[quote=anabuhabkuss] A month and a half in and not one new account opened. Now I get everything that has been said before. This business is tough[/quote]

I feel you buddy. Some people in life just get things more easily than other people, either by charms, connections, or just lucky. I know a guy at Edward Jones who just sit at his office all day and wait for referrals to him.

Anyway, my advice is work on the law of average. If the average ratio is to open 1 account for every 100 people you talk to, then do just that. My ratio is probably 1 in 200 because of my appearance, but oh well. That’s just life.

Yep, that’s about the only advice to give. Just keep at it. Keep in mind that

there ARE people out there who definitely need your advice. Once you

help that first person, you’ll remember why you chose this career.

Just go for the low hanging fruit.  Look at who connects with you the quickest.  Make sure it's economic for you to work with them. 

[quote=Mr. D] [quote=anabuhabkuss] A month and a half in and not one new account opened. Now I get everything that has been said before. This business is tough[/quote]

I feel you buddy. Some people in life just get things more easily than other people, either by charms, connections, or just lucky. I know a guy at Edward Jones who just sit at his office all day and wait for referrals to him.

Anyway, my advice is work on the law of average. If the average ratio is to open 1 account for every 100 people you talk to, then do just that. My ratio is probably 1 in 200 because of my appearance, but oh well. That's just life.
[/quote]

What do you look like?

ANA

Is this your first month in the biz or are just in a slump?

Are you tracking what you've been doing?  Without tracking it becomes much more difficult to zero in on where you might be going wrong. That is, if you are going wrong. Many times the prospect to client pipeline is much longer than six weeks. At six weeks your pipeline isn't full.

Assuming all is not well here are some common causes:

Not talking to enough people. This is a contact sport. Thus the 100 and 200 contacts per day posts to your thread.

Not closing - regardless of what you may have been led to believe, this is still sales. More offen than not the prospect isn't going to buy/sign up unless you ask them to. Once you understand this life gets easier, not a lot easier but easier just the same. Develope closing techniques you are comfortable with and from there it's a numbers game. For example 500 calls equal 100 contacts equals 5 qppointments equals 2 clients. or something like that. once you start tracking you can figue out how many people you need to be talking to up front to get the new account rate you're looking for.

Product or service- Service is nice but product gets it done. Simplifying life by just calling people with a good preferred stock or Muni Bond will do wonders for your new relationship numbers. one the pipeline is full expect 6 to 15 new relationships per month. Once you've opened a ton of accounts, sold them each two or three different bonds/stocks, it's time to penetrate those accounts by going after thge real money. By this point they know you, the wall of trust is already scaled, and they are more willing to open up to you.

If you are making the calls, presenting and closing but still not getting anywhere, it's time to examine technique and content. Change one thing at a time and measure results.

tj, the above is why I didn’t bother posting…I knew you’d come along and give some great advice…

[quote=Indyone]tj, the above is why I didn't bother posting...I knew you'd come along and give some great advice...[/quote]

Yep, and with more than my usual number of typos too!

Thanks

T

[quote=Mr. D] [quote=anabuhabkuss] A month and a half in and not one new account opened. Now I get everything that has been said before. This business is tough[/quote]

I feel you buddy. Some people in life just get things more easily than other people, either by charms, connections, or just lucky. I know a guy at Edward Jones who just sit at his office all day and wait for referrals to him.

Anyway, my advice is work on the law of average. If the average ratio is to open 1 account for every 100 people you talk to, then do just that. My ratio is probably 1 in 200 because of my appearance, but oh well. That's just life.
[/quote]

One in a Hundred

One in two hundred

Well, if you work for Jones keep up the good work  

Activity turns into productivity. I used a daily 20 point system when I first started in this industry. Don't know if you are familiar with it. Just helps you keep a high level of activity.

Using a calendar, try to get 20-25 point every day.

1 point= cold call

2 points= obtain a referral

3 points= Set Appt.

4 points= Fact Finder Appt.

