I Carry The Bag • Winter 2011

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Issue 3 | Winter 2010

43 ways Wholesalers

become Great

34 ways to make cois love you

Get inside their heads and their hearts

12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Scheduler Important prep work to maximize this relationship

37 Ways to Know It Might Be Time to Hang up the Bag Telltale signs it might be time to buy that hot dog stand!

12 Traits of Great Leaders Whether you lead today or aspire to lead www.icarrythebag.com

PLUS Articles ON

3 Surefire Secrets to Guarantee Your Next Ovation • 30 Tips That Propel High Achievers • 10 Unusual Wines That Are Well Worth a Try

1st Quarter | WINTER 2011 ISSUE THREE

Table of Contents 04

Editor-in-Chief/Publisher

Rob Shore

Art Director

05

Lynn Lee

www.lynnleedesign.com

06

Contributing Writers Peter Arethas Paul Bednar JB Bush Don Connelly Kathy Freeman Kip Gregory Ivy Naidstadt Kara Newman Mike Robbins Rob Shore Bill Smith Tommy Spaulding Julie Threewit DeeAnne White

07

08

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I CARRY THE BAG is published quarterly TM

514 San Bernadino Avenue Newport Beach, CA 92663 tel 949-891-1117 I Carry The Bag is a trademark of Rob Shore dba shorespeak. All content in this publication ©2011 shorespeak and is protected by international copyright law. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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It’s Not What We Know, But What We Do That Matters

17

By Mike Robbins

12 Traits of Great Leaders

20

By Kathy Freeman

7 Unspoken Truth About 2011: What We Don’t Say to Customers Speaks Volume

By JB Bush

5 Reasons Your New Year’s Fitness Solution is Doomed to Fail

24

Internals Have Feelings Too We Do It For You, Gold & Glory

12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Scheduler

By Rob Shore

Generating Meaningful ROR

By Tommy Spaulding

30 Tips that Propel High Achievers

By Bill Smith

7 Ways Savvy Wholesaler Can Harness Social Media

By Kip Gregory

Conquering The Gate Keeper: Are You a Keymaster?

25

Profiles of Great Wholesalers

26

10 Unusual Wines That Are Well Worth a Try

By Don Connelly

By Ivy Naidstadt

43 Ways Wholesalers Become Great

3 Surefire Secrets to Guarantee Your Next Ovation

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23

By Paul Bednar

By Anonymous Internal Wholesaler

34 Ways to Make COIs Love You

30

By Peter Arethas

By Kara Newman

37 Ways to Know it Might Be Time to Hang Up the Bag

By DeeAnne White

By Julie Threewit

Library of Congress ISSN 2157-1155 (print) ISSN 2157-1155 (online)

Some photos appear under Creative Commons Attribution License: It’s Not What We Know But What We Do That Matters: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ theredproject/3302110152/

Internals Have Feelings Too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ thenovys/3919714207/

34 Ways to Make COIs Love You: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ quinnanya/5007213195/

12 Traits of Great Leaders: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dabinsi/3779249023/

2 Surefire Secrets to Guarantee Your Next Ovation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/554971968/

Generating Meaningful ROR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ hojusaram/2527256358/

7 Unspoken Truth About 2011: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ kraetzsche/4072305694/

12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Scheduler: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ valeriebb/3006348550/

Conquering The Gatekeeper: Are You the Keymaster? http://www.flickr.com/photos/thothgod/3680658023

22 | WINTER 2011 | I CARRY THE BAG

10 Unusual Wines that are Well Worth a Try: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ arcticpuppy/2358239780/ 37 Ways to Know it Might Be Time to Hang Up the Bag: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24051087@ N08/2281414002/

letter from editor

January is here and, as is the case every year, friends, family and colleagues want to know about our New Year’s resolutions. As a culture we seem to obsess about the many ways in which we might transform our lives from where they were on December 31st to where they should be in the year ahead.

Blame Janus. That is, the mythical Roman king Janus.

With two faces, one looking ahead and one looking at the past, Janus became the symbol for resolutions back ‘in the day’ – 153 B.C. According to Psychology Today, the two most popular resolutions are to quit smoking and decrease consumption of alcohol. Not surprisingly, 60% have failed in their efforts after only 6 months.

Here’s an alternative approach: how about if we simply choose to Be Better?

Be a better wholesaler, be a better manager, be a better parent, be a better friend – just Be Better.

Yes, the naysayers will offer that this is too vague of a goal. They might be right. And they also might be part of the 60% that fail.

With this in mind, this issue of I Carry The Bag is dedicated to your New Year and how you plan to Be Better.

In addition to our always amazing regular columnists, we have feature stories that will help you move down the Better path: 43 Ways Wholesalers Become Great was written by Don Connelly, who has been around wholesalers and wholesaling about as long as anyone I know – 43 years!

34 Ways to Make COIs Love You includes interviews with centers of influence in the insurance, wirehouse, bank and planner channels.

Additionally, as a special feature for this issue, Horsesmouth.com gives our readers an exclusive look at a chapter from The Happy Advisor called 30 Tips That Propel High Achievers.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and we thank you for your ongoing support and generous compliments for our work.

In 2011 we plan to Be Better – and we invite you to join us.

