Cold Calling werks
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Guys, you are over thinking it.
I have down days just like everyone else. yes, i have self doubt. A day of not getting any qualified leads makes me question everything. So what do i do? i make the next dial. On the money thing. I found out that it's as easy to ask for big money as it is for little money. Start closing for big money. If you ask a guy with a million dollars to invest for ten thousand dollars he will do one of two things; he will laugh at you or he will give you the 10 grand. What he won't do is give you the million dollars. If, on the other hand, you ask him for one million dollars he will do one of two things; give you something lesser than one million, like 250k for example, or he will give you the million dollars. What he won't do is give you 10k. Ask and you will receive. But you have to ask first. On another note, there is nothing wrong with having smaller accounts. You just need to have a lot more of them. But it can and will work. Still, i understand the reluctance on advisors part. it's a scary thing asking for big bucks. Years ago, after a move to a new office one of the guys came to me asked for me to help him. He was struggling. With BOM's permission I had him sit in my office for a few days. Then I went to his space in the board room and sat at the open desk next to his for a few days. There, over the coming week, i proceeded to open account after account 100k, 200k, 500k, and on it went. I also opened a couple of smaller accounts. By then i had the guy ready to pitch his first prospect. I instructed him to close for one million dollars and fall back to 1/2 million from there. The guy did a nearly perfect pitch and only slightly choked on one million. The prospect self closed on 1/2 million in TF bonds. Beginners luck! The guy was so nervous he was having trouble getting the routine new account info. But he got through it. When he was don't he was completely pitted and needed to go home to change his shirt. A worthy trade off for the 7.5k he had just grossed. After that he relaxed and was well on his way to opening larger accounts. Most importantly, he found his confidence. He believed in himself. Which is all it takes. He eventually found his own comfort zone, large 401k rollovers and to this day runs a large retirement biz. So, yeah, closing big can be unnerving until you get use to it. And even then, there is always that little knot when you ask for the order. That never goes away.I get the feeling that my prospects don’t have one million dollars(sometimes $250K seems to be a stretch), so asking for $250K in one investment would seem to be insane.
[quote=BondGuy]Guys, you are over thinking it.
I have down days just like everyone else. yes, i have self doubt. A day of not getting any qualified leads makes me question everything. So what do i do? i make the next dial. On the money thing. I found out that it's as easy to ask for big money as it is for little money. Start closing for big money. If you ask a guy with a million dollars to invest for ten thousand dollars he will do one of two things; he will laugh at you or he will give you the 10 grand. What he won't do is give you the million dollars. If, on the other hand, you ask him for one million dollars he will do one of two things; give you something lesser than one million, like 250k for example, or he will give you the million dollars. What he won't do is give you 10k. Ask and you will receive. But you have to ask first. On another note, there is nothing wrong with having smaller accounts. You just need to have a lot more of them. But it can and will work. Still, i understand the reluctance on advisors part. it's a scary thing asking for big bucks. Years ago, after a move to a new office one of the guys came to me asked for me to help him. He was struggling. With BOM's permission I had him sit in my office for a few days. Then I went to his space in the board room and sat at the open desk next to his for a few days. There, over the coming week, i proceeded to open account after account 100k, 200k, 500k, and on it went. I also opened a couple of smaller accounts. By then i had the guy ready to pitch his first prospect. I instructed him to close for one million dollars and fall back to 1/2 million from there. The guy did a nearly perfect pitch and only slightly choked on one million. The prospect self closed on 1/2 million in TF bonds. Beginners luck! The guy was so nervous he was having trouble getting the routine new account info. But he got through it. When he was don't he was completely pitted and needed to go home to change his shirt. A worthy trade off for the 7.5k he had just grossed. After that he relaxed and was well on his way to opening larger accounts. Most importantly, he found his confidence. He believed in himself. Which is all it takes. He eventually found his own comfort zone, large 401k rollovers and to this day runs a large retirement biz. So, yeah, closing big can be unnerving until you get use to it. And even then, there is always that little knot when you ask for the order. That never goes away. [/quote] Don't be modest. Instead tell us about the time you flew to the moon in a 20 year old single engine cessna just so you could crash it into a crater because you thought it would be a cool story, or about the time you climbed Everest in your boxers on a lunch break because you knew your buddies in the office next to you would be impressed by you taking a leak from the highest point on Earth.Its very true about this being all a head game. When I first started I had no fear. I called the owners of every car dealership in the area and opened some very nice accounts. Then my genius BOM started bringing in the"gurus" who told us all the emotional reasons for us not making enough calls.
Those gurus ruined my cold calling. All I heard from these guys was how and why I was scared to cold call, when in reality I was too naive to know any better. Well, my numbers went down and it took me years to get over that hump. Even today I shutter at the thought of calling those very people who became some of my very best clients.
