Cold Calling????  You are killing yourself for no reason.  I strongly suggest you embrace technolgy and leverage social media to drive new business from existing relationships.  It's like being able to take several hundred people on the golf course at the same time.

Define excellent success?

FreedomFighter:

Why am I cold calling?  Because you and most other people aren't!  I work at the largest guy on the block and social media for the most part is non-existent.  That doesn't mean I don't use my own personal social media strategy, but i have received absolutely zero business from that so far.  Not saying it doesn't work, it just hasn't worked for me yet.

Navet:

I am finishing up month 3 of production at the end of this week and will have closed $2.5 million under management and it is all fee based.  Now I did start cold calling prior to going into production (during the training program) with the hopes of just building a decent prospect base so I sorta had a head start.  I was scared to death when I first started calling and I tried a bunch of different scripts until I found something I was comfortable with, but I just kept making the dials hoping some fruit would fall from the tree.  My branch manager and sales and service manager track avg. time per call, number of connects, and you have to report contacts (live conversation with a decision maker) and appointments.  You pretty much have nowhere to hide since the data is there for them to see if you are doing the activity necessary for success, but sadly some of the guys still aren't making the numbers in the hopes that their "huge" networks are going to provide them limitless assets. 

That is great.

Mind sharing how many calls you are making and what are you saying to the prospect to get the appt? 

[quote=TenToesDown]

Cold calling like a maniac and having excellent success, but always looking for another bullet to add to my gun and have never tried pitching a product.  Thinking about going the muni bond route in terms of pitching a product during my cold calls and wanted to get the general consensus from those who have done both.  Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

You've raised $2.5mm in your first three months and you want to switch things up?  Either you're lying or you're pretty stupid.  If your approach is working, why mess with it?

[quote=deekay]

[quote=TenToesDown]

Cold calling like a maniac and having excellent success, but always looking for another bullet to add to my gun and have never tried pitching a product.  Thinking about going the muni bond route in terms of pitching a product during my cold calls and wanted to get the general consensus from those who have done both.  Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

You've raised $2.5mm in your first three months and you want to switch things up?  Either you're lying or you're pretty stupid.  If your approach is working, why mess with it?

[/quote]

As far as i am concerned, you are pretty meaningless in the entire grand scheme of things so why would I have a reason to lie to you...or anyone else for that matter?  Also, I have found ONE method that works for me.  Can you give me a good reason why I wouldn't look for other ways to improve my calling efforts and look for ways that are even more effective or better at targeting another demographic?  I am not one to rest on my laurels, so if there is a better way to do something (i.e. product vs. appointment), I am all for it.  It is just that simple.

Given the tone of your posts, I respectfully withdraw my request for people's opinions regarding product versus appointment.  I wanted people's honest opinion...not to ruffle anyone's feathers or get into some infinitesimal online arguement. 

No doubt....COLD CALLING works.  I did it for many years with major success.  I have even done it recently with a new twist.  I am all about the numbers!  I spent over 500k in the past 2 years trying diffent methods of marketing to find the best ones.  Marketing internaly to existing clients to attract more of their investing assets and externally for new business.  SOCIAL MEDIA KILLS THEM ALL!!!!

Before you ask:

Social Media is free and our percentage of closing is dramatically higher.  When one of our existing clients refers someone into our network there is a 90% chance that the person becomes a client.  Additionally, the opening transaction is almost always much more significant and usually involves a transfer.  Through SM we can also communicate with all of our clients continually and have increased our asset base by 20% on newly invest assets from EXISTING clients in the past 12 months......if you are not getting results of SM you are not using it correctly.  We have been using Linkedin and it has been challenging.  Perhaps you encountered some of the same issues and gave up.  There is a new site we just started using which is much easier for our needs called Linkedfa.  You may want to give them a shot, but if i were you i would not give up on SM.  It works!

[quote=TenToesDown]

[quote=deekay]

[quote=TenToesDown]

Cold calling like a maniac and having excellent success, but always looking for another bullet to add to my gun and have never tried pitching a product.  Thinking about going the muni bond route in terms of pitching a product during my cold calls and wanted to get the general consensus from those who have done both.  Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

You've raised $2.5mm in your first three months and you want to switch things up?  Either you're lying or you're pretty stupid.  If your approach is working, why mess with it?

[/quote]

As far as i am concerned, you are pretty meaningless in the entire grand scheme of things so why would I have a reason to lie to you...or anyone else for that matter?  Also, I have found ONE method that works for me.  Can you give me a good reason why I wouldn't look for other ways to improve my calling efforts and look for ways that are even more effective or better at targeting another demographic?  I am not one to rest on my laurels, so if there is a better way to do something (i.e. product vs. appointment), I am all for it.  It is just that simple.

Given the tone of your posts, I respectfully withdraw my request for people's opinions regarding product versus appointment.  I wanted people's honest opinion...not to ruffle anyone's feathers or get into some infinitesimal online arguement. 

 [/quote]

With all due respect, a cold caller, like myself, has a thicker skin than your comment.

I like how this thread has nothing to do with Product vs. Appointment.

[quote=Otane]

[quote=TenToesDown]

[quote=deekay]

[quote=TenToesDown]

Cold calling like a maniac and having excellent success, but always looking for another bullet to add to my gun and have never tried pitching a product.  Thinking about going the muni bond route in terms of pitching a product during my cold calls and wanted to get the general consensus from those who have done both.  Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

You've raised $2.5mm in your first three months and you want to switch things up?  Either you're lying or you're pretty stupid.  If your approach is working, why mess with it?

