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RoadMap to HNW 30-40 New Meetings per month

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Aug 3, 2015 10:19 pm

I’ve always had a lot of respect for cold callers who plug away at it day in and day out. Making a cold call isn’t hard, we all know that. But getting out there over and over again, now that’s where the challenge and merit are. I’ve been back and forth to this site over many years and keep finding myself enjoying the prospecting threads. Unfortunately, over the last year, seems the posts have dried up.

I’m really good at finding good prospects from the phone, and I always make sure that each day I talk to people I have never spoken to before. Crazy stuff happens when you’re doing that. Million dollar accounts are not uncommon and as one properly qualifies the leads, they add up.

I’m hoping to kind off fire up this section with the good ol prospecting stuff that makes each day an adventure. This is my thread so I won’t be answering each and every question that comes in…product, how much AUM, headset or handset. What’s important is knowing that there is a ton of amazing business out there and the credit goes to him and her, who, each day, fight the nagging feelings to avoid doing it and actually pick up the phone and dial until the baby is put to bed.

I prospect exclusively doctors, dentists and business owners, I invite them either to drop everything and come to the office, or to a seminar, or if really good, I’ll jump in the car and go see them.

This thread is to help, to share techniques, styles, scripts that lead to meeting the type of people that will make you enjoy this business and grow above and beyond what you may be doing now. If you are building your book for the first time, or needing to bring in more assets to an existing practice, this is the place to check back every once in a while.

I really don’t care what happens on the first call, when dealing with smart and wealthy individuals, it’s about building visibility through 4-5-6 contacts. I’ll share how to fill a room with 25-35 people, all qualified, how to get past the initial reluctance for a potential client to commit to a meeting, and how to make each call sound like it’s not a cold call, but a follow up.

I really hope these next months of posts can be of help and I look forward to hearing of your success stories, and hope you will find resources to lead a healthy life, time for friends and family and focused efforts in time blocks that will enable you to be an example in this industry.

Let August be a jumping board, a moment to reflect on lifestyle, food habits, exercise, and free time  and set yourself up for an amazing fall season.

The Hammer

Aug 5, 2015 12:57 am

Looking forward to it. Hopefully we get some more participation in this board. I am eager to hear about the seminar portion. I have yet to host a seminar or plan one. I am curious to see how you cold call seminars and fill a room. How long have you been in the business? AUM? I’m one of a team of four FAs that manages $160M. I was brought on to build more assets and eventually take over some relationships with the senior advisors clients as they reduce their workload and cut their workweeks down to a couple of days (this is 5-10 years out). I’ve noticed that FAs in the business for 20+ years don’t have a lot of good advice for gathering clients… They’ve forgotten how they did it.

Aug 5, 2015 3:35 pm

What works great for us has been seminars that are very well set up. We do different types of seminars depending on who the audience is and where we are.
But the best has been business owners who we cold call and try for a 1 on 1, and if not invite them to an event. We are very careful in the qualifying so that each event has the most receptive and qualified people attending. We really put a big emphasis on this so that the audience is tailored to the message.
We use very posh invitations and make sure the event is held in the most upscale venue so that it creates an excitement to attend.

We also use special guests, sometimes from outside the industry and someone who is well known and who lightens up the evening.
Typically we book about 35-40 people per event, so we have to book about 50 to keep the room full because of cancellations. Lately we are using another venue and keep the room at about 25 people max.

There’s a process that resembles art to this and going forward I’m more than happy to fill in the blanks if interested. We’re presently gearing up for the fall events and am cold calling biz owners to line them up.
Keep at it,
Hammer

Aug 11, 2015 4:21 pm

Crazy how many spammers have taken over this site. Too bad as there used to be some real good posts from regular members, now it’s getting flooded with junk.
Hammer…out!!!

Aug 11, 2015 5:07 pm

Yeah it’s bad. I got banned from my own thread because I was spamming it. Submitted multiple requests to get the ban removed. Seems like they’re blocking the people who actually want to use the site for the right purposes and allowing spammers to destroy it.

Aug 12, 2015 2:08 pm

I’d still appreciate comments on my thread. Or do you know of a better forum for advisors?

Aug 12, 2015 3:29 pm

Yeah, I was looking for another forum but haven’t found anything. This site was on fire a few years back, not sure if there’s a moderator or if they are just leaving things to trickle off…too bad. and yes, I like what your doing and hope we can keep this going, here busy, events and some good deals on the go.

Sep 4, 2015 3:52 am

I’m here checking in! New broker myself. I door knock every day lol. I’ve gotten a little over $3 mill in 4 months straight from strangers. Cold prospecting works! I’m anxious to hear some more tips because I want to manage as much $ as possible and thinking about cold calling during the winter months.

Where do you buy lists and are they any good? How do you guys avoid the DNC? What realistically is a good goal of new assets I should be bringing in every year?

Looking forward to this thread and hopefully reenergizing this site!

Oct 15, 2015 1:28 pm

It’s seems pretty quiet out there in cold calling land.
Bullish, CPTY, Smilen & wolf, I don’t know how you guys are doing but if you’re struggling in getting those key contacts done, just let me know and I’ll ride shotgun with you to get things back up to speed.
The Hammer.

