Do you find yourself following in the footsteps of every other wholesaler in your region?
If you have a territory, for example, that encompasses Los Angeles, do you find yourself focusing on Downtown L.A. the Westside and the South Bay because that’s where the money allegedly is?
Do you spend all your time in the recognized money centers and related suburbs of Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, New York, Atlanta?
If your time is predominantly spent in offices where every other wholesaler spends their time what about if you took the path less traveled?
What if you went out of your way to spend a portion of your time prospecting for business in less obvious locations, at least less obvious to the masses?
As a wholesaler, I had my best producer located in Redlands, CA. Redlands is some 60 miles due east of Los Angeles and not a place you’d necessarily want to go to. But, at one point in my wholesaling career, I had three $2.5 million producers there, one of which was doing between $10M and $12M a year, consistently.
And there were other top producers in places like Libby, MT and Hilo, HI and Hanford, CA.
Where in your territory can you find great brokers that do a ton of business, that are lower maintenance, and are absolutely delighted that you came to see them?
Versus all the folks that you see in the money centers that simply take you for granted and suck your budget dry.
No, I’m not suggesting that you’ll make your annual goal using this method.
Yes, I am saying that you can get a great bump in production by spending a portion of your time prospecting in areas of your region that are on the road less traveled.
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Dean Phillips says
Rob:
A very good article and smart suggestion.
I’ve found the idea of getting to the “off-the-beaten-path” towns valuable during my career. When I covered Louisiana as part of my Southeastern Region, I obviously made trips to New Orleans, Metarie (suburb of N.O.) and Baton Rouge, but also, Lafayette, LA ( home of many independent oil E/O operations, wildcatters, Petroleum Helicopters-hug operation that ferries oil workers out to over 4000 offshore rigs). Lafayette is a wealthy town for it’s size. I also made it to Lake Charles, LA for an Advisor who was helping those working at a local chemical refinery in town rollover their 401k’s into IRAs. There was a wave of retirements happening at the plant and his mother in law worked with him. She used to be the head of HR at the plant-talk about connections! I was the Advisor’s guest speaker at a monthly pre-retirement dinner and they loved that I drove in over 100 miles from Baton Rouge for the event. It was a whopping $7.50 a head for dinner including beverages! They have down-home prices in Lake Charles.
I was able to stop by the old US military air base with a 10,000 ft.+ long runway- decommissioned-and watched a few stray Navy Reserve jets come in for fueling before the dinner. All in all, a good day wholesaling.
If you want to make a positive impression, tell them you’re coming in to see in the off-season, if the town is seasonal and they’ll roll the red carpet out.
On one trip in the Panhandle of FL-Destin, FL I asked the branch manager’s office manager what they’d like as a treat and they said “Ice Cream before Lunch!” I hit up the local scoopery at 10:30am and got one for everyone in the office-best $20.00 I’ve spent. WIth the 90-degree heat, and without a cooler with me for the ice cream (now I carry one in the car, just in case) I’m glad I didn’t get a speeding ticket!
Happy Travels!
Rob says
@Dean – great comments/suggestions – thanks! You comment about the off season has me thinking about my next post……