Edward Jones Article WSJ
64 RepliesJump to last post
I feel ripped off, I just went to KYC on 1/5, and my ATL left out both the golf ball trick and the dog whisperer training. Mickey’s eased the pain, but their seasonal brew kicked the bejesus out of my intestinal tract.
That's actually pretty much what I did "hey I'm a Financial Advisor starting a practice here locally and wanted to introduce myself, do you already work with someone." I agree, the goofy "you're garden is great" stuff screams of pathetic. I guess when i went out introducing myself, I was just myself, and I generally like people. So I was not "faking" kindness or sincerity. But even in my past career, I was the same way. Treated people with respect. This was sort of a dumb thread.You would be correct. See…you act like everyone you doorknock are dumbasses and can’t see through why your there. Instead of training on coming up with bullshit conversation, why don’t you try to be upfront and say…hey I’m a Financial Advisor starting a practice here locally and wanted to introduce myself, do you already work with someone. Instead…its "hey I see you have some palm trees in your yard…wow you do a great job with that wonderful looking tree. You must be a master gardener…oh really…oh by the way…CAN I SEE YOUR STATEMENTS SO I CAN RUN A HYPO WITH ANY DATES I WANT TO MAKE SURE IT LOOKS BETTER THAN YOUR INVESTMENTS…PLEASE…PRETTY PLEASE…and then I can sell you out of them and buy A shares in American funds…please…please…the months about up and I don’t have shit on the books.
OK, great. Good for you. Now, just think what that biz might have been had you not had this ridiculous notion that doorknocking is rude, slimy, and smelling of desperation. What's desperate about ringing someone's doorbell and asking them to do biz with you? Is it any more slimy than calling them on the phone and asking the same question? Is it different to walk into a business and ask the same question? How about the guy sitting next to you at your kid's soccer game. Is it slimy to hand him your business card and offer a review of his investments? How about the fishbowl at the local mexican restaurant? That slimy too? My impression was to get prospects no matter what. A new client is a new client. You know what I find interesting about doorknocking vs. cold calling. No caller ID. No DNC lists. Fresh air. Excercise. Looking people in the eye rather than at my computer screen. I can't wait until it's more than 30 degrees around here. All this talk about doorknocking reminds me that I haven't done it in a while. My last doorknocking day landed me two new clients worth over a million. Only 10 more days like that this year and I've hit my AUM goals. And the answer to your last question...until they tell you to drop dead or until they say yes.As I’ve stated before I grew a 2.5mil business to a 34mil bus in 5 years and IT WASN’T FREAKIN DOORKNOCKING…I DON’T DOORKNOCK…its rude…its slimy…its smells of desperation…I didn’t doorknock when I was there…I took names out of a phone book and put in bogus bullshit to get by the training. I was the 7th jones guy to blow through my old office…give me a break…how many times do you need to bother someone and feed them the same lame line.
Great for you..I counter your desperation walking with a courtesy call from a local attorneys' secretary last week. She wanted to let me know they gave the son of a deceased client my card. He called Tuesday to set an appt. I get me excercise by running and clients by referrals. NEVER EVER happened when I was at Jones...NEVER. It may be one business owner trying to help another...who knows and who cares. I guess if I was a client of yours and I was driving around during market hours and there you are walking down the street...I would have to wonder...business must be bad.
It wasn’t desparation knocking. It was just too nice a day to sit at my desk. Hard to beat 75 and sunny with low humidity in August. It was either golf or doorknock.
Actually, I run into clients fairly often when I doorknock. I'll go back to some of the neighborhoods where I've created clients before and assume I can do it again. I've never had a negative statement from any of them. They're always glad to see me. They're also glad to stand on their front porch and tell me which of their neighbors I should go see first. Now, again, just imagine what your biz could be right now if you took just 4 hours a week and went to the wealthiest neighborhood in your town and personally put your biz card in the hands of all of those folks. I promise you that you'd see more new clients coming in than you would if you just sit on your butt and wait for that attorney's next referral. BTW, Jones will tell you that after a while, the way you're doing it is absolutely the best way to get new clients. But you have to get to the point where there are enough things like that to be able to make it long term before you can stop actively pursuing clients. I've known several Jones folks who have never doorknocked before and made it. But I know a lot more who will tell you that they survived BECAUSE they weren't afraid to go doorknocking.OK – I have lived in two exclusive areas of a metro area w/ a pop of about 2 million, $1 million houses, $150k of toys in the garages, and I have never had an EDJones person come knocking – not that I care, but the fuckin mormon missionaries do a much better job of harassing people…
You can come shovel my driveway... Did inform Jones that you had an outside job during business hours, running a snow removal service?[quote=bspears]Spiff…are you saying Alm was telling a lie when he stated 60% washout in the first 6months? Are you privey to the numbers? After reading the link, I just shook my head in disgust…what a horrible way to make a living…and the poor sole keeps hounding those people…basically begging them to do business. I guess if I was unemployed, a few months on EDJ’s dollar wouldn’t be to bad until I got a new gig. Sucks in this weather though…[/quote]
Spears…you’ve been away for a while now. It’s time to let go of the whole bitter anger thing. Really.
