[quote=ameriprizesux]

#1You should have given her an "If then" close, "Sure, I'll drive you to the bank, but then we're going to my office so we can get your accounts open and switched over from Charlie Schwab." Not a question, a statement of fact, an assumed close.

#2If she balked, then you say, "Well, if when you decide that I'm the guy that you want to provide you with all the great services that my firm offer, then I'll be more than happy to work with and for you. I'll be glad to drop you off at the bank, but then I NEED  to go to my office to deal with my existing clients." (I can't believe you waited 50 minutes for her and then blew her off.)

#3If she balks further, then close for DNC exemption, "Well, Ms Jones, I'll be happy to keep you in my tickler file, and when I have some ideas I think will help you, if it's ok with you I'll give you a call." 

Good points, though.  Just disagree with the assumption outlined in #1 above.  You obviously need to brushup on your Opening and closing techniques.  Don't let the client abuse your time.  Little old ladies in sixty year old range like the attention of being catered to but doesn't mean they will give your their business as you obviously shown here.

[/quote]

And you need to go back to client school and know what's happening.

You say to Ms Jones 'If this then that.' she still has every right and ability to say "No!" and in Blewitstar's case a "No" is as good as a "Yes". But the important thing is to not give her the oppening to say "Okay, no!" If she's going to say no, she has to say it on her own, not because he suggested it.

This is very much like the "Is there anything else?" close which goes essentially:

Pitch idea, then comes Q&A.

"Well, what's the street consensus forward earnings on this company?"

"That's a very good question Mr. Jones, but before I answer it, let me ask you this, Is there anything other than the forward earnings that are standing in the way of this investment?"

If "No"

Then "Great, actually the forward earnings is what attracts me to this idea in the first place, they're looking for $2.00 this year and $3.00 next year, that's 50% growth trading at a 12 P/E, Let's pick up 3,000 shares."

If "Yes"

Then "Great, what else is standing in the way?" 

In my experience, birds of a feather flock together; cheapskates tend to associate with cheapskates.  I would have to think twice if she were to ask me to meet with her friends.

SF bay area is flooded with wealthy people.  $1 mil acct, while nice to have, really is just average, maybe even slightly below.  A few of our peer firms don't even take accts below $1 mil.

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

YHWY,

He closed, we all close all the time. The question is what we close for.

Bluestar closed for his ego, but not for his business.

He closed the door, and he burned his bridge behind him. More than burning the bridge, he made an enemy out of somebody, which may be ok on an internet forum, but it's just not a smart way to do business. This woman now has a story to tell all of her friends, and Bluestar is the villian in that telling, Ms Jones is Sweet Polly Purebreed. Dumb Dumb Dumb!

Never forget that you don't know who knows whom!

Whom, Bluestar made the correct decision, despite your advice.

This woman now has a story to tell all of her friends, and Bluestar is the villian in that telling, Ms Jones is Sweet Polly Purebreed. Dumb Dumb Dumb!

I wouldn't worry about it.  If this woman actually HAD any friends, THEY would be carting her around town and going to lunch with her instead of her freeloading off of a newbie broker that she knew was desperate for her so called million dollar account.

She was scamming you.  Live and learn.

bluestar, go rent Boiler Room and Glenngary Glen Ross. You'll get all of whomitmay's cliches AND be entertained.

 Whomit, I coulda sworn you took your ball and went home a few months back, vowing never to return.

[quote=granuja]

This woman now has a story to tell all of her friends, and Bluestar is the villian in that telling, Ms Jones is Sweet Polly Purebreed. Dumb Dumb Dumb!

I wouldn't worry about it.  If this woman actually HAD any friends, THEY would be carting her around town and going to lunch with her instead of her freeloading off of a newbie broker that she knew was desperate for her so called million dollar account.

She was scamming you.  Live and learn.

[/quote]

Project much?

What could possibly be better than having introduction to a pile of millionaire "friends" who were used to being submissive?

Everybody has friends. Even I have friends! Stop loading all of your rationalizations on this character.

[quote=YHWY]

bluestar, go rent Boiler Room and Glenngary Glen Ross. You'll get all of whomitmay's cliches AND be entertained.

 Whomit, I coulda sworn you took your ball and went home a few months back, vowing never to return.

[/quote]

You only got introduced to AIDA in a movie which you probably don't understand anyway?

