Bill Good Seminar in UT

my partner and I went out last summer for the training. It was critical for us to see how it worked and the best way to utilise the features.  Theres no way I could have figured it out on my own, by just doing the online stuff.

What about the cold calling? Learn anything from that?

Years ago, before many of you were born, Bill Good's only product was a cold calling seminar that he and his team delivered onsite to brokerage firms. If you've never heard the story about how he developed his cold calling course and how he developed his current system I assure you it is fascinating. Especially considering his mark on the business. He created cold calling in our business as it is known today and how it has been known for the past three decades.

BondGuy,  I’d like to come out and watch you work for 1 day.  I don’t care how far the drive … it would be worth it.

You aren’t the only one…

Thanks guys! You would be extremely unimpressed. Many here work much harder than I. For example, here it is 11am, and i’m screwing around on the internet, totally unmotivated, trapped in the office on a fine summer day by client appointments set for later in the day and tonite. Uggg!

What’s the story behind Bill Good and his system

Do you know where you can find those CDs, I checked his website(links are broken) and then called his office, where some guy wanted to sell me them for $400…

Bondguy, I’ll even buy you lunch.  Come on buddy, pal.

[quote=chief123]Do you know where you can find those CDs, I checked his website(links are broken) and then called his office, where some guy wanted to sell me them for $400…[/quote]

I don’t use much from Bill Good, but he’s put a lot more thought into cold calling than any of us. Send them the $400 and maybe you’ll learn enough to do an additional $400 in business.

For the life of me, I don’t know how anyone cold calls residences anymore… with the DNC list.  How are you guys doing this with any speed?

It just takes more dials and a larger dialing area. A friend of mine started brandnew at MS last year and raised $9mil. $4mil cold calling residents, $3mil cold calling business, $2mil from seminars

Squash, can i come and watch your friend worK? Seriously, those are some great numbers. If you’re looking to absorb some positive waves paying him a visit sounds like a day well spent.

There we three CDs. Two Best of(from some conferences) and Picking cherries not pits(or something like that)

Find out who are on the CDs and bring me some names. The pick the cherries not the pits, if it’s the complete program is a very good program.

Make that :Find out who is on the cds. Just spell no!!!

Mike Robertson, Ira Walker, Bill Tennison, Lloyd Williams, and of course Bill Good.



CD total is 10

Let’s see:

Ok… actual disc names…

Best of Marketing Conference 5-10: Tom Gau, d*** Heckman, Ira Walker, Jeff Johnson, Tom Lunt, Kathy Mahoney, Mike Robertson, Jim Sarkauskas, Scott Wilson, Bill Tennison, Keith Vanderveen, Lloyd Williams



Best of Marketing Confernce Vole 3.: David Bach, David Brennan, Linda Deane, Roger Dow, Bill Nelson, Mike Robertson, Rod Roth, Marita Simbul-Lezon, Keith Vanderveen, Lloyd Williams.

I’m not a Tom Gau guy. Barely remember Vanderveen. Linda deane was an AG advisor who brought people into the office for investment classes held in the conference room. Three or four classes, given once a week same time same place. She booked classes three or four days a week. Interesting program, but not my thing. David Bach is well, David Bach. Good talk before he became huge, even though he was pretty big at the time. The other names aren’t ringing a bell. That’s not to say they aren’t worth a listen.

What do you think of the “Winner’s Circle” books?

Not a big fan of the Winner’s Circle books.

[quote=BondGuy]Let’s see:

Mind sharing some info?

For the life of me, I don’t know how anyone cold calls residences anymore… with the DNC list.  How are you guys doing this with any speed?

[quote=BondGuy]Let's see:

[/quote]

Had some free time while eating lunch at my desk..

