Updated July 2011: This year’s updates are presented in blue.
Update June 2010: It’s been 90 days a full year since the first Wholesaler Masterminds groups kicked off and the ideas shared on those calls have really been terrific.
The collective wisdom of these groups, freely sharing ideas, is more than most wholesalers get in 10 years of national sales conferences, divisional meetings and Friday conference calls.
The ideas presented here only scratch the surface of the depth and breadth of knowledge, experience and wisdom great wholesalers apply in their practice every day.
While the tone, texture and context are lost in a blog post, the ideas are still of interest. For that reason I offer the following thoughts distilled from over 75 250 hours of calls:
- Most wholesalers have no agenda when they arrive at a reps office. Great wholesalers send an email prior to broker appointments asking what the broker wants to discuss, issues they have, questions on their mind.
- 2010 Update: use Outlook (or Lotus notes) to future schedule the delivery of the email.
- 2011 Update: if you are a user of Gmail, even if not for work, you know that ‘send later’ is not an option. Check out a Gmail add-on called Boomerang that does allow for future delivery.
- Do you have a community of Twitter followers, of Facebook friends, or LinkedIn connections? Why not build a ‘community’ of brokers?
- 2010 Update: while many firms will not allow the building of a social media online community, the concept still applies to the formation of advisor “mastermind” or “study” groups facilitated by the wholesaler.
- 2011 Update: The newest social media entrant is Google+ and based on the early reviews of the techno savy it appears to be a winner. Here’s a guide to all that is G+: Google + The Complete Guide
- Handwritten Thank You cards get noticed now more than ever.
- 2011 Update: We do mean handwritten. That said there is a site that will create a font that you can use directly from your own handwriting. Check out YourFonts.com
- Handwritten Thank You cards that are specific to a broker’s interest (wine, golf, NASCAR etc.) are a home run, every time.
- Use Copytalk (the link will save you $$) to dictate your call notes, thank you cards, follow up letters from your phone right after your appointment.
- 2010 Update: We successfully use the service to dictate newsletters and blog posts. The accuracy of the dictation and the speed of turn around are both good. We also had a chance to speak to the good folks at Dial A Note and recommend their service specifically for the CRM interface.
- 2011 Update: We have used the Dragon Dictation iPhone app with great success.
- Good wholesalers ask for referrals.
- Great wholesalers ask for referrals and deliver feedback to referrer on the progress of those referrals.
- Develop a Fallen Angels List. Stratify that list by asset class, product, firm, producer level, and by geography.
- 2010 Update: another list to have is your Ten Most Wanted list. Use it when you Draft on Influentials
- Business planning is a waste of time without firm business commitments. Tell them how much you need from them in dollars.
- 2010 Update: also use the the Top X method of requesting a commitment. “Bill, I’d love to say that you are a top 10 producer in my region and that requires you to commit to $5 million in business. Are you in?”
- Old school marketing used fax blasts. New school marketing uses VoiceShot.
- Joint client appointments allow you to display your brilliance. Great wholesalers press for them.
- Good, albeit common, question asks “what cases are you working on?”
- Great, consultative question asks “what cases have you missed on?”
- 2011 Update: We have clients hosting their own mastermind meeting of reps in their region with great success.
- Keep your internal, your scheduler, and your admin (you have one right?) all on the same page with Google Docs. Share calendars, spread sheets, etc.
- 2010 Update: we have heard good things about Zully at Timefficient. Tell her you found her through this site and she’ll give you a discounted rate.
- 2011 Update: we also have great reviews from wholesalers about Julie at The Appoinment Biz and Ashley at Specialized Schedulers
- Loops, zones, sub-zones are great. And sometimes a great wholesaler has to set a follow up appointment for hot prospects sooner than the rotation would otherwise dictate.
- Run broker’s preferred fund grid through an analytic screen like FI360 to see where your product better fills styles needs.
- For a phone call that requires a visual (PowerPoint, charts, graphs, tours of brochures, etc) use Glance. It is a simple, low cost way to bring your spoken word to life.
- 2011 Update: Now a free and super simple way to share your screen has arrived. Check out join.me
- For your VIP brokers host a client call with a portfolio manager.
- To find outsource help (virtual assistants, admin support, etc) explore elance.com
- Take the time to comb through the IXI or Coates Analytics data that the firm provides and know your territory, and its weak spots, thoroughly.
- With the holiday months ahead focus on relationship building with Centers of Influence.
- 2011 Update: Read 5 Things to Do to Make COIs Love You
- Re-engage producers (see #8) with lists of clients that you hand deliver.
- Stay in front of the information tsunami with RSS. Learn how to use it here. Use the password ‘learn’ to watch the video.
- 2010 Update: also use WholesalerBriefcase, a news aggregation service, to stay on top of information.
- 2011 Update: we’ve added a live news feed right here at Wholesaler Masterminds. Choose between Think Like An Advisor, Financial News Stream, Blogs You Should Be Reading, and Business Life
That’s just a sample folks. These Wholesaler Masterminds calls are making good wholesalers into great wholesalers. The best part is the participants are helping each other.
Here’s hoping you’re not competing against any of them!
For more information about any of the Wholesaler Masterminds Coaching programs head right this way.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
That font website is awesome. Thanks for passing on the idea. It took ten minutes to complete. Pretty neat possibilities if you combine this with Copytalk.
@Jeremy: thanks for checking it out and leaving your thoughts!
Great final point there Rob. Those who have not taken you up on any of your offers are doing themselves a great disservice…not that I’m complaining!!! Thanks for all that you do and all of the transformative information you provide, both here and in your coaching sessions. The RSS information as well as the local Mastermind groups ideas are invaluable to my business.
@Mike: Thanks for your generous comments. As we have discussed, the ideas are nothing if not implemented – and you have done the implementation part in a big way!
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