Cold calling

tmorris93:



I have been in production for about 4 months and have built my whole book so far on cold calling. I make about 200+ calls per day. I try businesses in the morning and residential in the afternoon and evenings. It takes alot to get people to talk to you. The biggest thing that I have found so far is overcoming objections. If you don’t have an immediate response to the objection then you are history. Most people don’t understand what they own and why they bought it. If you come across as a sincere person and can show them where there is room for improvement, and there always is room, then chances are you can gain their trust as well as their business.

I do ALOT of cold calling. I focus on very specific niches ( retirement planning for university deans and professors, retirees and near retirees within 20 miles of my branch, etc.), then market those areas mextensively.... Like anything, you have good days and then horrible days when you want to drown yourself in the Pacific Ocean... kidding.... Like anything, it can be done.... For every 100 people that call you a prick and hang up, you will get 2-3 people who will meet and hear your story... From there its rapport, identifying needs/concerns, whatver, and doing business...

Success story recently....I called a realtor in my area on Nov. 2, she mentioned they were working with Smith Barney for their personal accounts, and Wachovia for their business and retirement planning.... Long story short, we met last night afdter getting statements about 2 weeks ago, and have a meeting on Tuesday to close about $7 million.... Obviously, those are once in a year type opportunities...

The point is that when asked by other FA's how I got in front of them, it wasnt by networking, cold walking, doing seminars, etc- it was from a phone call to someone who wasnt expecting it.... Like alot of things in our biz, its a crapshoot.. The only thing you control is your attitude and activity ( whatever route you choose to take.)

Tmorris93,

This might sound crazy, but try CDs. People are comfortable with CDs. They like the safety, short term nature, and the rates right now at 4.5% for 1 year are alot higher than they are getting at the bank right now. I know you don't get paid much but it is a great way to gather assets and it is a foot in the door.

Give it a try.

[quote=AnotherView]

Tmorris93,

This might sound crazy, but try CDs. People are comfortable with CDs. They like the safety, short term nature, and the rates right now at 4.5% for 1 year are alot higher than they are getting at the bank right now. I know you don't get paid much but it is a great way to gather assets and it is a foot in the door.

Give it a try.[/quote]

Good point. The CD rates are awesome right now... It's a nice safe investment for those folks who are not very speculative. It's nice to see the rates going up again. I think that as well as the declining price in crude is giving us this great market right now.

That is a good point regarding the CD pitch. When all else fails, ask them how they are managing their cash. People who may be skeptical to open up measily disclose rates they have been getting on their CD's, because they think its less intrusive than reading off their account holdings.

We had a promotion on 6 month CD's at 4.55%, and the feedback has been great.. We will open about 4 new accounts in December alone with about 75K in each one. Good way to grab some portion of the relationship and build from there....

Why CD's when you can get 45 day commercial paper paying 4%

Another alternative is VRDO’s. We have some paying 3.15% tax free, with weekly liquidity and the ability to automatically roll over at higher rates…

Cold Calling is THE WAY.  I’ve been calling on title company farm lists (which are free by the way) of homeowners and making 150 to 200 dials a day,  setting about 1 appointment a day and have gotten in front of about $1 million in assets in the last month. I’ve just started following up on cold calls that I’ve mailed to and believe my appointment ratio will increase.  I made the mistake when I first started out in this business (3 years ago) of giving up on cold calling and have regretted it.  I am learning to love cold calling and believe that all this crap about DNC etc… is a cop out (which I am guilty of in the past).  It’s hard to stay consistent and have an upbeat attitude, but it works, period.  We have a million dollar producer who still cold calls and a 3 year rookie who did over $400k last year (his 2nd year) and his only marketing approach was cold calling. (he would dial for about 8 hours a day when he didn’t have appointments).  I think the easy route is to try and get “creative” and do seminars, networking etc… which is fine if you have the connections, relationship and tenure.  For us new guys who aren’t connected, I believe it’s the best way to build a business. 

dude,

I sit in front of a million dollars about every two days.  I never pick up the phone.

There are better ways.

you must be bringing in at least 100mil every year, that's amazing.  let's see 100 mil at roughly 3% that's 3mil of production without trails or fees hard to beleive but amazing.

oh yeah, I just cold called Bill Gates tonight and he set up an appt for tomorrow.  Thanks for all your great advise bankrep, without you I never could have done it.