Like many large producers Ira has morphed into something else. He now commands a large team team.  With 5 mil plus per year in production he no longer need to cold call. His advice to network and use referrals is good, but since he no longer cold calls he's not in a position to judge it's value. He also now works for UBS. Or at least he did when i wrote that post. UBS is the uber anti cold calling firm. While at Paine Webber the managers embraced my calling efforts. The BOM under UBS told me it wasn't in line with the image of UBS, saying do you really think wealthy people will respond to a cold call? UBS became very heavily anti cold calling after the merger. I'm sure Walker has gotten the same messege. Ironically, i know of at least UBS trainee who started in the spring of 2008 and swam against the UBS anti cold call culture. my last contact with him was about 11 months ago, and to say the least, he was doing fabulous.

Williams was a Paine Webber advisor.

if you don't want to cold call do't do it.

BG, surely with all those nice TV commercials, nobody has to prospect at UBS. Doesn't the phone just ring off the hook?? /s

BG, I find it hilarious, for the gazillions in tv spending etc, the wires never bothered to put a simple 800 phone number down, so that an interested person could schedule an appointment with a local office. Talk about stupid...

Bondguy, I am still at UBS and things continue to go well.

For the new guys just starting out my advice to you would be to follow what Bondguy posts on this forum. It will lead to success. I started in production in the summer of 2007. Trailing twelve is 500k with 44 million under managment. This wasnt inherited. Net new assets ytd are 14 million. When I started I read every post Bondguy wrote on the old forum and followed it. I am proof that the system works. I use the Bill Good Tax Free Bond Script only I pitch individual preferreds(usually bank preferreds from a bank that prospects know). It is a call mail call approach. The bottom line is that yield is what prospects want to hear about especially in this low interest rate enviorment.

Everyone says cold calling doesnt work. My fellow trainees looked at me like I was crazy when I explained my client acquisiton strategy when I did my two week training in the home office. Everyone said "I have a huge network....I am on a team..... blah blah blah blah... I don't need to cold call. They really thought I was crazy when I would I go to the phone center and make cold calls after a long day of sitting in the classes.  These guys are all out of the business by the way. We had 50-60 in our training class and I think there are 3-4 left including me.

If you can learn to sell fixed income you will do great in this business especially If you can do it over the phone. A broker once said "If you arent on the phone or meeting with a client or prospect you aren't working". I cant think of a more true statement than this. These are words to live by. Bondguy said this business is simple but not easy. That hits the nail right on the head. Don't get pysched out. All you have to do is call people and ask them to buy. Thats is it. You just have to do it enough to have good results. We are really good at making this business so complicated and it doesnt have to be. It is as simple as finding a bond, preferred whatever and calling every prospect and client you have and getting them to buy TODAY. Not tommorrow, not next week, not six months from now but TODAY.

Bondguy, thanks for all your input on the forum. I dont know if I would still be in this business If it werent for following your advice.

DMAN, thank you. And, thank you for posting this on the open board and not as a PM. Please drop by from time to time with updates. I for one, love success stories.

I'm sure your PM folder is filled or will be soon.

Just buy bonds!!!

DMAN, oh i almost forgot, on the numbers:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Way to knock the ball out of the park!!!!!

GIVE US MORE DMAN!!!!

BG, kudos to you, DMAN provides a pretty convincing testimonial. And DMAN, congrats to you, this is a tough biz, and you've not only survived, but been successful as well.

[quote=DMAN]

Bondguy, I am still at UBS and things continue to go well.

For the new guys just starting out my advice to you would be to follow what Bondguy posts on this forum. It will lead to success. I started in production in the summer of 2007. Trailing twelve is 500k with 44 million under managment. This wasnt inherited. Net new assets ytd are 14 million. When I started I read every post Bondguy wrote on the old forum and followed it. I am proof that the system works. I use the Bill Good Tax Free Bond Script only I pitch individual preferreds(usually bank preferreds from a bank that prospects know). It is a call mail call approach. The bottom line is that yield is what prospects want to hear about especially in this low interest rate enviorment.

Everyone says cold calling doesnt work. My fellow trainees looked at me like I was crazy when I explained my client acquisiton strategy when I did my two week training in the home office. Everyone said "I have a huge network....I am on a team..... blah blah blah blah... I don't need to cold call. They really thought I was crazy when I would I go to the phone center and make cold calls after a long day of sitting in the classes.  These guys are all out of the business by the way. We had 50-60 in our training class and I think there are 3-4 left including me.

