[quote=joedabrkr] [quote=Greenbacks]

I live in the mountains. I drive a JEEP. Hummers are a hated up here!

Very few two wheel drive cars up  here!   

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Why are hummers hated?
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Because the people who drive them are pretentious idiots who never or hardly ever take their vehicles off of the pavement.  4x4 for snobs. All show and no go. They want to be country but they will never be anything but urban hypocrites.

Although, I must say, the new H3 seems to be a pretty nice vehicle and I have seen some of those with actual dirt on them. 

For sure I think a nice car does help. Although confidence can go far if I am going to visit a high end client in their home I do not want to pull up in a avg car. Having the nice car also improves your brand. Spend a bit of time and look at the top of breed cars that last and are reliable.

 I understand image and presentation are important when meeting with clients, but over extending yourself is not the right way to go.  Buy an nicer used car and relieve that stress of a big car payment or lease.  As for the fancy designer suit, I think this may be more relevant in materialistic areas like California and New York, in small midwestern and southern towns, designer suits may make the wrong impression, that you are charging too much money.  As for house calls, who makes house calls?  Waste of time, does you doctor come to you?

mooose

Not my doctor, but I’m not worth 10 million either.

As for house calls, who makes house calls?  Waste of time, does you doctor come to you?

I do business calls in home, on occasion.  Some of my clients are elderly and have difficluty getting out.  Business owners who are often tied to their place of business appreciate a visit in their office.

You don't want to make a big practice of this but going the extra mile for worthy clients is impressive and you will get referrals.  Although, I usually explain that if at all possible we would be better off with a meeting in my office since my resource materials are there. Sometimes it is just better to go to the client.

I also do calls at home with many of my clients with whom I socialze.  Review the account... have coctails.  My doctor, lawyer and the mechanic/specialist who fixes up all of our collectable cars come to my house for food and drinks too.      (Car club  )  

Advice to newbies.....If you are into collectible cars and hot rods, join a club.  People who can afford a $12,000 paint job are likely to have other discretionary funds.  Plus you will have fun and the more networking you can do the better.

24 years experience. Take it for what it's worth.

A few thoughts on some of the topics raised here:

Cars:

Cars are a double edged sword. They can work for you or against you. Over the span of a year you will run into every type of person. From the materialistic to the penny pincher. From the only buys American to the won't buy American. There is no way to know ahead of time who you will meet and how they will judge you. So, buy the car you want, but be sensible. I started with a VW Rabbit and kept it for 4 years. It was as impressive then as it is today. And we did make house calls then. The car never cost me a client. In fact it helped with my largest client at the time. A business owner who gave me about 7 million to invest. His car, a ten year old Buick Century. He said he liked sensible people. Rabbit front and center reporting for duty. My next cars were a 5 series BMW that no client ever saw and Mercury Grand Marquis take'em to lunch car. From there, there was an assortment of toy cars while the biz machines were a line of trusty Lincoln Towncars. Clients love those cars. I realize they are not the right image for today's 20, 30 something. Lincoln MKZ, Acura TL would do on the high end, while a Honda Accord would be the smart buy. I drove Accords for 16 years. If a prospect made a stupid comment, and few did, I'd tell them that my money was in the market and that their's should be too.

High priced car: This is a non starter. Why would anyone do anything that puts them in this position? Yeah, back in the day some wall street mgrs actually leased high end cars for trainees to motivate them. So let me tell you about net capital months. A net capital month is when you have more month then paycheck. To make it to the next payday the dough comes from your net capital. For slow learners, that's your bank account. In the beginning there will be many net capital months. Especially in that awkward year two when being weaned off the salary hasn't quite jived with commissions ramping up. A high end anything monthy payment will shorten the hang time and hasten an premature depature from the biz along with royally screwing up your credit. Bottom line; most people can't tell the difference between an Altima and a G35. But extra $300 a month you'll pay may be all the difference.

BMW: I'm 54. I've got money. I am your prospect. What the average 54 year old knows that the average twenty something doesn't is how money works. We know how long it takes to accumulate wealth. And we know that things like expensive cars should be purchased from accumulated wealth, not out of cash flow. Something else that age 50 will bring that age 25 doesn't get. We, age 50, are not impressed by cars. Let me qualify that. If you show up in a numbers matching, documented, restored, 70 Hemi Cuda convertible, we'll be impressed. Show up in an M3 and we'll ask if we can take our car to lunch. If you show up in any toy car, keep driving. That would be Porsche, Aston Martin etc. The deal is simple, at our age, your average propect could not only buy whatever car they wish, they could buy a fleet of them. Yet they don't. That should be a clue. Cars don't do it for us. Anyone with a W-2 can buy a car.  If you want to impress us you need to do it with what's between your ears, not a blue and white propeller.

House call: Doctors don't make house calls and neither do the ML guys. So what! Want to seperate yourself from the pack? Make house calls. Want to still give off that big swinging d**k image. Never answer your own phone, don't take the call when it comes in, have your assistant make all your appointments and have him/her call the day before to confirm it. You should be using your assistant to organize your time in this way anyway. The time she saves you will more than make up for having to run an appointment out of the office every night when you'd normally be home instead. Your marketing approach is main street not wall street. You are the friendly advisor who cares. Corny, youbetcha. Does it work? Youbetcha!

What to wear: Cheap the wrong way to go. So is high end. You'll ruin more suits on sharp corners than you'll wear out. I buy most of my suits at Joseph Banks. A good mid line suit, that is tailored. Good shirts and most important for the guys nice ties. Also, no goofy shoes. high end black leather purchased from a specialty retailer, not the mall. These shoes will last for years.