All of us had to “beat the streets” in some form or another to get our start, whether we were with Jones or not.
Hell, I’ll give the guy shoveling sidewalks a lot of credit if that’s what it took to get their statements and get them talking about the nitty gritty of their finances. Like Nick Murray says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
How long can it take to shovel someone’s sidewalk? 15 minutes? That’s probably a lot more productive than cold calling in this environment. 25 cold calls and maybe you get one contact who says you can send your card and call back again in a few weeks to share an idea and learn a little more about them…or shovel a sidewalk and walk away with copies of their statements…I think I’d put on my boots and go shoveling if I thought I could make that work.
You can shovel my driveway... I hope you told Jones you have an outside job that you are doing during business hours.... They will fire you if you don't.[quote=bspears]Spiff…are you saying Alm was telling a lie when he stated 60% washout in the first 6months? Are you privey to the numbers? After reading the link, I just shook my head in disgust…what a horrible way to make a living…and the poor sole keeps hounding those people…basically begging them to do business. I guess if I was unemployed, a few months on EDJ’s dollar wouldn’t be to bad until I got a new gig. Sucks in this weather though…[/quote]
Spears…you’ve been away for a while now. It’s time to let go of the whole bitter anger thing. Really.
All of us had to “beat the streets” in some form or another to get our start, whether we were with Jones or not.
Hell, I’ll give the guy shoveling sidewalks a lot of credit if that’s what it took to get their statements and get them talking about the nitty gritty of their finances. Like Nick Murray says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
How long can it take to shovel someone’s sidewalk? 15 minutes? That’s probably a lot more productive than cold calling in this environment. 25 cold calls and maybe you get one contact who says you can send your card and call back again in a few weeks to share an idea and learn a little more about them…or shovel a sidewalk and walk away with copies of their statements…I think I’d put on my boots and go shoveling if I thought I could make that work.
[quote=Spaceman Spiff]It wasn’t desparation knocking. It was just too nice a day to sit at my desk. Hard to beat 75 and sunny with low humidity in August. It was either golf or doorknock.
Actually, I run into clients fairly often when I doorknock. I'll go back to some of the neighborhoods where I've created clients before and assume I can do it again. I've never had a negative statement from any of them. They're always glad to see me. They're also glad to stand on their front porch and tell me which of their neighbors I should go see first. Now, again, just imagine what your biz could be right now if you took just 4 hours a week and went to the wealthiest neighborhood in your town and personally put your biz card in the hands of all of those folks. I promise you that you'd see more new clients coming in than you would if you just sit on your butt and wait for that attorney's next referral. BTW, Jones will tell you that after a while, the way you're doing it is absolutely the best way to get new clients. But you have to get to the point where there are enough things like that to be able to make it long term before you can stop actively pursuing clients. I've known several Jones folks who have never doorknocked before and made it. But I know a lot more who will tell you that they survived BECAUSE they weren't afraid to go doorknocking. [/quote] It doesn't look like desperation when the market is open and you are knocking on doors? People know...the Jones model "Buy and Forget and pick up my 25bps, til I have a bad month, then flip them into different fund families, A shares of course... Still have that BUY rating on Citi (we need them to give us bonds if they ever comeback) and Bank of America(It's a core in the model portfolio we can't take it out, cause that means we might be wrong about the rest of it too).. Sorry talked an old Jones broker from my old region today, he told me about 6 reps who are about to go on goals and get fired... Those guys were the same ones that the RL was glorifying at the last summer regional I was at..."These guys know how the business works"..Same story here. I've lived in two pretty well off neighborhoods and a Jones person has never knocked on my door. Which is why I believe them when they say the market is not saturated even though there's a Jones rep every every coupla miles on the company map.I have never had an EDJones person come knocking – not that I care, but the fuckin mormon missionaries do a much better job of harassing people…
Actually I’ve never had a Jones guy knock on my door either.
Squash - what does the market being open have to do with anything. I've never really understood that. 90% of the business I do isn't timing sensitive. So, I don't really care if the market is open or not when I'm trying to find new people to talk to. And in my opinion doorknocking NEVER looks like desperation. These "people" you mention who know how the Jones model works, are they clients? Or are they advisors (like yourself) who used to be with Jones and are now telling people the way the Jones model works so that they can start that wedge driving between clients and advisors? I would say that the majority of "people" out there couldn't tell the difference between the the MER model, the Jones model, or the local indy guy model if they were looking at the statements. The "people" don't know the difference between an A share or a C share or a LW A share in a wrap account. They don't know about trails, or revenue sharing, or any of the other things that go on in our industry. I think you're giving the "people" way too much credit for being intelligent. We've got some vets in our region that are just flat struggling right now. And of those guys in your old region are seg 2 or 3, they're the most vunerable. I had a conversation a few weeks ago with someone from the training area and he said that Jones isn't pulling any punches these days. You get to 40% of standard and you go on goals. That happens and it's pretty much over. So, if you were coasting at or above the bare minimum chances are you're struggling right now. And it doesn't take very long to get down to that 40% number. It takes a long time to get up to the bogeys to keep your office. That's not just a Jones thing right now. It's industry wide. Just look at all the posts on this board about pikers in the office who should have been gone a while ago. Our industry is going to contract. It's inevitable. Jones isn't and shouldn't be immune to it.I think you are right, but that's not what they are saying. The plan is to still to grow 9 or 10 percent every year, no matter what the economic or market conditions. How are they going to do that with the rising number of FAs on goals? Like you said, those FAs are gone. We're going to wind up with a firm with half our FAs being out one to three years. We can't be profitable that way, and it will put pressure on the vets to leave., Our industry is going to contract. It’s inevitable. Jones isn’t and shouldn’t be immune to it.