If you can learn to sell fixed income you will do great in this business especially If you can do it over the phone. A broker once said "If you arent on the phone or meeting with a client or prospect you aren't working". I cant think of a more true statement than this. These are words to live by. Bondguy said this business is simple but not easy. That hits the nail right on the head. Don't get pysched out. All you have to do is call people and ask them to buy. Thats is it. You just have to do it enough to have good results. We are really good at making this business so complicated and it doesnt have to be. It is as simple as finding a bond, preferred whatever and calling every prospect and client you have and getting them to buy TODAY. Not tommorrow, not next week, not six months from now but TODAY.

Bondguy, thanks for all your input on the forum. I dont know if I would still be in this business If it werent for following your advice.

[/quote]

I am calling BS on this one... $44MM in 3 years? $15MM/year? Not unless you are on a team...

I agree with the rest of you info, but I think you a bit off on the assets, unless you are on a team

Squash

I am not on a team. I am surprised by the numbers myself. When I started I didn't imagine I would do this well. On the other hand you have to think about how much money is in bank accounts sitting on the side lines. These last few years have been a prospecting gold mine. Break it down by month. That works out to 1.2 million a month, 300k a week with a four week month, 75k a day. When you look at it like this I dont think this is out of reach of any new guy starting out. I know the number sounds impressive but if you get on the phone and ask people to buy its definitley doable, especially for a poor rookie whose only objective is to make it in the buisness. I had no plan B, it was either make it or starve.

Who were you calling? So when you first started were you simply on the phone from 7-8pm...

I apologize for the doubt, but those numbers are insane....

DMAN came to me early on and shared numbers. He also shared some other aspects of his business, concerns, and problems. Added to the types of questions he was asking i had no reason to doubt his performance. I still don't doubt his numbers.

As good as DMAN's performance is, and make no mistake it's top of the class, it's doable for a person who gets it.

Years ago i brought a young trainee into the business.  I advised the trainee to start with SB, as my firm had no real training program. The trainee went through training at Hartford and started in production using only the calling system i had developed from Tennison/Desoto/Bill Good. This trainee was female and called me complaining that her BOM was sexist and she wasn't getting all the leads and inherited accts that the male trainees were getting. I told her  to put her head down and just make the calls.

End result, in her first two years she opened over 700 new accounts, was ranked 60th out of almost 12,000 FAs in new accounts, was top quintile in assets and production in her training class with assets of over 40 million by end of year two. Sound familiar?

 DMAN is another person who has grasped the brass ring.

Squash, another thought here is this: DMAN's process is different than yours. he picks up the phone and asks people to buy something. Just from the way he expresses himself i can tell he's for real.

Here's a little exercise for yourself: Find a fixed income product you like, a bond, a CD, a PFD, whatever. Now write a little script pumping the benefits. Next make a list of 25 people to call today with that product. These can be prospects or clients who you believe would be a good match for the product. Last step make the calls!!! Close every one you call! That is, ask them to buy.  This is the way i run my business, and sounds like the way DMAN runs his.

Do this exercise and I guarantee you that you will sell some of that product today. Not tomorrow, not next week, today. Spendable income made today!!!!

Next step- never stop dialing. If you call 25 people a day and ask them to buy you will become incredibly successful. But don't be limited by my numbers. 25 is fantastic- more would be better.

Now you ask how does this work?

You ask 25 people per day to buy your product. You close big, 50k or 100k minimum. After-all, it's a great product. After a month you've positioned a million dollars and you move to the next idea. You keep doing this every day for the next five years and then one day, that first million dollars you placed comes back to you. The bonds are called, or the PFD is called, or the CD matures. Now you've got a million bucks to place. Add in a 2% sales credit and you've got 20k done in one day. More like two hours of one day. Now some more time goes one and you have 2 or 3 million dollars coming due in one month. Whoo hoo!!! Or you have 4 or 5 million coming due in one month. meanwhile back at the salt mine you are continuing to add at least a million per month to the pot. And so it goes in the fixed income business. Add in some trades that make sense, appointmentments for financial planning that develope from the book, and referrals and all of a sudden you've got yourself a business! A big business!