Wealth: As you accumulate it, don't show it off. Nothing wrong with buying whatever you like, but keep it low key in front of the help and the clients. Believe me, if you don't, it will bite you.

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How about a burnt orange 72 Eldorado convertible with steer horns on the front?

Hell yeah, my pops has a 12k paint job in that nice vet. I will register and join a club!

[quote=DirtyDeltaBro]

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Ladies and Gentlemen that is a real producer  - he just ripped Seth to shreds.[/quote]

Hey I don't claim to have all the answers or solutions. I think BondGuy was right on the money with a lot of points. That was a very intelligent post unlike some of the other garbage you see on this site. I am just throwing my 2 cents out there for any newbies. This is a free country and everyone has a different style. That is the beauty of living in this great country we call AMERICA.

Best of luck to everyone! Remember....greed for lack of a better word is GOOD.

Strength and Honor.

You get your inspiration from Glengarry Glen Ross?  Good luck to you.

[quote=Seth Davis]

1) Buy 3 nice suits. Do not shop the discount rack at Men's Wearhouse or JC Penney. Make them NICE suits. Brooks Brothers, Armani. The investment will pay off.

Agree with buy nice suits. Designer or not is a personal choice. Some of these makers could make you look a little more than slick.

2) Get a nice haircut. You are not in college anymore. You actually need to look respectable and shower every day.

Personal grooming, very important. The in look for the 20 somethings is shaved head and unshaven face. Unless you're going for the LEO look, that's backwards. The shaved head makes you look like a LEO and unless you're handing out speeding tickets on your second job there is no place for it here. Unshaven doesn't fly.

3) Lease a nice car even if you can't afford it. You can't drive to a client visit in a 1998 VW Jetta and expect to be taken seriously.

98 Jetta's get a bad rap. They're good cars. Most likely, your clients will never see your car. For those that do, as long as all the fenders are the same color, most couldn't tell it from an 07 BMW. Keep you car clean inside and out. If you're really worried about going to a meeting in your car, rent a better car for the meeting. It will be cheaper than payments.

4) Subsrcibe to the Wall Street Journal and read it every day. You might actually learn something and sound like you know something when you talk to clients.

Good advice. Learn to read it in 15 minutes

5) Live by this quote: "There is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can't. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him?"

Very good sales advice,to a point. Closing is a lost art in our business. I suspect the suits and trainers who either have never done it or weren't very good at it, thus they need the salary they're receiving instead of surviving on their abilty. You can't teach what you can't do, and the truth is these people don't want closers. They want consultants, where the business just magically takes place through osmosis.Too many times in my trips around branch offices I hear exactly what Seth is talking about, the advisor giving in to a minor objection, or worse, failing to ask for the order. The flip side of that is knowing when to fold and back off. Too heavy a closing is as bad as too little. Experience will teach where the line is.

Best of luck. Enjoy the ride.

With the exception of the car thing, in my opinion Seth has done Ok here. And as a car guy who couldn't wait to get out of econobox prison I can't fault anyone for wanting a hot ride. The good news is, work long and hard, and even the most expensive cars come into the realm of possibility. Just wait for it to come to you. Having to quit to get a real job, you know, one with a salary because you can't make your monthly nut is ludicrous if a BMW lease payment is part of that nut.

You get your inspiration from Glengarry Glen Ross?  Good luck to you.

It is a wonderful movie - I hope everyone here sees it (again).

Jack Lemmon is the greatest loser in the world.

I think the concept of learning from losers comes from religious studies and philosophy.

There are affirmations - what you should do (can't think of the sales movie) - and negations, like Glengarry.

Even though Al Pacino has the right idea - don't chase prospects - he suffers the market consequences of hard closing.

The movie was originally a play.

Every corporate home office employee (up to the president) should be required to view this movie, and write a book report, and present in the lunch room.

Hey I don't claim to have all the answers or solutions.

When I saw the (intelligence) of the original post, I laughed.

It is so popular.

[quote=joedabrkr]How about a burnt orange 72 Eldorado convertible with steer horns on the front? [/quote]

And the wide whites? Nah, give me a 70, 71 Hemi Cuda or Challenger. Or a 70 Boss 302, or 69 Shelby KR500. And because I'm partial to the cars I grew up with, a nice 64 Lincoln Convertible.

Problem is, as nice as any of these cars are to dream about, own and drive, the reality is owning them is a burden. The burden of upkeep, insurance, storage, and the wall of worry just driving them around. Same goes with other toys, boats, motorcycles etc. There is a PIA factor with all this stuff. Somthing to keep in mind.

I want my clients to always be thinking about the 'transfer' of their wealth after they pass on from this world.

Nothing says, "estate planning" like an old Caddy Hearse.

Haha, nice one!

ha haaaaaa… That is great!

[quote=BondGuy]

[quote=joedabrkr]How about a burnt orange 72 Eldorado convertible with steer horns on the front? [/quote]

And the wide whites? Nah, give me a 70, 71 Hemi Cuda or Challenger. Or a 70 Boss 302, or 69 Shelby KR500. And because I'm partial to the cars I grew up with, a nice 64 Lincoln Convertible.

Problem is, as nice as any of these cars are to dream about, own and drive, the reality is owning them is a burden. The burden of upkeep, insurance, storage, and the wall of worry just driving them around. Same goes with other toys, boats, motorcycles etc. There is a PIA factor with all this stuff. Somthing to keep in mind.