Episode 13 - Sam – Financial Wholesaler

Simplify Your Strategy – Magnify Your Results Podcast

On each episode Brian Margolis helps entrepreneurs, sales pros and other professionals create a simple weekly strategy using The Pillar System. A system that's helped multiple individuals become 7 figure earners and is licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to help their teams grow through simplification Some episodes have a 2nd part where Brian helps guests review and refine their initial pillars and solidify the CAP strategies they can use to turn pillar execution into a habit.

Sam is an experienced financial product salesman (wholesaler) who calls on financial advisors. He is also a former client of mine. He reached out to me because he is starting a new job, in a new territory with a new product. In order to get him up and running, we identified the following pillars during our call:

·        Prospecting 85/85/30/5

·        Reach out to 3 COIs/Warm Market Advisors

·        Update and Review Opportunity Report x 1

·        1 Hour Working on VAR Strategies

·        30 Min Learning Prospecting Techniques

·        30 Min Updating Database

·        30 Min Working on Product Story

To hear other episodes go to https://productivitygiant.com/simplify-your-strategy-magnify-your-results-podcast/

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00:01):

All right. So thank you for joining me, Sam, and just real quick. Cause for those who are going to be listening to the recording of this. So you are a financial wholesaler, which is a group I'm very familiar with. And your job basically is you are a wholesaler to financial advisors, meaning your job is to call on the financial advisors in your region, your territory, and essentially encourage them, influence them, convince them whatever the word is to use your products for their clients. Is that a, is that a fair definition? That's why they say they call you a hole.

Speaker 2 (00:00:50):

I'd say that's a great definition. My friend.

Speaker 1 (00:00:52):

Perfect. Perfect. So you're called, although the end client that uses your company's product is the investor, the financial advisor's really your client. And so your situation is you and I had worked together in the past. So you're very familiar with my work and my systems and all that kind of stuff. But I thought this would be a cool situation to, uh, build an episode around because you have basically done a one 80 in that you're basically in a brand new company with a brand new to you company, but also a newer company. If I remember with the newer, a newer product. And so you're basically starting over, is that an accurate way of saying it? How would you describe it?

Speaker 2 (00:01:42):

It is, it is. So obviously you and I worked together a couple of years ago and like you said, you know, really doing a one 80, the, uh, uh, the company I'm currently with is, uh, is brand new, uh, brand new to the industry. Um, advisors don't know the company. And, uh, in addition that, you know, I think you hit on this as well, is, is my territory is really brand new territory as well. Right? So the advisors don't know me, they don't know the company. And, and obviously I, you know, I think the really goes without saying that unique environment that we're in, uh, working through COVID as well as really changed the way I prospect ID and was able to get in the door in the past, uh, when I was building new territories and sell, you know, really trying to tie kind of our work that we did in the past together with what I need to do right now to, to run that intentional business and be more effective at, uh, getting in the door and, uh, and, uh, making those connections to advisors who, like you said, they, they don't know me.

Speaker 2 (00:02:48):

They don't know our product, don't know our firm. And so, you know, how do I speed, speed up that process and environment that's completely changed from the way we did business as you know, in the past.

Speaker 1 (00:03:00):

Yeah. And, and the, you know, look you've already bought into this system, you've used it in the past. So all we have to really do today is identify what your pillars are going to be for the current situation. And so, you know, having, having said that, um, I imagine I could be wrong, but you know, the bottleneck in your business right now is access. Meaning, you know, whereas maybe in a past business or job you had, you had a lot more access right now, the bottleneck is, you're just not talking to a lot of advisors. Would you say that's one of the bottlenecks

Speaker 2 (00:03:45):

That I would say by far is the, uh, is the biggest bottleneck, you know, in the, uh, in the past, there were a lot of, lot of ways to obviously engage with, with advisors, right. And, you know, I think I've heard through some of your trainings, you referenced obviously the one to many, right. Some group meeting in some format where, you know, I could go out to the territory, uh, conduct a continuing education event, or bring in a speaker and send out the invitations and, and, and connect your advisors. But, uh, to your point, obviously, yeah, the biggest bottleneck in my business by far right now is I need to have more conversations with advisors to get in the door. Uh, but also, you know, you know, of course the reason we're talking, uh, is to connect that, to not just thinking about it right.

Speaker 2 (00:04:36):

And, and throwing a couple of ideas out there, here, here and there, but to really incorporate that into Kevin intentional process around my business. Right. And so, I mean, you, uh, you hit it off the tee. I mean, it's, you know, I can't really go deep into, Hey, their bottleneck is in and closing business. Right. Because I don't have enough in the pipeline to really go, Hey, is this a bottleneck or not? It's really comes down to getting access in today's environment. And, and, you know, I think the benefit of obviously engaging in the conversation from other benefits right now is it's not just today's environment, but it's also, uh, of course moving forward, right. And, you know, running a more effective business around our process of getting in the door and getting access to those advisors will, you know, no pun intended open up a, uh, a lot of doors going forward in my business, you know, obviously with, uh, you know, in wholesaling,

Speaker 1 (00:05:43):

You know, so, so one bottleneck is the access. I mean, even if you were medium and a lot of people listening, we can probably relate to this, whether they're, you know, at every, whether it's a new business, a new job or a new component to your business, you know, I am in personally right now where I'm adding a new part to my business, you know, you're at the point where you don't have a lot of traction and, you know, even if you were mediocre at everything else, just by gaining more access by prospecting better, by having more meetings, you would naturally see growth, even if you were mediocre at everything else. And so why don't we, so why don't we start off with question number one, which is, you know, what is something you already know how to do effectively that if you just did more of a more consistent with would have the biggest impact on your business, right. W what, I'm sure you've been thinking about this based on our past. And so what are kind of your consistency pillars? What do you think? What are those things you have to make sure you're doing each week?

