A short podcast!

The PraxMax Project by Michael Roby Episode 1

This is a series of ten major faux pas’ made by wholesalers, ideas on how to correct them, and suggestions for advisors on how to deal with wholesalers who make these mistakes.

#1 Poor Defining Statement

Most wholesalers cannot tell you what they do. When asked, wholesalers tend to say one of two things:

“I’m a Regional Vice President for DCH Investors.”

OR…

… they drone off into a sales pitch.

Wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Advisors don’t care about your title, and they didn’t ask for a pitch. To be more precise, when you are asked (or volunteer) what you do, advisors want you to tell they what the advisor gets out of the relationship. The conversation isn’t about you or your title or your company or your product; it’s about them!

A “Defining Statement” is today’s Elevator Speech. Here’s the biggest problem with the traditional Elevator Speech:

It’s too long!

In today’s marketplace, where we send text more than we talk and commercials have gone from two minutes to as little as 10 seconds, you better be brief. The average buyer makes up their mind to listen in SEVEN seconds.

Build a Defining Statement that:

• Identifies Your BEST Client
• Focuses On Benefits To The Client
• Can Be Repeated In 7 – 10 Seconds
• Makes Them Ask A Question

An example:

“Advisors that want to add 10 to 20 percent to their bottom line without working harder use me because I ALWAYS give them three new ways to work smarter.”

9.4 seconds.

SOLUTION: Build a Defining Statement that tells advisors how they will benefit from doing business with you that is short, repeatable, and makes them ask, “How do you do that?”

FOR ADVISORS: Save some time for yourself. When a wholesaler calls on you, ask them to tell why you should hear their story, and ask them to do it in 15 seconds or less. You will find out real fast if the wholesaler is a master or just another product person.

Good selling!

At this time, flood-waters  continue to savage North Dakota. Some of the communities affected include Fargo, Minot, Mandan, Williston, and Bismarck. These communities, and others are being challenged as never before . Bismarck is the home of Investment Centers of America (ICA), and they have offices in all of these cities. Several ICA employees face loss of their homes and possessions in floods that might last weeks, and in fact months.

ICA was founded in 1985 by Tom Gunderson, an investment executive and native North Dakotan. Tom Sr. is a leader, and he built ICA from the gound up, and guided the firm through its formative years. All six of his sons have worked for ICA over the years, and oldest son Greg Gunderson currently serves masterfully as President. From the time ICA was founded, Tom Sr. always spoke of “The ICA Family.”  Several years ago Tom Sr. sold the company, and today it is part of NPH Holdings, an affiliate of Jackson National Insurance Company.

While ICA is part of a much larger corporate conglomerate, it still is a “Family.” Like all companies, ICA is not perfect and faces its share of challenges, but in times of crisis, the ICA Family rallies itself. A significant number of ICA representatives from several states went to Bismarck, (at their own expense) to help with sandbagging, moving furniture, and providing other services to those in need. Other ICA reps and employees continue to help and provide assistance in other ways. Reps from across the United States plan to go to Bismarck after the water recedes to help their “Family” clean-up and get their lives back in order.

So can a large company still be a family? The evidence says the answer is “yes” for a broker-dealer firm in North Dakota.

Good selling!

(Note: Investment Centers of America is a client of mine. This has had no impact on this article, but this note is written in the spirit of full disclosure.)