5 points= Sale

Track all of your numbers including cold calls, touches, no answers, etc. In a few months, the law of averages will tell you how many calls you will need to make in order to get one sale. In the meantime, this will help you feel productive at the end of the day, even if you haven't sold anything. Keep at it, everyone goes through slow times. It will pick up.

[quote=insurproducer]

Activity turns into productivity. I used a daily 20 point system when I first started in this industry. Don't know if you are familiar with it. Just helps you keep a high level of activity.

Using a calendar, try to get 20-25 point every day.

1 point= cold call

2 points= obtain a referral

3 points= Set Appt.

4 points= Fact Finder Appt.

5 points= Sale

Track all of your numbers including cold calls, touches, no answers, etc. In a few months, the law of averages will tell you how many calls you will need to make in order to get one sale. In the meantime, this will help you feel productive at the end of the day, even if you haven't sold anything. Keep at it, everyone goes through slow times. It will pick up.

[/quote]

THis will definitely keep your focus on revenue related activities.

[quote=My Inner Child][quote=insurproducer]

Activity turns into productivity. I used a daily 20 point system when I first started in this industry. Don't know if you are familiar with it. Just helps you keep a high level of activity.

Using a calendar, try to get 20-25 point every day.

1 point= cold call

2 points= obtain a referral

3 points= Set Appt.

4 points= Fact Finder Appt.

5 points= Sale

Track all of your numbers including cold calls, touches, no answers, etc. In a few months, the law of averages will tell you how many calls you will need to make in order to get one sale. In the meantime, this will help you feel productive at the end of the day, even if you haven't sold anything. Keep at it, everyone goes through slow times. It will pick up.

[/quote]

THis will definitely keep your focus on revenue related activities.

[/quote]

It worked for me. If things slow down, I'm sure I'll go back to it.

I have to thank you for that point system (as well as the rest for your input).

The slowness is mostly my fault. I'm so confused worried etc that I tend to juggle things and hev no gameplan in the process whatsoever.

I was told by my mentor and BOM that if I want to remain in this field, I need to make 25 contacts per day. Don't worry about hrs worked, worry about hitting that number everyday. If you get it done by 11am, go home and relax. if it takes you until 7pm, suck it up.

I never got down to commiting to hitting those goals until today. I time blocked a schedule. I went out and finally had the best day door knocking. I spoke to people. Some were curious, one wanted to hit me, others weren't interested but gave me tidbits on their neighbours. It was the most gratifying I've felt since this has started. Hell even the UPS guy and I talked.

To answer a question earlier, I am a month and a half in production. Just begun. No prior exp.

That point system will help a lot.

tj,

read your message and also took it to heart.

just wanted to clarify what I mean by 25 contacts. They defined that to me as 25 actual conversations and not a "no thanks no interest CLICK" moment. people i pitched to, explained what i do, learned a bit about them etc.

[quote=anabuhabkuss]

I have to thank you for that point system (as well as the rest for your input).

The slowness is mostly my fault. I'm so confused worried etc that I tend to juggle things and hev no gameplan in the process whatsoever.

I was told by my mentor and BOM that if I want to remain in this field, I need to make 25 contacts per day. Don't worry about hrs worked, worry about hitting that number everyday. If you get it done by 11am, go home and relax. if it takes you until 7pm, suck it up.

I never got down to commiting to hitting those goals until today. I time blocked a schedule. I went out and finally had the best day door knocking. I spoke to people. Some were curious, one wanted to hit me, others weren't interested but gave me tidbits on their neighbours. It was the most gratifying I've felt since this has started. Hell even the UPS guy and I talked.

To answer a question earlier, I am a month and a half in production. Just begun. No prior exp.

That point system will help a lot.

[/quote]

ANA,

He/she who makes the most contacts wins. It's that simple and that hard. NEVER, as in NEVER EVER, as in NEVER AT ANY TIME, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE  knock off early.

there are what, about a 160 hours in a week? Yuo should be spending at least half of them working. If you're not, that might be a good place to start with your program. There is no law saying you can't put 20 hours a day in. OK, that's a little intense, how about 15 or 16?  Many here have done just that, for years. It's very doable. The payoff is after you've reached a certain level, you can back off the hours, if you choose to.