Speaker 2 (00:06:46):

Yeah. You know, I think, uh, you know, setting up, I've always been really effective at working the, a one to many kind of group presentations. Obviously today's environment is a little bit different, uh, where those, you know, are using webinars and zoom calls, not getting in front of a room, buying a lunch and, and presenting. And so I know how to effectively build and deliver an effective group presentation. And so, you know, that's one of the things that I think some of your trainings and audios and past, you know, really, uh, talked about leveraging that. And so that's one of the things that I, I think I can do consistently, and I know how to do, um, is to effectively deliver those presentations.

Speaker 1 (00:07:37):

Okay. But, but you can't deliver those presentations until you have access, right? Correct.

Speaker 2 (00:07:42):

Correct. Correct. So again,

Speaker 1 (00:07:45):

On the consistency front about what you control right now, you know, you've heard me say this a million times, but basically, you know, wherever the problem is, it's either something you're not doing consistently, something you're not doing effectively or both. Right. I'm just looking at the consistency component right now. So what are those things right now that you can do each week and you need to make sure you're doing each week,

Speaker 2 (00:08:10):

I need to send invitations out, uh, for future, you know, I think one, uh, one, a mini events, um, every single week, I'm not doing that consistently, but I think that's how I can help open up the door and get in the door with, uh, okay.

Speaker 1 (00:08:30):

So you, so you need to, well, let me ask, is it just about sending the invites or is it about creating the event as well? It's about

Speaker 2 (00:08:41):

Creating the event and, uh, and sending the invites and, and really, you know, when I think about and go, go magic question, you know, I think about the

Speaker 1 (00:08:57):

Bigger picture bottleneck of, you know, getting in the door and prospecting, things like that. Um, you know, I think you've obviously talked to a million of my counterparts, but, you know, it's really started hitting that kind of shiny dot, uh, you know, how what's the best way to reach out to guys, right? Is it LinkedIn? Is it InMail? Is it email? Is it, is it calling? And so, you know, I'm bouncing all over the place trying to figure out what's the best way, but it's also, I've got to create these, uh, seven minute calls, the nine minute calls, and then I need to have a process around, you know, effectively getting in the door where I'm committed to that process, not just bouncing around, like, Hey, let me try was this week, or let me try emails. Right? Let, let, let me, let, let me ask you, let me ask you something.

Speaker 1 (00:09:51):

Um, so when you're saying the, the one to many events, all right, but you are those the same? Are we talking about the same thing with the one to many and the seven, nine minute, 11 minute calls? W we are, we are, yeah. I just wanna make sure, cause people listening don't necessarily know what the heck we're talking about. Something that you and I worked on in the past was these, you know, value added things for advisors, but, you know, whereas I believe so many people have fatigue of these 45 minute webinars and things like that. We do these little seven minute calls, nine minute calls because they're quick, they're valuable. They're attractive. So, okay. W w w I just wanna make sure we were talking about the same thing. Yeah. So I don't really think sending the invites is the thing you need to do consistently.

Speaker 1 (00:10:42):

Um, unless I'm mistaken is you have to actually spend time building these, right? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Because I have a feeling, once you build them, you will naturally, I could be wrong, but you'll naturally be inviting people. Right. Uh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, so again, and again, you know, we're going to have a few shortcuts here because we have talked in the past. I'm like, no, sure. Some other people, but, okay. So it's really creating your, let's just call them. I know some people call them quick hit calls, right? Yeah. For sure. For lack of a better word, let's call it, you know, quick hit calls or QA HCS. Right. Okay. That's one thing you have to do. And again, none of these are actually pillars yet. We're just kind of brainstorming here. Right. Um, the, so you have to do that consistently. And then based on what you said after that was, it sounds like you need to prospect consistently. Exactly. So it seems like an obvious one, right? Yeah. It's very obvious. So, okay. You know, bridging, you know, bridging the

Speaker 2 (00:11:54):

Gap, you know, really kind of an intentional way, right. Where, you know, I have these quick hit calls, but also need a prospect to actually have conversations, uh, you know, around our product and how we fit in things like that. And so, you know, how do I kind of marry those two together, really an intentional process where I'm also doing kind of both at the same time. Right.

Speaker 1 (00:12:20):

Okay. Yeah, no, we're going to, we're going to address that. And you know, my, you know, the way I look at prospecting and you've heard me say this before, but you know, I don't care what industry you're in. If somebody won't take your meeting, if you're having a hard time getting meetings, you know, there's only two reasons either you don't have anything they value, right? You, you don't have anything they're willing to trade their time for. And sometimes that's just the case, what you offer, they're just not interested in. Right. And then the second reason someone might not take your meeting or ask you for a demo or whatever it's going to be is that you have something of value. You just can't articulate it quickly. Right. You can't articulate it in a one sentence email or a ten second voicemail or something like that. So, you know, we're going to have to address both components of that in these pillars. Right. Make sure you have something valuable and then also make sure we're, uh, articulating it quickly and consistently. Um, okay.

Speaker 2 (00:13:18):

So we have, so prospecting

Speaker 1 (00:13:20):

Is going to be a huge part of the thing you need to do consistently. Yep.

Speaker 2 (00:13:24):

Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:13:26):

All right. What about, so we're gonna, w w we'll handle those in the, in the pillars? What about anything that, like, are you at the point right now in your business, where is, is scheduling something you need to be doing consistently, or is that just 99% of scheduling is

Speaker 2 (00:13:45):

I would say 99% of scheduling is, uh, is prospecting, um, re really the most momentum. You know, I I've been able to get, as far as traction, since I've taken over this, uh, new opportunities is really through COIs and, and getting introductions and, and things like that. So going back to that, scheduling with guys that already know is a very, very small part of the bigger picture. Um, it comes down to kind of getting in the door and prospecting are the, are the big bottlenecks where, you know, kind of running up, beating my head against the wall,

Speaker 1 (00:14:25):

Speak over and over again. How, how, how many people would you say you currently have in your warm market? Meaning they know you, they know who you are and you know who they are, but both advisers and CLS,

Speaker 2 (00:14:38):

I'd say that's a really good question. You know, advisors, um, you know, in this, uh, Kevin you environment. Um, obviously I would say they're 10 to 15 that they know me, um, et cetera, not centers of influence, uh, COI, um, you know, that's the COIs I'm referring to our summit, our competitors, as well as, uh, uh, business partners, record-keepers et cetera that, uh, that I may be dealing with. But I would say, you know, I mean, there's probably 10 good COIs that I can reach out to and connect with and, and, uh, you know, have conversations with, about partnering and things like that.

