Photo Credit: Kheng Ho Toh
Every professional in financial services is concerned about sales growth. Operations, technology, management and administration looks to sales growth to fuel the organization's expansion. Whether you're a solo financial planner or CPA working for a major national practice, you're interested in how to get more paying customers.
If you're directly involved in generating new customers, getting new and free sales leads directly concerns you. If you're a Series 7 registered representative, your manager may not provide many leads at first. You've just learned to cold call and use the Do Not Call List (DNC). You've also been encouraged to "walk the territory": if you're a salesperson at a small broker-dealer, this may be one of the ways to familiarize yourself with the businesses close to your office.
One of the best ways to generate high quality sales leads for free involves getting to know your own company. If you're a new securities salesperson, your firm is composed of different groups. For example, municipal bonds, mutual funds, and other financial products teams receive calls and responses from interested investors. In many cases, these leads are distributed to salespeople who ask for them.
Why don't salespeople ask more often? They aren't aware that the firm orchestrates ongoing financial product marketing programs. An individual office manager may not know about how leads are generated or distributed in the firm. It's up to forward-thinking salespeople to ask for these leads as they occur.
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