the disciplined prospector

A Bill Good Marketing White Paper

This White Paper covers various topics on prospecting from Bill’s Research Magazine articles including:

→ What a Disciplined Prospector Is

→ How to Achieve the “Thousand Dollar Hour”

→ How to Penetrate the “Impenetrable” Voicemail

→ Finding Direct Mail Success

→ What Bill Would Do If He Were Your Sales Manager

→ When the Best Time to Prospect Is

By Bill Good,

Chairman

Bill Good Marketing, Inc.

The Disciplined Prospector

Articles on Prospecting from Research Magazine

1990-2010

Bill Good Marketing®

The Disciplined Prospector 2

Table of Contents

What is a Disciplined Prospector? ......................................................3

Do Something Every Day......................................................................4

The Thousand Dollar Hour ...................................................................6

The Greatest is Still the Greatest.........................................................9

Cherry Balm .........................................................................................18

Mission Impenetrable-Getting a Voice Instead of Voice Mail .........22

Sell More by Selling Less ...................................................................25

The Search for Gold ............................................................................29

Direct Mail Success is a Snap with Pre-fab Parts ............................32

Time to Dust Off Your Sales Pipeline................................................37

Making a Good First Impression........................................................41

If I Were Your Sales Manager .............................................................45

The Best Time to Prospect .................................................................49

More Information .................................................................................52


What is a Disciplined Prospector?

To answer my own question, it’s someone who prospects every day.

Every day do something. Some days do a lot.

In the pages that follow, I have listed 12 things you can do. Some of them will take many days to complete. Others can be done in a day or two.

For each step, I have provided an article I wrote on that topic.

The only changes we’ve made is to get rid of terms like “RR” and “broker.” They don’t exist any more. They are replaced by the current term, “Financial Advisor.”

As you read, you will notice a few things that seem out of place. But I must tell you, most of the articles in this booklet are timeless.

“Build It and They Will Come”

The actual quote from “Field of Dreams” is, “If you build it, he will come.”

We’ll go with the mis‐quote in the title of this section: Build it and they (your prospects) will come.

As you go through these steps, you will see a focus on building systems to support prospecting. I was surprised myself when I reviewed 240 articles to find such a focus.

Quite frankly, I was and am right.

If you put the systems in place to support prospecting, you will do the work.

But if you do the work without the systems, the work will stop and you will have the administrative equivalent of a cat’s hair ball.

So just chip away. Every day do something. Some days do a lot.


Do Something Every Day

Decide whether now is a good time to prospect. Read “The Best Time to Prospect,” (9)

Create at least one hour a day for prospecting. Read “The Thousand Dollar Hour.” You can do this without a team. But give serious thought to buying selling time. (Page 6)

Develop a script for cold calling. Read “The Greatest is Still the Greatest.” Adapt one of the versions to something you would like to offer business owners. (Page 9)

Read “Cherry Balm.” Make sure you totally understand the “cherries and pits” concept. (Page 18)

Develop ten names to call at corporations. “Mission Impenetrable‐Getting a Voice Instead of Voice Mail” (Oct 1996) explains how to get through the corporate screen. But to do that you need a list. Read this article and then develop ten names to call. (Page 22)

Get an appointment with somebody other than a good client. It can be a small client you haven’t spoken to in a while, a prospect who has been in your pipeline for a while, a client who left you. Study carefully “Sell More by Selling Less.” Apply what you learned when you fill the appointment. (Page 25)

Go to the public library and ask someone in the business section to review with you the lists they have available both electronically and in hard copy. Whether you are going to do seminars, cold calling, or direct mail, you need a good list. To understand exactly what you are looking for, read “The Search for Gold.” (Page 29)

Write a direct mail letter. Send it to 25 business owners or corporate executives. Follow it with a phone call. To help you write that letter, read and apply, “Direct Mail Success is a Snap with Pre‐fab Parts.” (Page 32)

Get organized. This means you need a way to track the different grades of prospect in your pipeline. “Time to Dust Off Your Sales Pipeline” will show you a system for tracking everything in your pipeline. You either need to create a


way to track your leads in your database or you need a paper‐based system. Quite frankly, if you do not have any help, I recommend you buy a 4x6 card file system. You need a card box, 4x6 cards, a Jan‐Dec file and a 1‐31 file. Believe it or not, it’s still a great contact management system. (Page 37)

Enhance the impression your prospects receive when they walk in your office. When you read “Making a Good First Impression,” you will see that you don’t get just one chance to make a good first impression, you get five. Take a look at the impressions your prospects and clients receive and do something today to make them better. (Page 41)

Talk to 25 people today. Our slogan is: “Do something every day. Some days do a lot.” Set aside four hours. Get a list of at least 250 business owners. If you don’t have such a list, call CIS Marketing, 800‐547‐LIST. Order a list of 1000 names. You can have it in a few minutes. Before you call, read “If I Were Your Sales Manager.” Get all of the pieces together. You‘ll find this on page 45.

Call ten clients and promote referrals. You really need to understand what I just said. So read “Referrals Happen.” It’s one of the other downloads you can get at www.billgood.com/bestofbillgood. For additional information, go to www.billgood.com/real_referrals. When you arrive at that page, download “Creating a Referral Consciousness.” This contains a referral conversation that promotes referrals.


The Thousand Dollar Hour

May 1994

In my opinion, once you know the industry, your products, and basic sales techniques, the thing that contributes most to your production is selling time. A series of studies I did in 1984‐85 that were reconfirmed in 1990 demonstrated that the average producer in the $250,000 range and up is worth $1,000 an hour in gross revenue to the firm. This may sound startling, unusual, amazing and unbelievable, but itʹs also very true.

To put it another way, this $250,000 producer only spends about an hour each day in pure selling time. This really does mean what it says‐‐one hour a day in actual prospect and client contact.

Where does the rest of the time go? Half of it goes into service. The remainder of it goes into a combination of prospecting activities‐‐especially dialing and waiting. In the various studies I have done, dialing and waiting may amount to as much as two hours out of a single day; a producer making heavy outcalls will spend at least that during any four‐hour calling period.

Is There a Solution?

So whatʹs the solution for increasing sales time? Suppose I told you that for $100 a week you could triple your sales time. Would you be interested? Some of you obviously would; others would not. For those of you who would, read on.

If you were to hire someone for four hours a day whose sole function would be to get people to the phone for you, your selling time would increase from one hour to at least three hours.

With the meter running, so to speak, you would have to find something for this person to do. You might give them a list of all the Jones in the White Pages and say, ʺHere, call these people and ask them if theyʹd like to talk to me about investments.ʺ

And believe it or not, your ʺconnectorʺ would get you a few people every morning that you could talk to, increasing your selling time. Furthermore, if youʹd let your ʺconnectorʺ go after all those people who are hard to get a hold of,


proclaiming the instruction, ʺThey can run, but they canʹt hide,ʺ youʹd add still more selling time.

After doing these two things, you would get a good idea whether this ʺconnectorʺ is the right person for you. If not, delete and reorganize. If so, add in the single most powerful leverage tool youʹll ever use: the telephone appointment.

Consider This

Thereʹs a company I know (mine) that has a very difficult time making contact with its clients and prospects. They (clients and prospects) are busy, successful, and normally in meetings or on phone calls.

In my company, we monitor time spent on the phone with every lead‐qualifying person and every salesperson. By making one simple addition to our staff‐‐‐an appointment setter for lead qualification‐‐we have very nearly tripled our lead‐qualifying time on the phone, and that has resulted in an enormous surge in sales.

The single most important determinant is time spent in front of interested, qualified prospects. This is not something I conjured up from thin air. It is something I have witnessed and implemented in my own company.

Every minute that my salespeople are dialing and waiting, money is poured down the chute at the rate of $1,200 an hour. We track this statistic very carefully, and I have no question in my mind that this is correct.