Speaker 1 (00:15:30):

All right. And that's been your most successful route so far early on

Speaker 2 (00:15:34):

It, it re it really is my most successful introductions. Ironically have actually come from a competitor by, um, you know, a guy who's is common in your industry. Yeah, yeah. A guy who is incredibly well well-established, you've been around and obviously his goals are significantly locked to the buy-in and I connected with them and said, Hey, can you help me out? And good guy. He's like, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (00:15:58):

Yeah, no, I mean, I look other other, other wholesalers are a great source of leverage. Okay. Um, what else consistently? I mean, is it just follow up, play into it yet? Or is that a non-issue right now?

Speaker 2 (00:16:15):

Follow-up is a, is a non-issue, um, you know, at stake, one of the things I need to get more consistent at, or, or better at, you know, as part of the process is not necessarily, I mean, maybe incorporate it in terms of follow-up is, is when I leave that meeting, creating that kind of next steps, that urgency for that follow-up process, um, that I can, then I can absolutely do more consistency.

Speaker 1 (00:16:46):

So you're talking, you're talking about inside the meeting instead of tapping out early, actually having the clarifying conversation too, so that you and the advisor on the same page with what the next step is, or you might find out you're not on the same page, meaning they're not really interested. They were just telling you what you want to hear, right? Yeah. Correct. Absolutely. So what we call in my, again, for those listening, I have a lot of wholesalers specific training, but what you would call clarifying conversations. Right, exactly. Okay. So do you need to do those more consistently? Meaning it's just a matter of, you need to make sure you're asking clarifying questions or do you need to actually work on the conversation itself at this point?

Speaker 2 (00:17:30):

I need to work on the conversation itself.

Speaker 1 (00:17:34):

Okay. So create your clarifying conversations. Yes. Okay. All right. Um, just so we don't drop the ball in up. All right. Yeah. I mean, do you think, do you think you should have pillar a followup pillar, even if it doesn't take you that long each week, or do you think you're naturally going to do it?

Speaker 2 (00:17:55):

No, I think I should have a follow-up, uh, pillar because I mean, for kind of multiple reasons, it's, you know, one I get, uh, distracted very easily. So, you know, I think having that followup pillar is great for making sure stuff doesn't, uh, fall through the cracks. And then number two, obviously, you know, the pipeline, you know, clearly not to the point where I've so much, so much in the pipeline where, you know, if something falls through, it's no big deal. Right. You know, every opportunity I've really had to make sure I kind of follow it through as much as, uh,

Speaker 1 (00:18:29):

Okay. So then then the, the, the, the followup pillar, that consistency pillar that I would put into place would be, um, where, you know, when you have a clarifying conversation, you, you, at the end of that clarifying conversation, you believe that, you know, there's a true opportunity, right. You actually leave, we'll leave. And there's an opportunity where do you then put those opportunities? Do you have an Excel sheet that you keep them on? Do you,

Speaker 2 (00:19:01):

I, uh, I throw them in our CRM, which is Salesforce, uh, you know, put a placeholder,

Speaker 1 (00:19:07):

What is that like? Is that like a black hole? Or can you reprint, can you print a report every week saying these are my open opportunities?

Speaker 2 (00:19:19):

No, I can, I can print a report every week that says, Hey, here are the, uh, open opportunities from Salesforce. Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:19:26):

S okay. So, and that's, that's better for you right now than just keeping an Excel sheet.

Speaker 2 (00:19:31):

Yeah. Thanks. So I think so, but, you know, I'm open to,

Speaker 1 (00:19:36):

Well, no, for some people, some people in the world of sales CRMs are like these black holes and they kind of, they use it more to deposit information. It makes their company happy. And then if they need to get something, they'll go after it where, you know, they don't, whereas with an Excel sheet, you know, just simple, like their name, the last date of contact and any notes you have. But, um, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just asking, what's easier for you is keeping an Excel sheet or just a separate Excel sheet of opportunities that you've identified, or just print the sales port, a Salesforce report,

Speaker 2 (00:20:12):

I think, uh, I think just print the Salesforce report. Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:20:15):

All right. So then, okay. So Salesforce report times. Okay. Um, anything else on the consistency front that you can think of? Um,

Speaker 2 (00:20:34):

You know, we, we already hit a little bit on it earlier, but, you know, consistently I need to work on not just creating the quick eight calls, but, um, really, really being able to be an expert or not an expert, but being able to deliver, you know, that value add, if I'm going to create that quick head call, obviously I'd be effective and have a list of those, like you would have talked about in the past. And so, you know, consistently kind of a learning block to practice

Speaker 1 (00:21:11):

Actually actually create when I say create the quick hit calls. I mean, everything like, you know, figuring out how to turn information into weaponized value for them and then delivering it.

Speaker 2 (00:21:24):

Yep. Okay. No, that's, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (00:21:26):

Yeah. And then you have the end meeting program, something I work with with wholesalers, for those listening, something called a VAR strategy where you actually create the end meeting program. So if they want to meet with you, you can actually show them how to get a result very quickly inside the meeting. So to me, that all, you know, based on our past, that all goes on your VAR strategy. Right. Okay. Perfect. Gathering the information that can help advisors weaponizing it in the format that I teach on the audios. Right. Yep. The quick hit calls are more of like a getting in the door to get advisors, to respond to you. And so that, to me, you know, all goes under a VAR strategy.

Speaker 2 (00:22:15):

Um, got it. Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:22:17):

So in addition to working on your VAR strategies, getting better at those creating your quick hit calls, you know, w what are some other skills or, or what's another skill kind of question number two, that if you significantly improved on would have a big impact on your business. Right. We talked about clarifying conversations, something you need to get better at talked about creating your VAR strategies, any other, any other skills that if you improved on would have a significant impact on your business?