I think I was 8 years old when I first read AIDA in a sales training book.

Of the two of us, Whom's advice is the one bluestar should be taking.

As to my balls: Chin. 

Gentlemen,

Her blatant abuse in the first meeting caught me off guard, but for the second meeting I did prepare a few questions to test her (similar to all the good stuff proposed here).  I don't want to do a transcript but the bottomline is she was obvious dancing around the topic, to the point I felt I've done my due diligence.

If anyone else feel like taking a shot, I'm not kidding, I'm willing to share her phone number (just take me out to a $70 Pasta Pomodoro lunch when you convert).

Is it OK to post number here?

[quote=ameriprizesux][quote=Whomitmayconcer][quote=YHWY]

Whomit. If blue's post is all true, this woman had no desire to do business and may not even have had any investable assets. Yes, a deal was closed, a free-lunch looser was sent packing. Victory: bluestar.

 You keep on thinking you can will people not only to deal with you, but to have the assets to do so. It's just not a practical theory to share. Not every person willing to speak to you is a legitimate prospect. Only newbies and failures waste time dealing with those identified as the non-qualified.

[/quote]

First off, that's a gigantic "IF".

The rest of your blather is just that, speculation and bluster.

Was she a leech? Yeah, probably. But that doesn't mean that blowing her off was the smart way to go. It was only that Blewitstar didn't have the ballz to close before her drove her to the bank (when he had any at all leverage in the relationship) That he sat out in the car for 50 minutes with nothing but a whiff of a chance of taking control of the situation and then not even having the hairs to say, yeah, we'll go to lunch AFTER we go to the office and open the accounts tells me that, probably, Blewitstar's post is probably not the truth that the truth really was.

It was the truth that comforted Bluestar's ego.

[/quote]

Reread bluestar's posts.

She had the funds.  She showed you a legit statement.

Bluestar, you lacked the ballz to stay in control of this prospect who was leading you by the ballz.

Small talk at first meeting: Parking is really really a hassle in this town - so Ms. Waste of Time, how do you normally get around if you don't drive, take a cab?

I have no problem with taking you to the bank since I understand that yuo don't drive - how do you normally get your errands done, I don't recall what you said before?  Do you normally take a cab?

Ms. Waste of Time, let me propose this:  "When your brother is in town, why don't you have him drive you to my office and I can discuss doing business with both of you?  I find that I and my clients can focus much better in my office.  By the way, I also make good Starbucks coffee and have several varieties of tea available, too.  We can call a delivery service for lunch if we want?  Sound like a plan!"

Look forward to doing business with you ...and maybe your brother, too!

You lost out on an opportunity.

You blew it.  Always be closing.  A good less for "next time".  Don't let the client lead you by the ballz, have th balls to "lead" them instead.

.....If you like challenges, you could call and redeem yourself and say, we can try discussing business again at my office, when should I swing by and pick you up?  (..... Mind going with me while I run a few erands, cleaners...stop off at my bank first...) I'll pick up a couple of coffees and salads to go on the way over. 

Always be closing.

Whom, Maybe if you stopped wasting so much time chasing unqalified prosepcts (or at least telling others to) you wouldn't be so angry.

 It's funny that you use terms like "Bluster" and "Projection" when addressing others, as you have obvious insecurity issues.

Have you met Putsy? I think you guys would really hit it off!

Is it ok to post a prospect's name and number here?

What are you? Desirous of being in a different business?

Sure go ahead and post it, and then when she gets abusively cold called by fifty or sixty people, I'll give her a call and tell her why it's been happening. Then she'll call you manager and you'll be so far out the door so fast it'll make her attorney break a sweat chasing after you!

Don't be stupid!

Amerinancy,

Don't!

Now that I want to give you her contact info, you don't want it?? 

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

Is it ok to post a prospect's name and number here?

What are you? Desirous of being in a different business?

Sure go ahead and post it, and then when she gets abusively cold called by fifty or sixty people, I'll give her a call and tell her why it's been happening. Then she'll call you manager and you'll be so far out the door so fast it'll make her attorney break a sweat chasing after you!

Don't be stupid!

Amerinancy,

Don't!

YHWY,

You can't argue the reasoning so you start with the attacking of the poster.

Typical. Juvenile. Playground. Typical.

Knock yourself out.