The Chicken

One of my very famous and shortest lectures is just two words: the chicken. Those two words answer an ancient philosophical question, ʺWhich came first, the chicken or the egg?ʺ Various philosophers have postulated answers to this question. The ancient Greek, Heraclitus, said, ʺIt was a chicken, and in a related development, the egg.ʺ The Eastern sage, Attila the Hun said, ʺIt was the larger of the two that determined which came first.ʺ But the Southern seer‐‐now living on a mountaintop in Utah‐‐issued his pronouncement with a slight smile, ʺThe chicken.ʺ

Put the chicken in place before you get the egg. Donʹt think for a minute, a millisecond, or even an instant that you can ratchet yourself off a plateau by


sheer hard work alone. Once you get stuck, thatʹs it for you unless you put the chicken in place. If you say, ʺI canʹt afford a caller at my present production level so Iʹll have to ratchet on up, then I can do it,ʺ my answer will be, ʺThe chicken comes first.ʺ Go get a cash advance on your credit card and hire someone from eight to noon. Get your service assistant to tell all of your clients that youʹll call them back in the afternoon except those who want to buy something now. You can very nearly triple your selling time over a period of months. That will increase your income way beyond the amount necessary to support your new team.

A Look at Organization

If you read my column last month, you know that you should be building a team. Even if youʹre computerized and have adequate service support, you still need to carve out a block of four hours in the morning to sell. The most successful way youʹll be able to do that is to get someone to bring your prospects and clients to the phone for you. Tough problem. Simple solution. Go for it.


The Greatest is Still the Greatest

June 1991

If you will recall, two cold‐calling scripts were published in my February Research magazine article. I claimed one was the greatest ever, and offered the other as a candidate for the second greatest. Then I asked people to test them both and send me the results,

Well, the news is that the ʺgreatestʺ is still the greatest.

Hereʹs how it worked out: Three people tested the ʺgreatestʺ for a total of eight hours. Among them, they made 212 contacts, producing 18 Cherries and 31 Green Cherries. This means that they averaged 2.25 Cherries and 3.8 Green Cherries per hour, for a total of approximately six leads per hour. (As my regular readers know, a Cherry is someone with interest and money now, and a Green Cherry has funds due at a known future date.)

Five people tested the candidate for second‐greatest script. They called a total of 19 ½ hours, made 249 contacts, produced 17 Cherries and 37 Green Cherries. That averages out to .97 Cherries and 1.9 Green Cherries per hour, or nearly three leads per hour.

In one respect, however, these numbers are misleading, because those testing the greatest script had more than twice as many contacts per hour (26.5) as those using the candidate for second‐greatest (12.75). Nevertheless, it took only 11.8 contacts with the greatest script to produce a Cherry, but 14.6 contacts to produce one using the candidate for second‐greatest.

(Note: Itʹs possible that those who chose to use the greatest script had been trained by me, and therefore really knew how to crank out the calls; but thatʹs only speculation.)

Now, this is all very well and good; but the key thing to understand is not which script produces the most leads, but which produces the most sales! If there is a single trap in marketing it is evaluating a campaign by number of leads produced; you must evaluate by the number of sales. On that, more data is needed.


More Cold-Calling Scripts

The scripts that follow are yet more from advisors around the country who have submitted their best efforts. For the most part, Iʹve only included scripts that average three Cherries and/or a total of about five leads (Cherries and Green Cherries) per hour. If your current cold‐calling method isnʹt producing that, try one of these scripts.

(For those who need a little help with the numbers: The ʺCherries, per Hour, Contacts perʺ item gives the raw number of Cherries, followed by the Cherries per hour, followed by the number of contacts required to produce one Cherry. The more Cherries per hour and the fewer contacts per Cherry, the better.)

A Script that Opens Accounts

Hereʹs a script that opened 17 accounts for SH:

Hi, this is SH with (FIRM). My firm is currently holding a block of ______ preferred shares that are priced to yield 8 ¼ percent.

Considering that bank (CD) rates are down to 6 ¾ percent, M/M______, and my firmʹs preferred shares are limited, would you be interested?

By way of a little background here, SH reminded me that it was he and KB who set off Cold‐Call Mania, a contest I ran in 1987 to determine who could make the most dials in a 24‐hour period. They each did a shade over 1,000 dials and announced themselves to be the world‐champion dialers. But they were blown away by a chap in California who finally captured the world record with 2300 dials in a 24‐hour period.

Free Booklet

Time: 3 hours

Dials, per Hour: 191, 63.7

Spoke to: 45 people

Cherries, per Hour. Contacts per: 10, 3.3, 4.5

Green Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 8, 2.7, 5.6


Appointments: 1

M/M _______, Iʹm________ with (FIRM in (City). How are you today?

The reason Iʹm calling is that our firm has [just] come out with an excellent booklet called Taxes, an Investorʹs Guide (USE OWN FIRMʹS TITLE), and Iʹd like to know if I may mail one to you.

If No: Thankyouverymuch.

If Yes: Fine. What address should I mail it to? (RESPONSE) To give you an idea of whatʹs in the booklet, it discusses how we can get you higher rates of return on your investments in addition to reducing your taxes. If we found an appropriate idea, one you liked, would a $20,000 investment be a problem for you at this time?

No Problem: Fine. Iʹll put this in the mail for you today and check back in a week for your thoughts and interest.

$$$ Problem: When would you be in a position to consider an investment like this?

Retiree

(Non‐Threatening Script)

Time: 2 hours

Dials, per Hour: 120, 60

Spoke to: 44 people

Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 5, 2.5, 8.8


Appointments: 3

Accounts Opened: 0


Advisor Comment: ʺThis script is aimed at retirees within an office location. They all have a CD, and are extremely conservative and fearful, over the phone, of an advisor trying to steal their money.ʺ

Good morning, M/M_________, this is ________ from (FIRM). Iʹm calling to let you know that we have a savings account that pays over 7 percent. (PAUSE) Will your CD be coming due soon? (PAUSE)

Government Securities

Time: 2 hours


Spoke to: 30 people

Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 6, 3, 5

Green Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 4, 2, 7.5

Appointments: 2

Accounts Opened: 2

May I speak with M/M _______please?

Very good. M/M______, this is (NAME) with (FIRM). Are you familiar with our company?

If No: Weʹre the________. Does that ring a bell?

M/M_______, Iʹm calling you today because interest rates on bank CDs and IRAs are falling. My firm is able to help those people who re‐invest their interest receive returns as high as 9 ½ percent. Is this of any interest to you?

Basically, we use a Government Securities Trust that has the safety of the U.S. Government behind it, and produces returns nearly 25 percent above the banks and credit unions. May I send you some information on it?

Tax-Free Bond

Time: 2 hours



Spoke to: 18 people

Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 4, 2, 4.5


Appointments: 1

This is (NAME) with (FIRM). How are you?

I realize youʹre busy, so I will be very brief. The reason for my call is that we just brought in a new issue of tax‐free bonds. And today I wanted, more than anything else, just to see if tax‐free income was an area of interest for you.

If Yes: Great, Iʹm sure I can be of service to you.

When you invest in bonds, are you more interested in high coupons for current income, or do you prefer discounted bonds for appreciation?

And what maturities do you feel most comfortable with?

Is there any minimum rating that you require?

Are there any other geographical areas outside of (STATE) that you would consider?

What was the last bond you bought?ʺ

If No: Well, M/M_______, I find that most of my clients in the 28 percent tax bracket find some great advantages to tax‐free bonds over CDs and other taxable investments. Does that situation apply to you?

If Yes: I see. Well, M/M________, tax‐free bonds remain one of the few investments a person can use to reduce his taxable income, and are available in increments of 5m. If this sounds appealing to you, I would be glad to send you a brochure that fully describes the advantages of tax‐flee bends.

If No: Who do you know that might benefit from a tax‐free investment? Where are your IRAs currently invested? What other types of investments have worked


well for you? (RESPONSE) I look forward to speaking with you next time I have an investment that would be appropriate. Is that reasonable?

Managed-Money Appointment

Time: 3 hours


Spoke to: 28 people

Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 9, 3, 3.1

Green Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 14, 4.7, 2

Appointments: 3

M/M_______, my name is________ with Managed Account Services at (FIRM). Throughout the country, we have helped a lot of clients make money with professional money management. Next week, on Thursday, Iʹll be outside the office visiting and I would like to come by your office and introduce myself. Iʹll only need about 12 minutes of your time.

