Back to the Future Part 3

Today is the last of the series in which I say what I would do differently if it was 2007 and I was starting out as a financial planner again.

10 more things I would do differently:

1. I listened to a CD about making appointments and the gentleman on the CD suggests cold calling between 8am and 10am. I think he gave these times for a couple of reasons, first of all, a lot of the gatekeepers are not at work and you can get through to the people that you want to talk to, and secondly, I think for most salespeople cold calling is the most unpleasant thing to do so if you do you calling between 8am and 10am you eat your frog so to speak. That is the worst thing is out of the way and you can concentrate on your sales calls and follow ups.

2. I would certainly try to look the part by buying quality shirts and suits. There is a temptation to buy cheap stuff until you make some money so you can reinvent your wardrobe. This just makes you look cheap and why should someone who looks cheap be telling me about my investments?

3. I would try to get to know some of the other financial planners in the other companies in Tokyo. I think you can learn from them both what to do and what not to do. They are a resource for continuous improvement so why not sit down and have a chat? I would especially like to chat with some of the more successful ones.

4. I would join some kind of club. What I mean by this, in Tokyo there are clubs that wealthy expatriates join. These are great sources of networking opportunities. Of course I have to make some money first and if I can join these clubs then I know that I have done quite well and if I play my cards right, business opportunities should eventuate.

5. I would use Sunday evenings to plan my week ahead. This was one of my biggest problems in that I wasn't doing any planning and then on the rare occasions I did, I wouldn't work it. It is all very well having a plan, but if you don't work it then you might as well go and do something else. Tending bar for example.

6. At the start of my career as a financial planner, I consistently got to the office at 7am and did some study for two hours. I can imagine doing that again, maybe incorporating my one hour of reading into the morning schedule. It would a great way to start the day and you would feel like you have accomplished something before you picked up the phone to make your first cold call.

7. I would work on Saturdays consistently and also on Sundays. I think a financial planner's work is 24/7 so you should be available to talk on the weekends. I didn't mind working weekends and I would do more of it. I think a lot of prospects would be more receptive on the weekends and because they are giving that time up, you would think that they are serious about going through the process.

8. I would, before I started, do a thorough inventory of my strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn't worry about my weaknesses and then identify my strengths and compose a sales process that highlighted my strengths.

9. This is a little difficult but I would try to find people that are similar to me to sell to. Of course you are going to run into a whole bunch of characters but as they say you sell to people who are like you so it would go without saying that I look for them. That's easier said then done and they would take some gentle coercing, I tell you.

10. One of the  major themes has been my half-assedness. How can I overcome this? I think that I have to concentrate on what I am doing and concentrate on that activity until done. So, for example, when my friend gave me this challenge with the blog, the tendency would have been to get to day 14 and then give up. But I have tried to stick to it to prove to myself that I can do things to completion and to 100% commitment.