Good's System
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Gave a call to a rep at Good’s company,and he said that they do a hybrid of mailing with follow-up calls on residential only. He said that everyone calls businesses and don’t bother.
Thoughts?
BIll Good’s rep said that?
Hmmm? Let's see? Bill Good sells a system that is centered on residential mailings. Yeah, I'd believe them if they told me calling businesses was a waste of time. Then again, the rep in question might want to read some of his boss' articles where he has stated time and time again that if you are cold calling businesses need to be in the mix. Interestingly, BG who had always supported the cold call channel of marketing pulled away from that early last year. Said it was a waste of time and with so many people on the DNC that the public had spoken and that we should heed the message. Of course, along with this being self serving as BG sells a competing marketing plan, it was also based on what his target market was telling him. And that is, the wires don't want cold callers. The wires, run mostly by people who have never sold a thing in their lives, want business by asmosis. Cold calling is down and dirty. It's low class. Too low class for world class wealth management firms. Forget that the largest producers at these firms raised themselves from pups by cold calling. I present BG client and UBS mega producer Ira Walker as case in point. But there are thousands more. Guys and gals who are only doing a million or two instead of Ira's 5 mil plus. Mention these people, the biggest earners at these firms, and the execs just look down at their drinks and walk away. They truley are asses in expensive suits. They don't have the answer and never will. Earlier this year BG changed his cold calling opinion once more and again supports it. As business people we have to decide what to do and how to do it. Instead of listening to people who have never done whatever it is we seek to do, we must do it. Only then will we know what works and what doesn't.I figured something like that was the case. Wasn’t sure and thanks for the clarification.
I asked the rep how people would respond if they were on the DNC list and I sent them a letter. He said, “Well, our letter makes them want to call”.
Yikes.
Cold calling low class? It certainly doesn’t match the Ivy League blue blood way of doing business, so that means that is more business for me.
I figured there is a lot of testing in this business to see what works.
Any suggestions on who to read and etc., on cold calling? I red the 500 day war, and I liked it. Just wanted to know if there was anything else out there.
Bill Good’s books, The first one covers cold calling as part of an organized marketing plan. Very good stuff. Leroy Gross “The Art of Selling Intangibles” - Old school but still useful.
Ok thanks for your help. Appreciate your generosity.
I just emailed the Good rep and he said that cold calling has been resurrected - go figure. Don’t know if he just wants the sell and will tell me anything. Makes me a little nervous that they would change their system so frequently.
Their system is unchanged. Thier opinion of cold calling did change briefly as the street was moving more an more toward wealth mgnt. The crash has changed all that once again.
Their system is unchanged. Thier opinion of cold calling did change briefly as the street was moving more an more toward wealth mgnt. The crash has changed all that once again.
This wealth mgmt move is strange considering that most Americans are middle class. Or, is wealth mgmt including the middle class?
An advisor, I spoke to, said he had a 250k min for a hedge fund, but this seems like putting all your eggs in one basket with that singular strategy. I will have to work harder to get lower mins, but I don't want people bugging me on the weekly returns on their investments.
Definately you don’t want anyone thinking short term.
Otane, it's a matter of revenue. Your return on assets is what pays the bills. In fact it's called ROA. The revenue formula is this; assets X velosity = revenue. Velosity is turnover. The amount of turnover you can generate is limited. And let's face it, since the turnover costs money in the form of commissions, and those commissions are coming out of the asset base, not a smart plan to keep diminishing that base by continually flipping it. Assets, on the other hand, are not limited. You can add as much in assets, as you can carry, pull, tow, push,cajole, convince, or just plain old find. No limits there. How you add those assets is up to you. So it's a who be you kinda question? Do you want to be the guy with 1000 small accounts or the guy with 100 big accounts? Up to you and no wrong answer. There are many ways to build a business. If you want middle class, and want to make a good living go after rollover business.Otane-
There is one secret to making it in this business. Its working very hard, putting the hours in. Sure there are ways to work smarter than others. But what i have found is that when i call hard, over long periods, it yields results. and when i get discouraged, because we all do, i look at my client roster and remind myself of how i got them, what i said, what they said, what the initial meeting was like, etc. that remotivates me to get back on the horse. there is a lot of money in motion now. a lot of advisors have left various wires and no doubt a lot of the clients that didn't move because inertia are probably finding out that they're not getting serviced. these are ripe for the picking. keep your head down and work. when i first got into the business, someone told me: "everything works and nothing works"i’ve always called on muni bonds, non threatening, wealthy people buy them, try to generate a conversation. i am not looking to sell a bond at all, just trying to develop rapport, dialogue, and ultimately set an appointment.
If you are making an appt with clients, you are not calling areas outside of your appt range?
yes, i usually call my local area only. though, i am starting to call outside, into other states. people tell me they call all over the country, i’m amazed by that.
how do you guys organize your ABCDE cherries??? binders, folders, digitally?? TIA!!
I built my business by focusing on three tranches:
1. Customers who I didn’t see as long term relationships
2. Clients that I saw as long term relationships thought I’d eventually outgrow
3. Clients that I saw as long term relationships
Group #1 I basically sold products to - bonds, funds, alts. When I left my wire I simply didn’t let them know where I was headed. Some ended up being potentially good clients (easy, pleasant), but weren’t ever going to be great fee based clients. (I really don’t want the type of client that is interested in investments - bond buyers especially.)
Group #2 I set up in wrap mutual fund programs. These were people that were less wealthy and harder to like. My plan was to transfer these accounts to a split number as soon as possible.