Annuity Version of "The Greatest"

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes


Spoke to: 22 people


Green Cherries, per Hour, Contacts per: 2, 1.6, 11

Appointments: 1

Accounts Opened: 1

May I please speak with M/M________? M/M _______, my name is ________ and Iʹm calling from (FIRM) here in (CITY). You are familiar with our firm, arenʹt you?


If No: Weʹre the ________.

Weʹve recently put together some important information on whatʹs called a tax‐deferred annuity. Have you ever heard of one of these before?

Yes/No: Well, basically (as you know), itʹs a guaranteed, bank CD‐type investment on which you pay no current taxes. This investment is well suited for people who have retirement money in banks, and are looking for complete safety and high rates, but do not like paying current taxes on their interest. May I send you some information on this?

If No: Thank you for your time.

If Yes: Great. Weʹll get that out to you right away. Would you have a chance to look it over by (DAY)? (About a week or so later than mailing date.) (RESPONSE) If you do like the idea, would an investment of $20,000 be a problem at this time?

No Problem: Just one more question and Iʹll let you go. In case I canʹt reach you during the evening, how may I reach you during the day? (RESPONSE) And I have your address shown as (ADDRESS) is that correct? Thank you very much.

$$$ Problem: Is this just a temporary situation, or do you expect to have some funds due in the next three to six months? (RESPONSE) Suppose we mail out this information, and I get back to you in a few months (or‐ whenever they have funds coming)?

If Wife Answers: Is this Mrs._______? Mrs. ________, my name is (NAME) and Iʹm with (FIRM) here in (CITY). Tell me, maʹam, do you take care of the investment decisions for your family?

Insured CD Alternative

Time: 2 hours


Spoke to: 20 people




Appointments: 1

Accounts Opened: 1

Advisor Comment: ʺIn prospecting, I generally call retirement communities.ʺ Hello, M/M.________. This is _________ with (FIRM). I just wanted to call today and let you know that this morning we came out with a very good rate on an insured investment. This rate is currently beating the bank CDs and Money Market rates. Would you be interested in locking in on a good rate right now?

Advisor Comment: ʺThen I shut up and listen. People seem to tell you everything if you let them talk.ʺ

A Lawrence Welk Script

Time: 21/2 hours


Spoke to: 37 people



Appointments: 1

Advisor Comment: ʺI call this my ʹLawrence Welk Scriptʹ‐very soft and easy to listen to.ʺ

Hello, M/M_______. My name is__________, and I work here in (CITY) with the firm of (FIRM). Iʹm not calling to sell you anything this time, but to offer to send you some information on our U.S. Government Bond Fund.

Simply, this is a portfolio of securities that are all backed by our government. (Currently, the Fund has an annual distribution rate of ___ percent). We feel that this is an excellent alternative to CDs because of the low interest rates. If you are an investor or you have an IRA account, M/M __________, I would like to send this out to you today!


Local Tax-Free Bond

Time: 3 hours


Spoke to: 22 people



Appointments: 1

Accounts Opened: 1

Hello, M/M_______. This is _________with (FIRM). The reason I am calling is to mention an attractive local tax‐free bond that we now have available for a limited time, which will pay you a CD‐equivalent yield of l0 percent. Would this interest you?

Advisor Comment: ʺAnswer objections with the goal of finding out when money is coming due or who they know that may be interested.ʺ


Cherry Balm

June 1995

UNTIL 1980, a typical prospecting call in this industry went like this:

Broker: Dr Jones, this is Joe Dokes with Ditchwater Securities...

Jones: I wouldnʹt be interested.

Broker: I understand. If you had been interested, you would probably have called me, right?

(Ha Ha.)

Jones: I doubt it. But Iʹm still not interested.

Broker: In what?

Jones: In whatever youʹre selling.

Broker: (Now what was I supposed to say for the third not‐interested objection? Oh, I remember.) Well, what exactly appears to be the problem?

Jones: You. (Click. Dial tone.)

Broker: (Sigh.)

That is exactly what I set out to get rid of. I called it ʺthe old school.ʺ It was based on the theory that all buyers are liars; that if you persist long enough, a ʺnoʺ will turn into a ʺmaybeʺ that will evolve into an enthusiastic customer.

There is not a person reading this article who hasnʹt run into the old school, whether itʹs the tapes of J. Douglas Edwards who said, ʺHalf your sales are made after the prospect has said no six timesʺ or some yokel I encountered who used to preach, ʺDonʹt believe the prospect until he or she has said no 27 times.ʺ

While the old school is not by any means dead, it is more or less common knowledge today that if you are going to be prospecting by phone, the way to do it is the ʺcherries‐and‐pitsʺ method. While there have obviously been many


changes in the industry and in society over the last 15 years, the core truths of the cherries‐and‐pits method of prospecting survive intact. So letʹs review those core truths and see how they apply in the 21st Century, which as far as I am concerned, is here now.

Basic Prospecting Truths

1. A ʺcherryʺ is anyone who is interested and qualified right now. To find out if someone is interested and qualified, just ask them. This ainʹt rocket science.

2. A ʺgreen cherryʺ is anyone who is interested but wonʹt have funds due until a known later date. Properly cultivated ʺgreeniesʺ will be better prospects over the long run than cherries you get right now.

3. A ʺpitʺ is anyone not interested and unqualified. Advisors untrained in this method spend the vast majority of their prospecting time doing what I call ʺpit polishing.ʺ

4. The prospecting call must be an entirely separate call from the selling call. To put it another way, for the most part it is an absolute, colossal waste of time to attempt to sell on the first call. Yes, there are a few people who can get up in the morning, gobble a bowl of rusty nails for breakfast, and go sell preferred stock on first calls. But they donʹt survive. No one can work like that for long, and customers who have shown themselves willing to buy on cold calls will also buy from other cold calls. He or she who lives by the first‐call sale will die by it.

5. It is also impossible to create interest on a phone call. When the prospect says, ʺIʹm not interested,ʺ do not think, ʺWhat s/he really means is...ʺ Believe the prospect, say ʺthank you very much,ʺ and disconnect.

6. When you find a good list, continue to re‐contact the list every six to eight weeks until the list is no longer profitable. Take a bad list, put it in an envelope, label it ʺHot Prospectsʺ and drop it in the elevator at your competitorʹs.

7. A good list is any list that will yield two to three cherries per hour.

8. The objective of the second call should be either to set up an in‐person appointment or make the person feel that you are safe to talk to. When you intend to sell entirely by phone, a sale should rarely be attempted before the third call.


9. The cherries‐and‐pits method absolutely requires 40 to 60 dials (attempts) per hour. Anything less is pit polishing.

The early tests on this method were run in 1979 and 1980 in the EF Hutton training boardroom in Los Angeles. As the system came together, we discovered that as long as the number of dials was in the 40 to 60 range, it was relatively easy to get three to five cherries per hour calling homes in the evening and two to three cherries an hour calling businesses in the day time.

While these numbers can still be done today, there is no question that it takes longer now to get the 20 to 30 cherries you need each week. I used to tell people they could prospect seven hours a week. No more. Itʹs a lot more than that because of answering machines, scandals in the industry, thousands of solicitors calling on entirely unrelated items, competition from discounters/no loaders/banks and insurance companies, and market upheavals. Even though itʹs harder, the reward at the end of the rainbow is possibly even bigger.

Letʹs say you are relatively new in the industry, or youʹre stuck somewhere below average. You want to get unstuck and move on up. Or maybe youʹre on a roll and want to keep going. Assuming youʹre not blessed with lots of family connections, hereʹs what you should do:

1. Find some good lists. More than ever before, the subject of list development and management is absolutely critical.

List building can start with a phone call to a list broker, but it must continue with a disciplined effort to find names of people who are new to the community, are in the process of change or have otherwise been overlooked.

2. Set aside at least 15 hours a week for cherries‐and‐pits prospecting. Fifteen hours a week means 15 hours a week spent making first calls. During these times, as far as your office receptionist is concerned, youʹre in a meeting.

3. Of these 15 hours a week, at least eight should be late afternoon, evening and preferably Saturday morning, which is the best time of all to prospect.

4. Whenever you find a lead, always ask, ʺIn case I canʹt get in touch with you during the day/evening, how can I reach you during the evening/day?ʺ This is the most important question you can ask. Failure to


ask it means that next week you will make call‐backs instead of prospecting.

