If your strategy for building your business is cold calling me, don‘t bother, it's a waste of your time and mine.
I got a call from a Financial Advisor, (you remember, a guy that was once a stock broker who now calls himself an advisor). I must admit I was surprised to say the least. When he called he said "Hello, Mr. Miller, My name is Bob Robinson from XYZ Financial Services and I wanted to know if you needed any help with your portfolio?".
What a surprise, my portfolio, what portfolio (like many, my finances have been devastated in the last few years. In fact, my "portfolio" looks more like Nagasaki after they dropped the a bomb), he didn’t waste much time after he heard my state; he ended the call as quickly as possible.
After I hung up, I was still amazed. Here was a guy calling me to build his business but he had no idea about the condition of my finances, my financial goals or anything.
Apparently I was on some list from 2006 and the advisor didn't realize that sh&t had really changed. Had he been on Mars during the last 6 years? Was he living on the space station? Didn't he know or care what has happened to millions of people in the US over the last few years including me?
After I got over myself, I started to think about this situation and his marketing strategy specifically. This guy was looking for new clients and his "creative" strategy was to invade my day with his need for a more money.
He interrupted whatever I was doing, not knowing anything about my current situation. Not knowing if I had money to invest. Not knowing that my investments were in the toilet? Not knowing if I was still a qualified prospect? He didn't know anything about me and I have NOT expressed any need for his services.
He took a shot in the dark hoping that he would get a bite and that did not work.
As I thought more it occurred to me "how so 1980's", cold calling a cold list without any knowledge of the prospect.
As I thought more, it also occurred to me that despite the fact my current portfolio sucked, I had no intention of staying in this situation. My intention is to resurrect my finances and my portfolio and become more successful then ever.
That’s my goal, to rebuild and be even more successful.
Which takes me back to Bob Robinson and the antiquated way he is trying to build (or rebuild) his business. If Bob wanted to “help with my portfolio” he would need to do the following;
- Clearly understand where I was today financially
- Articulate a plan to help me powerfully rebuild my finances
- Understand my needs and how you can help me.
So just a little inbound marketing would have helped Bob.
Bottomline, don’t cold call me looking for business, interrupting my day wit your agenda. While in the past I worked with advisors that I didn’t know and didn’t know me now I’ve decided “IF AN ADVISOR DOESN’T INVEST IN ME, I WILL NOT INVEST WITH THEM. INVEST IN ME FIRST.
About Dwight Miller
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