Have you ever really wanted to get an appointment with a prospect or schedule a specific time to talk on the phone or meet that prospect in person?  Well, last week one of our customers shared an idea with us that we thought we'd pass along.

As the end of the year approaches, the most common response (telephone) you'll hear from prospects is, "I'm not doing anything until the holidays are over."  As tempting as it is to assume they're just blowing you off, it's important to remember that this is a very legitimate excuse.  After all, most of us are extra busy around this time of year.  It's just a natural thing to say around the holiday season, but you can use it to your advantage.

A lot of financial advisors get discouraged by this response, thinking it might be better to hold off on prospecting until after the first of the year.  But let me ask you, how many times have you heard someone say, "I'm not doing anything until the holidays are over, so why don't you call me after the first of the year"?  Quite a few, I'll bet.  Rather than get discouraged, smile because this prospect has just opened the door for you.

The trick is to get them to COMMIT to either talking or meeting with you after the first of the year.  This is where most financial advisors drop the ball; they typically end the call very politely, with a promise to contact the prospect again after the holidays.

The problem here is that only one party has made a commitment to do ANYTHING and that party is you, the advisor.  The advisor has assured the prospect he/she will call them after the holidays, but the prospect has not assured the advisor that there will be a conversation.

The advisor we spoke with last week takes charge at this point.  When the prospect tells him that he/she won't be doing anything until after the holidays, he begins to set up an informal appointment.  He asks what their schedule is like after year-end and then he poses two additional questions:

* Are afternoons or evenings better for you?
* Is this the best number to reach you?

The prospect is eager to get off the phone and gives quick answers, but before the call ends, the advisor pauses and says, something like, "OK, I've got you down on my calendar for Wednesday, January 5th at 3:00 PM.  Before the prospect knows what happened, he/she suddenly has an appointment.  But they tell themselves it's far enough off in the future that they can ignore it.  They think you'll probably forget anyway.  So the call ends and that's that...or is it?

He now begins to firm up the appointment in the prospect's mind.  So what he does is he sends out a postcard with the time and date filled in by hand.  Then a holiday card goes out the following week.  After the holiday a package of information goes out prior to the appointment with a reminder of the scheduled date and time.

Now you can do this however you like.  I'm just telling you what works for this guy.  But by the time the New Year comes, he has a couple HUNDRED appointments set up.  There are two reasons this works:

1. The advisor gets an implied commitment from the prospect and then solidifies that commitment by following up.  The fact that a few weeks pass before the scheduled appointment is actually a good thing.  By that point the prospect is thinking he/she really did commit to an appointment and would feel bad about backing out.

2. People do make changes at this time of year.  How many people do you know who make New Year's resolutions?  People look at their lives at this time of year and try to make fresh starts for the New Year.  Financial decisions, particularly in this economy are a HUGE part of that.  In contrast how many people make August resolutions or May resolutions?  Almost nobody, right?

This is the time of year when people DO think about making changes, whether they tell you on the first call or not.  So try this strategy.  This is truly one of the best times of the year for prospecting.

So get a jump on your competitors who go home early saving their "big prospecting campaign" for right after the first of the year.  You will have already contacted their prospects and scheduled appointments before they even pick up the phone!

Best wishes to you and your loved ones for a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

Larkspur Data Resources, Inc.
(800) 282-4567
www.larkspurdata.com