Speaker 2 (00:22:50):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, you know, sending emails that, uh, that advisors respond to, um, you know, that's obviously, you know, prospecting and VAR and, you know, just, you know, getting, getting that hid rate and practicing and, and, uh, becoming better at that is

Speaker 1 (00:23:12):

We're talking about the direct response copywriting, correct? Yeah. The ability to write an email and adviser responds to exactly. Okay. All right. So direct response copywriting is a possibility here, and again, we're just laying all these things out and then we'll, you know, me, we'll clean them up and, and there'll be, there'll be crystal clear.

Speaker 2 (00:23:32):

Oh, fantastic. Buddy. The, um, you know, the, uh, you know, in just to kind of obviously circle back, you know, we talked earlier, you know, back in, uh, you know, in air quotes, the, uh, the old days I was very effective for in-person, um, presentations. Right. You know, I have a lot of energy I can, uh, you know, presume really effectively, probably like a lot of, a lot of your clients in front of groups. Right. But I don't necessarily think I haven't had a lot of practice at it. Presenting in front of a computer is necessarily a skillset that, uh, really developed themselves. It's something I think I could probably obviously execute and get better on. So if I'm doing these quick eight calls, having a lot more virtual meetings, how do I get better at presenting in front of a screen?

Speaker 1 (00:24:28):

D do you think, cause, cause again, it's all about with pillars, turn on, return on investment. Right. Do you think that's something you need to pour a lot of time into like reading books on virtual presentations? Or do you think it's just something that you'll get better at it?

Speaker 2 (00:24:46):

That's a good way to I'll play it now. I think it's something I'll just get better at better at over time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:24:52):

People that might not be true, they might have to actually spend time each week, practicing learning, whatever, but based on your past,

Speaker 2 (00:24:59):

I think it's more

Speaker 1 (00:25:00):

Of a comfort thing, which is, you know, you just being yourself over time. I think you're going to naturally get better at this.

Speaker 2 (00:25:07):

Right. Right. And I think when it comes down to is also feeling, uh, confident about, you know, the, uh, the content, right. And so if I'm creating, I'm creating this quiet kid call that, you know, putting together this presentation, feeling confident that, Hey, this is something that it's actually, you know, if, uh, if these advisors dial into it, that they are going to be interested in and go, wow, that was really good. Thanks for doing it. And so part of, uh, you know, part of the bottleneck and in terms of creating that is filling the confidence that okay, if I create it and I do it, our advisors, you know, you know, the corner office, anyone who dials in right there, the C level C suite executive, whoever dials in is going to go, wow, thanks. Thanks. That was worth my time. Or they'll go, wow. I can't believe, you know, those guys do. And so part of it is probably building that competence for me, that I'm delivering the right content to, to the advisors. If that makes sense. Yeah. No hundred, a hundred percent. So look, I mean,

Speaker 1 (00:26:21):

When you have something that's actually valuable to advisors, everything else gets easier. Like the emails, or even if they're mediocre emails, they get through, because it's valuable, the presentations don't have to be as crisp because it's valuable. So,

Speaker 2 (00:26:34):

Um, what

Speaker 1 (00:26:35):

About the actual messaging? The storytelling around your product, because it is a new product or new to the market. And so the isn't going to get

Speaker 2 (00:26:44):

Anyone attention. What about your product story? Are you where you need to be? I am not. I'm not, um, you know, throwing a, you know, for lack of a better word, throw different stuff against the wall when I'm having conversations to see why resonates and, and see, you know, what kind of traction. And so, you know, I think that's a skill I can definitely get better at is like the way you put it, storytelling around the product. And is it, is it a skill, a skill being like, do you think you need to work on it outside of meetings? Or do you think it's something you can only figure it out from being in the meetings? It's a good question. Um, I mean, obviously it's both, it's always going to be both. Meaning you get feedback in the meetings, you adjust. Do you feel like you should be dedicating more time to it outside the meetings? That's a good question. I'm going to put that as a, maybe I'm not sure yet.

Speaker 3 (00:27:48):

So

Speaker 2 (00:27:49):

You're, and again, when I say the product is great, I mean, everything from your own product to the competition to whatever. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:27:58):

All right. What about

Speaker 2 (00:28:03):

Prospecting itself? Meaning actually learning about prospecting, meaning there's no shortage of information out there I've been, I've actually been interviewed on a, I don't know what the thing is recently, but the last few interviews I've done on podcasts have been with prospecting people. Uh, even though it's about my system, their main thing has been prospecting. You know, there's a lot of ideas out there to get meetings, to get in the doors, a lot of creative ways to do it. And, you know, I find that most people just multiply by zero. They try to do it in volume instead of being creative or quality. I mean, do you think that's an area you could improve in? I, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The, uh, you know, prospecting and getting in the door, like we talked about are, are huge bottlenecks that I need to improve in. And, you know, one of the things that, you know, as we talk about kind of tying and bundling all the pillars and all this information together, you know, one of the things that I find myself getting bogged down in and is, you know, I have a prospect and pillar, but then I have a sharp sharpening, the axon on prospecting.

Speaker 2 (00:29:15):

And so I'll spend all the time kind of going, God, I need to get better at prospecting, you know, you know, reading combo, prospecting book or whatnot, whatever. Right, right. And then going back to, okay, how's this actually translate to, well, we're going to, so building the, I guess, right. Intentionality about that framework,

Speaker 1 (00:29:43):

This goes back to the whole, you know, it's either something you need to do consistently effectively or both. And in this case, it's both, you need to be getting more effective at it, but you also need to do it consistently. And so we're going to definitely address that in your pillars now. Perfect. There's no doubt. There's no doubt about that. Um, what about question number three? I mean, you know, what is something you can organize planner create prior to taking action that would make the action much more impactful? So is there any kind of strategy pillar, where is there something you could create each week that'll make something else like the prospecting or the meetings more effective, you know, is there anything, any kind of like, do you feel like you already kind of know who your prospects are? Do you still need to be doing research or creating hit lists or what's that situation?