"I sit in front of a million dollars about every two days.  I never pick up the phone"

"Mr. and Mrs. Bank Client. You just came in today to deposit your social security check. Our tteller saw that you have 1MM in your savings account.. I have a MUCH better option for you.. I dont know you. I dont understand your investment goals our financial situation, nor do I really care to, but I have an alternative for you. I only have one left, with your name written ALL OVER IT... Its an annuity. It will pay me gobs of commission. You are,however, subjected to a 10 year CDSC, poor investment results, and you will NEVER hear from me again, so you can forget about that thing called service. Interested??? Perfect, sign here. I promise, you wont regret it.. GUARANTEED..."

Bank Man,

I used to be a bank rep and I can understand how that might be possible.  I just had a problem when the bank killed my payout by 30%.  In addition, I've heard a lot of stories about banks changing the rules for reps in unpleasant ways; like changing who services accounts, giving books to other brokers.  yada, yade.  Not for me.  I want to "own" my clients.  You can make nice coin in a bank and as long as you do good by the customer who cares whether your shingle says FDIC or whether it says SIPC?  I'll take $1 mill a month with no complaints.  Peace.

The grass isn’t greener anywhere. It’s where you’re most comfortable as an individual. Period. Happy fu#kin holidays. I’d say merry christmas but I’m afraid I’d offend you liberal tree huggers.

Ha good one EZ....That Christmas stuff is getting old already. MERRY CHRISTMAS already.

Who cares where you work! Hell, I worked in a gas station for years when I was in School. Let me guess, now I am underqualified to manage money. Get real. Bank reps can do well, Indys can do well, Wirehouse can do well. Pick a spot and sit.

Who cares where you work! Hell, I worked in a gas station for years when I was in School. Let me guess, now I am underqualified to manage money. Get real. Bank reps can do well, Indys can do well, Wirehouse can do well. Pick a spot and sit.

Agreed. Everyone have a good Holiday.

[quote=dude]Cold Calling is THE WAY.  I've been calling on title company farm lists (which are free by the way) of homeowners and making 150 to 200 dials a day,  setting about 1 appointment a day and have gotten in front of about $1 million in assets in the last month. I've just started following up on cold calls that I've mailed to and believe my appointment ratio will increase.  I made the mistake when I first started out in this business (3 years ago) of giving up on cold calling and have regretted it.  I am learning to love cold calling and believe that all this crap about DNC etc... is a cop out (which I am guilty of in the past).  It's hard to stay consistent and have an upbeat attitude, but it works, period.  We have a million dollar producer who still cold calls and a 3 year rookie who did over $400k last year (his 2nd year) and his only marketing approach was cold calling. (he would dial for about 8 hours a day when he didn't have appointments).  I think the easy route is to try and get "creative" and do seminars, networking etc... which is fine if you have the connections, relationship and tenure.  For us new guys who aren't connected, I believe it's the best way to build a business.  [/quote]

Dude, sounds like you are doing lots of things right. How about sharing your first call approach with us? Ok to put it in script form. 

Always looking for new ideas. never to old to learn.

tjc45,

I am basically copying the guys I mentioned who are much more successful than I.

Ring Ring

"Hello"

"Yeah, may I speak with Mike Hockidges please?"

"This is Mike"

"Hi Mike, My name is Dude with (Quality midwestern superregional, or whatever they call us) here in (city)."

(i sometimes will pause and wait for them to say "yeah" or uh huh)

"The reason I'm calling you is to see if you currently do any investing and if so, if you'd be open minded to good investment ideas from time to time?"

A couple critical points:

a) you must be smiling and in a semi boisertous mood (not sure about spelling) ready to laugh off any negativity.  I laugh at everything that is even semi negative.  I have come to not give a a sh*t whether I catch the person on the other side in the middle with relations with his wife or saving his mother from a heart attack (I'm semi joking here, for all you sensitive types out there), but I am always very courteous and almost cheesily happy.  Bottom line is you can not allow yourself to feel akward, bad, insecure about what you are doing.  I am a professional and sincerely believe that whoever is talking with me is far better off working with me than another broker. 90% of it all is keeping your morale up. 

b)what you say is really not that important, it's only an opener trying to ascertain a couple things 1)Is this guy/gal an investor 2)are they somewhat qualified and is there any possibility that they'd object to  me contacting them down the road.  I use the "open minded" as a psycological tie in since most people don't want to be closed minded. I pause after I introduce myself and wait for an uh huh to get a sort of permission (in their minds) to puke my spiel on 'em.

