[quote=DRAPALA]

EDJ4now

 I think I read the same story in the forum of a certain men's magazine, except she had a twin sister.

My worst experience still makes me laugh.  I was walking up the sidewalk that led to the front door, and from the sidewalk, you could see directly through the glass storm door into the house.  As I'm walking up, I see a guy walking through the house to meet me at the front door.  I start to smile and raise my hand in a wave.  As we meet at the door, the guy doesn't miss a beat and swings the wooden front door closed right in my face.  I stopped, paused, and then loud enough for him to hear, yelled "NICE!," and walked off.

I never had anything too terrible happen. Although it's amazing how many kids would open the door and tell a complete stranger that their parents weren't home. 

is there a historical relationship between LDS and EDJ???

[quote=now_indy] As I'm walking up, I see a guy walking through the house to meet me at the front door.  I start to smile and raise my hand in a wave.  As we meet at the door, the guy doesn't miss a beat and swings the wooden front door closed right in my face.  [/quote]

That would be my response.

I feel for all of you poor doorknocking saleman. If you found this site, why are you arguing about how great it is.  I do respect some of you vets that work for the firm, but many of you newbies need to shut up and never come back.

[quote=now_indy]

amazing how many kids would open the door and tell a complete stranger that their parents weren't home. 

[/quote]

It definitely made me pay more attention to what my kids were doing and who they were talking to at my house, both answering the door and also talking to that stranger walking down the sidewalk when they were playing in the front yard.  Sometimes it was scary the info that a kid home alone would volunteer.

[quote=fastcar]I feel for all of you poor doorknocking saleman. If you found this site, why are you arguing about how great it is.  I do respect some of you vets that work for the firm, but many of you newbies need to shut up and never come back.[/quote]

Wow, you're probably the smartest man to ever walk the face of the earth.  Such wisdom, very profound.

Does any one know the sales talk for doorknocking?

Thanks,

H.

[quote=hncollazo]Does any one know the sales talk for doorknocking?

Thanks,

H.
[/quote]

Knock Knock

Sorry I woke you up from a nap or sorry I am disturbing your private family time, I am a new Financial Advisor and I am desparate for new business.  I will take ANY amount of spare change you have.  We sell A shares, so after I get my comission, you can be sure never to see me again.  Why won't you do business with me?

Gosh…let me run and get my checkbook and Fidelity 500k IRA acct statements.  Don’t go anywhere!!!

brainy and spears make it sound like they walked into the biz with people falling all over themselves to give them money.  Like it's completely absurd to expect that anyone would talk to someone who rings the doorbell. 

Actually I've had several people over the years say something similar to what bspears joked about.  One of my best clients today invited me in, got out his statements, let me take them back to the office, and a week later we were transferring in his Fidelity IRA and Pac Life annuity.  He told me later it was weird that I ran his doorbell because he just got  his statments in the mail and was looking at them when I showed up.  That account got me into Seg 2 years ago. 

hncollazo - do a search for doorknocking.  You'll find several examples.  It does work.  It's very time intensive and can be somewhat frustrating, but so can cold calling on the phone or mailing out 10,000 invitations to a seminar to get 3 responses.  PM me if you want more info that you can't find in other threads.  

Well…in the two years I dk’d…I had very little response.  To me it was a referring agent to me calling…hey I was by your home last week and just wanted to ask a few questions.  I never cold called someone unless I had been by their home…even if noone was home, I always left something to refer back to…3years out, I actually would say…I was by your home on such and such date…no one answered the door…I left my card…Did you find it?  Even though I may not have been by there home…it usually dropped their guard fairly quickly…Funny how many would say Yes I did…even though I hadn’t been there

So have you been cold calling since you left Jones?  Any thoughts on what the percentage of people you met doorknocking turned into clients vs the percentage of cold calls that turned into clients?  I've not done ANY cold calling from lists or the phone book, but I'd guess that the actual percentage of new clients from doorknocks is higher. 

Granted, the best way to generate new biz is from referrals/networking.  But for new guys, they aren't going to get a lot of referrals at first and they haven't developed their network yet.  You gotta start somewhere.

The comment you made about calling and telling them you stopped by is very interesting.  Seems strange to start a relationship based on a lie.  White as it might be.  

Honestly, I can’t think of any who became clients because of a dk.  I heard all the great stories …"I remember you coming by my door back in '65…and now I have an IRA at the bank coming due…can you help me…I need 2k per month from the 32k IRA. But this wasn’t the case with me…but you know Spiffy…I was the 5th guy in my old office…so maybe the people were sick and tired of the new broker coming by every few years…The little white lie was mainly to get around the do not call list…but thanks for your concern…

Speaking of white lies…A transfer told me this morning…the new jones goober is telling people…it’s illegal if they move their acct to me…PRICELESS…they will say anything when the assets are slowly moving out…I can feel the apprehension to log onto the green screen in the am…just to see line after line of the acats coming through.  I bet Spiffy is his mentor…

Oh…now to answer Spiffs ?..I’ve yet to prospect as I 'm busy moving accts…however…my office assistant and I have been discussing my business building path.  She is currently putting 25 calls per day in the system starting 2nd week of April. See I had 2-3k of prospects in my old system and well lets just say I have a photographic memory.  Also, we’ve discussed  with every transfer our desire to work with referrals, mainly people such as themselves.  I love this stuff…FOr the first time…I’m enjoying this career…

Maybe you just sucked at doorknocking.  I look at my list of clients and of the top 25, 6 came from doorknocking.  None of them took more than maybe 2 additional contacts to turn them into clients.  Over half of the rest of my book came from doorknocking.  Funny, but sometimes the smaller accounts are more difficult than the big ones. 

