Bill, you talked about meeting with the Top Realtors in the area. I have been calling them and starting the conversation with the following: Hi_, my name is John Smith. I am rather new to my area, and I am looking to expand my networking relationships with experts in the local region. As I was looking into the area of _, your name keeps rising to the top. So I thought I would give you a call and see if you would like to have coffee and I could learn more about your business, tell you a little about mine, and see how we could help push each other forward to greater success. They have all taken it like I was trying to sell them something, even after I explain that I am not selling anything and just want to get to know them and how they have become so successful in their area of expertise. Please provide feedback on the script I have been using and help me wordsmith it so that I am starting the conversation or voicemail with the proper tone.

Article ID: 565

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

Q: "If I'm new to an area and I need to do research to find out more about the market how do I approach successful professionals in the area to help?"

A: "I'm new to the area and I'm building a high-end financial services firm for financially successful people. In doing my research about who the most successful ___________ (realtors, lawyers, etc.) are in the area your name keeps coming up. The purpose of my call is to schedule a business date for breakfast or lunch or a cup of coffee to learn more about this community and get your advice about the best ways for me to go about building my business. When would be a good time to do that?"

If necessary, perhaps as the response to any trigger that feels like or sounds like sales pushback, "Just to be crystal clear, I am NOT prospecting you and I'm not looking for a networking relationship where you would introduce me to prospective clients. I just want to shorten my learning curve about this community. Would you be willing to help me with that?"

The implication is that I want to learn from you, not that I want to get you as a client and have you introduce me to your 'network' so I can prospect and market them.

Q: "What do you mean 'high-end?'"

A: "An extremely robust client value promise for people who can afford to pay $_____ / year for our services. All I'm trying to accomplish is to learn from successful people like you whatever you think would be good for me to know about the community where you have been so successful. Can I buy you lunch one day this week?"

Any other questions:

A: "If it would be okay with you, I would be happy to help you understand whatever else you would like to know about our business when we get together. What's best for you?"

Schedule breakfast, lunch, or coffee.

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I was just hired this week to work with a former professional (European, not NBA) basketball player. He does not have a lot of money, however he referred me to 3 current NBA players and a current college basketball coach of a major NCAA school. All 4 would qualify as Ideal Clients. All of them make between $1-6M / year income. One of the players is a veteran and has earned about $100M over the course of his career. My client is willing to help me meet these people. I spoke with my Accountability Coach about how best to pursue these referrals, and he suggested that I submit this question to you. Any recommendations?

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I am now in the CAP program. Out of the 60 existing households I have 10 Ideal Clients. These clients have all been with me for 8+ years. For lack of a better word I've worn out my referral welcome with these folks. I'm in Rotary, Lions, Chamber of Commerce, and some other social networks. Of the many people in the Chamber I'm only familiar with a few, so I feel like I have to at least go talk with each person to get a self referral, find out a little about them and introduce myself since we have never met in person. I'm not having a lot of success with this in converting people to Ideal Clients. Most of my Ideal Clients are retired and not still working. I've finished all aspects of my Deliverables Team and trained a new internal staff since the last academy. To be bluntly honest I have time blocked time on my calendar for client acquisition, but just don't feel like I have a qualified (and I stress that word) list of candidates to call on for the process. Based on the 113 Ideal Clients I will need I'm going to have to call on almost 1,000 people to reach my goal of 113 Ideal Clients. I'm really struggling and would greatly appreciate your input on where I’m going to get all of these people? For our service to make sense they have to have a minimum of $500K, but really would be better for $1M+. I could call on people all day long with no money, lack there of, or a couple hundred thousand, but it would be a real waste of my time, yours, theirs, and my families time, because it won't create any REAL results even if they have a good experience.

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