Oct 15, 2015 2:30 pm

I’m in…This week has been busy so I haven’t made as many calls as I should have, but I got 2 quality leads and sent out info. Made 100 dials, talked to 15 people. Suprisingly, I used LinkedIn two generate a meeting with a business owner. Is anyone dialing out of state? My market is pretty saturated with other BD’s. Curious to know if anyone is landing some business calling out of state?

Oct 20, 2015 1:30 pm

No, I only call in state. I have a friend at another BD who calls out of state but only for munis and only when the muni market in his state has dried up.

Oct 20, 2015 6:49 pm

Good stuff Bullish. I’m just finishing up with bookings for a seminar for Thursday night. As soon as that’s done, I’d be happy to help you knock it out the park with the calls.
Sounds like to got yourself in with a good group and it won’t take long to get your prospecting firing on all cylinders.
Let me know what your aiming for as an end results from your calls.
The Hammer

Nov 4, 2015 4:46 pm

Hi Guys, I am a new FA only in my 3rd month. Training wheels are off and boss told me to hit the ground running. I would really appreciate any help from you guys or gals who are successfully building a practice. My goal is to get 2 Million under management by my 1 year anniversary which is in August of 2016. Is this doable or is that shooting too high? I promise to be a daily poster if you guys can point me in the right direction. Not afraid to cold call or door knock. Just want to make this career work. Thank you for any help and God Bless

Nov 9, 2015 4:15 pm

IronRange,
You’ll get the extra 2M$ done in your sleep if you talk to 40-50 people a day. How many people are you talking to on average per week and we’ll start building from there?
Be well.
The Hammer

Nov 12, 2015 11:50 pm

Agreed with Hammer.

Just talk to people via phone or door knocking.

I tried cold calling and it went horrible for me.

Ran a 3 week trial and got some bites but didn’t close any of them over the phone.

Had 2 appointments from it…nothing came of it.

Doorknocking>>>>>>>Cold calling by a mile IMO.

This isn’t the 90’s or early 2000’s anymore.

Would love for somebody to tell me different on cold calling because I’m all ears!

And doing $2 mill is a joke by August. I had a can sell at the end of April and have brought in $4.1 mill…all door knocking strangers. NO FAMILY.

Nov 16, 2015 3:09 pm

[quote=TheWolf]Agreed with Hammer.

Just talk to people via phone or door knocking.

I tried cold calling and it went horrible for me.

Ran a 3 week trial and got some bites but didn’t close any of them over the phone.

Had 2 appointments from it…nothing came of it.

Doorknocking>>>>>>>Cold calling by a mile IMO.

This isn’t the 90’s or early 2000’s anymore.

Would love for somebody to tell me different on cold calling because I’m all ears!

And doing $2 mill is a joke by August. I had a can sell at the end of April and have brought in $4.1 mill…all door knocking strangers. NO FAMILY.[/quote]

I am only talking to between 5-10 people a day, i have strictly been cold calling and have had 0 success, i either am terrible at cold calling which may be the case, or it just doesn’t work for me. I would love to know your approach for talking to people via doorknocking. Could you please give me some insight as to what it entails? Thanks for the help guys.

Nov 16, 2015 4:14 pm

IronRange…It takes ~150 contacts to get a client. Gotta get those numbers up to at least 50 contacts/daily, 8 appointments per week if you want some traction. It takes probably six months of consistent calling to become good on the phone. Most people give up after a few weeks. Have you developed any niche yet? Generate/buy a list of prospects all in the same industry and figure out exactly what it is they need help with financially. For example, I’m based in an area with many tech/biotech companies. I have many friends who are salesmen for these companies and I reached out to them and asked what can a guy like me do for you, or is it a waste of time trying to pitch this industry? A bought lists of companies around the area and pitched the same exact thing. It’s not about them saying yes to your pitch, but rather your response to their NO, GO POUND SAND!
I agree this isn’t Boiler Room 2000’s era so you have to be creative, but volume of dials will lead to success.

I haven’t updated my post in a couple weeks, sorry been very busy…
-Landed a 1mil+ prospect last week from a referral
-I have meeting this week with a CTO of a biotech company, got it from straight cold call
-I’ve spent the last couple weeks following up with contacts I’ve made from the summer of dialing and pitched 529’s and gifting and I have a couple of follow up calls
-Probably made 250 calls last week, 30 contacts, 3 suspects
NNM 2015: 5.2MM

Nov 16, 2015 9:27 pm

Bullish, Nice post. I’m putting together 3 seminars over the next 3 weeks so as to have momentum going into 2016. Gonna be a busy 3 weeks on the phone.
Hammer

Nov 16, 2015 9:30 pm

IronRange,
don’t worry, just up the numbers of people you talk to and you’ll get some traction. I’m not really familiar with door knocking, calls have always worked for me. Maybe put together some seminars, they work great.
Hammer

Dec 15, 2015 4:25 pm

Update for everyone, in the last month, I have rolled over $360,000 dollars. Been working the phones hard and prospecting by pounding the pavement.