How hard is it to place a million a month? It's ten people investing 100k. Think you can find ten people per month to buy your very best idea? CD rates are at 1%, people are clamoring for alternatives. Yeah, a 6% BABs looks really good right now.

Simple, just not easy.

But doable?

You betcha!!

So is the Tennison/DeSoto/Bill Good system... that 25 pitches a day?

Sometimes I wonder if the success you have comes because you have a wirehouse brand behind you as opposed to LPL or and indy firm name...

[quote=squash2]

So is the Tennison/DeSoto/Bill Good system... that 25 pitches a day?

Sometimes I wonder if the success you have comes because you have a wirehouse brand behind you as opposed to LPL or and indy firm name...

[/quote]

The Tennison/Desoto/Bill Good system is to make as many phone calls as you can per day. Good seperates himself from the other two in that he believes that mass calling works regardless of product or service. The other two, Tennison and Desoto became multi million dollar producers pitching tax free bonds, opening accounts, and then penetrating those accounts.

 I found these guys around 1990 and simply cloned their business process. Others in my peer group have done the same. And, as i've said many times i'm not the most successful guy in my peer group.  The messege - this works! It worked in the eighties for tennison and Desoto. It worked in the ninties and beyond for me. And, here we have DMAN, who started during the huge market downturn of 2008, and it's working  for him.

Tennison doubled his production after going independent.

Squash, if you believe this won't work, well then, you are right, it won't. Find another way.

I am shocked that if it does and is easily repeatable and anyone can do it then why is there such a lack of success in the financial world?

As a newbie you always think there is something behind the curtain that is not being told

The curtain would like to tell you that there is sooo much more money going on behind the scenes in other products....

Getting rejected over a 100 times a day for 3-5 years is not easy palmpre.  There are very few people who put up with it for that long a period.  Most flame out after about 3 months, or they see enough success to just 'get by' and flat out stop prospecting for new business.  And the ones that can do it for that long are very very successful. 

That's the problem, there are no secrets. Everyone thinks there is, but there's not. DMAN can tell you it's about dialing the phone and asking somebody to buy something. i will tell you it's the same thing. No secrets, no great mystery, just do it!!!

The reason  for lack of success is that people don't do it. Why? Because as  I've said over and over, this business is simple, it's just not easy.

What does that mean? It's simple  to figure out that all you have to do is pick up the phone, dial it, and then ask the person on the other end to buy something. And, it's simple to figure out that you have to do that over and over again as many of times as you can every day. And, it's simple to figure out that the people you call have to have money. All that is simple to figure out and build a plan.

Now comes the not easy part - doing it!  Making those calls. Finding a product, bond ,preferred stock etc to bet your career on - not easy.  Picking up the phone and dialing it - not easy. Asking the rich guy on the other end of the phone to buy today - not easy.  Asking the stranger on the other end of the phone for 50, 100, 250, 500k on a phone call-not easy. Sweating until the money comes in-not easy. Getting blown off the phone by a jerk and making the next dial- not easy. Doing it all again tomorrow - not easy. Doing it every hour of every day for five, six, or seven years - not easy.

The reason for the high failure rate in our business is because for as simple as it is, it's not easy to do.

Reread DMAN's post and pay careful attention to the part where he says They all thought i was crazy when i would go to the phone center and make cold calls after spending a long day in the training classes. Understand the true meaning of that statement. That's committment! That's what it takes.

[quote=BondGuy]

Squash, another thought here is this: DMAN's process is different than yours. he picks up the phone and asks people to buy something. Just from the way he expresses himself i can tell he's for real.

Here's a little exercise for yourself: Find a fixed income product you like, a bond, a CD, a PFD, whatever. Now write a little script pumping the benefits. Next make a list of 25 people to call today with that product. These can be prospects or clients who you believe would be a good match for the product. Last step make the calls!!! Close every one you call! That is, ask them to buy.  This is the way i run my business, and sounds like the way DMAN runs his.

