Archives for February 2020

I’m no spring chicken.

Not quite over the hill, but old enough to be able to reflect on things that you may not have seen, heard, or thought about.

Take bank interest rates (stay with me here).

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Home office visitors present a unique opportunity.

While in your region they will observe how you do what you do.

And when they get back to the home office, they will share their findings.

How well will you fare?

Transcription:

Home office visitors come in a few different flavors.

It could be your boss. We’ll consider that a home office visitor ride along.

Could be somebody from the home office that wants to learn more about wholesaling, more about the business. One time, I had a head of marketing travel with me.

Here’s the important thing about home office visitors, particularly your boss: don’t think they aren’t going to talk about you when they go back to the home office, because they are.

They’re going to talk about how well you performed, and how well you do what you do.

These tips are designed to make sure that you maximize the impact of your boss or other home office visitor.

Figure out how to run them into the ground.

One time, I had a wholesaler that was on a one-on-one coaching call with me, and they exclaimed that they had a boss coming the following week.

This was on a Wednesday.

They had a boss coming on Monday.

They only had three appointments in two days, which of course is never good.

Make sure that your schedule is packed, packed, packed.

And it doesn’t matter who’s coming.

One time, I had the CEO of OppenheimerFunds coming.

I picked him up at the hotel at 6:30 in the morning. We did five appointments.

We drove to see just the right people, so we did a little extra driving. And I dropped him off after dinner at 8:00 that night.

This was the CEO.

He got his money’s worth and I got my money’s worth, making sure that he got the right impression of how I did my business.

Vary the types of appointments.

So often, wholesalers want to show their bosses only the best producers, which is fine. You should show your boss some of the best producers.

But what about if you show them a prospect appointment?

What about if you show them how deftly you’ve done your advisor reconnaissance, and work your way through your 76 Great Questions, and use your advisor data sheet.

There’s just this real fluidity of how well you handled the advisor appointment.

Wouldn’t that impress them? Yes, it would.

So be sure to add in prospect appointments and don’t just stack the deck with best producer appointments.

Also, take them to see Centers of Influence. Let the boss be an ambassador of the firm for you.

Take them in to shake hands and kiss babies with COIs, and show the center of influence that they’re important, by bringing the home office visitor in to see them as well.

Of course, you want to get the boss in front of your best clients, I mean your very best clients.

So if you can schedule your top five, one or two of your top 10, this is going to, of course, allow your boss to do some ring kissing of your top advisors, and let them know just how important they are, if for no other reason to stop it and say, thank you for your business.

It’s a worthwhile endeavor for your boss, and certainly appreciated by the producer.

Make sure you’ve scheduled one-on-one time.

I don’t know if you ever read the post that I wrote called Sushi, Sake, See Ya!.

I happened to be a top producer, which was great. I was number one of the sales rankings, which is great.

But I also needed input, and feedback, and counsel.

Well, my boss thought the right thing to do would be to come and see me, go out for sushi, and drink plenty of sake. He just enjoyed the heck out of that.

And sure, I had a good time, but I didn’t necessarily benefit from any of his guidance or his wisdom.

So schedule that one-on-one time. Make sure that you get some coaching or at least ask for it. Not all divisional managers are great coaches, it’s just a fact.

So how can you make sure that there’s some one-on-one time scheduled and make sure you have an agenda for that one-on-one time?

Help steer the bus in terms of what they’re supposed to help you with.

Ask your boss to present at a group meeting.

Not because you can’t do it, but because if you feel they’re particularly adept at group presentation skills, there are some pointers that you can pick up.

If you have that kind of boss, ask them to make a presentation. Let them know in advance who’s in the audience, what should they talk about. Let them be properly prepared. Don’t put them on the spot.

If you think you can learn from them by seeing them in action, that’s a great opportunity to do it.

Take care of the details.

Think like a concierge.

You want to pick them up at the airport.

You want to drop them off at their hotel.

You want to pick them up at their hotel in the morning, drop them off at night.

You want to make sure that your shoes are shined, that your clothes are starched and crisp, that your car is clean.

That includes your trunk.

Make sure you leave the right impression.

There is a great opportunity to blow the hair back on a home office visitor and/or your boss during a ride along.

Make the most of it.

It was about 15 years ago.

While still at my former employer, I was starting to mentally explore the possibility of becoming a corporate expatriate.

And as quick as I allowed myself to venture into those thoughts, the Gremlins began to attack.

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Dumbfounded and disappointed.

As I listened to the Barron’s Top 100 Advisor tell me their story, my brain cycled through both of these emotions.

My question was designed to better understand how as wholesalers we may rub advisors the wrong way.

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