The reason for failure is primarily lack of focus. It takes a helluva lot of discipline to put the blinders on EVERY DAY and do what you know that needs to be done- 20 contacts, callbacks, meetings.

This is about the only career I can think of where your primary competition is yourself- You know you need to make calls but you rationalize to put it off for another day. You know you need to make callbacks but you rationalize you didn't have a good rapport, they are probably not interested, etc. How the hell do you know? Alot of brokers think they are mind readers by thinking they know what the prospect is thinking.   Call them back! They are just numbers! I can't tell you the number of times I felt it was useless to call back when they said" We talked it over and want to go ahead with $250.000, like you suggested". Pretty good risk to take, risking a no for a $12,000 commission. And therein lies the challenge and high failure rate in our industry- Doing the things you don't want to do whether you feel like it or not.

Stok

[quote=BondGuy]One difference here is what we’re selling is intangible. Someone touched on it, it’s trust. And once we climb over that wall, and only then, can we really begin the sales process. Doing that, we have to create the touch, feel, smell that sales people in other industries can do simply by showing the product. Many times we have to take the client into the future and create the dream. Is it a little more complicated than selling someone an iphone? On most days, yes. Not only do we have to lead the horse to water, we have to make it drink.

  The high drop out rate is a sales failure. Many getting in don't realize the level of work involved, or the level of sales. Others,like Bull Broker's cohort, just can't do it. And in that case it is also a mangerial failure as well. Which is very common in our biz.   When I interview trainee candidates one of the things I do is from the old school. After they tell me they understand that its a sales job and they've got that handled I pick up a pen from my desk, hand it to them, and then ask them to sell it to me. I figure since I already own that pen and like it I should be a pushover sale. Yet, trip stumble, fall, we've cancelled a lot of trainee dream tickets using that exercise. Lots of blank stares. Most don't even know where to begin. If you can't sell a guy a pen he already owns, you can't sell an intangible. Like I said old school, but effective.    [/quote]   I had to go through this although it wasn't with a pen, I had an interview with the Branch Manager, Trainee Coach, and the Sales Manager.  The Sales Manager was "old school" and saw that I had worked at a hardware store my freshman year of college.  Out of the blue he asked me to sell him a lawn mower, I paused for 5 seconds.  Then I start qualifying the guy; How big is your yard?  What type of Grass do you have?  I recommend a John Deere 800 series riding mower, the wide deck cuts down on your mow time, the extra horse power allows for tow-behind capacity, and don't forget about the cup holder.  I didn't feel like I did well on the fly, but I got the job.   Looking back on when I was hired and the people hired before and after me.  I always wondered why the Managers didn't make myself and the others prove we could bring in Assets.  Not just sell, any shmuck can sell, but do the applicants have the contacts to bring in the amount needed to make it.  Can Managers require applicants to prove their contacts and asset gather skills?    Why not make a requirement for an applicant to go out and bring in $2,500,000 million dollars worth of statements from contacts that will do business with them?  Make it part of the interview process, after all the pre-testing and interviews, ask the applicant to go out and find $2.5 million dollars and bring in recent statements.  If you can bring in the statement and have an explanation about who the people are and how you will move them over you're hired.  I would think if someone could bring in $2.5 million worth of statements before any training, your fail rates would drop quite a bit.  Of course one would have to be awful careful about solicitation without the series 7 & 66.