Does spending time on this forum cut into contacting prospects? It might be expensive to spend time here. But maybe there is value to it. Has anyone made more money from reading/posting on this site? I don’t think I ever did.

[quote=Butkus]Does spending time on this forum cut into contacting prospects? It might be expensive to spend time here. But maybe there is value to it. Has anyone made more money from reading/posting on this site? I don't think I ever did.[/quote]

If you've never gotten anything from visiting this site then you truly are wasting your time. Which begs the question; why are you here?

As for me, I have gotten value fom ideas posted here.

However, that said, I'm in a different position than at least some here. With my business, the heavy lifting is already done. My business is turn key, in that we are a fine tuned gross producing engine that consistantly produces new accounts and brings in new money. For example, the called/matured securities list this month was about four million dollars. That's 4 million that has to be reinvested, and will be, for the most part, done so without much discussion. It's about a half a step below automatic.  Whats one point on 4 million? How about 2 points? Next month another 1 to 2 million will be up to reinvest. It's never less than Half a million, usually not under a million. Additionally, we are in front of about another 2 million in new money and will close on some percentage of that. If history is a guide, we'll close on more rather than less. Next month more new money will show itself and we will close on that. And so it goes, the fruits of a 20 plus year career. OK, you get the idea.

I did my time in the trenches.

If this site isn't helping you, then you need to spend your time elsewhere. If you think this site can help you, ask questions. If there is some way we can help you, we will.

A final note; it drives my wife, who is also my partner, crazy that I spend time here during the day. Yet since I'm the senior partner and responsible for 3/4 of the group's income,  she doesn't mind spending the money. She teases, but at the end of the day it's a non issue.

The question which was begged: because people here have slammed Jones and younger Jones reps may not be equipped to properly understand the issues. But your point is an excellent one, and I think I will follow it and depart.

Ok, 1.5 months in and no accounts. Building relationships is fine, but time consuming and you're behind the eight-ball, right now.

Time to kick-in your marketing efforts, big time. Continue your 25 contacts per day, but add to that several hours of cold calling. Yep, several hours - at a minimum.

Who you call is up to you, business owners, people not on the DNC list, etc. I would suggest product calling, since a major part of your day is building relationships. Product calling will pay the bills, until your relationship-building starts to pay-off. Sell muni's, preferreds, etc.

Call different time-zones to stretch your available cold calling time. For example, if you live on the east coast, get yourself registered in states in different time zones and cold call them. For example, I'm in Georgia, so I could cold call until 11PM my time, even later if I called Hawaii and Alaska.

Don't buy the excuse that it's Thanksgiving and no one is in the mood to think about investing. If you have a great bond or preferred AND YOU'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT, you'll come across the phone that way and you'll open some accounts, guaranteed; I don't care if it's Christman Eve! People are always thnking about money. And if you can present a good investment idea, they will put you at the top of their priority list.

Can't find any bonds with attractive rates or preferreds with high dividends? Try "affinity-type" investments. These are investments that might have a special meaning to the prospect you're calling. For example, when cold calling Phoenix, an Arizona Cardinal fan might want to buy some muni-bonds whose proceeds are used to fix-up the stadium or call Seattle with some Boeing bonds. You get the picture. Check your bond inventory for blocks of "affinity-type" bonds and cold call the area that might have an interest in them.

Caution: When you've made a sale (especially a long-distance sale), don't drop the ticket until you've got the funds in hand. Get the prospect to wire or overnight the funds.

Good luck, work hard, and ask for the sale!

We are all very lucky to be an industry where your income increases over time where as your work load and stress decrease in that same amount of time. Think about it...

Take a bank job for instance. Say you start young as a part-time teller. Over the years you move up in ranks to customer service, banker, and then eventually manager. Sure your income increases somewhat, but so does your stress and work load. The hardest part of this business is getting started. If you can be in that 10% that actually makes it and succeeds, the fruit of your labor in the first 3 or 4 years will pay off. You will get out of this business what you put into it.