Given the nature of your question, do you think this is the right career for you?

Why wait for the company to pull the plug.  Save some of your pride, admit this isn't the business for you, and go find somewhere else to make your fortune. 

The fact that you hate the phone and evidently all other forms of prospecting means you won't make it anywhere.  If you really want to be in this business, I'd suggest taking a longer route to the FA chair.  Become a licensed assistant, work in a back office, partner with someone. Something besides going at it alone.  There are lots of paths to take to get you where you want to be.  Don't limit yourself to just one.

i will assume that you are just playing devils advocate here....so yes, i do and i am committed.

maybe you will get this analogy...lets say your a nfl gm. your team went 1-15 last year. you get the #1 draft choice. you take a qb. you pay him $9 mil and give him the lions o-line and calvin johnson and say 'get us into the playoffs this season or you're fired.' after 12 games you're 2-10. now ask yourself this: do you think your qb is ready to go out there next sunday and lay it all on the line. f-nooooo. especially not since his cell is being blown up by the 49ers, cardinals and ny giants (<yes i did), all offerin better deals.

deep right? i just want a little certainty here.

why wait?...training costs.

and the phone doesn't bother me now. as a matter of fact i like it. up front i hated it, but i just needed a little time to figure it out. going forward, the phone will be my main means of prospecting.

Training costs as in you have to reimburse them for training costs? 

You asked what the protocol is.  At Jones, the protocol is if you don't make your numbers, they fire you.  I would assume it works the same way elsewhere.  Jones is pretty forgiving overall.  They'll give you enough rope to hang yourself if you want to. 

if you leave or are fired for 'cause' (basically anything other than performance) AND you go to a competitor, they come after you for training costs.

Your nfl analogy doesn't hold water, because the QB cannot determine the outcome of the games he's in over the course of a season.

As an FA, not only can you, but you're expected to determine your own outcome. I am not saying you are not FA material, because I don't know you, but given your lack of initial motivation and further motivational downswings, I would wager that something's going to have to change for you to make it.

tennis i disagree. no matter how good i am on the phone i cannot 'determine' the outcome of my activity. i can determine my activity. this is true. but the outcome is something that i cannot determine. i can say and do all of the right things when i get in front of my client but if the d doesnt hold, to return to the anology, i still lose. my activity for the 7-8 weeks was pitiful. that is my fault, but i have finally found a groove. i want to keep banging the phones but moral is low due to uncertainty. why is that so difficult to understand?

Just curious Pimp. I see so many folks anxious to get into this biz... Did you just ignore the fact that cold calling is nasty, or was it just so much harder than you actually thought it would be?

Literally, every week, some well intentioned sole, comes to this message board, talking about how they want to get into this biz, and they're going to tear it up, can hack the long hours, tons of calls...

Not hard to understand at all, but unless you get out of that particular mindset, I don't think you have much of a future in this business.

The uncertainty won't go away. 

Pimp, in my experience, you are safe AT LEAST until 9mo, most likely more along the lines of 2 years. But, realistically, if you're not doing well (bottom quartile), Or/AND you are a problem person for the office, you'll be out after 12 months. So, you have the time to turn things around. Don't talk about it, DO IT. Your manager has heard the talk a thousand times before...

Also, your activity levels do determine your outcome. Don't ever fall into "I'm so unlucky" or "They just refuse to buy from me" camp. It's counter productive at best.

bfp,

i had never cold called in my life so i had no idea what it was like. and through the interview process and 3 months of training no one told me that to make it you had to run around knocking on doors and/or make 150-200 calls a day. so my expections were different. in my biz plan i wanted to focus on networking. no one told me that if you want to hit your q1 #'s that is a foolish idea. but, in reality it is. networking is a much longer sales process. the guys that i started with that are making it brought in family $'s. not me. those are sacred relationships and I wanted to prove to myself that i could make it on my own before i started moving their assets around.

I agree with BFP. If you are bangin out the phone calls, you will get a mulligan. Your manager knows it is only a matter of time. Phone calls equals pipeline, pipeline equals orders. If you do the activities you will be successful but it takes time and you are behind by about 3 months. So hike up your skirt and call more than anyone around you.

ahhhhhhhhhhh, i see your point now tennis...unertainty every quarter. so i guess i just bury it and assume i will survive. but, man you take the long way to making your point. thanks.

bfp, thank you. that is the answer i was looking for. if i am fairly certain that they give me another 3-6 mo i will be a lot more motivated to just keep grinding it out.

Pimp, hey, at least you're catching on, being honest with yourself about it. Yeah, networking... I've heard, and learned on my own, that it takes about 3 yrs of being involved with a group before you make any headway at all. Seminars too, fools effort for a newby. You just cannot make enough hay quickly for that to work, and the overhead is intense. Phone...

Pimp, would you agree that before anyone takes a job doing this, they should be first asked to make 200 phone calls, just to see what that is like? Wouldn't that save all sorts of time for both applicants and firms??

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tennis i disagree. no matter how good i am on the phone i cannot 'determine' the outcome of my activity. i can determine my activity. this is true. but the outcome is something that i cannot determine. i can say and do all of the right things when i get in front of my client but if the d doesnt hold, to return to the anology, i still lose. my activity for the 7-8 weeks was pitiful. that is my fault, but i have finally found a groove. i want to keep banging the phones but moral is low due to uncertainty. why is that so difficult to understand?

[/quote]

Because it is BS... This entire career is based on work ethic and motivation. Comparing this to football is stupid.. you are one person on your own team, not a #1 draft pick qb on a 53 man roster..  A better comparison would be:

You run track.. more specifically the 400M.(100M for each year of struggle)..So you had a terrible start and are close to falling down(by stopping your prospecting to weigh your options)...So we know you aren't going to catch the winner, but you have to beat the qualifying time..you have 9 months.. Do you get up and run like hell or fall down and make excuses..

PS Qualifying time would be like making it to Year 2.. Miss the qualifying time but come close, try a bank. Miss the time by a lot but have decent backing(assets) go indy..

lol...absolutely. 90% would walk out after about 25 calls. that should be an upfront disclosure. and the training was a loooooooooot of bs. my 'coach' had never even cold called in her life. she started as an assistant and inherited a book!