Seminar last night
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[quote=Sellout21]
Investor confidence is totally shaken and even the most sincere and educated broker is having his/her integrity questioned. Communication and education is crucial, but how do any of us explain what to do going forward, and why clients should remain optimistic?
[/quote]That’s the million dollar question. My confidence has been shaken in the past advice I’ve given and it’s tough to ask investors to act when I’m not sure what to do. Also, I have to get them to buy SOMETHING, or else I don’t get paid.
I’ve been selling munis, but I have this nagging feeling that they will come under stress when cities and states start coming under budgetary pressure in the next couple of years, or if we go back to runaway inflation.
The long term answer for the mom and pop investor will likely be insurance, imo. We have to find investment vehicles that will help our clients insure their retirement goals, and then of course we have to believe as advisors that those insurance companies will hold up.
But at the same time, when somebody asks me where the safest place for their money is, I still believe that if you had 20 blue chip stocks – Coca Cola and PG and JNJ, GE, etc., maybe with some up and comers that you believe in – that that portfolio is safer than anything else, including treasuries. I think we’re going to see the currency and/or treasuries devalued, either through inflation or defaults, and I want to hold a hard, income-producing asset.
Great discussion here.
I second Sportsfreakbob, I run 3 models, that each have 3 subsets, so technically I run 9, but the investments are similar, just the percentages changes, so it’s not hard to change nor does it take long… and yes they are all on a discretionary platform…
[quote=Sellout21]
Even with the best tactical managers you are going to be selling 'relative performance' over the past 3 or 5 years. It might have lost less than other funds or indices, but still looks lousy to a prospect.
[/quote] Agreed. Relative performance is worth something for about 12-18 months, but after that we better be working on a solution. Tactical vs. strategic, active vs. passive, long term vs. short term, all terms we have lived and died by over the last couple of decades. FAS vs. SKF, is this our new reality? If so, how do we explain these concepts to our clients? I submit that perhaps our true new reality is that we must approach this with a Hippocratic Oath on our clients' behalf, with the mindset that we must 'first do no harm.' Who among us hasn't questioned, I mean honestly questioned, all the truisms we trained with lately? Our clients deserve the best we can provide them. We owe it to them to have, understand and communicate a strategy to navigate through this. That's what we can be doing seminars/workshops and meetings about.so maybe the new asset allocation is core (fixed income) vs tactical (pursuit of
higher returns and protection of capital with actively managed ETF;s, as opposed to stocks vs bonds.
The portfolios I run consists of a fixed, indexed,active,managed futures,quantitative and tatical(not really different from quant index or active, kind of a combo of all 3).. Last year, fixed(stayed fixed)..quant got beat to hell(-44%) active did ok (-29, -21, -8) index(yep same as everyone else's index) tactical (-13, i will take that and say thank you) managed futures(+30 kicked rear).. total -10.. in a moderate portfolio... not bragging...
I hate the idea that people have that active vs passiv, long vs short... is a zero sum game(someone wins, someone losses)... Can't the index do well and so can active, can't a long term strategy work just as well as a short....... Lastly I think people need to start combining techincal indicators (like traders do) in managing their portfolios.. It helps..I’ve got four seminars lined up for the next month. I had decent success in the past, my challenge is filling the seats with qualified prospects. Assuming I get the right people there, I’ve learned that to generate business, there has to be a call to action. Without it, people just think you’re a great guy/gal.
I made the mistake a couple of times of taking a wholesaler and lost control of the meeting. The last thing you want is your guests to want to do business with the wholesaler and not you. Hard lesson learned, but you gotta lose a few to start winning.
We did a seminar this week:
2000 invites mailed 19 signed up 15 showed, mix of clients and prospects. 2 new prospect appointments. Not a home run, %s could be higher, but worth the time, effort and $. 1 new client generally makes it break even within the first year. People are shell shocked, but willing to listen. Next we'll see if they're willing to move. I've committed a budget to do these monthly for the rest of the year (or the end of free market capitalism, which ever comes first). It's time, in my opinion, to get aggressive, both in prospecting and investing. Mountains of money may be made by those willing to step forward and make a stand. If you are passive or apathetic, you will be washed away. Best of luck to all...........Northfield, with those numbers, wouldn’t it make sense to jsut invite a few clietns to dinner, and ask them to bring friends/coworkers that might be interested? To get one or two new clients out of 2000 invites seems like a lot of work. Now, if these are 1mm+ clients, then of course. But if they only have a few hundred thousand, it seems that there are easier ways.
Yes, Ice, that’s the strategy. The client “bring along a friend” dinners are ongoing, but you can only go to that well so many times.
We are also committed to the seminars (your math is right on). And also starting a direct mail campaign (a la Bill Good).Pioneer shareholder dinner meeting last night at local high end northern Italian eatery. Pioneer wholesaler picked up full cost for 25 clients and 1 prospect. Covered every fund that our clients had in that room, plus I did 10-15 minutes on gen. economy, recession, blah, blah. No crying, but tons of good q&a and a couple referrals at the end of the evening.
