em something. His idea of a good mutual fund is excellent and comes with built in urgency. Other candidates for getting the account open are preferred stocks, and stocks of local companies. A local utility works well here. And the absolute best buy it now product is a Tax Free Municipal Bond.
"Mr Smith, we've been talking for some time now about your portfolio and I'm not calling you about that today. During our conversations you mentioned that taxes were a concern to you and today an exceptional tax free bond yielding over 5% tax free has crossed my desk and I wanted to call you about it. This bond has the same yield as a CD yielding 8%. Mr Smith do you have any CDs yielding 8%?" Answer questions and close. All day long with calls just like that. Once you open the account you can go after all four corners of the table. But first , get a seat at the table.To those thinking of entering the biz: Extremely frustrating is an under statement.
I did very well in year 1 and year 2 is killing me. My wife even went so far as having a nervous breakdown over the Easter weekend and we are seeing signs of strain in our marriage because of the financial burden married couples go through when one of them is entering this business. Thing is: I told her if she thinks it's stressful imagine how it has affected me! Seriously, there has to be something mentally wrong with you for a)entering this business and b)being able to stay in it. Keep it up and do not give up until your firm physically throws you out themselves. It takes one nice account to turn things around.[quote=anabuhabkuss]To those thinking of entering the biz: Extremely frustrating is an under statement.
I did very well in year 1 and year 2 is killing me. My wife even went so far as having a nervous breakdown over the Easter weekend and we are seeing signs of strain in our marriage because of the financial burden married couples go through when one of them is entering this business. Thing is: I told her if she thinks it's stressful imagine how it has affected me! Seriously, there has to be something mentally wrong with you for a)entering this business and b)being able to stay in it. Keep it up and do not give up until your firm physically throws you out themselves. It takes one nice account to turn things around.[/quote] It could be worse for your wife...tell her you're quitting to try out for the NFL. I bet the odds are even less in your favor.Oh absolutely. My mentor told me that most newbs fail because they try so hard to find the “right product” that by the time they find it management doesn’t want them any longer.
I can't stand when newbs in my branch come talking to me about which product is better than the rest. It is completely irrelevant to your production numbers this early in the game.Oh and sorry I didn’t get the NFL reference. I’m not into sitting on the couch and cheering for a bunch of burly guys in shoulder pads tackling and throwing balls at one another.
I am long gone from EDj. I left about ten years ago. When I started it was all about door knocking. Why arent you door knocking? Isn’t that what your mentor told you to do?
Frankly, if you only grossed 50k in your first year, in my opinion something is wrong. It could be you simply are not a good salesperson. That is probably what it is. You may also just not have a personality that attracks new clients for many different reasons. I think you need to figure out what is going on by asking a mentor or RL to evaluate you VERY frankly with absolutly no sugar coating. That's my opinion. I hope you don't dress like some of these dorky EDJ guys I see. Get a good suit with nice shoes and socks please. With that said, I sunk into the RED my first summer at EDJ. Do they still have green, yellow and red? Anyway they sent someone down from St Louis to follow me around on my doorknocks. The reason I was in red is because I sucked. I was nervous and I lacked self confidence let alone knowledge. I wasent comfortable talking to persons about their investments and for good reason. So there was a reason my gross was poor. I was able to overcome it eventually though by working harder than most other people. It was hell and I lived in fear for a while but roughly 15 years later that is a distant memory. You need to find out what is wrong right now. Beating your head on the wall by working 80 hours a week is stupid if you are not improving. In around year two I starting investing in seminars and I found that that was something I excelled at. It turned my career around. You gotta figure out what the key is for you and you can't delay. That's my opinion for what it's worth.KU, what are the year 1,2,3,4,5 mins at EDJ. You mentioned you are in the midwest, what size town approx. What is your ratio of qualified prospects/appts, appts/accts? Doorknocking or calling yielding better results? Do you track this stuff? Any other prospecting? This info will tell you what you need to work on.
Great messages guys and girls (if there were any). I might suck, I liked that message the best. I’ve had a good day and a lot of things I’ve been working on are coming through. I’ve done very well at opening accounts but I haven’t got a lot of big accounts. Business door knocking has produced for me as has cold calling. I do track my calls. I do about 100, 25 contacts and 5 people who are interested in something. Those 5 are sent a card go into my database and then I go to work on them. They tend to be older. I think where I suck is getting the appointment. I haven’t tracked that because I usually don’t even try when I’m tracking my cold call numbers. I usually will set up time to follow up on those prospects and try to set meetings.
