Re: New to advising need suggestions for my business plan -- Insurance Forum

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Date Posted: Wed, August 07 2002, 0:45:03
Author: Brent D. Gardner, ChFC
Subject:

Re: New to advising need suggestions for my business plan
In reply to: Carrie Lynn 's message, "New to advising need suggestions for my business plan" on Tue, August 06 2002, 14:59:12

>Hello everyone! I am on my way to a career as a
>financial advisor with Morgan Stanley.. I need to
>develop a business plan of how I will build my
>business and present it to them as to what I will do
>after being licensed (with they send me to classes for
>and take care of the fees)... I am looking for
>suggestions, ideas... any help that anyone can give me
>I grately appreciate it...

Carrie Lyn,

Welcome to the craft of advice, where we do well by doing good!

I started my career in the insurance business, so this might be somewhat different from what they expect, but here's an idea:

1. Make a list of 200 people you know. If you don't know 200, I'd ask your friends and family for names. This will be your soft market.
2. Make a list of 1,000 people in your community that you WANT as clients -- business owners, retired people, successful people, managers, executives, professionals, etc. (mostly people you do not know). This will require work, but you must do it.
3. Send an introductory letter (be brief, they won't read it anyway, but it makes a cold call warmer) to the list in item #1. Follow up with a phone call in a timely manner and say "I'd like the opportunity to stop by and show you the kind of work I'm going to be doing, and you can relax because I'm not going to try and sell you anything." Your objective is to GET REFERRALS from the people you know (expanding your circle of friends), and along the way some of the first 200 may actually want something you sell, but if I were you, just offer it and let them make their own decisions.
4. Make a list of 8 to 12 "ideas" for the list in item #2, such as using Guaranteed Retirement Income Benefit riders in Variable Annuities to guarantee a minimum income from their IRA, or 529 plans, or whatever you can think of (ask me later for more ideas). Send a one page newsletter to each of the 1,000 in a manner so that you can call each one and ask for an opportunity to come by and introduce yourself and show them how y our idea works and how it may benefit them. You can mail out 50 per day, and call that same 50 3 days later, so that 1,000 will take 4-5 weeks. If you're good, and lucky, you'll maybe see 1-2%. The next month, you send out a DIFFERENT IDEA to the SAME list, and the repeat as before. You can add people to the list that you uncover via referrals and observation, and subtract those who want to be on the Do Not Call list, or who are impossible to contact (although, anyone that will not answer the phone deserves a personal visit from YOU -- BE BRAVE -- nobody else is getting through on the phone either, and those tough to see people usually have the most money). Make sure you ASK for referrals from EVERBODY you meet, even if they don't do business with you. Try and get as many names of people they know who are in the same line of work, or same business, who have similar needs, or who are experiencing a change in life that triggers the need to see a financial advisor (new job, changing jobs, retiring, birth of a child or grandchild, new home, promotion, marriage, divorce, death in the family, etc.). If you go through this list of 1,000 ever month for 8-12 months with a different idea each time, you'll sell a lot more of them than if you only call them once, and the last couple of months may produce more business than the first 10 combined. The key is persistency.

If you make it a goal to TALK to or SEE face to face 10 or more people EVERY BUSINESS DAY, you will not fail (just make sure the contacts are about business, not friends keeping in touch because that's cheating your own pocketbook!).

Get Nick Murray's The Excellent Investment Advisor, Bruce Wright's The Wright Exit Strategy (nobody else is focusing on exit strategies, only entry and growth, this will differentiate you from your competition), and focus on becoming the best you can on the phone, because it is still the number one tool to communicate.

Ask for, no DEMAND, that they pair you up with a successful mentor, and you be their 'bird dog' bringing in prospective clients to work on a split basis. This may be the one thing that can catapult you to success fast, just make sure its someone that you get along with and can learn from.

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Replies:

Re: New to advising need suggestions for my business plan -- Carrie Lynn, Wed, August 07 2002, 18:07:31