Cold Calling Radius
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What do all of you think is the farthest geographical distance from your
location that would still be productive to cold call?
I was waiting for that. Now that it’s out of the way though, anybody with
answers that include actual integers or fractions thereof?
As a consumer, the further away you sre the less likely I would be to do business with you. You should be within a reasonable commuting sistance, which would be about eleventy kabillion inches
Okay, okay... as a reasonable answer I would say that cold calling is definitely a numbers game and you'll have to take as wide a radius as you're comfortable with. What's the farthest distance you're comfortable driving to meet someone? That should be the maximum outer range of your call campaigns. Focus the most calls in the areas with the highest populations; hopefully you'll get several meetings in the same area.
If you're calling people and trying to get them to come to your office I'd focus on a drive time of no more than 30 minutes.
If I was just starting out as a broker, knowing what I know now, I would do the following:
1. Focus on your primary area, during regular business hours: cold call, meet 'n' greet, etc. Your "primary" area being a 50-100 radius around your office or whatever radius you feel comfortable with.
2. After regular business hours in your primary area, focus on your secondary areas. Your secondary areas should be in different time zones to allow extended cold calling time. For example, I live in Georgia, so I can only realistically cold call from 9AM - 8PM in my time zone. However, by including California in my calling area, I could cold call from 9AM - 11PM, given the three-hour time difference. If I included Hawaii, I could call even later.
On the other hand, Blarmston (with ML), is in California. So, he could start his day cold calling the East Coast, at 6AM (his time).
3. Before calling your secondary areas, check your bond inventory for "fun" bonds. I call them "fun" bonds because the bond relates to the prospect's particular area. For example, if California issued muni's for the renovation of the Golden Gate Bridge, call San Francisco prospects, call Seattle prospects with Boeing corporate bonds, etc.
4. To limit your marketing expenses, target your cold calling to certain types of businesses that offer free membership lists. For example, cold calling attorneys: In Georgia, you can pull-up the Georgia Bar Association and get the list of members, addresses, & phone numbers, FOR FREE.
CAVEATS:
A. Of course, you're only cold calling "products", in your secondary area. (I've never established an entire investment relationship with a client I've never met and have only phoned/faxed.)
B. Be very selective of the products you use to cold call. I prefer highly-rated muni's or corporate bonds. You don't want an investment blowing-up on a client 1,000 miles away or else you might be required to attend an arbitration hearing in that state.
C. If you have a prospect ready to buy your product, don't drop the ticket until you have GOOD FUNDS on deposit to cover the trade! I can't tell you how many times I've had prospects say they wanted to buy 100 bonds, only never to bother sending the check to cover the trade. Preferrably, once you receive their check, give it 5-7 days for the check to clear, before dropping the buy ticket. If you can't wait on the check to clear before dropping the ticket, either call the bank (that the check is drawn on) and verify that the funds are good or insist on bank cashier's checks for payment or arrange to have the funds wired into their new brokerage account.
C. If you share phone expenses with your employer, calling different time zones could be a expensive proposition for you. Only you can make the judgment, if it's worth it.
"On the other hand, Blarmston (with ML), is in California. So, he could start his day cold calling the East Coast, at 6AM (his time)."
I actually used to do that. Calling my old contacts and prospects in NY. I used to get in around 630am, slam some coffee, then dial back East. I only got a couple accounts from the efforts, so I instead focused on calling small business owners here in the area. Most of the time, I would leave voicemails, but occasionally I would get an owner or CFO on the phone, we would joke about how early we had to work, and then talk business.
I just found that it was a better use of my time than to be calling back East.
But.. I have a good buddy who came over from Morgan a year ago, and he said that his senior FA used to call primarily into the Boston area. 40% of his clients are people the guy has NEVER met. First thought would be that his guy is small time, but this guy manages about 240M. So it does work....
[quote=Jones06]What do all of you think is the farthest geographical distance from your
location that would still be productive to cold call?[/quote]
100 feet.
Doberman: Good use of colors, italics, underline, and bolding. Bravo.
One response however, in regards to your political prediction. If that were to happen, it would be against historical trends:
Since the end of World War II, the average loss for a second-term presidency in its sixth year has been 29 House seats and six Senate seats. If you go back to Franklin Roosevelt’s second term, the House loss average jumps to 35. Thus a 25/6 House/Senate loss would be about (and slightly below) the historical average.
Thus, assuming the above takes place, remind your friends on both sides of the aisle that these are typical results, regardless of who is in power.
As for my political predictions, I'm taking my cue from the media. I know historical trends propose a different outcome, but if the media is now harping on the "unreliable" methods by which we vote, it can only mean that they expect the Republicans to maintain control. As opposed to if they thought Democrats were going to win, we'd only hear about the great strides in securing our methods of voting.
Needless to say, I don't trust the media.