I destroyed your "reasoning" be defining "Qualified Prospect" a term every real sales person knows intimately. You retorted that bluestar's post probably wasn't truthful. An odd twist, if ever I've seen, to justify one's reasoning. By this logic, your advice is valid but only assuming bluestar is lying. Odd.

 You do seem, in any case, to be a very angry individual.

And all the other posters here are so jovial!

Blue, I think you did the right thing.  It’s easy to play monday morning quarterback here, but I think you read this lady correctly (albeit belatedly) and I think you handled the break with decorum, despite what some would have you think.  Your biggest mistake was in how you started the relationship, but I assume you’ve learned something from that…

Is it OK to post number here?

NO

[quote=YHWY]

I destroyed your "reasoning" be defining "Qualified Prospect" a term every real sales person knows intimately. You retorted that bluestar's post probably wasn't truthful. An odd twist, if ever I've seen, to justify one's reasoning. By this logic, your advice is valid but only assuming bluestar is lying. Odd.

 You do seem, in any case, to be a very angry individual.

[/quote]

This is seriously twisted.

My reasoning was not dependent on whether this prospect was qualified or not. My reasoning was that this fellow shut the door on a prospect based upon his ego.

I suggested that there were better ways for him to have #1 Qualified the client #2 take control of the relationship and #3 exit the relationship without burning his bridges.

For you to assume that the prospect was a non qualified prospect based on what Bluestar has said is simply speculation (it may be true it may be false) but you don't know enough to know whether the prospect is qualified or not. 

If the truth was told by both Blewit and the prospect, then she has the assets to be a prospect (if he was inexperienced enough to have given the statement back before giving it a very thorough going over, that just adds to what we know about Blewit). She made the effort to respond to his ad (as they say in the car business, nobody comes on the lot unless they are interested in buying a car. I assume that you know that the tire kicker might not even want to admit to themself that they want to be sold.) A million dollar client presented itself to him, it's his job to figure out how to get that money into his book. If you're only going to go after the easy ones then you're going to be bumping into a whole lot of other 'low hanging fruit pickers'.

Blewit failed to excite her interest beyond being a towel boy. He was probably right to have cut his losses. He was wrong to cut his losses in such a way that he never has the opportunity to try something new on the prospect. He kamakazied, he didn't live to fight another day. That's dumb.

I didn't retort that his post wasn't truthful, and whether it was or wasn't doesn't make a whole lot of difference. The end result was that he gave the woman a shitsandwich for lunch and is here telling us that he did the right thing. I'm just telling him how he did the wrong thing.

Meanwhile, we know that blew didn't tell us the whole story because he said that he had developed some trick questions that he asked her but he didn't want to bore us with the details (because he knows that if he said to her "Are you going to open an account with me?" and she said "No, not today." and he still drove her to the bank and waited for 50 minutes for her we'd laugh at him.) So he's giving us a self serving version of the events (although admitting that he waited for the woman for 50 minutes is pathetic beyond all comprehension) 

We're talented in this business and we can read people. You read that I am an angry person, you read that the lady is a loser.

I know that people will always protect their own ego, we have no choice. Ego is survival, ego is self and we will shy away from all things that threaten to harm our egos. The only way we overcome our "fear of rejection" is to convince ourselves that rejection will bring us closer to success, which nourishes our sense of self. Obviously, with Bluestar he has not reached that point yet. His ego is protected by a robin's eggshell.

This is demonstrated by the fact that he comes here looking for affirmation and advice. What, there are no big brokers in his office that would help him with some advice? Then it is demonstrated by his actions with the prospect. Then it is confirmed by his premature rejeculation all over the prospect's pretty dress (btw, 50 minutes in a bank? She's doing more than making a trip to the teller, which means that she probably has a fair sum in the bank as well, interesting that Blueballz didn't mention asking her what the trip was for).

So, yeah... The truth of this tale is probably somewhere south of BS's version.

[quote=Indyone]Blue, I think you did the right thing.  It's easy to play monday morning quarterback here, but I think you read this lady correctly (albeit belatedly) and I think you handled the break with decorum, despite what some would have you think.  Your biggest mistake was in how you started the relationship, but I assume you've learned something from that...[/quote]

I guess we're to assume that your response would be better at your advertised site.

All I can say is, I feel comfortable with the way I handle it. 