5. Allow three to six months to fill your pipeline. At some point about three to six months down the road, you will open a slew of new accounts. This is the most dangerous time you will encounter, because you will think you have died and gone to heaven. And you will promptly quit making your first calls. And three to six months after you quit first calls, your pipeline will be as dry as a rock in the hot desert sun. Once again, you will have to roll that rock back up Prospectorʹs Hill.

6. As soon as you can possibly afford it, get some help. Start out with someone just getting people to the phone for you. Then, within the compliance regulations of your firm, let them make first calls for you. You should focus on selling, which is what you came into the industry to do in the first place.

Finally, there is one change in strategy I would recommend. One of my electronic correspondents, Sandor Sommer, wrote:

Is there perhaps such a thing as a cherry blossom, or is that a peach? I know that a cherry is interested and qualified, and that a greenie is interested and doesnʹt qualify now, but does in, say, four months. Well, what about the people who are interested, but may never have any money? Are these pits or what?

Good question. If you believe they will never have any money, theyʹre pits. But if there is some interest and you just canʹt pin them down, maybe they are worth a little effort to warm up to the point they can become cherries or greenies. Iʹve been calling them info leads, but I like cherry blossoms better.

When you get someone who seems genuinely interested but cannot be pinned down, warm them up with a couple of letters. Space these about every 10 days. About a week after the second letter, call back and requalify. Try and upgrade to cherry or greenie cherry. At this point, unless they specifically request to continue receiving information from you, I would discard them.

Ten years ago, I wouldnʹt have bothered with them. It was too easy to get red cherries. Now, depending on how hard it is to find red ones, I might well consider following up a little bit on cherry blossoms. But make sure you keep really good records. Otherwise, you might just end up pit polishing.


Mission Impenetrable-Getting a Voice Instead of Voice Mail Oct 1996

I have taken a peek into the future of daytime prospecting, and Iʹve brought back some good news and bad news.

The Leading Edge of Technology

These visions of the future came to me recently while I was promoting some ʺpublicʺ seminars, designed not only for people in the securities industry but for anyone who does direct selling and prospecting. Naturally, these seminars are titled ʺI Love to Prospect.ʺ

I started my road show in Silicon Valley, trying to showcase my wares for some of the areaʹs great high‐tech companies. Without question, these companies are the leading edge for computer technology, telephony, computer communications and so on. The systems they have now will be available to us all soon ‐‐ sooner than you might think.

In July, I promoted the first seminar heavily, mostly by direct mail, and we had a fairly good turnout of about 60 people. However, the representatives I most wanted in attendance didnʹt show up. It was time to bring in my heavy artillery.

I scheduled a second seminar for late August. For this one, we threw out all of the non‐producing lists, changed our ad, which produced only marginally, broadened the promotional region and rolled the dice again.

I also brought in an artillery piece I hadnʹt used for our first seminar: a man by the name of Conrad Romo. I trained Conrad in telephone sales 22 years ago when he was a pushy kid who wouldnʹt take ʺnoʺ for an answer. Back then, I didnʹt want to hire him because I was convinced he wouldnʹt make it. I thought he was too young, too dry, and a lot of other ʺtooʹs.ʺ From Conrad, I learned that, in hiring sales help, you should abandon all preconceptions. Heʹs one of the best telemarketers ever.

In attacking the high‐tech companies, Conrad and I both crashed into an almost impenetrable wall of voice mail. Itʹs not just the big companies that have it the


little companies do, too. The bosses have voice mail and so do their assistants. About the only receptionists who donʹt have voice mail are voice mail.

So to get to real people, we decided to emulate ʺMission: Impossibleʺ and get in through freight elevators and back doors.

We spent hours developing lists of exactly who we needed to call. As we became skilled on the Internet, we learned how to research specific companies and find the name of the person with whom we needed to speak. We also used CD‐ROM resources for our researching purposes. Then we began a series of tests.

Here are some lessons we learned:

If our initial research did not give us the exact name of the person to ask for, we could usually get the right name by calling a regional office or headquarters. We also found that if we got the name of the California district vice president from national headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, it gave us a leg up, when we called his office in San Jose, to say, ʺWell, at headquarters in Memphis they told us...ʺ

If there is a true ʺback doorʺ or ʺfreight elevatorʺ to a Silicon Valley company, it is asking to ʺspeak to someone in sales,ʺ Youʹll nearly always reach a human. Salespeople, like advisors, hate having their prospects land in voice mail. By asking to speak to someone in sales, we often were able to identify the right person to invite. This rule should hold true for businesses in general.

We were able to overcome a lot of sales resistance by stressing the fact that we were inviting people to something.

Itʹs critical to work with assistants. If the boss wonʹt call you back, the assistant might. You can use the assistant as a relay point to the boss. A number of attendees at our August seminar came because we developed a rapport with their assistants. We got our first opportunity to speak with the executives only when they showed up at the seminar.

Why Is All This Important?

It is estimated that on average workers will hold four to seven jobs in their lifetimes. Every time workers change jobs, their 401(k)s or other qualified plans become available. To find these mobile workers means corporate prospecting, which means you, too, must learn how to penetrate voice mail.


The difficulty we experienced in San Jose and the Bay Area with voice mail is not an anomaly. Itʹs whatʹs happening everywhere.

This last point brings me to my good news and my bad news.

The good news is that even the most apparently impermeable voice mail system can be cracked by a dedicated salesperson who uses the best available list research and is focused completely on the task.

The bad news? In a market like the one we encountered, that means your dedicated salesperson has to work full‐time. For our first seminar, I tried using other people from my staff. Although they are all good callers, they had many other responsibilities, so they blew off their calling tasks like drops of water on a hot skillet.

But there is more good news. Qualified buyers hiding behind impregnable screens have low sales resistance because they donʹt get much practice dealing with solicitation calls. Theyʹre like doctors, who are notoriously under solicited. Once you get past their all‐but‐impenetrable screens, theyʹre relatively easy to prospect.

Clearly, the telephone is not dead as a marketing medium ‐‐ not by a long shot. But, as Iʹve been preaching for some years, you need help. It takes a trained, dedicated full‐time salesperson to penetrate the technology that is screening you out.


Sell More by Selling Less

Feb 1997

As I Was Saying . . .

Several times a month, I hear people say, ʺBut I thought you said cold‐calling doesnʹt work.ʺ No, thatʹs not what Iʹve said. But I have said, ʺCold‐calling is harder to do than it was ten years ago.ʺ

Why? 1) Caller ID makes it more difficult at night. 2) Voice‐mail makes it more difficult during the day.

Night and day! That about covers the possibilities, doesnʹt it? Nevertheless, I also say: You can still build a business starting from scratch by cold‐calling. It just takes a little longer.

Ten years ago, I told rookies, ʺCold‐call 14 hours a week for a year or two, and you can be rich.ʺ Today, that 14 hours has to be more like 20.

Ten years ago, I defined a good list as ʺany list that will generate 3 Cherries an hour.ʺ Today, the magic number 3 is getting harder to achieve, so a good list is any list that will generate 2 or more Cherries an hour.

Still, just 2 Cherries an hour for 20 hours a week will give you 40 leads to follow up the next week. In 3 months, youʹve at least started to develop relationships with 400—500 people.

Properly handled, some of these will buy. If you spend another 40 hours a week following up your leads and maintaining the clients you then develop, youʹll have 100 households at the end of your first year. And by the end of your second year, you should have 250. The pipeline you build in your first frenzied year of cold‐calling will really pay off in year #2.

This brings us to a key question:


What Should You Focus On in Cold-calling?

Selling products? Not a chance. Financial planning? Donʹt waste your time. Building relationships? You bet!

I came across a bit of information recently that confirmed my long‐standing belief that the focus in the initial round of contacts should involve building relationships, not selling: A survey commissioned by the Securities Industry Association found that investors rely on friends as a major source of financial information.

So what does this have to do with cold‐calling? Simple. Assuming you donʹt know enough people to build a decent business, youʹd better meet some more. But how?

Networking? Sure. Social prospecting? Absolutely. Cold‐calling? Why not?