Speaker 2 (00:30:36):

I think I still need to spend time doing research and creating his list. Um, you know, find myself kind of, you know, replicating, repeating the same, you know, any efficiently the same work kind of over and over again. Right. You know, cause we don't, uh, you know, necessarily have a good database that, you know, consolidates all the information the way way I would like. And so, you know, maybe this big RAA that I'm calling on that, you know, has 20 advisors and then a re research director and a chief investment officer. And, you know, I still don't know, obviously you grew, the best person is to the gatekeeper to kind of get in the door with as big, a big firm that has all these different people. And so, you know, I'll find myself kind of replicating that work, you know, over and over again where I'm like, Oh, I need to call X, Y and Z RIA and said, then I go to the website. I, I go look at, look up their names and then, you know, kind of repeating the process, very inefficiently. And so creating that kind of prepping for that hit list or they who to call for, get in the door for prospecting or, uh, get into the door campaigns, I think. Got it. Is something that's incredibly important. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:32:01):

So how many, how many people have you identified so far that are worth trying to get an initial meeting with like what's your population of potential people right now? Or your population of prospects?

Speaker 2 (00:32:12):

Yeah, I mean, there's probably, I mean there are probably 200, uh, roughly 200 prospects that really specialize in and, you know, the DCIO space that I'm working with. And then, you know, on another kind of side note, we're, uh, we're distributing a, uh, a private fund, which you know, is going to be kind of limited slots available to RIA is that, you know, there's basically every RIA through all that territory is a potential prospect. And I have no idea, you know, which of those guys, a private trust for credited investors will actually resonate with.

Speaker 1 (00:32:57):

Got it. But do you know who those people are or you still have to do some homework to figure out who those people are.

Speaker 2 (00:33:02):

I know who the potential firms are. I don't know who the potential contacts in those firms are. So yeah, so I need to do homework and, and again, I haven't really, you know, just lack of, you know, you know, me being made or what, uh, whatever, I haven't really had a good process in place. You know, when I pull up the website and see these 20 different guys, I know get one looks like these two or three are my best contacts. I haven't really established a process to, you know, for lack of better word to organize that information other than just got it. Okay. Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:33:41):

So are you now you said a word DCIO, which, you know, someone listening might, so you, you focus mostly on advisors who do retirement plans,

Speaker 2 (00:33:54):

Correct? Our, yeah. The core of our business right now is the advisors who do retirement plans with, right. With the exception of the temporary kind of asset res opportunity, which, you know, we have their product, the other product. Right.

Speaker 1 (00:34:10):

All right. But back to the retirement thing, right. Yeah. But you can also, can you get significant business from someone who necessarily doesn't specialize in retirement, but does a few retirement plans a year? Is that a target for you or are you not even focused on that?

Speaker 2 (00:34:25):

No. Yeah. I think that's a, it's an incredibly important, uh, target for, you know, you have the, uh, the base said guys, right? The, the may do two or three retirement plans, um, a year that it may not be a big focus of theirs, but you know, they are certainly selling them. And then you have kind of the big aggregators who, you know, are the, are the big, long process who can obviously move the needle and bring a lot of business. And,

Speaker 1 (00:35:00):

But with your, with your new company though, are you saying you're not, are you selling the platform? Are you selling a product that goes inside the platform,

Speaker 2 (00:35:07):

A product that goes inside the platform?

Speaker 1 (00:35:09):

Got it. So you need to be calling, so you're also targeting other wholesalers, correct? I am yet. Ah, okay. And record keepers and record capers. Yeah. Okay. So, so again, for those listening, these would just be people who can influence whether an advisor uses the product. Um, so in other words, a, a record keeper or another wholesaler that might sell the platform to the can recommend your products. Now, is that what you were calling your COIs earlier?

Speaker 2 (00:35:42):

Uh, the C uh, the COIs were combination of the record keepers, as well as, uh, you know, competitive yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:35:50):

Competitors, but also what about the DCIO wholesalers?

Speaker 2 (00:35:54):

Yeah, correct. Yeah. Other DCIO wholesalers,

Speaker 1 (00:35:58):

There's only 10 of them or only 10 that, you know,

Speaker 2 (00:36:01):

I mean their ticket now they're a lot more than 10 VCI, all sailors, but I mean, there are 10 dead, you know, record-keepers and DCI, all wholesalers that, you know, at some point in time have connected with over the years are okay.

Speaker 1 (00:36:16):

So you should be, I mean, honestly you should be prospecting those people too.

Speaker 2 (00:36:21):

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:36:23):

Ah, okay. So you should be prospecting intentionally prospecting those people. Yes. All right. So here, here's what I have. I'm going to give you my initial rundown of what I think your pillars are, and then we can kind of alternate and clean it up. All right. Okay. Yeah. Sounds great. So you said your, you said your, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Your population that you're calling on right now, it's only about 200 people or is it actually bigger when you get into the guys who aren't exclusively retirement people?

Speaker 2 (00:37:05):

Uh, yeah, it's 200 people are the main targets, but it's bigger when you include the, uh, guys who aren't exclusively retirement people, as well as the temporary kind of opportunity to raise cells for an RAs who don't do any retirement business.

Speaker 1 (00:37:24):

So well. Okay. So is that thing ready though? For the, the second product?

Speaker 2 (00:37:32):

Okay. And

Speaker 1 (00:37:32):

What does that population look like?

Speaker 2 (00:37:35):

That population? God, I've no, no idea. It's probably huge. Right? It's every RA, uh, kind of a, my footprints and then, you know, trying to figure out what these RAs, again, like who the right contact person is, is it the chief investment officers or the research director? Is it the financial end of it, independent financial advisors who may be pulling the, pulling the trigger. So, you know, the big learning curve on that, you know, to it's obviously kind of get ramped up, but yeah, so it's kind of 200, 200 roughly advisors that are classified, you know, you know, as kind of a lead, you know, that through a lot of retire retirement business, and then, you know, maybe a hundred more that, you know, are dabblers that do have some assets and do some retirement business and then a whole different segment of these

Speaker 1 (00:38:36):

RAs that we're trying to distributed kind of a limited offer product to got it. So, all right. I just want to do a little quick math here on my calculator. All right. So it's about 85. Okay. So, so here's, could you get your prospect list down to, could you get your prospect list down to about 500 people? Yeah. Like targeted. So that's not a pillar. That's a task. Right. Okay. Okay. Although it might be part of, one of the pillars I'm going to suggest here, but so here would be my prospecting pillar for you. All right. Okay. My prospecting pillar would be 85, 85,

Speaker 3 (00:39:31):

30 and five.