Group #3 I put in Rep-as-PM portfolios of ETFs, bonds and blue chip stocks
Prospected for group 1 through cold calling on product. It’s really cold calling on appointments that’s painful. For #2, I mainly developed by cold calling on a specific need (stock options in my case) and #3 I worked to figure out how to meet them or get introduced through an existing client, acquaintance or whatever.
I think what worked for me and what should work for many guys starting out was using a variety of approaches and segmenting your prospects. It’s very hard, unless you’re calling from Goldman or something, to build a business with wealthy people through cold prospecting. But, I think you’re not going to build a business of those types of clients right out the gate unless you’re in a pretty unusual situation.
It’s also pretty hard to stay in the business in the first few years by focusing on fee based. You just don’t hit the numbers. I saw a lot of guys fail out with a couple of beautiful fee based accounts which someone either intelligently swept in and bought or which the manager gave to one of the corner office brokers.
Sales training - Bill Good or whomever, is pretty much worthless. Being a good salesman is figuring out what works for you - there isn’t some magic technique. I think the best way to learn how to cold call is to watch someone who does it a whole lot. Then simply figure out how much you can handle a day (3 hrs was my limit) and do it that much.
[quote=san fran broker]I built my business by focusing on three tranches:
1. Customers who I didn’t see as long term relationships
2. Clients that I saw as long term relationships thought I’d eventually outgrow
3. Clients that I saw as long term relationships
Group #1 I basically sold products to - bonds, funds, alts. When I left my wire I simply didn’t let them know where I was headed. Some ended up being potentially good clients (easy, pleasant), but weren’t ever going to be great fee based clients. (I really don’t want the type of client that is interested in investments - bond buyers especially.)
Group #2 I set up in wrap mutual fund programs. These were people that were less wealthy and harder to like. My plan was to transfer these accounts to a split number as soon as possible.
Group #3 I put in Rep-as-PM portfolios of ETFs, bonds and blue chip stocks
Prospected for group 1 through cold calling on product. It’s really cold calling on appointments that’s painful. For #2, I mainly developed by cold calling on a specific need (stock options in my case) and #3 I worked to figure out how to meet them or get introduced through an existing client, acquaintance or whatever.
I think what worked for me and what should work for many guys starting out was using a variety of approaches and segmenting your prospects. It’s very hard, unless you’re calling from Goldman or something, to build a business with wealthy people through cold prospecting. But, I think you’re not going to build a business of those types of clients right out the gate unless you’re in a pretty unusual situation.
It’s also pretty hard to stay in the business in the first few years by focusing on fee based. You just don’t hit the numbers. I saw a lot of guys fail out with a couple of beautiful fee based accounts which someone either intelligently swept in and bought or which the manager gave to one of the corner office brokers.
Sales training - Bill Good or whomever, is pretty much worthless. Being a good salesman is figuring out what works for you - there isn’t some magic technique. I think the best way to learn how to cold call is to watch someone who does it a whole lot. Then simply figure out how much you can handle a day (3 hrs was my limit) and do it that much.
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Good tips; thanks!
[quote=san fran broker] I built my business by focusing on three tranches:1. Customers who I didn’t see as long term relationships2. Clients that I saw as long term relationships thought I’d eventually outgrow3. Clients that I saw as long term relationshipsGroup #1 I basically sold products to - bonds, funds, alts. When I left my wire I simply didn’t let them know where I was headed. Some ended up being potentially good clients (easy, pleasant), but weren’t ever going to be great fee based clients. (I really don’t want the type of client that is interested in investments - bond buyers especially.)Group #2 I set up in wrap mutual fund programs. These were people that were less wealthy and harder to like. My plan was to transfer these accounts to a split number as soon as possible.Group #3 I put in Rep-as-PM portfolios of ETFs, bonds and blue chip stocksProspected for group 1 through cold calling on product. It’s really cold calling on appointments that’s painful. For #2, I mainly developed by cold calling on a specific need (stock options in my case) and #3 I worked to figure out how to meet them or get introduced through an existing client, acquaintance or whatever.I think what worked for me and what should work for many guys starting out was using a variety of approaches and segmenting your prospects. It’s very hard, unless you’re calling from Goldman or something, to build a business with wealthy people through cold prospecting. But, I think you’re not going to build a business of those types of clients right out the gate unless you’re in a pretty unusual situation. It’s also pretty hard to stay in the business in the first few years by focusing on fee based. You just don’t hit the numbers. I saw a lot of guys fail out with a couple of beautiful fee based accounts which someone either intelligently swept in and bought or which the manager gave to one of the corner office brokers.Sales training - Bill Good or whomever, is pretty much worthless. Being a good salesman is figuring out what works for you - there isn’t some magic technique. I think the best way to learn how to cold call is to watch someone who does it a whole lot. Then simply figure out how much you can handle a day (3 hrs was my limit) and do it that much.
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Well, that is the point of having a system? To find out what will work or not in an organized fashion? If you watch one cold caller that is one angle? I would think that a system like Good’s would be worth something especially since it has been around a very long time.
Also, 3 hours a day is not a lot of calling, especially for newbies. I was thinking at least 8 hours per day minimum.
There are some other members here that said Good’s system helped them tremendously.
Army, I was trying to make the point that certain types of business are better for calling than others and it’s very hard to build an annuitized business right out the gate.
I’ve never known a caller that could actually do 8 hours. It’s possible, but that completely negates the ability to prospect in other ways, so I think it should only be part of the early phases of a broker’s career.
What about the argument that per hour, you can make more phone calls and contacts than any other method?