If I had my own securities firm—or if someone would hire me (hint!) to design a rookie‐training program—I would lay down an absolute commandment: For his or her first three months, no rookie can accept anything but an unsolicited order. No selling, and especially no closing!

Instead, every rookieʹs goal in that first three months would be: To find 100 people who welcome your phone calls and who trust you enough to allow you to complete a detailed financial profile.

Once the relationship is developed, of course your advice will be followed, because you will have become a respected friend.

Cold-Calling Strategy

Here is a prospecting strategy that I know will work, because it is based on having trained many thousands of RRs in the United States and Canada—and following up with a very large portion of them.

Never, never, ever try to sell on the first call.

People who will buy from you on a glacier‐cold call will also buy from the next cold‐caller. You canʹt build relationships that way, cowboy.


Always, always cold‐call with an offer of free information about a product or with a seminar invitation.

ʺNo! Please! Not a (gulp!) product!ʺ you say?

ʺYep!ʺ I answer, grinning icily.

The hard cold truth of the matter is that offering people free information about a product or an invitation to a free seminar will crack a lot more doors open for you. If you instead offer service, portfolio analysis, or worse, ʺfinancial planning,ʺ then I ainʹt leaving the light on for you, ʹcause itʹs going to be the chilly dawn before you find anyone interested.

On the first call, always qualify for a minimum availability of cash.

Otherwise, you can spend a lot of time developing relationships with the poor. And although we have nothing against the poor as people, they are unsound prospects for most financial services. Your mission—which youʹve already accepted—is to help affluent working people retire well off and to help manage affluent retired peopleʹs money in such a way that it doesnʹt run out before they die.

Always send out the promised free information promptly.

When you call back, still donʹt try to sell anything—not on the first call‐back and probably not even on the sixth. Instead, focus on building the relationship, primarily through offering additional information, asking questions (and listening to the answers), and offering yet more information.

When a comfortable relationship has developed, set an appointment to develop it further, by continuing to refine your understanding of exactly what the prospect is trying to achieve with his or her money.

A good friend of mine, Mike Robertson (recently featured on the cover of this magazine), told me about a prospect with over $20 million to invest who attended one of his seminars. Mike commented that he spent more than 30 hours with the prospect before he made a single recommendation. Of course he got the account.

I myself recently closed a major training account with one of the great technology companies. Over a series of telephone interviews and two days of in‐person data‐


gathering, I focused on finding out exactly what they wanted without ever trying to sell anything. I kept refining my understanding of what they needed until the conversation turned to training dates and availability. Then I gave some prices and they bought.

No selling. No closing. Just finding out what they needed that I could supply.

So perhaps there is another rule:

The bigger they are, the less you sell.

Interesting, isnʹt it? Less selling. Less closing. More sales.


The Search for Gold

Mar 1997

Great prospecting starts with Good lists.

What a claim is to a prospector, your lists are to you: the terrain that you stake out to find gold. However, most salespeople spend less than 1 percent of their time developing their lists. This is a huge mistake—lists are responsible for at least 40 percent of your direct‐response marketing success.

This brings to mind the classic story of two brothers who went up to their room and found it filled with horse manure. One burst into tears. The other started digging. The crybaby exclaimed, ʺWhatʹs wrong with you? Why are you digging?ʺ The other brother said. ʺWith all this crap, thereʹs got to be a pony somewhere.ʺ

As in the joke, list development may be pungent work and certainly no fun, but there is a pony in there.

Purpose of List Development

Every once in a while I have run into the ʺold school truthʺ that it doesnʹt matter who you call, itʹs how many you call.

However, calling the right people makes an unbelievable difference in your overall results. On one of my many trips to Canada, I gave prospecting seminars to some mutual fund salespeople, which included two‐hour phone seminars. At the end of one, a rep asked if I would make some calls.

ʺSure,ʺ I said. Someone gave me a list from a street address directory. (For those who may not know, a street address directory is a phone book that lists names and numbers in street address order. Some even grade streets by family income range.)

After four calls, I found out that on the street I was calling, the average income was $20,000. ʺNot enoughʺ I said, and asked for a new list.


Four or five calls later, I found that this was a list of two‐ and three‐bed‐room bungalows. ʺWould someone give me a street where people have some money?ʺ I asked.

I was handed a street list with a building of condominiums worth several hundred thousand dollars each. On my second call, the man with whom I spoke was very interested in a particular mutual fund. And the required minimum investment would not be a problem.

Granted, some such lists already have been prospected to death. Thatʹs why you have to switch quickly if your list is loaded with pits.

I could have found a cherry or two on the less luxurious streets, but even though people of all incomes save money, there arenʹt enough cherries to make the search worthwhile.

(ʺCherryʺ describes anyone who is interested now, who has a need, who is the decision maker or on the team, and is qualified for money now. Cherries require at least one follow‐up call before becoming a hot prospect.)

The Basic Laws of Lists

After the first year of the California Gold Rush, the ʺeasyʺ claims were already taken. Itʹs the same with lists. In any highly competitive field, the easy lists are clobbered by every new generation of salespeople.

Repetition reaches a point of harassment, and people receiving several prospecting calls a day, such as attorneys, doctors and other obvious Yellow Pages categories, have long since passed that point.

Although buying lists can be effective, you wonʹt buy your best lists nor will your sales manager give them to you. You will develop your best lists through effort and creative thought.

What Is A Good List?

A Good list (named after me, of course) is any list of names, addresses and phone numbers selected according to one or more shared characteristics of individuals. It produces better results than names from any major, free information source generating a minimum of two to three cherries per hour.


I used to say a Good list generated at least three cherries per hour. However, in many areas, voice mail slows down daytime contact, and Caller ID screens out people in the evening. These technologies may result in fewer cherries per hour regardless of the listʹs value.

So I propose an alternate definition of a Good list: Any list that generates a profitable response.

Let me give you an example. My company was engaged in a campaign to expand our client base to include some high‐tech companies. Although our initial goal was 100 prospects in a month, we generated 110; this works out to 1.45 prospects per hour.

Were we working with a good list? Each of these prospects represented a massive corporation, so if even one bought (weʹre at two), we could easily live with 1.5 cherries per hour.

Some lists can be considered good at two cherries an hour, one an hour, or even one every several hours. If you were selling an office building worth $40 million, you would need a mighty good list to get three people per hour interested. However, by researching real estate buyers for major insurance companies, private syndicates and major public partnerships, you might be able to come up with one.

If you are an insurance agent looking for pension fund money, one cherry every couple of hours might be the best you can do. This is an extremely competitive market, and some pension fund managers will get dozens of calls a day from insurance agents and stockbrokers.

If you canʹt come up with three cherries per hour, then a Good list is defined by however many cherries you, or the best prospector in your firm, can produce per hour with your best efforts.

Finally, I am assuming youʹre dialing the telephone 50 to 60 times an hour. If youʹre doing 12 calls an hour and not getting three cherries an hour, donʹt blame me. Push up your numbers and then see what you can get.

(Excerpted from the updated edition of ʺProspecting Your Way to Sales Success,ʺ which was published in Fall 1997 by Charles Scribnersʹ Sons. 1997 by Bill Good. All rights reserved.)


Direct Mail Success is a Snap with Pre-fab Parts Jan 1999

I want to share an absolutely fabulous success story with you and in the process help you improve the quality of your direct mail letters.

First some background:

About 14 years ago I was struggling with a question which was, ʺis it possible to teach financial advisors how to write direct mail letters?ʺ

After mulling this over for many hours; after trying to teach some, I concluded, ʺNo, itʹs not possible to do this in any reasonable period of time.ʺ At the time, I had been working as a professional writer for 15 years. I had studied in depth some of the great direct mail letters and letter writers. I had spent many hundreds of hours learning the craft. Could I teach that in any kind of seminar?

No. At the time, I was very heavily involved in the initial design of what we now call the Bill Good Marketing System®. It was essential that I be able to use direct mail, because I had conceived then and know without any question of a doubt now that direct mail does enable you to make contact with people who are otherwise inaccessible by phone.

Since I needed the medium but couldnʹt teach the subject, what was I to do?

Answer: I concluded that if I could not teach direct mail letter writing, I could certainly teach direct mail rewriting. That was a hit out of the park.