Speaker 1 (00:39:36):

Okay. And let me, let me explain exactly what that means. All right. Okay. You're going to take 500 prospects and you're going to divide them up into six groups of about 85 people. Okay. All right. So group a, B, C, D, and F. Now you want to kind of group like people together. So RIA is in a, in their own groups and, you know, decent, I'll only in their own groups and stuff like that. Um, and so what you're doing is in a rotation. So in week one, you would send out the 85 emails, right? 85 prospecting emails. The second 85 is you're going to forward the first 85 from the week before. Remember that? Yeah, no, again, for those listening, one of the techniques I teach for prospecting is to, for wholesalers is to, is to forward emails the week after it seems to work.

Speaker 1 (00:40:35):

So 85, 85, right. Then I like how I said it seems to work. It's fricking magical. Right? Anyway, the forwarded infamous forwarded email, but so email 85 forward the 85 from the week before any of the 85, that didn't respond, then you're going to call at least 30 of those 85. Right. And you're going to leave a message. If you get their voicemail referring back to the email right now, Hey, John, I sent you an email a couple of hours ago about, and then put it in the advisor facing benefit. You know, if that's something you're interested in, let's connect, you know, blah, blah, blah. Right. So, so you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna call them, but you're going to refer back to the email. So if you get a call back great, but the idea is you're pushing them toward the email. All right.

Speaker 1 (00:41:30):

That's kind of that, that combo prospecting. And then the five, the five is power prospecting. Okay. You're going to do each week. You're going to grab five of those people and go above and beyond. Right. Um, I don't know if you remember, we had the, the, the, the, my one client it's kind of taken on a life of its own the name, you know? Wow. Mailers, right? Yeah. Or you actually send them something physically. And I can email you some information about that after, but it's where you after this, but it's where you send them like a physical package where they certain note in there, right. To try to get in the door, power prospecting would be like, remember we talked about the cartoons at one point, right? Like the greeting cards you can create like, Oh, you know, all the more creative ways of doing it, the crumpled letter, all the stuff you're going to learn about.

Speaker 1 (00:42:28):

And one of your later pillars, right? The sandwich, when you find a comp some kind of a, uh, some kind of, uh, Exxon woken force, some kind of overlap with them went to the same school. You used to work for the same company, follow the same people on LinkedIn or something, a certain celebrity, whatever it is, you kind of find that commonality and you put it in both the subject line and the PS. Right? So again, for the purpose of this call, I'm not going to go into that road. We, down that road, we can talk after, um, but at least five power prospecting, right. At least five of those wow. Mailers or sandwich emails or whatever creative thing you're doing. Makes sense. It does. Yeah. They take a little more time. They're a little more targeted. Okay. So that's going to be your prospecting pillar. All right. That's going to be your prospecting pillar. Okay. Then I would say, I'm going to combine your warm market. So when you're putting together, like your, your Excel sheets and stuff, I'm going to combine your warm market with your COIs. And that's not only existing COIs, but COIs, you don't know, and you're trying to get a meeting with. Yeah. Okay. So what I'm going to say is reach out every week.

Speaker 1 (00:43:53):

All right. That could be an email or a phone call. Now, your population so small that, you know, for now, I'm going to say, reach out to three a week, because, and again, you can reach out to more in any given week, but if you do too many more, you're going to be reaching out to the same people every three weeks, right? Yeah. So reach out to at least three, I'm going to call them war market or COIs, you know, some combination thereof. And basically we're putting in that pillar. Cause I don't want you to forget about those people, right? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Those are, those are the ones that either, you know, or there's their leverage points. Okay. Now, are you, why are you considering, you know, for the purpose of this film, are you considering the recordkeepers as part of that? Or is that a yes.

Speaker 1 (00:44:44):

Or are you taking the arcades as an entirely separate pillar? No, I'm thinking of those as, as the party. Okay, cool. I'll give you think the numbers should be more, you can raise it, right? No, I think, uh, I think three sides. So again, if there's that many of them, you know, but I think those are people you need to focus on specifically. I wouldn't like wait for every seventh or eighth week to hit them, like in a prospecting rotation. Yeah. So reach out to three warm market or COIs every week. Right. Just to make sure that stuff doesn't fall through the cracks. Okay. As far as, um, as far as prospecting goes, I think you need to spend at least 30 minutes a week just getting better at prospecting.

Speaker 1 (00:45:38):

You know, a learning pillar where, you know, I mean, there's, there's entire podcast now on just B2B prospecting and you know, different ideas to get meetings. There's obviously books out there, like my friends do how to get a meeting with anyone or, you know, anything like that. Right. So there's no shortage of with a Google search, you know, you're going to find websites like blissful, prospecting.com. They have a podcast how to get a meeting with anyone, the stew he's got a podcast, you know, there's so many ideal do pray. There's so many people out there who just have idea after idea of how to get in the door. And I think that's critical. You need to spend at least 30 minutes a week just learning what's out there, coming up with ideas, trying them see what happens. Right.

