[quote=keith121883]

 I spend the majority of my day studying and even more of the time on the phones making cold calls. 

 [/quote]

That belongs in Resumania.

Thanks buddy, Ive been cold calling for the last 9 hours straight, I can barely see right now.

Cold calling for 9 hours straight? If your calling results are less than optimal, that's probably why. If you're like most newbies, you're trying to squeeze in the most calls per hour - going for quantity over quality. It's possible to make it, using this "quantity" strategy, but it isn't easy and you'll most likely burn out fast. Believe me, I know from personal experience.

So, if your results aren't where you want them to be, try a different tack. Try scheduling just 8-12 cold calls per hour, for a couple of hours. Then leave the office and personally cold walk businesses for a couple of hours. After that, come back to the office and perform some more cold calls.

Why limit your cold calling to just 8-12 per hour? Because to conduct a "quality" cold call, you should engage the other party in conversation. A quality cold call will last longer than 60 seconds - more like 5 minutes. A successful quality cold call means you have qualified the other party; i.e., they admitted they had a brokerage account, were invested in stocks & bonds, were wondering what to do with their maturing CD, etc.

99% of quality cold calls will start off with the other party trying to blow you off. Your calling skills comes from turning that "blow-off" into a short conversation that reveals if the other party is qualified to do business with you.

As a newbie, your initial concern should be to build your pipeline with qualified prospects. The better your calling skills become, the fewer cold calls you'll be making. Why? You'll be busy following up with your huge pipeline of qualified prospects! For example, assuming you come across just 5 qualified prospects per hour, for just 5 hours of quality cold calling per day; you'll have the names of over 500 qualified prospects in one month. And that doesn't count the prospects you'll uncover cold walking businesses, for a few hours everyday.. 

With 500+ qualified prospects, it would be reasonable to assume that you'll open 3-5 accounts that first month. Next month, same thing. In a few months, you'll start to realize the snowball effect. All of a sudden, you're qualifying fewer new prospects because you're having to follow-up on the ones you've already qualified, but you're opening more accounts! A popular FA marketing book mentioned that the odds of opening an account are 80%, when you've made the 8th contact with a prospect. So, assuming that's true, you can see why follow-up with your pipeline of qualified prospects will become so time-consuming, but profitable.

Make quality cold calls, build your pipeline, follow-up with prospects, open accounts. Repeat.

Good luck!

Great post, Doberman.

Question for the new guy: don't you have to pass the exam before selling?

Also, what firm is it?

Good question opie. I am also curious where you work Keith? I am not allowed to even say I am a Financial Advisor (and ofcourse provide any advice on the subject) until I have all my licenses AND have completed my training.

[quote=doberman]

they admitted they had a brokerage account, were invested in stocks & bonds, were wondering what to do with their maturing CD, etc.

[/quote]

Admitted they have a brokerage account?

You make it seem so smarmy--"Yes, yes, I admit it.  I have an account at Charles Schwab, oh the shame of it all"

Perhaps you meant acknowledged that they had a brokerage account,

"Why yes as a matter of fact I have a mid seven figure account at Merrill Lynch.  What's that noise I hear, are you spontaneously orgasming?  If you are I should let you know that my broker is my son.  Hello?  Have you hung up on me?"

[quote=NASD Newbie][quote=doberman]

they admitted they had a brokerage account, were invested in stocks & bonds, were wondering what to do with their maturing CD, etc.

[/quote]

Admitted they have a brokerage account?

You make it seem so smarmy--"Yes, yes, I admit it.  I have an account at Charles Schwab, oh the shame of it all"

Perhaps you meant acknowledged that they had a brokerage account,

"Why yes as a matter of fact I have a mid seven figure account at Merrill Lynch.  What's that noise I hear, are you spontaneously orgasming?  If you are I should let you know that my broker is my son.  Hello?  Have you hung up on me?"

[quote=NASD Newbie]

"Why yes as a matter of fact I have a mid seven figure account at Merrill Lynch.  What's that noise I hear, are you spontaneously orgasming?  If you are I should let you know that my broker is my son.  Hello?  Have you hung up on me?"

[/quote]
Most people lose interest after they orgasm.

