I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people are just stupid.  They fall for some slick sales pitch without knowing anything about the actual investments.  I particularly love the comment "I'll wait until the market gets better."  That's like saying "I don't want that car for $20,000, call me when its selling for $30,000"

I lost a $2mil 401k last a couple of months ago that really pissed me off.  A team left my office and when to SB a year ago.  Broker A had the relationship with the plan and when he called on the owner to move his plan.  The owner said "You bailed on me and I don't do business with people who do business like that."   My team took over the plan, changed the investment options to 4 & 5 star funds w/ low expenses and profiled all 45 employees.

9 months later, Broker B, who the owner didn't know called on him, told him he could improve the plan, told him my local office was in termoil and was going to close.  He never bothered to mention that he was partnered with Broker A and convinced him to move the plan.

I saw their October Statement today.... Not one thing has been changed!  All that work for nothing.  And the owner actually said he is happy that they changed because he is making more money now!

[quote=doberman]tjc45:

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Just speculating, but when she was signing the acats, that might have been a good time to tell her what to expect from the other broker. Once her old broker received the acats, tell her that her old broker was probably going to call her, visit her, wine and dine her, and shower her with all kinds of attention. In other words, do all the things he should have done before now.

If you can prepare the client for what behavior to expect from the old broker, you can program the client's response to this behavior. For example, you could say something like: " Now Ms. Client, Bob Broker is probably going to call you when he finds out you're transferring your account. He's going to ask why you're transferring, say he's sorry for ignoring you, and promise to do better in the future. He's going to say and do most anything to get you to stay. But after years of neglecting you, I think we know what to expect of Bob Broker. So, just tell Bob, you've made your decision and hang-up." 

[/quote]

Yeah, I hear you. Good advise. I went through my normal expect to be contacted speech. I started to add to my original post that coincidentally the client who referred this woman to me was at her house when the ML guy showed up unannounced. Sadly, the woman didn't even recognise him. He probably couldn't have picked her out of a crowd either. According to my client the conversation centered on this broker's long standing friendship with the deceased husband. She bought it.

[quote=doberman]executivejock

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Assuming the child is an heir and is only concerned with what they'll inherit, why not approach the heir from that standpoint? Tell the heir that their mother's portfolio is not providing her with enough income and that without a major overhaul of her investments, she'll soon be withdrawing her principal to live on. And that what you're proposing will not only increase her income, but also will help insure that she can provide for her heirs after she is gone.

If the heir believes that, without your help, they'll be left penniless; I can assure you they'll have their mother in your office fast! 

Dob.

This makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, to an uneducated bafoon, who does not know me from anyone,........anything that comes out of my mouth is viewed as a lie or sales tactic........But your approach may have saved the account for me.......who knows. Like Gordon Geko said "It's like trench warfare kid.....you win a few, you lose few, but you keep fighting"

These expereinces that we have all had is just further proof that we all need to masnage OUR expectations and emotions. It sucks, but thats the way it is. When I was an assistant salaes manager I would tell all the newbies that the hardest part of the biz ( other than the long hours, constant rejection, lack of immediate gratitification, public perception that were crooks, etc, etc) is managing the highs and lows of our emotions. One day we are ecstatic about closing on a large ACAT, the next day we walk in to a red light on our phone and a message saying to cancel the transaction- that the client has changed their minds… Its tough to regroup from something like that…

There is a good book about sales psychology, "The New Sales Approach" (title?). The basic premise of the book is that you take the prospect through baby steps toward the ultimate goal of becoming a client. Of course, we're all familiar with this concept in our line of work.

However, the simple act of just signing the Acats is not a strong enough commitment to prevent a client from changing their minds. In other words, it's becoming increasingly apparent, that signing the Acat is not the last step before becoming a client. So, what does it take? What simple act would further cement the relationship, making the cost of changing their mind too high? Any suggestions?

I like the 9 MM to the head approach myself…it’s getting to that point.

Great stories on here.



We had a client for years who only purchased really high quality stocks
for income and muni bonds.  In 1998 he died and in 1999 his
daughter moved everything to another advisor because she was told we
were unethical for having her invested in insured AAA muni-bonds in
such a high growth market.  They even had an attorney contact us
if we didn’t move the assets quickly enough via the ACATS.  The
daughter was retired and disabled and was getting over $100k in income
every year tax free.  She moved everything into growth stocks and
returned in 2003 with about 60% of the assets she left with.



This is why I HATE reading in the paper that CFPs are the proper choice
because they are the only ethical option.  GRRRRRRRRR