Do this exercise and I guarantee you that you will sell some of that product today. Not tomorrow, not next week, today. Spendable income made today!!!!

Next step- never stop dialing. If you call 25 people a day and ask them to buy you will become incredibly successful. But don't be limited by my numbers. 25 is fantastic- more would be better.

Now you ask how does this work?

You ask 25 people per day to buy your product. You close big, 50k or 100k minimum. After-all, it's a great product. After a month you've positioned a million dollars and you move to the next idea. You keep doing this every day for the next five years and then one day, that first million dollars you placed comes back to you. The bonds are called, or the PFD is called, or the CD matures. Now you've got a million bucks to place. Add in a 2% sales credit and you've got 20k done in one day. More like two hours of one day. Now some more time goes one and you have 2 or 3 million dollars coming due in one month. Whoo hoo!!! Or you have 4 or 5 million coming due in one month. meanwhile back at the salt mine you are continuing to add at least a million per month to the pot. And so it goes in the fixed income business. Add in some trades that make sense, appointmentments for financial planning that develope from the book, and referrals and all of a sudden you've got yourself a business! A big business!

How hard is it to place a million a month? It's ten people investing 100k. Think you can find ten people per month to buy your very best idea? CD rates are at 1%, people are clamoring for alternatives. Yeah, a 6% BABs looks really good right now.

Simple, just not easy.

But doable?

You betcha!!

[/quote]

This is a perfect description of what I have done over the past three and a half years.

The question of why everyone doesn't do it is answered when Bondguy says " its simple just not easy". I asked an advisor why more people don't make it in the business when I started studying for the 7. He said "you dont understand how hard this business is". I responded to him saying "I know its hard, you have to put in alot of hours etc." He stopped me and repeated "No, you dont understand how hard it is". I remember going back to him about 3 months after I started prospecting full time and saying "I think I now understand what you were trying to tell me 3 months ago". I dont know how many times I wanted to quit during the first. year. That is why I think you cant have a plan B in this business because it gets real easy  to go to that plan when things get tough.

The other reason I think so many fail is they never find a prospecting plan and stick with it. You dont know how many times I have gone as far as to tell fellow rookies the exact script I use. These are guys who worked at my firm and had heard the managers say " you need to talk to DMAN, he is opening alot of accounts". I would explain the entire Bill Good cold call system to them. They all said I am going to do it but none ever did or did it half heartedly. They have sinced gone to plan B.

I was lucky. I identified a system at the very beginning of my career and stuck to it. I didnt care who bad mouthed cold calling. I knew it would work if I did it enough. I had every confidence in that and that is what helped me hang on. It took awhile for me to build critical mass but after you learn to open that first account over the phone then the sky is  the limit.

DMAN,  awesome stuff!  To be clear, do you mind giving us the script?  I think I have a good idea what it is based on BondGuy's previous posts, but it would be great if you could confirm/reinforce what you use.  Dials and Contacts per day?  Business ... Residential...or both?  Thanks to both you and Bondguy!! 

Lead Nurturing/Lead Followup. 

Let's say you are following the Bondguy/Bill Good/The Judge process of cold calling with a product and generating leads that are interested in the product pitch conversation starter and allow you to mail them the initial information.  So you have qualified on the phone, and mailed your initial information.  Based on the numbers I have seen, roughly 10% of your contacts should end up in your lead file and 10% of these will become clients.  Makes perfect sense from the standpoint of the law of large numbers, but what is your process in terms of followup after the initial Call and Mail?  Do you simply call after the mailer goes out to confirm receipt and ask for an appointment?  What if they aren't ready at that time for an appointment.  Or, do you mail them something else?  How do you determine when to kick someone out of your pipeline?

Or, are you simply not even worried about lead conversion at all and merely doing enough lead generation via dialing with the hopes of "running into a client" that is hot for your offer?  Thanks!

I think Bill Good's first book has a great system for that, except instead of index cards I use my CRM. but it works great and allows an organized way of track keeping.