The Bill Good Marketing System started, not with its current library of hundreds of letters, but with three ʺLetter Formats.ʺ These are now contained in the new edition of my book, Prospecting Your Way To Sales Success.

A ʺletter formatʺ is just a formula for a letter that contains primarily transition passages. For example, in the ʺGood News Format,ʺ I wrote ten different ways you could start a ʺGood News Letter.ʺ These ʺmemory joggersʺ were (and are):

The top...


The best...

One of the best...

One of the newest...

One of the top...[well known company or person] has done it again}

The idea was to teach people how to rewrite direct mail letters by providing them with direct mail letter parts.

In the current edition of my book, I took the ʺGood Newsʺ format and wrote a letter using it. The letter is from ʺBilgewater Pumpsʺ to ʺGarbage Scow Towing.ʺ

Here is my fanciful rewrite:

August 20, 1976

Captain Joe Blow Garbage Scow Towing 3309 East Main Long Island, NY 33098

WE PUMP BILGES FASTER

Dear Captain Blow:

Captain Blow, how about some good news for a change.

My company, Bilgewater Pumping, Inc. has done it again. In time trials, our SR90 Bilgewater Pump proved: we pump more bilge faster than any other pump!

To you, Captain Blow, an SR90 Bilgewater pump could mean:

50% more bilgewater pumped into the ocean than with any other pump.

Less rot due to stagnant water because it gets pumped out faster.

More time off in port because you wonʹt have to be supervising your staff cleaning the bilges. It will be done before you dock!


Captain Blow, ask yourself this question: Am I interested in less bilgewater and more time off in port?

If you answered ʺYes,ʺ then send in the enclosed Information Request Form, and I will send you the details, fair enough?

Sincerely Balph Burgher Senior VP ‐ Bilge Pumps

PS If youʹre thinking, ʺI donʹt know....,ʺ just do it! Imagine, instead of pumping bilge when you hit some of the exotic ports, you get to go ashore and enjoy! So go ahead and send in the Information Request, OK?

INFORMATION REQUEST

Dear Balph:

___ Sounds interesting. I want to see some additional information on the SR90 Bilge Pump. Please drop it in the mail for me.

___ Iʹm not interested in the SR90, but I would like some information about ___________________________.

___ Iʹm not interested in anything now, but a friend might be. Please give me a call. Best time to call is: _______________

Sincerely,

Captain Joe Blow Captain Garbage Towing, Inc.

And now we come up with the following. Imagine my surprise when I got a letter from a financial planner telling me that this letter to ʺGarbage Scow Towingʺ had helped him raise almost a million dollars in new money, and he had done exactly what I told him to do—rewrite.

Here is his rewrite of the ʺGarbage Scowʺ letter.

Maximize your investment return by taking complete control of your 401K


Dear [Company Name 401K Account Holder]:

How about some good news for a change?

My company, [Company Name], can show you how to take complete control of your frozen 401k assets so that you can maximize your investment returns and accumulate many more dollars for retirement

To you a [Company Name] 401k account holder, this could mean...

No additional cost for professional service.

Many more investment choices with excellent historical returns.

Active personal management that could result in much more money at retirement.

[Company] 401k account holders, ask yourself this question: Am I interested in higher investment returns, with professional management at no further cost?

If you answered yes, then call 1‐800‐845‐7805 for a free recorded message that offers a free seminar for [Company Name] 401k account holders.

Sincerely,

PS If youʹre thinking ʺI donʹt know...ʺ, just make the call. Instead of waiting to rollover your present frozen plan into your new plan, you owe it to yourself to find out what other choices you have. So go ahead and call, OK?

My correspondent is Joe Annese, a relatively new financial planner in the Boston area. Here is what he wrote:

I followed up by conducting mini‐seminars on phone respondees. I also telephoned everyone on the list that didnʹt respond by phone. Then I went to the company and started out on the third floor and worked my way down to the first asking for appointments individually or in groups.

Originally, I got a corporate list that consisted of 42 people. With outside sales people the list came to 55. I closed 14 and rolled over $632,000 of frozen IRA money. There is still a million dollars I havenʹt closed yet.


I received 8 referrals from the original 14 who brought in an additional $143,000. So here are the results.

$632,000

$143,000

$775,000

x .04

$ 31,000

Iʹm on a 90% payout. Nice.

I did this by following your manual system ʺCherries and Pits.ʺ I wondered that with a book of only $100,000 gross for 1998 and having utilized one little idea ʺre‐writeʺ and follow‐up, what could I do with a team and the Gorilla system.

I did want to write and let you know that even though I know Gorilla and other marketing projects are your main concern, your manual system also works well in conjunction with your book.

Sincerely,

Joe Annese

P.S. My marketing cost was:

Your book ‐ $28

Delivery and punch ‐ $100

Total ‐ $128

***As a final note, you certainly donʹt have to use the material in my book to rewrite. Itʹs everywhere, itʹs everywhere. Look at some of the wonderful brochures your wholesalers have prepared. This is already approved. With a quick call to your wholesaler, you can get permission to turn preapproved copy into a direct mail letter.

Why not send a brochure?

Come on. You know the answer.


Time to Dust Off Your Sales Pipeline

May 2001

If ever there was a time to get back to prospecting, this is it.

So letʹs bypass the argument for getting back to work building your clientele and go straight to the numbers, methods, and expectations.

What Goes in the Pipeline?

Start with 20 ʺRed Cherriesʺ a week.

In my prospecting scheme, there are four grades of prospect, each with its own ʺtrack.ʺ

AA=Hot Prospect: These folks are very interested, financially qualified; ready to begin the sales cycle now. We know they are very interested, because when we ask for an appointment, they say ʺYes.ʺ You need four to five of these a week. While you will stumble across one from time to time, they mostly are developed from people further down the prospecting food chain.

These folks are very interested, financially qualified; ready to begin the sales cycle now. We know they are very interested, because when we ask for an appointment, they say ʺYes.ʺ You need four to five of these a week. While you will stumble across one from time to time, they mostly are developed from people further down the prospecting food chain.

A=Red Cherry: These prospects are interested and qualified now. If you ask prematurely for an appointment, they will typically say, ʺSend me some information.ʺ So our approach is: Send them some information. Red cherries are generally seminar attendees, direct mail respondents, people who respond to a phone‐mail‐phone campaign or a mail/phone campaign. Twenty of these a week will keep you very happy.

These prospects are interested and qualified now. If you ask prematurely for an appointment, they will typically say, ʺSend me some information.ʺ So our approach is: Send them some information. Red cherries are generally seminar attendees, direct mail respondents, people who respond to a phone‐mail‐phone


campaign or a mail/phone campaign. Twenty of these a week will keep you very happy.

B=Green Cherry: ʺGreeniesʺ are interested but cannot make a decision or will not have funds until a known later date. To be classified as a ʺGreenieʺ we must know a date and an approximate amount. The art of cultivating greenies is deceptively simple: Send them something or call and leave a voice mail message every month until the funds are due. You need two of these per day. Some will come from following up AA, A and C prospects; some will come from initial contact with new people.

ʺGreeniesʺ are interested but cannot make a decision or will not have funds until a known later date. To be classified as a ʺGreenieʺ we must know a date and an approximate amount. The art of cultivating greenies is deceptively simple: Send them something or call and leave a voice mail message every month until the funds are due. You need two of these per day. Some will come from following up AA, A and C prospects; some will come from initial contact with new people.

C=Info Lead: You have to be very careful with these people. When qualified for money, they will typically say, ʺJust send me some information.ʺ If you have done a good job qualifying the list from which they come, you should have a reasonable expectation that they are in a wealth bracket you are interested in. But they may not be and are just trying to blow you off. So our strategy is: make three contacts within the next month. Two of these should be by mail. The third one re‐qualifies them and either upgrades them to an AA, A or B or downgrades them to a ʺmass mailʺ lead. They donʹt stay in your pipeline. You should never have more than 50 Info Leads at any one time, and if you do, itʹs time to get out your pruning shears.