That was 15 years ago. I still fight daily and use mind tricks to get over my first few calls. Thanks f#$#ing gurus!
When you call a business, do you know the owners name before hand or just say “Can I speak to the owner” and go from there? Does it even matter?
I’m determined I’m going to open an account out of state now with someone I’ve never met, just to say I did it.
Bond guy, seriously, let me come and spend a day with you. I’ll take you to subway for lunch.
go on sales genie or sales lead . com, one of them and you get 100 free leads… sign up and set the parameters (ie male, 45-65, NW, etc)… it will give you the name… if you can, get the first name and call, if not is Mr ______ available?
It is mental, you will get an account anywhere, I wanted to have a client in Amsterdam for no particular reason… and now I have 2 there.
Better yet pick place you want to go, San Fran (never mind) how about San Diego or Fargo, what ever call there relentlessly and think of nothing but you call, your product, and getting better at both. 6 mths from now go there and enjoy it, only meet the clients if you want… games play them…
Let us know how it goes… hopefully tomorrow.
Jack & BondGuy:
Are you with wires or “name” BDs?
I’m wondering how to adapt this for an RIA, as the paperwork for an RIA really lends itself to a face to face meeting to get the engagement papers (contract) and disclosures signed at the same time…?
A strong man looks for an opportunity to mail something out and spends extra time, money and energy doing that.
A smart man would look to close an appointment on the first call.
If you can't close the appointment on three attempts, only then do you offer to mail something - and you offer to E-mail something, so that it's simple to put into a regular tickling system and automate it.
I’ve got Bond Guys back on this one.
It's like walking. One foot in front of the other. You just make dial after dial. You get better on each call. It's so simple that it's beautiful. Elegant.I’m about to start doing calls to set up appointments with residents in my town. What do you more experienced phone guys think is something that a prospect would find as the most interesting reason for doing so? Mind you, these are people I’ve met face to face once or twice (I’m a Joneser) and even dripped on with a mailer since then.
Fr'instance... "I'd like to get together with you next week for 15 minutes so..." "I can share some investment ideas." "We can review your portfolio." "I can tell you a little more about what I do for my clients." etc, etc I know there's no magic combination of words, but from your experience, what aspect of an appointment pitch do people respond best to? ThanksWhen qualifying cold calls in terms of money, when would you bring up your minimum. for example: " I am currently working with investors who have at least $100K in the market"…
Should I bring that up right away or after my initial pitch.
I have been at this since early 2001 and have seen a couple ups and downs. From your post it sounds like you are doing this in all market conditions, correct?
Getting back to basics and making your contacts produces results period. Measure the activities and not the results from what I was taught early on.
Are you talking to people about well known companies?
[quote=Potential]I’m about to start doing calls to set up appointments with residents in my town. What do you more experienced phone guys think is something that a prospect would find as the most interesting reason for doing so? Mind you, these are people I’ve met face to face once or twice (I’m a Joneser) and even dripped on with a mailer since then.
Fr'instance... "I'd like to get together with you next week for 15 minutes so..." "I can share some investment ideas." "We can review your portfolio." "I can tell you a little more about what I do for my clients." etc, etc I know there's no magic combination of words, but from your experience, what aspect of an appointment pitch do people respond best to? Thanks[/quote] One way to find out is to try it and track your results. Come back to us after trying it out for a few days and let us know the results. Track number of dials/contacts/closes/appointments set/ green cheeries. Also track time to the minute and time of day. lastly track the list you are calling ie biz/residential/etc. The data you collect while calling the info you'll have to hone your pitch. If the results are less than spectacular no worries. That's why you're tracking data. You can use that data to make changes to help find the right combination of offer and prospect.What do you mean by right away? If you mean on the intial prospecting call, that would be the time to qualify for money.When qualifying cold calls in terms of money, when would you bring up your minimum. for example: " I am currently working with investors who have at least $100K in the market"…
Should I bring that up right away or after my initial pitch.
An example of a pitch I use…
With all the turbulence in the financial markets over the past year, I am calling to ask, Are you perfectly happy with the financial advice you have been getting and the results of that advice?
If Yes: Thankyouverymuch
If No: I currently work with investors who have at least $100K in the market and would like to speak with you for a few minutes
Or do I had that in at the end and instead use: What are you disappointed in with your current portfolio.
So by at the beginning I meant of the pitch not the process.
I’m curious to know, of those of you who are cold calling regularly and getting results, how many of you are in the biz for 10 yrs or more? And of those, have you been cold calling your entire career or did you get back to it recently because of the last years events?
Ditto… And if you are having instant success right now(opening accounts in less than a week from the first call) what are you pitching and how does your pitch go?