This is a question we received from a Wholesaler Masterminds Coaching client recently. To which we wondered:
Why would an advisor suggest that your thank you calls are not welcome?
Could it be that the thank you call that you’re making is more injurious to your practice than helpful?
Is there a better style of call that you can make, besides the tried and true thank you call?
Why would an advisor suggest that your thank you calls are not welcome?
Yes, you have a relationship with the advisor. After all it’s generally that combination of your relationship and your product that gets them to write the business.
So, if that’s the case, why would your call not be welcomed?
- You are one of many product providers that call.
- Your call sounds like everyone else’s.
- Your call could have been placed by a Robotron auto-dialer.
Does this sound familiar?:
While somewhat exaggerated (after all, you don’t utter the word “just”, right?), it’s not too far off the mark from the calls that thousands of internals and externals are making to advisors every day.
And while it could be said that “it’s the thought that counts”, this sample demonstrates a pointless, soulless outreach and does nothing to advance the advisor relationships.
It’s a call that could have been made by an auto-dialer.
Are the thank you call that you’re making more injurious to your practice than helpful?
Could be – if your goal is to deepen advisor relationships, build loyalty and grow your practice with consistent producers.
At some point, the avalanche of mindless thank you calls only serves to fill up the advisors voice mail inbox, take time out of their day and prevent them from the very thing you want them to be doing more of: selling more of your product.
Is there a better style of call that you can make, besides the tried and true thank you call?
Absolutely.
But the solution requires you to spend more than 17 seconds on the call and its pre-call preparation.
If our call is to sincerely thank the advisor for their business and in doing so further the relationship, then we need to:
- Personalize the call
- Incorporate any Advisor Recon that we have [Hint: Learn the right way to do Advisor Recon]
- Sound like we give a rip about the call
Are Thank You calls a thing of the past?
We’re not suggesting that showing your appreciation and gratitude ever goes out of style.
Nor are we saying that a well-conceived plan of calls (who calls whom, at what level of production, with what frequency) isn’t required.
We are saying that the practice of making a mindless succession of thank you calls for virtually every trade is akin to the clerk at the convenience store who offers you the hollow, automatic “Have a nice day” as he hands you your change.
At Wholesaler Masterminds® we work with you and your teams to improve both the process and brand of your practice.
UPDATED: Now It’s 76 Great Questions Wholesalers Should Ask Advisors
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Sam says
It’s a question of the mindless routines a lot of people get into right? Whether its a thank you call, thank you note, product announcement, or the latest marketing piece at some point we have to stop and make sure we don’t become “that” company or wholesaler.
It is kind of like getting that junk mail that seems personalized to you but it really isn’t because the same thing went out to thousands of other people.
My goal on any follow-up calls is to make sure it is personalized, and that I am leaving something of value for the adviser, given our past interactions and discussions.
Don’t allow you interactions to become a mundane routine, and you won’t have to try to break them!
Rob says
Thanks for the comment Sam. Yes, at the heart of increasing your MQ-Memorability Quotient® is the ability to take the everyday task and make it distinguishable from the competition’s.