Everybody wins second prize
FIrst of all, I want to say Hi and thank you for the wonderful info on the forum. I've been lurking for a while, but decided to show my face today to get some feedback on a prospecting idea.
The idea is this - set up a table in a mall or grocery store or whatever in a wealthy area raffling off something of value - I haven't thought of what, maybe a side of beef or a round trip ticket to somewhere warm. Maybe I charge $1 for the tickets and give the money to charity as part of the draw.
Here's the rub - everybody wins second prize. I don't announce that, of course, I just call everyone who submits a ticket and tell them they win a free financial planning session that was 'donated' by firm XYZ.
Tell me what you think. I'm donning my flame suit, so fire away if you think the idea sucks.
The type and value of the gift is a Finra compliance issue.
99% of these efforts are time and money wasters.
I've been involved in a fair number of these, and would not even waste my time on something like this.
I set up a nice booth one time, and was giving away pop and candy on a 95 degree day, and people steered well clear of our booth. Instead they paid $3 per can at a food seller. Still, it was a nice day, big parade in town, had a good time anyways. We had about 100-150 cans of pop that we worked off in the office for a good long while.
Just so I'm not misunderstood - the booth wouldn't say 'XXX Inv. Co" in any way. It would just be a charity raffle. A nice college kid is hawking $1 raffle tickets as they go by, with the chance of a prize and the $1 going to Japanese tsunami victims or whatever.
Great, now you sound like a scam artist instead, and that's not how you'd want to be percieved. Your compliance department would never allow it either. And if you circumvent compliance, then someone complains, you'll lose your job.
This booth thing, wouldn't have anything to do with call reluctance would it? A hard core day on the phone is worth more than any good that could come from schlepping a booth. Same goes for mailers, and seminars.
Leveraging your time is smart though. I'd suggest you find every community center quarterly, and community college program guide, and see if there is a way to get involved in teaching/speaking at those places. If that works, then you can try to find other venues that need guest speakers, volunteers and such. I've done some of that kind of stuff, and THAT actually works. Hmm, maybe I should try some more of that myself... so...thanks for putting the idea in my head.