I don't buy the 5th guy in the office story.  Not that I don't believe you weren't the 5th guy, but I don't believe that it had anything at all to do with your lack of doorknocking success.   See, I'm in a metro St. Louis region.  I've got 8 other Jones brokers w/in  a 1 mile radius of my office.  All but one of them have been out less than 10 years.  Most of us fall in the 3-7 range and everyone of us has doorknocked.  The neighborhoods have been hit numerous times,  but still, every time I go out doorknocking (rarely these days) I find new prospects willing to talk with me. 

There are lots of unsuccessful Jones brokers just like you.  Your funnell to use a Jones term is really wide, but not very deep.  It'll take you too long to do a good job trying to keep in touch with all those prospects.  I'd venture to say you could delete 3/4 of them and never even miss them.  I'd rather have 300 or 400 quality prospects to keep up with and do a good job with them.  I've got a memory like yours.  I remember every conversation I've had with a prospect.  I can even picture their house.  But they don't know me from Adam if I only talk with them once every 6 months.  I hear a lot of people dog Jones because we have too many clients per broker.  The same applies to prospects. 

All this talk about doorknocking has inspired me.  I think I'll stop posting here for a while and work on building my business the best way I know how.     

Maybe I did suck at Dking...however a drooling mongrel can knock on doors and site the spiel being taught in your beloved St Louis so I do put a LOT of creedance(sp) on the 5th broker and hell I was in the office for 4 years ...you do the math...I'm in a town of 3800.  A many of my prospects told me early on...The guy before you failed and the guy before him etc....so your waisting your time talking with me...Put yourself in the shoes of a small town widow...living on a very nice street...have 5 DIFFERENT individuals come to the door...Hi my name is ....and I'm with EDJ's here in town.  Oh..really what happened to the nice boy that was there before...really well I'm sorry to hear that...seems if there is a lot of turnover there...no I don't need your card at this time...if I do I will call...thanks and good luck! Hell...now that I'm telling this,,,the mayor told a friend of mine...He's waisting his time...thats a revolving door...So no matter what you want to think Spiffy...it was about the turnover...and it is for the newbie today...however...I'm more secure here than I ever was at your beloved EDJ.  Its the model stupid!!  Good luck doorknocking...hope you don't get hit by a passing semi. Seg 3 in 11 months...green and averaging 17k when I left...so I guess I was a failure.

No, bspears, you're wrong. You can build a bazillion dollar business if you keep knocking on doors. That's how I did it. I'm actually a gazillionaire. Just about every door I knock on results in at least a 100,000 account or greater. You just suck at it, unlike me. See I follow the Jones philosophy to the tee. Doorknock, then call and sell American funds with the max sales charge or perhaps a 30 year 3 pt bond.

Ok, so here's the Jones recipe: first, you glug down some energy Koolaid: glug, glug, glug. Then, you knock on the door and get personal info, like what is your mother's maiden name/bank account number. Then you call and beat the old lady over the head with an "appropriate investment," having talked to the prospect one time at their door. Then you ring the cash register. If necessary (if they have more money elsewhere), try to build a "personal relationship."

Everyone else on this forum who has a fee based business is an idiot who is ripping off their clients. The A-share trails and maturing bonds motivate me to serve my clients.

[quote=Spaceman Spliff]

No, bspears, you're wrong. You can build a bazillion dollar business if you keep knocking on doors. That's how I did it. I'm actually a gazillionaire. Just about every door I knock on results in at least a 100,000 account or greater. You just suck at it, unlike me. See I follow the Jones philosophy to the tee. Doorknock, then call and sell American funds with the max sales charge or perhaps a 30 year 3 pt bond.

Ok, so here's the Jones recipe: first, you glug down some energy Koolaid: glug, glug, glug. Then, you knock on the door and get personal info, like what is your mother's maiden name/bank account number. Then you call and beat the old lady over the head with an "appropriate investment," having talked to the prospect one time at their door. Then you ring the cash register. If necessary (if they have more money elsewhere), try to build a "personal relationship."

Everyone else on this forum who has a fee based business is an idiot who is ripping off their clients. The A-share trails and maturing bonds motivate me to serve my clients.

[/quote]

Spiff!  I owe you an apology.

Here all this time I thought you were an idiot with no sense of humor.  Turns out you DO have a sense of humor after all!