[/quote]

As far as i am concerned, you are pretty meaningless in the entire grand scheme of things so why would I have a reason to lie to you...or anyone else for that matter?  Also, I have found ONE method that works for me.  Can you give me a good reason why I wouldn't look for other ways to improve my calling efforts and look for ways that are even more effective or better at targeting another demographic?  I am not one to rest on my laurels, so if there is a better way to do something (i.e. product vs. appointment), I am all for it.  It is just that simple.

Given the tone of your posts, I respectfully withdraw my request for people's opinions regarding product versus appointment.  I wanted people's honest opinion...not to ruffle anyone's feathers or get into some infinitesimal online arguement. 

 [/quote]

With all due respect, a cold caller, like myself, has a thicker skin than your comment.

[/quote]

Should your comment somehow matter to me?

Tentoes,

Deekay didn't call you a liar.  He said that you are a liar or you are stupid.   This is because if you are telling the truth, and I'll assume that you are, it makes you stupid.  You don't know this because you are new to the business, but one of the stupidest things that people do is to find something that works and then try to do something different.  If something is working, don't change it!

Otane's comments should matter because it is obvious that the negative comments bother you or you wouldn't respond.   Take the fact that he is telling you to get thicker skin as great advice.

Product vs. appointment is irrelevant.  Use what works.  I use appointment.  Bondguy uses product.  We both make a good living.

Anonymous,

I appreciate those thoughts and points of clarification, but before you assume everyone new to this business is a mindless idiot and that I am of thin skin, you should really take a step back because "assuming" generally only leads to one thing.  Having said that, my background is that before this business, I was in Management Consulting (Strategy) at the largest strategy firm in the business.  My coworkers there would probably run circles around most people...and they generally do.  I left there to start a company that I grew from nothing to grossing $4 million in sales before being consumed in the real estate debacle.  Why did that company fail?  In hindsight it is easy to see...but while I was growing the company (at a fantastic rate I might add), we executed on ONE main niche strategy that was fantastically profitable.  When the end was near, we had absolutely no place to hide because we were really only good at doing one thing. 

So your myopia allows you to assume that I am thin skinned whereas my years of business experience allows me to KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that having more than one bullet in the gun yields long term success.  My intent was not to get into an arguement with anyone.  I asked a question and expected a simple answer...not a lecture.  Anyway, it is 1:47...I have 13 more minutes before the top of the hour when I begin to power through another 45 minute call set.  Hopefully, my thin skin allows me to make though the calls without capitulating.  See ya.

Let me see if I understand this correctly.  You take the time to respond to every post that is negative of you, but you don't think that you are thin skinned.   You are just responding because you don't care what people say?

Nope, I am responding because I take GREAT pleasure in pointing out just how off base your silly misguided assumptions are.  No matter what I say (or anyone for that matter), you are going to keep ripping off these mindless posts that are predicated on your ridiculous assumptions.  No worries though, since I planned on taking Friday (tommorow) this week, I have been banging out 60 contacts a day for the week to try and meet my goal of 250 for the week.  Fell a bit short at 243, so I will try to get a few more before I call it quits today.  Like I said earlier, luckily I found the courage to keep driving forward given my history of being a shrinking violet!!

BTW, I leave you with this from our good friend Dr. Stephen Covey:

"We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be.  And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these ASSUMPTIONS."

Pretty good, eh?  See ya...and have a great weekend!

Oh yeah, one last thing Anonymous.  Spoke to a guy today that I cold called and he told me he pretty much makes all of his investment decisions, didn't trust advisors after being burned by some know it all advisor, and that he was about to pump $40K into his SEP.  He was expecting me to bite immediately with usual drivel most people push, but after shootin' the $hit with him for several minutes about his company, which is a SAP Consulting practice by the way with right under $5 million in revenue (all for services), and sharing my consulting background and entrepreneurial experience, he agreed for me to work up a plan for him when we meet next week.  We really hit it off.  I may not get his business, but in general when I get to the point of doing a plan for someone, the tables turn dramatically in my favor.  His personal and business relationships are combined over the magical seven figure number!  Sweet!  Luckily I was able to overcome my white knuckled fear!  LOL!

Sicial media is verbotin at Jones. E-mail is allowed but with only minimal applications. How do you get around compliance issues? How do you get approvable e-mail addresses?

I think you are full of crap. If you have been calling for at least a month, you could care less what people say. You respond like a screaming little bitch.

Your arguments are like global warming. We can neither prove or disprove your assets, but I don't give a fuck. Get lost punk.

[quote=Otane]

I think you are full of crap. If you have been calling for at least a month, you could care less what people say. You respond like a screaming little bitch.

Your arguments are like global warming. We can neither prove or disprove your assets, but I don't give a fuck. Get lost punk.

[/quote]

Lose your blanket today?  Sounds like you have an inferiority complex if you ask me.  But you didn't ask me...did you?  Or maybe you are just an a$$hole in general.  Who knows.  Anyway, try asking your "partner"  to pump you up a little more often...maybe it will knock the edge off you worthless sack of $hit.  Don't get mad at me because I wake up everyday and  give my best effort to make $hit happen.  Always have, and always will.  Activity always yields results.  On the other hand,  YOU are an aimless keyboard loser with nothing better to do than to attack others while you reflect on your worthless existence...probably pissed because your numbers look crappy and you hate life.  I love it though.  Gives me energy.  Peace out you sucka!!!! 

LOL....what a loser.