2 Questions. What are good appointment setting calls on the second call and what is a way to land an appointment on the first call? I've been using the script Are you and investor? Qualify, if there is something there send them info, or I will use a product to call. Mainly it's the "are you an investor" I'm thinking about changing it up. After intros "The reason I'm calling is to set an appointment with you to do a free review of your investments and to give you some investment ideas. Do you have some time available tomorrow. Sorry for the lenghty message.[quote=kujhawks300]Great messages guys and girls (if there were any). I might suck, I liked that message the best. I’ve had a good day and a lot of things I’ve been working on are coming through. I’ve done very well at opening accounts but I haven’t got a lot of big accounts. Business door knocking has produced for me as has cold calling. I do track my calls. I do about 100, 25 contacts and 5 people who are interested in something. Those 5 are sent a card go into my database and then I go to work on them. They tend to be older. I think where I suck is getting the appointment. I haven’t tracked that because I usually don’t even try when I’m tracking my cold call numbers. I usually will set up time to follow up on those prospects and try to set meetings.
2 Questions. What are good appointment setting calls on the second call and what is a way to land an appointment on the first call? I've been using the script Are you and investor? Qualify, if there is something there send them info, or I will use a product to call. Mainly it's the "are you an investor" I'm thinking about changing it up. After intros "The reason I'm calling is to set an appointment with you to do a free review of your investments and to give you some investment ideas. Do you have some time available tomorrow. Sorry for the lenghty message. [/quote] There's actually too much to address from your post. For one thing, I don't like saying, "Are you an investor?" It's a yes/no question that doesn't serve any purpose, in my opinion. 99% of the people you call ARE investors, whether they invest $100/month into a savings account or have millions of dollars. But 99% of people will lie to you just to get off the phone. It's natural, don't take it personally. Also, I wouldn't say, "The reason I'm calling is to...". Don't waste your words, they are important. I would instead say, "I'm calling to...". It's only a couple of words different, but I think being direct is better. Your follow-up call will be based on what happened on your first call. If you found pain on the first call, your second call should be about addressing that pain. If your first call was to find out if they like muni's or preferreds or whatever, the next call, if you have something, tell them about it. "Last time we spoke you said you liked the safety of preferreds. I have a preferred from ING that's paying 7.4% taxed at 15%. We have to buy it before April 1 to get the April 15th dividend. Can you come in Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon? Put yourself in the prospect's position and ask yourself what you are asking them. What you are saying will spark about as much interest as chewing on tin foil.[quote=kujhawks300]
I've been using the script Are you and investor? Qualify, if there is something there send them info, or I will use a product to call. Mainly it's the "are you an investor" I'm thinking about changing it up. After intros "The reason I'm calling is to set an appointment with you to do a free review of your investments and to give you some investment ideas. Do you have some time available tomorrow. [/quote] These are horrible. It sounds like the IRS is calling to set an "appointment" for an audit. Here's my advice, for what it's worth: don't be so sterile with your approach. Try to develop rapport with them. Put them at ease. Ask about their family, their job, etc. Ask how their 401K is doing. Once you soften them up about, use something like (and please use your own words) "hey why don't we get together, I'll take a look at your 401K, annuity, (whatever), and I'll give you my honest feedback. Maybe you're fine, but maybe I can just give you some advice on how to proceed....." Make it really casual and not so formal. I find that this is what works for me, and many others that I have witnessed. Clients (prospects) are attracted to PEOPLE, not to products and services. You won't get them in the door with an invitation to an "appointment". Strike that word from your vocabulary. Another approach, and you have do do this conversationally, not like it's an info-mmercial: "I know a lot of people are concerned about their 401K/XYZ stock/pension/social security/whatever. I work with a lot clients to help minimize thier concerns/alleviate their fear/show them how to reduce thir risk/etc. Why don't we get together and I can just show you waht I do for my other clients....blah,blah,blah." It just sounds to me that your cold-calling approach is too, well, too cold. You have to warm it up a bit.B24,
If you can't touch their 401k (unitl they leave their job) and its the only retirement asset the prospect has, then how is it beneficial to evaluate it?Because people have other needs than their 401K. They need to do a Roth IRA. They need to do Life Insurance. They need to plan for their retirment. If the 401k review is the one thing they want upfront, but you find they can add money to an IRA, then someday that 401K is gonna roll. Statistically to the FA who has their IRA. You may waste a little time on someone who only has a 401K and no other need, but it’s going to be rare. Also, those people know other people.
KU - I'm gonna guess, unless you had a really great month out of the gate that really skewed things, that you are meeting expectations at this point. I'm also going to guess that you are going to work hard to keep yourself there. Don't be so quick to judge yourself on such an arbitrary number, like $50,000 gross. That number is meaningless. Especially if it takes $180,000 gross to feed your family. That number means something to you. Figure out what that number is and work toward that goal. You ultimately have two people to keep happy with your numbers. Your spouse and yourself.[quote=lambda]B24,
If you can't touch their 401k (unitl they leave their job) and its the only retirement asset the prospect has, then how is it beneficial to evaluate it?[/quote] It's a conversation starter. Statistically, and based on my own experience, people are most familiar with, and have more wealth wrapped up in their 401K than any other asset (excluding residence). So this is an easy one to talk about. They look at it, their co-workers talk about it, etc. Asking them about their life insurance or annuities or whatever is often a more difficult conversation (now, I am talking about the working investor, not the retired person - two different conversations). Those are all the things you will get into after you get the proverbial "seat at the table" as BondGuy mentioned earlier. Also, as I think Spiff said, maybe they have 200K in their 401K (or 50K or 500K or 1mm), but only some other scraps (old IRA, an annuity, some life insurance, etc.). You want to make them a client NOW, so that you don't have to prospect for that nice rollover LATER. That one is almost certainly in the bag. Even if it's 5 or 10 years away (or 1), you aer building your pipeline of money coming in. Yes, you might feel as though you are wasting your time right now when you need moneys coming in today, but trust me, if you last in this biz, this is like automatic money coming in.Good stuff on this thread! I too liked the the "you might suck’ post posted by the ex Jones guy. Sometimes a shot directly between the eyes is the best cure. And if the truth hurts, well, it’s still the truth.