Half of them ARE out like 1 to 3 years. Do this…look at your Branch Footings. Look at where you are in the ranking of AUM. It will shock you. I’m only a few years in, and am ahead of like 4,000 other FA’s.
Jones will always have the conundrum of too many new reps because of the growth montra. It has always been a numbers game to them. Spiff- Do you remember the grid they used to show us that showed how the numbers of reps were exponential as they seasoned. That conversation was to bait us into believing that firm would be so wildly profitable that they would actually share some of the profits with us. Is the bonus bracket still at 0?
The flaw in that concept is apparent with so many reps that are constantly being pumped through the pipeline. If anyone can be better than 40% of reps in AUM after a few years, clearly the bar has been dropping. Now if they concentrate on the health of the sales force and focus on supporting what they have, (read very carefully Spiff) I believe that Jones will corner the smaller market over time. No one wants it, whether its clients or b/d's.Health and wealth of the sales force. A novel idea. Which is why it has never been tried. It makes too much sense.
I agree with you, I think. Jones does a poor job of supporting what they have. Sure we have Segment leaders in our regions, but the vast majority of them are just looking for their next round of LP and couldn’t give a rip about helping the struggling folks succeed. There isn’t anyone in the firm whose only job is to help a guy who has been out for a while, but just not hitting seg 4 numbers, get to that point. Another FA isn’t going to do it. They’re too focused on their own numbers. The training folks are good, but only to a certain extent. The area teams are fine for what they do, which is mostly manage those people who are on goals. I think I’ve heard from my area person once in the last 2 years. And I think I called her.
I'm in a region of over 60 people. 20 of those 60+ are out under two years. We've got 16 people in our region who are below expectations. Two of those are vets who have been out for 10+ years. And instead of sitting down with those vets who aren't healthy and trying to either A) fix the problems or B) suggest an exit strategy we just keep hiring more people. We've got new people stepping all over each other trying to doorknock with 5 or 6 more new trainees studying right now. And as I was reading Jim Weddle's note to the firm this morning on cost cutting measures I couldn't help but chuckle that they're willing to put a cap on home office staff and hiring there, but not on hiring new FAs. I find it interesting, and somewhat troubling, that they would take a guy who has been out for say 5 years who's business is struggling (read not making the firm any money), put him on goals, and then replace him with a new guy straight from Eval/Grad. Seems to me a better way would be to spend a fraction of the money you would spend on hiring, training, and paying the new FA on the existing FA to see if you can get him profitable. Unless he is absolutely a lost cause it would be money well spent. Seems you've hit one of my hot buttons.This is a problem for ALL firms not just Jones. For some reason the powers that be see someone struggling and they just say they're not cut out for the job. Instead of looking for ways to truly help them.
[quote=jkl1v1n6]
This is a problem for ALL firms not just Jones. For some reason the powers that be see someone struggling and they just say they're not cut out for the job. Instead of looking for ways to truly help them.
[/quote] I agree. Wouldn't it be easier to send over some assets to those that are struggling but have stayed 3 years than to risk thsoe assets on another GK plan and another newbie??It's funny you should say that because I was just thinking the same thing. I had my final interview with EJ last week (I think it went very well) and the interviewer pulled out the income per annum visual aid, saying that at my fifth year I should be earning over $100k per year. I mentioned that I read a recent WSJ article that quoted the company as saying the average EJ FA makes $65,000 a year. He replied, "Oh well, sure. That's because half of the FAs aren't even passed their third year." For a company that's 90 years old? All that tells me is that the company experiences tremendous, bordering on ridiculous, turnover. Why not hire half as many trainees and give them twice as much support? Surely the company would be better represented by fewer, well seasoned professionals than by twice as many starving, surly, despondent newbies. Fr'instance, take the company's top ten doorknocking legends and pay them $200k per year to go out and actually doorknock with the newbies. Have them mentor and monitor them. Have them go out as much as is necessary with each and every one. Think of how much money it would save the company, which supposedly spends $100,000 per new trainee (a preposterous figure imo).I agree with you, I think. Jones does a poor job of supporting what they have. … I find it interesting, and somewhat troubling, that they would take a guy who has been out for say 5 years who’s business is struggling (read not making the firm any money), put him on goals, and then replace him with a new guy straight from Eval/Grad. Seems to me a better way would be to spend a fraction of the money you would spend on hiring, training, and paying the new FA on the existing FA to see if you can get him profitable.