You have to be very careful with these people. When qualified for money, they will typically say, ʺJust send me some information.ʺ If you have done a good job qualifying the list from which they come, you should have a reasonable expectation that they are in a wealth bracket you are interested in. But they may not be and are just trying to blow you off. So our strategy is: make three contacts within the next month. Two of these should be by mail. The third one re‐qualifies them and either upgrades them to an AA, A or B or downgrades them to a ʺmass mailʺ lead. They donʹt stay in your pipeline. You should never have more than 50 Info Leads at any one time, and if you do, itʹs time to get out your pruning shears.


So What is a Pipeline?

Here is a definition of a ʺpipelineʺ I have found most useful: A pipeline is a group of prospects, contacted in a disciplined fashion, who as a group are moving through a process of developing a trusted relationship with a sales professional to the point that a profitable number become clients.

So itʹs prospects and contacts with prospects designed to first create a relationship and then develop a specific kind of relationship: financial advisor to client.

Today, more than ever, sales is a relationship game.

But most people in the industry now do not have enough existing relationships to build a big enough business to ensure survival.

Consistent prospecting, as outlined here, will give you enough people with whom to build relationships. Thatʹs the simplicity of it.

Sales is a Numbers Game

Here are the numbers that will virtually ensure success:

10‐14 hours a week devoted to developing new contacts. During this time, your ʺdonʹt leave for home without itʺ target is: 20 Red Cherries.

Your Schedule:

You are going to separate the considerable amount of time you are devoting to new client relationship development into three blocks:

1. Initial contact: 1‐‐1 ½ hours in the early morning and an hour in the late afternoon. This late afternoon hour should sometimes be devoted to driving to industrial areas of the city and going into offices, introducing yourself, dropping off seminar inviter brochures, and collecting business cards. Generally, you need two evenings of two hours pounding the phones. During this time, when you do find a prospect, it is imperative you get the day‐time phone number; otherwise, next week, the time you should be devoting to initial contact is devoted to making call‐backs.

2. Call‐backs: A decent rule of thumb is that it takes 5 contacts with someone before they will upgrade from a Red Cherry to a Hot Prospect. So you are


talking, asking questions, making impressions, and not selling. If, say, someone does express an interest in a product, back off. Use that as a signal to find out more about what they have bought in the past, what strategy (if any), they follow. Your one objective: Develop Aʹs, Bʹs and Cʹs into AAʹs. All we need to take this to the end of the rainbow is 4‐‐5 Hot Prospects a week. Itʹs in your ʺcall‐back blockʺ that you will develop these. Allow 10+ hours a week for this phase.

3. Appointments: You need to see 4‐‐5 new people a week. If you are a decent sales person, 6‐‐8 will become clients per month. Do this for a few years, and you have not only survived, but we are talking a very nice business built for yourself.

But I Donʹt Have 25‐‐30 Hours a Week to Devote to New Client Relationships

Bummer, because this amount of effort is what it takes to get the plane off the ground.

So what are the solutions:

1. Sweat equity. If anyone told you that building a financial services business was a 40 hour a week job, they lied. Plan on 60 hours a week for several years and then just as soon as you possibly can…

2. Get help. My recommendation for years has been that the very minute you have developed a prospecting system that works for you, hire someone. Just as long as your nose is barely above the starvation waterline, spend some money on some help. Start with someone who will come in and just dial the phone for you two nights a week. You can find someone to do that.

How Long Is the Pipeline? The pipeline is probably three months long. This means: you will work like a draft horse for three months and not open many accounts.

Why?

For the pipeline to flow out the other end, you need to fill it. Thereʹs nothing in it now.

So get to work.


Making a Good First Impression

Apr 2001

Your Five Chances To Make a First Impression

There are at least five key sensory impressions people notice in evaluating you.

They are:

Your person‐which includes your grooming, dress, and general state of health.

Your car. Donʹt think for a second that this isnʹt important. A junker says one thing, a Porsche another, a Cadillac another. Where do you live? Ohio? Michigan? Drive a Porsche at your peril.

Your sound. Does your voice project confidence, knowledge, authority? Or do you sound hesitant, uncertain, even too young?

Your building (and, if unsafe, your neighborhood).

Your office.

These impressions all count. The master sales people I know in this industry have scrupulously attended to each.

In this article, letʹs talk about your office.

***

In recent months, I have had three occasions to ask several of my clients to send me pictures of their offices. Something was wrong in the selling process, and I could not find out what it was. So I said, ʺSend me some pictures.ʺ

In two occasions, what I saw in the pictures needed immediate fixing.

Now, donʹt get me wrong. Iʹm not talking decorating. I have no flair in that area, and my wife frequently reminds me that many years ago, I was booted off our


home decorating committee. So obviously, get professional help if your design flair comes anywhere near mine.

But I do know some basics. So, letʹs walk with your clients into your

Reception Room

This is where the sale starts. It should contain comfortable chairs, tasteful art, flowers, and a receptionist who is always delighted to greet your clients.

Insist on fresh flowers. We have them delivered to our office every Monday. Our guests like them. Theyʹll come over and look. Flowers deliver a message about who we are and how we hope they feel—all without a single word.

One of the best sales people I know keeps meticulous records of which magazines his important clients like to read. Those magazines are prominently displayed when the client arrives. In addition, he keeps records of their favorite beverage and how they like it. So by the time he greets them, they have been engaged by the good manners he has instituted in his reception area.

Thatʹs the right way to do it. And there is an infinite number of wrong ways. In the pictures I have looked at I have noted: clutter, Ikea‐type white furniture, bare walls, cluttered bookcase.

Your clients should feel comfortable: a law‐office look for a blue‐collar clientele makes them wonder what you do with their fees and commissions.

Your Credentials

Read the next paragraph and then do what it says.

Close your eyes. Imagine you are sitting in the office of an ophthalmologist or other medical specialist. Recall what you see on the wall.

What did you see?

Obviously, you saw degrees, awards, etc. Health professionals understand the importance of credentials better than anyone.

So letʹs do what they do.


Call it your "Brag Wall."

One old friend of mine explained it this way. ʺI escort clients into my office and then tell them, ʹIʹll be right back.ʹ

ʺI step away for about two minutes. The only thing they can do is look at my Brag Wall. It says everything I need said. The photographs, membership certificates in community organizations, and news articles attest to my community involvement, and the diplomas and licensing state that I know more than they do.ʺ

Hereʹs one way to liven up your brag wall with photographs. Every time you go to a wholesaler presentation, take your camera. After the meeting, go find the main speaker. Get your photo taken with him or her in front of a corporate logo, which is usually prominently displayed.

Your Desk

This one is simple. Itʹs OK to have one. Just donʹt use it when you talk to clients. It imposes an unnecessary barrier between advisor and client. No serious sales person I know sits behind a desk.

In one set of photos I saw, the advisor had a very attractive desk, very neat. About four feet from the desk were two wing chairs, very tasteful.

In this office, clients and advisor are about 7 feet from each other. Very nice, but impossible to build much of a relationship.

ALL of the very top financial advisors I know use a round table. They are seated with their clients, NEVER across from them.

Your Bookshelf

Every financial advisor should have several shelves of well‐thumbed financial books on display. The placement of the bookshelf is important. Ideally, when your clients are looking at you, the bookshelf is visible behind you. Put the books you most want the clients to see at or slightly above client eye level (when seated).


Your Visual Aids Today, most selling is teaching. People need you, not because they know what to do, but because they donʹt know what to do. Your job is to teach them enough so they feel comfortable in agreeing to your proposed course of action.

The visual aids in your office should include:

*A white board or chart board. Use it. Draw pictures. Write numbers.

*A LARGE monitor.

One person I know has a flat‐panel display on the wall beside his ROUND table.

Another has a 36‐inch monitor right across from where the client sits. Itʹs perfect for running hypotheticals, charts, and graphs.

Dr. Good's Medical Advice You donʹt get a second chance to make a first impression. You get five chances. Make them all count.


If I Were Your Sales Manager

Sept 2002

Letʹs assume that you are a rookie, and you are having a rough go since you decided on a career of financial advisor. Or letʹs assume you are a more established advisor whose business is in need of a

I would first work with you on what I call ʺthe essential ingredientsʺ‐the numbers, the sound, the presentation.

Here is the procedure I would go through.

Make the Calls

First, I would find out how many calls and how many ʺsales contactsʺ youʹre making. At its foundation, sales is a contact sport. If you are not making the calls, you will not be making the sales. Itʹs that simple.