Doberman-

What is the name of the popular FA book that you referenced?

[quote=wlooney]

Good question opie. I am also curious where you work Keith? I am not allowed to even say I am a Financial Advisor (and ofcourse provide any advice on the subject) until I have all my licenses AND have completed my training.

[/quote]

I'll bet the cold calling is being done to do nothing more than get permission for a broker to call back.

If you're not licensed you damn well better hope that you never have a conversation that last more than a few moments because it's very difficult to stay on the phone about investing without straying into the need to be registered area.

If your firm is located in some rooms at the Ramada Inn at Exit 6 on the BQE they are exempt from those silly rules.

Call people up and pitch them on Technoics mortgage bonds, a company that has a walkie talkie that will reach the moon as well as work in the tunnels at Atlanta airport.

"Can you imagine how many the military will want?  What I'm doing is raising money to help them build a factory.  This is a ground floor opportunity!

These bonds, Mr. Jones are rated "NR"--you've probably never even heard of that rating it's give so rarely.  You've always thought that Triple A was as good as it gets, but no sir, these are NR which means No Risk.  I can confirm $100,000 of them right now, with warrants to buy a million shares of common at a dime a share when it comes out next week.  I'm telling you this deal is too good to last!"

This topic is so naive it makes me vomit.

I've learned in the last two months that this industry treats new guys coming in the business with less respect that pimps give their "employees".

I'm not asking for anything other than to simply come up with a plan that shows guys like us what quotas we have to hit in order to have some ownership in the business brought in.

There is quite simply no reason a vertical team works. Want proof? look at how many trainees at MS got cut off. Look at how much money in training that cost the firm.

I think ML and SB are right on the money with their training programs as are Ed Jones.

In the end, I know it's asking people to take a leap of great faith to assume a junior coming in will rule, but there's always the catch 22: they're so good we keep them in the position as a marketer for as long as we can and pay them nothing or we simply sh*t can them.

Tough.

(yes, I'm still having a hard time with the interviews  )

[quote=anabuhabkuss]

This topic is so naive it makes me vomit.

[/quote]

That would be based on your two whole months in the industry?  You mean you go all the way back to sometime in April?

Where did I say I've been in the industry for two months?

I've been in the industry for almost 2.5 yrs. Been trying to get in the business (of production...this is a broker's forum afterall) for 2 months.

You see what I did there?

[quote=anabuhabkuss]

Where did I say I've been in the industry for two months?

I've been in the industry for almost 2.5 yrs. Been trying to get in the business (of production...this is a broker's forum afterall) for 2 months.

You see what I did there?

[/quote]

What have you been doing for the two and half years?

Recruiting big wig producers to join my firm and watch them get a junior partner that they can screw over in 2 years after they've helped bump up the "team's" production.

oh wait did I type that out loud?

[quote=anabuhabkuss]

Recruiting big wig producers to join my firm and watch them get a junior partner that they can screw over in 2 years after they've helped bump up the "team's" production.

oh wait did I type that out loud?

[/quote]

So you're another recruiter who can't get his own job, but promises others that he can get one for them?

Is that what you're saying?

Why would anybody worth a tinker's damn as a recruiter not call a manager at Smith Barney and tell them, "Look Mike, I've got the hottest candidate in the whole world..........me."

trust me NEWB, do you know what kind of offers im getting or how i even got them? you dont think being a recruiter has its perks that no one in their right mind would take advantage of? well i did.

read my other topic that talks about two of the offers (one to work with a 1.5 mil team and the other to move to AGE). those are the two out of four offers that entice me the most and I am having a difficult time choosing which deal is least likely to screw me.

i would call SB, except i'm close to hiring one of their managers

but to answer your question, the AGE offer came through because I managed to snag 3 of their top 25% producers in the state which obviously set an impression with them. a manager told me if I ever needed a job to call him and I took him on it.

[quote=anabuhabkuss]

but to answer your question, the AGE offer came through because I managed to snag 3 of their top 25% producers in the state which obviously set an impression with them. a manager told me if I ever needed a job to call him and I took him on it.

[/quote]

Top 25% in the state?  What state would that be, Confusion?