Hello and First Question, The Call Back
Hi All,
Quick background: I'm a new RIA on the west coast who started a firm from zero about six months ago. I had worked for other shops as a portfolio manager and trader but had little client contact. Yeah I'm rolling my eyes too. I believe I can make this happen but as I've worked to where I'm at I'm beginning to really see how much of a challenge I have ahead of me.
I've read through a lot here and have gotten a lot of awesome advice. I hope I can contribute as I learn as well.
So on to the question.
I've started making residential calls (dials 1500, contacts about 120) using the tax free bond fund script. As I've made the calls I have gotten more experienced at qualifying and gotten some responses. But I'm sure we can all agree that no matter how good we are at qualifying there will always be a false lead.
My question is let's say you call someone and they qualify on interest and money. You send them the literature and then you call them back but they simply don't pickup. How many times do you followup on calls? Do you leave voicemails? do you leave multiple voicemails? Do you send a letter?
Thanks in advance.
spence
Keep calling until they tell you to stop. You’d be amazed. I just closed a deal on a cold call I made in 2009. I just hit the guy every few months - call, email…how you doing, etc. Keep good notes and it’s easy.
I never leave voice mails on initial calls and always leave voice mails after they have asked me to do something. The reality is that it’s not YOU. It’s about them. Their dog died, their kid got sick, the car died, they lost their job, took a trip, it’s a million things EXCEPT you. If you keep calling; they will come around. Don’t be a jerk - just be a nice guy checking in to see if their needs have changed.
Taking - do you mind sharing a few examples of “checking in” phrases you use? When you say have their needs changed…how do you phrase questions around this?
Spence raises a question that I have as well. I cold call and ask for permission to mail them information. If they give me permission to do this I tell them that I will give them a call back in a week to see if they have any questions or if it prompts them to discuss investments in any way. However, I often find myself in a similar situation where I can’t get them to pick up the phone again. I typically leave a message on the first call back but don’t leave messages on subsequent calls. I have sent postcards, etc., but have never gotten a response. It irritates me when I make the effort to put everything together and send in the mail and can’t get them to acknowledge they received it. Just keep dialing until I finally get a response?
You might want to read the book about cold calling by Shawn Green. I’m about 1/2 way done with it and feel it’s an excellent book to read. She also has a course on the program she created.
Other advice.
When you first speak to people, who say “get in touch”, tell them that you’ll continue to contact them until they say “no”.
I would call them 3 times, then send them a note in the mail.
Then move on.
There really isn’t such a thing as being good or bad at qualifying imo. Simply adjust it depending on how you want to work/prospect. Loosen it to get more leads, or, tighten it to minimize time chasing leads (which takes away from prospecting) and go after ready buyers. Prospecting is just stripping the top away from the mountain. How deep do you want to cut? It’s up to you. Also there’s qualifying for interest and money, and can be handled differently. If you want to tighten your qualifying, at the end of your prospecting script ask if this is something they want or have an interest in. Only proceed with answers that are positive or request you to tell them more about your great offer. You’ll be chasing far less, freeing up more time for true prospecting and finding a ton more buyers for what you sell. Also, move through the closing process top to bottom even if it’s the first call. Ask them to buy or how much they’d like to start with etc… It works. Worst scenario is a great lead when they’re ready. Toss the rest until you hit them again with the next round of calls assuming you call the same list. Maybe they’ll be ready then. No reason to get discouraged ‘chasing’ leads if that’s the model you’re choosing. Or better yet, choose a different model. Many ways are right, the best depends on how you want to work.
I completely disagree with you KingBobby. If you are bad at qualifying you are doing nothing more than polishing pits instead of finding those cherries out there.
Beyond that, you guys are CLEARLY not scrubbing your list against the DNC registry which is a HUGE no-no
[quote=BukiRob2]I completely disagree with you KingBobby. If you are bad at qualifying you are doing nothing more than polishing pits instead of finding those cherries out there.
Beyond that, you guys are CLEARLY not scrubbing your list against the DNC registry which is a HUGE no-no[/quote]
Disagree all you want, but there’s many stages of qualifying. For example, I think ‘finding cherries’ is doing very very little qualifying. There’s many more stages down the line. You sound like you just read or are halfway through a bill good book.
-King