A ʺsales contactʺ is any contact with a client or prospect that is intended to advance the sales process or to create or maintain goodwill.

It is most certainly not a service call.

To find out how many sales contacts you are making per day, I would certainly ask you to keep daily stats. Few activities push up stats better than keeping them and becoming aware of them. But I would also query my telephone computer system and find out what you are in fact doing. If your office has that capability, ask to see the electronic record of your calls.

As your manager, I will be looking at it because my slogan is: ʺInspect what you expect.ʺ

If your sales are hurting and if you are making less than 25 sales contacts per day, you and I would have a serious adjustment session. I cannot improve sales if you wonʹt make the calls. So I will do everything possible to get you to do that.

If you donʹt have enough clients to make that many contacts, hey, what about the Jonesʹ in the white pages?


Pick up the phone.

As your manager, I will frequently be passing your desk and when you are not on the phone I will inquire what you are doing. I might ask questions like:

ʺIs your phone broke?ʺ

ʺPerhaps you have wax in your ears and canʹt hear. Do you need to go to the doctor?

Could that be the reason you are not on the phone?ʺ

Or, ʺAre you waiting for them to call you?ʺ

Many of you reading this column are your own sales manager. You donʹt have anyone who will come around and nudge, poke, or prod you into action. You have to do it yourself. Oh well, life is hard. You are stuck with me. So PICK UP THE PHONE.

Sound Positive and Upbeat

Assuming you are getting the required number of sales contacts, I am next going to focus on how you sound. I will work pretty hard to replace a tired, bored, sour, or even hostile sound with a professional sound.

You see, there is such a thing as a ʺprofessional sound.ʺ It is upbeat, positive, and somewhere north of ʺwarm and friendly.ʺ The key thing to remember is: the client or prospect doesnʹt need to know how you feel unless you feel good. I remember telling a very early sales manager, ʺI donʹt really feel warm and friendly.ʺ To which he responded: ʺI donʹt recall asking how you feel. As a matter of fact, I donʹt care. No one does. So get over it. Your job is: be enthusiastic and then you will feel enthusiastic. There is magic in enthusiasm. The very first salesperson, Eve, undoubtedly knew it when she sold Adam on taking a bite of the apple.

As your sales manager, I want you to tape your side of the call. Listen back, preferably when no one else can hear or watch you as you jump up and run to the bathroom upon hearing how you sound to others.


I literally turned around entire careers with a simple‐and very old‐trick. I have propped mirrors in front of sour folk and made them smile. The sour sound disappears in a flash.

Again, as your manager, I truly donʹt care that you donʹt feel like projecting a confident and upbeat sound. I very much care that you sound upbeat and positive. And you will see that, if you sound that way, before long you will feel that way.

Have a Great Presentation

The third of the ʺthree essential ingredientsʺ is what you say. There are an infinity of ways to do a sales presentation badly. Among them:

Not having a presentation that you polish and care for like a jewel.

Talking too much without client involvement.

Stressing features and not benefits.

Failure to get client agreement as you progress through the presentation.

Not asking questions.

Not asking good questions.

Selling a product instead of a concept or strategy.

Failure to close.

As your manager, Iʹm a little handicapped not being there. So here is what I want you to do: very carefully select a veteran producer who is doing well. Ask him or her if you can spend a day in their office. Take copious notes. Start developing a presentation based on something that works today.

End Result

If you have these three ingredients‐numbers, sound, presentation‐under complete control you will survive. You will succeed.

Since I trained my first class of rookies for E.F. Hutton in October 1978, I do not recall a single instance of someone making the sales calls, sounding great, and


having a great presentation and also failing in the business. It just wonʹt happen... not even now.

So‐PICK UP THE PHONE or better yet, get out of the office and start calling on businesses.


The Best Time to Prospect

Jan 2004

A very strong case can be made against prospecting in a bad market. Clients are traumatized. Financial advisors are fearful. No one wants to move.

And a very good case could also be made against prospecting in a good market. You have all the referrals you can handle. Clients are bringing you their friends and relatives. Whatʹs the point?

Obviously, there are only two times to prospect. One of them is on the day that the market changes from a bad market to a good market, and the other is on the day when it changes from a good market to a bad market. But since you would never know when these days are until after the fact, there is obviously no good time to prospect.

Is that right?

Perhaps you could look at things differently. The best time to establish a prospecting system is in a good market, because when it becomes a bad market and other advisors are not calling their clients, youʹll have all the tools in place to harvest seeds sown by others.

You could also look very carefully at market conditions and survey information and determine that right now, from early 2004 until some later date, is likely to be the best time you will see in your investment career to prospect.

Annual SIA Investor Survey

Every year since 1996, the Securities Industry Association has released an annual ʺInvestor Survey.ʺ

Subtitled ʺInvestorsʹ Attitudes Toward the Securities Industry,ʺ the survey is released at the annual SIA Convention held each November. The 2003 survey was conducted by Harris Interactive, a major organization that samples all kinds of attitudes and opinions.


I make it a habit to read this survey every year, and in past columns, Iʹve frequently referred to it.

The current survey, as I will show, indicates tremendous opportunity on the horizon. (The results report is posted at www.SIA.com.)

Why Clients Change Advisors

A client who is completely happy with the services provided by his or her financial advisor has no interest whatsoever in finding a new one—ʺIf it ainʹt broke, donʹt fix it.ʺ On the other hand, if dissatisfaction exists, a competing financial advisor has a better opportunity to get the door open than when people are delighted with all aspects of their current provider.

As I see it, in several of its answer results, the annual SIA survey clearly shows there are significant opportunities to talk with dissatisfied investors.

Broker Satisfaction

A key survey question asks participants how satisfied they are with the service they receive from their current broker/financial advisor.

46% report they are ʺvery satisfied,ʺ and another 42% are ʺsomewhat satisfied.ʺ The results report puts these two figures together to show that 88% of those surveyed are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their current broker/financial advisor.

But from a prospecting point of view, I would separate those who are very satisfied from those who are only somewhat satisfied.

Overall, there are 42% who are somewhat satisfied, another 8% who are somewhat dissatisfied, and 2% who are very dissatisfied. That makes a total of 52% of investors who are not entirely satisfied with their broker/financial advisor. A competing offer can certainly get its snout inside this tent.

Other Elements of Satisfaction

Another key question on the survey asks investors to rate how well their broker/financial advisor does in a variety of areas using a scale of ʺexcellentʺ to ʺpoor.ʺ The following are three areas examined by the survey. The percentage


next to each item reflects the amount of investors who feel their broker/financial advisor is doing an ʺexcellentʺ or a ʺgoodʺ job in that area:

Having reasonable fees and commissions: 74%

Monitoring your accounts and suggesting change: 64%

Teaching you how to make better investment decisions: 59%

There is obviously still room in the areas of fees, account monitoring, and educating clients for a person out prospecting to find a chink in the armour of the primary provider.

Fair Value

A very key survey item asked how investors felt about this statement: ʺThe services provided by your broker are a good value for the money.ʺ Only 15% strongly agreed with the statement.

Conclusion

When is the best time to prospect? It may be right now. There are certainly many indicators of investor dissatisfaction. It might be a good idea to study these statistics in detail and make certain your clients are ʺvery satisfiedʺ with all relevant measurements. When you are sure youʹre bulletproof, it would also serve you extremely well to develop a prospecting plan for 2004 and beyond.


More Information

Bill Good is Chairman of Bill Good Marketing®, Inc. Based in Draper, UT, his firm produces and services designed to help financial advisors create the time and money to pursue their other goals in life. For more information, go to www.billgood.com.

For the latest information about our products and services, please contact us at 800‐678‐1480. Ask for Jill Maples.

You can also visit us on the web at http://www.billgood.com/.

And be sure to check out a few of other White Papers.


© 2010 by Bill Good Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This White Paper is for informational purposes only. Copyright permission is hereby granted to make copies and distribute to Registered Representatives in the United States and Canada.

Bill Good

Chairman

Bill Good Marketing, Inc.

12393 South Gateway Park Place

Draper, UT 84020

800‐678‐1480

the disciplined prospector

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