Speaker 1 (00:46:26):

Pillar number four, you had, where were you saying? Oh, no, it makes, it makes sense. So pillar number four, I think you need to spend a minimum of one hour a week building your VAR strategies. Right. You need to spend at least an hour a week building your VAR strategies and you have access to my, you know, the, the NSW site. Now, you know, there's a video on there just about building VAR strategies. I don't know if you've seen it or not. That's a fantastic, a fantastic video. My friend. Okay. So yeah. So, so you using, using the components in there and the quick hit, but everything in that hour, again, it's a minimum, right? Yeah. Um, I, part of me almost wants to say 90 minutes. Cause I think honestly the most, the biggest driver of you getting in the door right now, it's going to be, to actually be valuable to people is to actually have these blue apron kind of ready to go, you know, VAR strategies. Right. Um, yeah, absolutely. Um, I'm going to leave it at an hour, but it's something you should consider doing more of. I might even change my mind before this call is over. Okay. Um, then you need to make sure that you're, uh, that you review your sales update and review

Speaker 1 (00:48:04):

Your opportunity report the one in Salesforce. Right. Okay. Even though there's barely anything on there we're going to, so we're going to start off with once a week. Eventually we're going to go, you should go to twice a week, right? Yeah. And so what that consists of is, you know, update it, meaning if you did it today and the last time you did, it was last Wednesday, for example, than any meetings you had since last Wednesday, you need to kind of go back through your calendar. Double-check make sure the notes are in there. Right. Make sure you've identified or checked off the box that says this is an opportunity. And then the review part means go down that sheet line by line and anyone who needs that next email, phone call, touch, whatever it is, gets it. Right.

Speaker 2 (00:48:54):

Yeah. Could I, uh, let me ask you a question on that. Um, you know, obviously you've worked with a lot of guys in a lot of different fields and, you know, including a lot of guys in, uh, in my field and you're familiar of course, with my specific area, you know, the, the DCIO distribution is obviously a very long process. You know, it doesn't typically, don't typically walk into a meeting, go through the story and, and you know, the advisor's like, yeah, absolutely. I'm ready, replaced this XYZ slate asleep. But you know, at the same time, you know, based on the conversation, you know, you're, you're kind of balancing out, gone, God, I feel like this could be an opportunity. Would, would that be something in your opinion, kind of in the soccer community report, you know, you put a placeholder in the, in the pipeline to go, okay. Based on my conversation with this guy, I think there's an opportunity moving forward. Or would you kind of crystallize it with very specific opportunities where the guy said, Hey, XYZ, fond. I want to I'm considering replacing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:50:02):

Yeah. Let, yeah, let me be, let me be crystal clear what an opportunity is. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. An opportunity is that you have a clarifying conversation inside that meeting. And when you leave that meeting, you believe, okay, you believe that that advisor or that person is gonna, is interested in taking that next step, whatever that next step is, that next step, depending on where you're at in the cycle could just be reviewing your information. It could be setting up a meeting with his research team to put it in there. It could be actually using it saying he's going to be using it. So if there's a next step that you need to walk them across the finish line on, then that's an opportunity. Every opportunity is in a isn't the final sale. An opportunity is okay. They, we both agreed at the end of the meeting and you can listen to the audio on clarifying conversations.

Speaker 1 (00:51:06):

But you know, we agreed at the end of that meeting, that this was the next step you positioned follow-up as a service. Now you need to make sure you walk that across the finish line. So that next step gets done. That's an opportunity. Perfect. Right. And the guy just says, yeah, thanks for introducing this to me. You know, I'm probably not going to be doing anything till, you know, the second quarter of next year, blah, blah, blah. But I am interested. Let's stay in touch all that. That's not an opportunity. Right, right. I'm not saying don't stay in touch with them and don't go try to meet with them again. But you know, if he, or she says something like that, that's not an opportunity that you have to stay on top of. Yeah. They go, they kind of go on the warm market list and you'll schedule them when it's time to schedule.

Speaker 1 (00:51:56):

So that's what I mean by an opportunity. Cool. Oftentimes an opportunity could be from another wholesaler. Hey, they said they were going to introduce you to someone. Right. I want to stay on top of that until they introduced me. Yeah. Okay. Um, I think you need to spend a minimum of 30 minutes a week updating your database, meaning that stuff. While you were calling research earlier, you need to spend at least 30 minutes a week figuring out who's who and keeping it in that database, that prospecting database, those Excel sheets. Yeah. Um, I think that's critical for you right now. Cause it sounds like there's a lot, you don't know about who to call on and stuff like that. Yeah, very much so.

Speaker 1 (00:52:56):

And then I think the, the last piece of the puzzle is I I'll be honest. I don't think you need a clarifying conversations pillar right now. Okay. Here's why look, if you want to build out your clarifying conversations, you should do that. But at this point in your business with how little traction you're getting and how few meetings you're having, I'm not convinced that's going to the biggest return on investment. Makes sense. In other words, I'm not saying you couldn't get better at it and that at some point, and again, a clarifying conversations, you can build one out in an hour. I mean, you, you can consider that a task if you need to. I just don't think the return on investment is that high because you're not having that many meetings. Right. So if you're a seven right now going from a seven to an eight or an eight and a half or a nine, probably won't do that much for you.

Speaker 1 (00:53:55):

Yeah. Um, I think we're the last pillar is, is that I think the last pillar for you is in the messaging department. Um, I think, you know enough about writing short emails based on our working together, right? Yeah. I think, I mean, you have to, you have to confirm with me or I have to confirm this with you, but I think your emails, you know, how to write a short and sweet email, right? Yeah. I think what's going to determine whether those emails are effective in getting returned. Is, is there anything of value inside of them? Right. Right. And so that's where the VAR strategies are going to come in. That's where inviting them to the quick hit calls when you build the VAR strategies is going to come in. Um, I think we're, you need to spend time. Biggest return on investment is, and tell me if I'm wrong, is the product story itself, the, you know, turning it, you know, making it easy to buy, right. Fig pulling out the advisor facing benefits of the product so that people want to hear about it, understanding where your competition is and how to position it.

Speaker 1 (00:55:15):

I, uh, I would agree with that. And so I would say 30 minutes a week, again, minimum on your product, messaging that again, that includes, you know, the story, the competition, whatever you need to do so that when you are talking to someone about it or you are given the 10, second elevator pitch on it, you know, it's an effective thing that you're saying. Yeah. So, so let me, let me run now what I have for your pillars. Okay. And then you tell me if we missed anything or anything needs to be adjusted, but I'm thinking your prospecting pillar is 85, 85, 30 and five. Okay. Eight 85 emails, 85 forwards at least 30 phone calls on those same 85 and then five power prospecting. All right. Okay. Yep. Need to reach out to at least three warm market people or centers of influence that's pillar. Number two 30 minutes of prospecting learning one hour on your VAR strategies. You need to update and review your opportunity report. Once a week, You need to spend 30 minutes a week updating your database And you need to spend 30 minutes a week on your product messaging. And I think what we're accomplishing with these pillars is we're building up value with the prospecting, the VAR and all that stuff, so that people want to talk to you. And then we're obviously consistently reaching out to them.