I always give a prospect at leat one meeting's chance, even if clients request to go to meet them.  As I said previously, even the help-me-with-whatever behavior is not new to me, because I have existing clients of about same acct size who ask me for help outside investments and I do help them.  I wanted to see if this is one of those, or a freeloader altogether.

I already had doubt about this lead after the first meeting, which is why I ask folks here for 2nd opinions.  The 2nd meeting pretty much went as I outlined in my earlier post.  I'm glad I went for the 2nd meeting and confirmed it; otherwise the guessing will kill me!!

Yes I could've kept the bridge in tact.  On the flipside I could've left her crippled ass at the bank to find her way home.  Ultimately I decided to still offer her a ride home, but let her know we know what she's up to.  Hopefully she refrain from piling on the extra salmon the next time.

[quote=Indyone]Blue, I think you did the right thing.  It's easy to play monday morning quarterback here, but I think you read this lady correctly (albeit belatedly) and I think you handled the break with decorum, despite what some would have you think.  Your biggest mistake was in how you started the relationship, but I assume you've learned something from that...[/quote]

So what will it be, brother?  I give you her contact info with right of first refusal/surrender(I'm sure that won't happen), you fly in from wherever you are, apply the AIDA on her, and close the million dollar acct that generates $10K revenue, maybe even the extra cash at the bank.  Well worth the cost of the trip.

Are you up to it?

[quote=Whomitmayconcer][quote=YHWY]

I destroyed your "reasoning" be defining "Qualified Prospect" a term every real sales person knows intimately. You retorted that bluestar's post probably wasn't truthful. An odd twist, if ever I've seen, to justify one's reasoning. By this logic, your advice is valid but only assuming bluestar is lying. Odd.

 You do seem, in any case, to be a very angry individual.

[/quote]

This is seriously twisted.

My reasoning was not dependent on whether this client was qualified or not. My reasoning was that this fellow shut the door on a prospect based upon his ego.

I suggested that there were better ways for him to have #1 Qualified the client #2 take control of the relationship and #3 exit the relationship without burning his bridges.

For you to assume that the client was a non qualified prospect based on what Bluestar has said is simply speculation (it may be true it may be false) but you don't know enough to know whether the prospect is qualified or not. 

If the truth was told by both Blewit and the prospect, then she has the assets to be a prospect (if he was inexperienced enough to have given the statement back before giving it a very thorough going over, that just adds to what we know about Blewit). She made the effort to respond to his ad (as they say in the car business, nobody comes on the lot unless they are interested in buying a car. I assume that you know that the tire kicker might not even want to admit to themself that they want to be sold.) A million dollar client presented itself to him, it's his job to figure out how to get that money into his book. If you're only going to go after the easy ones then you're going to be bumping into a whole lot of other 'low hanging fruit pickers'.

blewit failed to excite her interest beyond being a towel boy. He was probably right to cut his losses. he was wrong to cut his losses in such a way that he never had the opportunity to try something new on the prospect. He kamakazied, he didn't live to fight another day. That's dumb.

I didn't retort that his post wasn't truthfull, and whether it was or wasn't doesn't make a whole lot of difference. The end result was that he gave the woman a shitsandwich for lunch and is here telling us that he did the right thing. I'm just telling him how he did the wrong thing.

Meanwhile, we know that blew didn't tell uus the whole story because he said that he had developed some trick questions that he asked her but he didn't want to bore us with the details (because he knows that if he said to her "Are you going to open an account with me?" and she said "No, not today." and he still drove her to the bank and waited for 50 minutes for her we'd laugh at him.

We're talented in this business and we can read people. You read that I am an angry person, you read that the lady is a loser.

I know that people will always protect their own ego, we have no choice. Ego is survival, ego is self and we will shy away from all things that threaten to harm our egos. The only way we overcome our "fear of rejetion" is to convince ourselves that rejection will bring us closer to success, which nourishes our sense of self. Obviously, with Bluestar he has not reached that point yet. His ego is protected by a robin's eggshell.

This is demonstrated by the fact that he comes here looking for affirmation and advice. What, there are no big brokers in his office that would help him with some advice? then it is demonstrated by his actions with the prospect. Then it is confirmed by his premature rejeculation all over the prospect's pretty dress (btw, 50 minutes in a bank? She's doing more than making a trip to the teller, which means that she probably has a fair sum in the bank as well, interesting that Blueballz didn't mention asking her what the trip was for.).

So, yeah... The truth of this tale is probably somewhere south of BS's version.