3)The rest is thinking on your feet and responding to objections.

him "I have a broker already"

me "that's fine, I'm not calling to replace what you're currently doing, only trying to see if what I do can improve on what you're doing"

him "well, I'm happy with what I'm doing"

me "I can appreciate that, what's working out best for you?"

him "Well, I don't like to discuss that over the phone"

me "I understand, I have lot's of clients who chose to sit down with me at my office before they were comfortable talking about their investments" "would mornings or afternoons work best for you?"

him "Hold on there cowboy, I'm really busy, besides your being a little assumptive here"

me "That's fine, don't you think it would benefit you to have a third party give you an unbiased oppinion on your investments, I mean, this is your money we're talking about right?"

him "look, dude, I'm really busy"

me "OK, OK, I hear ya', I'm not trying to be pushy here, I just really enjoy what I do and have alot of clients who were happy that I was persistent with them.  Look you've been a nice guy so far, why don't I drop my business card in the mail, with a little info on us.

him " that would be fine"

me"When I send out info it's usually on one of three subjects: a, b or c (you fill in the blanks) which one of those wolud be of most interest to you?

I think you get it.  I must confess that I'm only to stay that persistent occasionally, I oftem wimp out after 1 or 2 objections and go to the mailer.  Stil, I'm building a great follow up list of qualified prospects!

Hope that was helpful

Man my spellnig is rellay bad.  Sory to all u anel tipes owt thare.

Good post, Dude…cold calling is not my methodology, but I can see where this would work for someone who uses cold calling regularly…

Dude, A+, great call. Thank you for your prompt response.

As fr spling mistkes, stdies hve shwn that corec spling is nt nssary for efctve cmmnction. If you know what I mean.

Again, thank you.

Thanks.  Glad to share, even though it was plagarized from a couple guys far more successful than I.  I wish I had the resources and connections to approach this another way, but I don't so I have to cold call.  For anyone interested in how the #'s work out for me.

200 dials

35-40 contacts

7-9 leads (qualified investors who are somewhat cool about me contacting them again)

1 appointment

about 20% to 40% of my appointments will cancel, reschedule etc...

Cheers

blarmstorn,

It's your ignorance that holds you back.  If you beleive all bank reps have no relationships with their customers and just slam people into annuities your mistaken, bank programs are progressing very fast.  Try this on Mr. or Mrs. business owner you want this commercial loan for 10 million, we will approve it, but we require key man insurance this is Joe he works in our wealth management division he can take care of that and work with you on any other financial needs you may have.... This is one of many paths that lead the bank to be a great business model, this is not my situtation.  I focus on 401K rolllovers.

Dude,

I hear that about the banks messing with comp.  it is going to take awhile to get it straight, I couldn't wait for that either thats why i teamed up with a credit union / non-profit.

Bankrep

Banks can offer some nice perks for sure.  Things I didn't like:

Heavy handed compliance (more so than brokerage world)

Pay issues mentioned earlier

FDIC confusion and having to tell every client in the first 5 minutes of conversation:

1) You may lose some or all of your money

2) Not Fdic insured

3) Not bank guaranteed

Not a great way to start a relationship

I worked for a relatively unsophisticated Bank program (no real time quotes, no managed money, financial planning software etc...)

I respect you're not slamming annuities.  You are rare, from my experience.  It's hard for a guy to resist 5% $cheese$ on a "guaranteed" investment.  Keep on taking care of your clients and I hope your situation doesn't end up going to crap with the bank like mine did.

Bankrep,

I base my perception on my experience in dealing with clients/ potential cleints, and see the blatant abuse and horrible 'financial planning' that typically comes out of bank brokerages. I have 3 friends at bank brokerages ( HSBC and Chase in NY, and Bank One in Phoenix) that all verify my thoughts. They even admit that the platform is limited, and there is a huge 'encouragement' by management to recommend annuities.

Tell me, at your esteemed Credit Union, what type of platform can you maneuver from? Are you slinging your own proprietary? Can you even sell anything else?

I can use whatever I want, granted our B/D doesn't get new issues because they don't underwrite or participate in distribution.  However, I have access to every fund family you can think of, a full service fixed income desk, RIA accounts including SMA's, discretionary wrap program etc.

We don't have any proprietary product.

Thanks for that script Dude!

I make minimum 350 dials a day, my max was 690 on a 12 hour day.  So far i opened 4 accounts in 2 weeks.  Not too bad.

I did too!!

Why so cryptic?