Prospecting: It's a Contact Sport

This is a reprint from my published article of August 14, 2007

As a father of three boys and a former Little League baseball coach, I am often asked what I think about my sons playing sports. Do I think the competition is healthy? Am I afraid that they will get hurt? Do I think my sons are ready to move up to the next level of play? More often, than not, they are really asking me to comment on my thoughts about their own children.

In my career as a coach to financial advisors and active partner in joint casework, I have experienced very similar questions from these advisors:

1) How do I take my practice to the next level?

2) How do I see more prospective clients?

3) What do I have to do to increase my income?

The answer lies in the fundamentals: Prospecting. Effective prospecting.

In the business of bringing on new clients, prospecting is a contact sport. No succesful advisor I know builds their client base by the consistent flow of prospective clients that happen to stumble into their office carrying a completed financial questionnaire with all of the supporting documents in their briefcase. Yet every advisor that I have ever coached seems to operate with the assumption that this will somehow happen today, tomorrow, and next week.

It has become very apparent to me that advisors are either participants, or spectators. Those who play this game daily are shaking hands, making phone calls, delivering value, seeing people in every active moment that they are awake. These advisors usually are productive and can examine their skills, and their prospects daily. They are able to adjust their presentations, measure their performance, and find areas to improve for a more efficient performance. They are consistently working on the fundamentals of contacting the people who they know will say "yes" to their value proposition. The pros actually attract more prospective clients by the very nature that they are in contact with the public so often.

The other group, I will call them spectators, are always great coaches from the bleachers. They have this uncanny ability to let everyone else know how the players, and other coaches, should approach prospects, which products to sell, which companies to align themselves with, and which strategies solve all the prospects problems. They are always armed with enormous education from the many conference calls, webinars, seminars, classes, sales techniques, or study groups that they have attended. This education is necessary...unless you have no one to share it with.

On closer examination, many of the spectators' calendars are empty, except for the classes and agency meetings. There is usually no defined game plan on who to approach, why to approach them, or how to approach any prospect.

ARE YOU AFRAID THEY WILL GET HURT? This question sound familiar? I can only imagine that the spectators are afraid of the contact. Recently in a mastermind group, one of our members had a definition of a successful meeting as, "no one hit me". The financial advisors business may be tough, but no one is going to hit you. In another meeting in Boston, many in the goup blamed the reasons they were not performing well on the market volatility, the tough business acumen of prospects, or the competition. Then one advisor in the room who was a former Israeli police officer spoke up. He said, "this business is not so tough, I do not get shot at every day." Now that is perspective!

I have found that to solve almost any advisor's performance issue, that the first place to look is their prospecting habits. The fundamentals of prospecting are something that must be addressed before any other concern can be addressed. In other words, you must have someone to tell your story to. The advisor must know who is going to say yes to their value proposition. After the "ideal prospect" characteristics are identified, you then must make contact. SOMEONE, OR SOMETHING MUST GET OUT OF YOUR OFFICE TO MAKE CONTACT WITH THE PROSPECTIVE CLIENT. DON'T BE AFRAID OF ANYTHING. IT WON'T HURT.

The exercises to enhance your prospecting muscles for the current season are:

1) Identify the characteristics that are common to YOUR "ideal prospect"

2) Send a note, letter, or email with a confidential financial questionnaire requesting a meeting for you to deliver your value proposition

3) Set in advance the time slots on specific days for this introductory meeting (ex: Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at 9:00 am)

4) Only send confidential financial questionnaires to "ideal prospects" - Only set appointments with your "ideal prospects"

5) Mail a minimum of 20 CFQs with letters every other Wednesday so that you can call to request appointments on Fridays, or Mondays

6) Log your success of returned CFQs for the next 60 days

7) All outgoing CFQs should have an urgency to be completed and returned before first meeting in next 5 to 10 days. (As if, an additional $1,000,000 with no additional outlay and no additional risk is not enough reason to complete the questionnaire.)

8) When not in your office mailing out of CFQs, or conducting the intro meetings, GET OUT OF YOUR OFFICE AND GO SHAKE HANDS WITH PEOPLE.

9) REMEMBER: IF YOU LIKE TO FISH, YOU CAN FISH ANYWHERE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO EAT, YOU WILL FISH WHERE THE BIG FISH ARE!

To play in the big leagues, you have to practice daily on the fundamentals. Strengthen your prospecting muscles daily. Prospecting is a contact sport!