My cost: Zero American dollars (sorry, I lied. I bought a piece of killer ricotta cheesecake to- go for my wife after the wholesaler had already paid, so $6.95) My return: Zero immediate production. One prospect at the dinner and 2 referrals to follow up with. Two existing clients telling me when their next cds come due at the bank, and the fact that they want to do some of that bond fund the wholesaler was talking about. My conclusion: I'm going to go through my entire mutual fund wholesaler group and do one of these every month or two and stay in front of my people. I rode my bike to work today, so I'm leaving now. It's really nice in FL.Did one last month… 2000 invites mailed, 1000 calls= 8 buying units=5 prospects=4 appts=$1.5M in assets…
Doing one end of March(just in time for quarterly statements) mailing 4000, calling an additional 2000(normal calls, just my out is,"would you like to attend our educational seminar at end of month? I will call you back if we have room available, gives me reason to call and puts a**es in the seats if the mailing doesn't work)Is that $1.5mm new assets gathered onto your book as new investments, assets “discovered” but still at another firm, or “other”?
Combo… $1.5MM assets discovered(have statements) $400K has already been xfered. So I have about 1.1MM left… plus the 5th prospect who has at least $250K… The other 3 appts needed follow up appts(idiots didn’t bring up to date statements 2nd qtr 08, but that way I know they aren’t watching it and neither is there advisor) so have some set for next week with $800K, other $300K didn’t seem interested, but said he would like to meet beginning of April…
[quote=Sportsfreakbob]
[quote=YHWY]I am hosting a casual Q&A dinner at the best local restaurant weekly. No formal sales presentation, just an introduction, conversation and Q&A. Sending invites to specific households in the very best neighborhoods in town. I’ve been getting between one and four couples per week (I cap attendance at 10 guests; this way, all I do is reserve a table a day ahead. No need for a special room or any special treatment at the restaurant.)
[/quote]
YHWY
I am doing one of these in a couple of weeks. I have three couples coming and have invited them each to invite a friend. I actually have someone from my Equity Strat Group joining us to talk about equitymarket and a wholesaler to talk about fixed income market, i am going to talk about my process. Honestly, at this point have no clue how i am gonna present it. I’m not a big fan of pitchbooks but dont want to give myself the opportunity to ramble too much.
Anway, question… in a small group like that, do you find folks feeling a little intimidated, or uncomfortable?
And whats the strucuture you use, what do you talk about specifically?
This is the first time i’ve done a client event of ANY size, i am thinking i need to get it down and do it once a month or once every six weeks. Trying to find some strucuture
[/quote]
SportsFreakBob,
This may be too late of a response for your specific event, but it may help others.
With a small group I find people are more open than in a 15-20 person setting. If the specific individuals are hesitant to initiate conversation, I lob out a discussion topic or question that I’ve been hearing from clients in one-to-one appointments (thus it’s probably on the minds of several guests that evening). Then I jokingly tell them unless they offer up their own discussion topics I’m going to monopolize the entire evening with what I want to talk about. That gets some chuckles and loosens them up. (Damn, I’m funny! )
What’s been successful in a ‘free-format’ evening for me has been to go around the table and ask people what specific questions or concerns they have. Those are written down by the guest speaker or myself, and then the evening just flows from discussion point to discussion point. It provides an opportunity to address specific questions, to put the current situation in relative (historical) terms (this is painful, but is done so people don’t think we’re in for Depression 2009), and to provide some education and to reinforce the need to stay invested, but to ensure everyone is appropriately invested and balanced per their unique situation. Really, some of my most successful events have been these free-format dinners where we toss the canned presentation to the side and just address specific questions.
Some things I do with my dinners that have increased their effectiveness is to draft an agenda for myself, list some specific goals for the evening (ie # appointments, referrals, $'s generated, etc) and come up with one or two key phrases that I’m going to repeat throughout the evening. These key phrases will hopefully resonate with the guests and will also trigger a desire to schedule time with me to review their investments.
If I’m having a wholesaler (‘guest speaker’) speak that evening I make sure we meet beforehand to go over my agenda. I show them the key phrase and explain my goals for this event and get their buy-in to mold their presentation so that it will dovetail in with my goals and my desired outcomes.
Hope this helps.
CR.
Colorado Rep= good stuff thank you. And not too late for me, my dinner is mid March.
What have people been using as their “call to action”, this seems to be the item that makes the seminar successful, especially if you are in front of only prospects.
[quote=ColoradoRep]
What’s been successful in a ‘free-format’ evening for me has been to go around the table and ask people what specific questions or concerns they have. Those are written down by the guest speaker or myself, and then the evening just flows from discussion point to discussion point.
[/quote]
Are these clients and friends or prospects? Also, how are you getting the follow up appointment?
[quote=Squash1]What have people been using as their “call to action”, this seems to be the item that makes the seminar successful, especially if you are in front of only prospects.
[/quote] The most frustrating seminars I've ever done have been some of the best attended. In another thread we were talking about the JNL turn-key seminar that several of us have done, and I've always gotten a lot of people to that one and the MetLife one, but the 'call to action' is so broad and amorphous that my closing ratio on those is pitiful. Lots of plate lickers, lots of "that was really good information." My best calls to action come from the retirement plan rollover seminars and the investing for income seminars. The people that come to those have an acute, time-bound need, and the call to action is coming from their own bank statements when they see the maturity dates on their cds, and on their own FidelVanPutPrincFargo 401k statements that are getting crushed while they have noone to talk with, other than Mr. Press 5 For Current Balance.I have done well with alternative investments(because most firms outside other indys can’t offer the ones I use (Private Reits)). They are great in this market because they are currently paying 6.5% and since they are private the principal doesn’t fluctuate(well not on the new ones that have just started in the last 3 years). and they are monthly pay…
I also have hit a nitch by telling people they should roll over part of their 401K even if they still work their(if their plan allows)... Last month a guy who has over 900K in his 401K at his current employer, rolled out $250K to get a better selection and test me out.. But not all plans allow it..