Speaker 2 (00:57:05):

Yeah, no, I absolutely makes sense. Makes sense. How do I, and I, hopefully this makes it make sense. How do I bridge that gap between I write I'm working on the VAR strategy as I'm creating the, uh, the quick cake calls, et cetera. How do I blend that with the prospecting pillar? So the prospecting, I, you know, I guess prospecting for me, I guess for lack of a better word in the past was typically, you know, at some point at time I've made this connection through this advisor. And so then I'm reaching out, I'm calling, I'm trying to schedule an appointment or, or, you know, I've booked to see event at Margianno's and I'm trying to, you know, contact the advisor to go to that. See then, uh, Maziar knows, right? Like continuing education event or X, Y, Z. And so, you know,

Speaker 1 (00:58:04):

Those are different to me. Yeah. So the prospecting is for your you're reaching out for one-on-one meetings, right. Whether that's leading with a VAR strategy or the product or whatever, when you create these quick hit calls. Right. And you have enough of them Or these events, these virtual events, it doesn't matter. I think your invites should be mass mail.

Speaker 2 (00:58:32):

Oh, okay. Gotcha.

Speaker 1 (00:58:33):

The ability to do ma you should only be inviting people you actually want to meet with. Yeah. But those should be mass mailings.

Speaker 2 (00:58:41):

Okay. Like I talk

Speaker 1 (00:58:42):

About in the video where you do like to invite you right up to the

Speaker 2 (00:58:46):

Like one like 10, 10,

Speaker 1 (00:58:48):

Those to me, you use whatever system you guys have for mail merge or whatever, and those should be sent out to everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:58:58):

Gotcha. Okay. That, that, that makes sense. So, so in the prospecting pillar, and just kind of help me conceptually build this app for the one-on-one meeting, you know, say I'm doing a quick head call line creating a morning routine or whatever it may be. Right. Um, you know, send out those kind of mass email to those, those guys 10 days ahead of time. And then I, I also have that prospect and pillar just kind of coincides that same week. So is it helpful in the prospecting pillar to kind of send the same message, like, or create a different message?

Speaker 1 (00:59:41):

So you're going to make sense. Yeah. You're going to be inviting people on a one to many, right. For these, for these conference calls, these quick hit calls and events like that. But also if you're member as part of the VAR strategy, you have these in meeting programs, right. You actually, so, so go back to planning your day effectively on the quick hit call, you're going to be talking about how to effectively plan your day and the components of an effective day, blah, blah, blah. The call to action at the end is going to be this basically say, look, if this is something you're serious about learning how to plan your day and work your plan, sequentially, you know, reach out to me and I can actually share the exact system that I use. Right. Like, so that would be like the call to action on a quick hit call.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):

Whereas on an invite for a meeting, you would just directly let them know, right? Like we, like you would create an email that basically says, you know, I, you know, I use the system, blah, blah, blah. I can affect it. You know, would it be worth the short call to walk through that system, you know, on how you can effectively plan your day and, you know, get control of your day again or whatever. Right. So it's just offering a one-on-one sit down or virtual zoom, whatever it is, a one-on-one versus a group. But yet that same topic can be used to generate one-on-one meetings. It can be used to turn into those seven, nine minute quick hit calls. Okay. Yeah. I think if you watch that VAR video again, it's it kind of separates that out pretty clearly, but yeah. They're the same thing. Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):

Okay. That makes sense. So in other words, you know, you know, next next week, come back in and, you know, set up this, you know, quick kit call 10 days in advance. I sent out all those emails and I'm hitting my, my first 85 prospects. I'm really aligning that message on a prospecting email to the same message on the quick hit call.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):

No, I miss I misspoke. Or there was a miscommunication there. What I want you to get to eventually is that what I want to get you to eventually is that maybe once a month, like every third, Thursday of the month, you're doing a quick hit call. Right. It's a different topic. Okay. But whatever topic you're using, let's stay with planning your day effectively or referrals or something like that. That same VAR strategy you can be sending out emails had nothing to do with the quick call about just meeting people about it both months before that call months after that call, it doesn't matter just like inside the meeting. If you're already talking to somebody, you can offer that up as something you can help them with.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):

Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):

The prospecting, the goal is to get a one-on-one meeting with the prospecting of the, of the, um, invites, just to get them on the quick hit call. And the goal of the quick hit call is to provide you the volume number one, to build your reciprocity, your brand. But number two is you'll see in the, the video, if you watch it again, there's always that clear call to action to get a one-on-one

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):

Meeting. Right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):

It's easier to get a one-on-one meeting after the quick hit call because they've already raised their hand and said, this is a topic I'm interested in. Then you've provided value. And they're saying, Hey, if you want something more specific or whatever the call to action is,

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):

Let's connect. Okay. Two different yet.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):

Those are two, they're two different things. Although the topics can definitely overlap. And the in meeting program that you give to somebody, you know, that you're offering to somebody when you're prospecting them. And that, you know, you have a one-on-one, it's the same in meeting program. You're offering them at the end of a quick hit call if that's what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):

Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. No, that, uh, as far as

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):

That's really helpful and you and I can, can talk for a little bit after this recording, but for the purpose of the pillar,

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):

Do you feel like we addressed everything? I do. I like the, uh, uh, like the framework. I liked the structure and, um, you know, the biggest kind of bottleneck I think I had before, when I, when I started, this was like I said, I didn't really feel confident around that prospecting pillar because there was, you know, you know, building the, building the messaging and going to approach around, you know, all these pillars together, I think work significantly. Yeah. I love where we are with these pillars.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):

Awesome. So I'm going to click off the recording here and hang out for a minute and we'll talk about some of those other topics that are specific to what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):

Awesome, buddy. All right. Thanks man. Thanks buddy.