Some skills that wholesalers employ really separate the men from the boys, the posers from the superstars, the wheat from the……well you get the idea.
One of those advanced skills is Forward Scheduling.
Picture this sequence of events:
- You have a great meeting with a high potential rep, for our purposes we’ll call him The Whale (TW). TW is in your Top 50 Prospects and you have every intention of converting them to superstar producer status.
- During the meeting you are asking great questions (and taking copious notes using your Advisor Data Sheet) about where the opportunities lie for both product placement and how to contribute to The Whale’s overall business.
- TW understands your PVP – Peerless Value Proposition® and is interested in partnering in your practice.
- As a result of this meeting you now have a number of follow up items that need to be completed for TW such as:
- Putting TW’s existing fund grid through an analytics program to test your funds.
- Running a hypothetical for an immediate income stream for a prospect TW will be seeing.
- Getting information about the availability of a portfolio manager to conduct a call for TW’s 20 best clients.
- Before you leave the office, you say to The Whale that, in addition to promptly handling the items on the to do list that require immediate follow up, you would like to schedule the next visit (the date of which you know courtesy of your Rotation Builder) to go through the fund grid and the associated analysis that you will run so you can talk through the results.
- You and The Whale are now scheduled for 4, 6 or 8 weeks out.
- You debrief the visit with your internal and give them the most pressing to do’s upon leaving TW’s office.
- You put your notes into SalesForce.com (or similar) and…
- You enter the dates of the next meeting in the forward schedule.
- Now it’s the internal wholesaler’s opportunity to leverage the benefits of the forward schedule:
- Internal calls TW to follow up on the pressing to do’s from the meeting that just took place.
- During the conversation the internal mentions to The Whale that they see the next appointment on the calendar and that they will be working on the analysis that the wholesaler promised, checking to see that The Whale doesn’t have any additional question or concerns.
- Internal mentions to TW that they will be back in touch shortly before the next scheduled meeting with the external wholesaler to cover any additional agenda items that TW might like to add.
- A week before the scheduled appointment with The Whale you send an email to confirm the appointment. Make it short and sweet:
Whale,
Looking forward to the continuation of our discussion re your practice and how advancing the relationship with Foonman Funds adds to your bottom line.
As a reminder we’re meeting on Monday March 8th at 10:00 AM.
If there has been a change to your schedule please let me know as this time is reserved specifically for you.
Most importantly, if there is anything else that you would like me to be prepared to discuss when we meet please let me know.
Regards,
World’s Best Wholesaler
To recap, the benefits of Forward Scheduling are:
- Less time spent scheduling, as a number of appointments with your best producers are preset via the last meeting.
- Tighter coordination with your internal partner.
- Keep your rotations/loops in good order.
- Maximize the potential of systems such as SalesForce.com. If your firm has no such system simply use a shared Google Calendar.
- Reminds reps that you’re working on their practice and their agenda (mostly) vs. the dreaded “show up and throw up” that too many wholesalers practice.
- Less pressure to fill the calendar the week before a trip.
- Allow your internal partner to help “clear the weeds” before your next in person visit.
Want to explore more techniques that will take your wholesaling practice from good to great?
Find out more about Wholesaler Masterminds Coaching today.
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Dean Phillips says
Rob,
This is one of the best articles to come out from your group-and that’s saying something, because they are all thought-prevoking and actionable.
If my hair-stylist (note, I didn’t say colorist-just yet!) can forward-schedule me for a $25.00 haircut, is there any excuse for a $ XXX,XXX wholesaler? I think the reason for the difficulty in External Wholesalers scheduling ahead is they don’t have an Annual Travel Schedule. I have done my Annual Calendar based on Top Producing Advisors and Cities/States (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary markets). The key is to also, review Quarterly to “rebalance” if need be. The frequency of travel for me coincided with % of Sales/Assets
It not only looks good to clients that you know were you plan to be for the next 12 months forward. It also, can help you out with a “client seminar” that someone asked you to do at the last minute-usually, because another wholesaler backed out or didn’t get the A-Ok for the home office.
“I’d like to help in some way, but my firm required that I physically participate and speak in these kinds of events. Looking at my calendar, I’m in Waco, TX that day. Perhaps, we can plan something for a select group of your clients for my next trip in to Natchadoches in 16 weeks? (Make sense?)
Good stuff, Rob.
Rob says
@Dean
Thanks for the kind words – I appreciate it.
Your analogy re hairstylists is a great one – and I refuse to get my hair colored!
Jeremy says
I’ve had advisors comment about my scheduling forward. In a good way. Advisors hate receiving scheduling calls as much as we hate making them. In a very strange coincidence, many successful advisors schedule forward their clients as well. I was on a conference call a few weeks back with XYZ Bank and the sales manager was challenging his reps to run more appts. Most were running only 10-15 per week. That’s when the top advisor on the call spoke up and said “notice how your top wholesalers always schedule forward, you should be doing the same with your clients”. Eye opener for everyone on the call.
Rob says
Thanks for the comment Jeremy.
Ben says
Great article. Forward scheduling is simple…but not easy because it requires the wholesaler to have the discipline and organization to fully work a business plan.
Basic sales mantra that I drilled into our wholesalers was to “schedule your next appointment before you end your current appointment.”
Rob, really nice story that makes the point.
Rob says
Appreciate your comment Ben and hope you are well!