As for an appointment call some good ideas have already been posted. Remember, the purpose of EVERY call is to move the prospect closer to a becoming a client. It's that simple. What is the best way to do that? Do you have a written account opening process in place? If not, why not? If so, do you follow it? If you follow it, are there, or should there be exceptions? For example your process always calls for going for an appointment. Yet, as posted on this thread, sometimes it might be better to step outside that model and just close them on a product. Here is a simple appointment call: You: Mr. Smith, when we spoke a week ago I sent/left you some information and promised you I'd follow up. Before I could ask you to make any investment I need to know a little more about you. To do that I need about 15 minutes of your time to ask you some questions. We could do that over the phone now, or if you'd like we can meet in person. Which way would would be better for you? Note that there are about a zillion more or less aggressive versions of this same call. This call is used in a call/mail/call campaign. The most common objection will be "I didn't get the information you mailed" here's how to handle that: You: Mr. Smith i called you about a week ago and sent you some information on X. Mr. Smith: Ah, i didn't get that information. You: That's Ok, Mr. Smith, before I could ask you to make any investment I'd need to know more about you. I suggest we meet, I'll bring the informatiom with me. Are days or evenings better for you? Or: mr. Smith: I didn't like that investment info you sent me. You: That's Ok Mr. Smith. I wouldn't expect you to make a decision based on a brochure. And before I could ask you to make any investment I'd need to know more about you. What I suggest, is that we meet. so that I might get to know more about your needs and so that you can judge whether my service could add value to your situation. Are mornings or afternoons better for you? Don't get in your own way. Acknowledge the objection and then ignore it. Stay on script. Keep it simple. www.billgood.com may have some free content in the way of scripts that might help you. Bill use to offer that, still may. And remember, anyone who doesn't deal with you is only hurting themselves. You are the best. You are the answer. This has to be your mind set. Lastly, fake it till you make it. Right now you are struggling. You don't feel successful. Any prospect who gets awhiff of that will run the other way. Success breeds success. Dress, look, and act the part. Nice clothes, nice shoes, positive attitude. Park the 89 Crown Vic out of sight. And yeah, with the wolf at the door, it's a tough gig. But a necessary part of the game.BG I wish I knew guys like you in person (among others on this site)
Thanks! If you work in an office of any size there are more than likely guys just like me. You know, lazy. Thanks again for the kind words.BG I wish I knew guys like you in person (among others on this site)
Broker 24 this is exactly what I’m looking for, this may be my silver bullet
Great stuff all of you, I really appreciate it.
[quote=kujhawks300]
Here's my advice, for what it's worth: don't be so sterile with your approach. Try to develop rapport with them. Put them at ease. Ask about their family, their job, etc. Ask how their 401K is doing. Once you soften them up about, use something like (and please use your own words) "hey why don't we get together, I'll take a look at your 401K, annuity, (whatever), and I'll give you my honest feedback. Maybe you're fine, but maybe I can just give you some advice on how to proceed....." Make it really casual and not so formal. I find that this is what works for me, and many others that I have witnessed. Clients (prospects) are attracted to PEOPLE, not to products and services. You won't get them in the door with an invitation to an "appointment". Strike that word from your vocabulary. Another approach, and you have do do this conversationally, not like it's an info-mmercial: "I know a lot of people are concerned about their 401K/XYZ stock/pension/social security/whatever. I work with a lot clients to help minimize thier concerns/alleviate their fear/show them how to reduce thir risk/etc. Why don't we get together and I can just show you waht I do for my other clients....blah,blah,blah." [/quote] Did you physically copy and paste or re-type Broker24's advice? At first I was reading this and thought you were giving yourself advice on your own thread...a little confusing. There is a quote button that you can click on which will be much easier for all.[quote=kujhawks300]Broker 24 this is exactly what I’m looking for, this may be my silver bullet
[/quote] I'm glad you like it. But trust me, it ain't no silver bullet. If it were, I wouldn't wasting my time on forums, I'd be turning away clients because I'm too busy. The key is you have to now put that into practice. And it might take until the 100th person you talk to before it seems to work. Good luck. Stick with it.Source URL:https://www.wealthmanagement.com/forums/rookies-trainees/struggling