I CARRY THE BAG | WINTER 2011 | 33

By Mike Robbins

It’s Not What We Know, But What We Do That Matters How many times have you read a book, been to a great seminar, or learned some wonderful new piece of information that inspired you? Then, for a myriad of reasons, you got busy, you didn’t write it down, life got hard, etc., you didn’t put this wonderful new piece of information into action?

This is something that happens a lot for many of us. We have the best intentions, but then life gets in the way, right?

When it comes to creating real success and lasting change in our lives – both personally and professionally – it’s not what we know, but what we do that matters. Learning new things is fun, exciting, and rewarding.

However, until we figure out how to incorporate that new information into our daily lives, it does us very little good.

As I travel around the country speaking to various groups of successful people, there are very few I meet who don’t see the importance of being more positive and motivated in their lives and their work. However, many admit that while they may know that this is essential, they aren’t always sure when and how to put it into action.

Here are a few simple things you can do to be more successful and fulfilled in your work and life: 1. Create a daily appreciation ritual.

Appreciation of yourself, others, and life is something we can do on a daily basis – like bathing, brushing our teeth, or eating.

Come up with things you can do each day that allow you to focus on those things for which you are grateful. Write things down on paper, think about what you’re grateful for in the shower or on the way to work, 44 | WINTER 2011 | I CARRY THE BAG

talk to friends about what you appreciate, acknowledge your spouse, your family, your co-workers, or friends, and more.

What you do specifically is not as important as that you do something genuinely and regularly.

can’t do it alone. Share your commitment to appreciation with others and have them hold you accountable or gently remind you when you stray. Also, the more positive, appreciative people we have around us, the easier it is for us to be that way too.

2. Look for good stuff. We always find what we look for. Whether it’s with ourselves, other people, or life in general, we want to pay attention to where we’re focusing our energy. Catch people doing things right and focus on the good stuff as much as possible. If you think about it, thousands of things have already gone well and fallen into place just today for you to be sitting here and reading this article. Our challenge is to pay attention to all of the good stuff – especially these days when it seems too easy to find, talk about, and worry about lots of “bad” stuff.

5. Acknowledge people freely and generously. Make a commitment to go out of your way to let people know what you appreciate about them. We have a choice in each moment about whether or not to share our appreciation of others with them.

It often takes courage on our part, but when we acknowledge other people (in a genuine way), not only do we create a winwin situation, we actually encourage more of the behavior, attitudes, or attributes that we appreciate in them. Be the person in your family, your organization, or your community that takes the lead and freely acknowledges people all the time. It’s contagious and powerful!

3. When someone compliments you, say “thank you” and then SHUT YOUR MOUTH! This is a big one for many of us.

Even if you feel funny or uncomfortable when people compliment you, simply say “thank you” and then shut up. Whatever you say after that (a self-deprecating joke, an insincere complimentary response, etc.) is often a way of avoiding the appreciation or deflecting the compliment. Just like a birthday present, say “thank you” and accept the gift (compliment) that is being given to you. The better you become at receiving compliments, the more you will get.

4. Create support around you. We all need the support of others. If we want to create a positive environment within our home, at work, or even within our own mind, we

Mike Robbins is an author, motivational keynote speaker, and business coach who works with individuals and organizations all over the country. Mike, a former college and pro baseball player (at Stanford and with the Kansas City Royals), is the author of two bestselling books “Focus on the Good Stuff” and “Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken”. He and his work have been featured on ABC News and in Forbes. His clients include Wells Fargo, Nationwide, Citibank, New York Life, and many others. He is a regular contributor to Oprah.com. To learn more about Mike’s work, check out: www.Mike-Robbins.com

By Kathy Freeman

12 Traits of Great Leaders are going. Talented leaders are likened to captains of vessels, navigating their crews through the difficult waters to reach their destination. The crew members each contribute to the destination, but one oar in the water doesn’t get the job done.

Make it a habit to look regularly at the landscape of your industry to identify trends early and to get out in front of them.

• Humble – Be able to laugh at yourself every now and then.

Humility is a characteristic that is visible in many of the best leaders, although it isn’t in evidence in all leaders. Those that are admired and emulated are those executives that can step back and look at the humor and farce in what they’ve done or have set out to do. Imperfection is a component of being genuine, so don’t hesitate to occasionally share your foibles with others.

I’ve had the privilege of working with terrifically talented executives during the course of my career in executive search. It is always interesting to note, when you walk away from a conversation with a compelling individual, what it was about him/her that sets them apart. In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, I’ve broken down some traits that seem particularly common in great leaders. If you are feeling driven to improve your own career potential, you may want to consider a self-evaluation to see if you have enough of these critical characteristics. You may want to work on incorporating many of these capabilities into your business life as you continue to build upon your own reputation.

• Motivated – What really drives you and what is it that you are trying to accomplish? The terrific leaders that I’ve worked with over the years are quite clear on why they do what they do.

Those executives that lead their own organizations have more than likely been focused on achieving benchmarks week after week and year after year. Are you that driven?

• Empathetic – This trait is more easily evidenced as leaders gain experience, but the up and coming executive that incorporates empathy into his approach to working with others will definitely be noticed.

• Inspirational – What is it about you that others want to emulate? Is it your ability to drive results, to set out a game plan that you accomplish easily, or is it your ability to navigate the line effectively balancing hard work and hard play?

• Strategic – Look beyond what’s straight ahead to see what’s on the horizon. The biggest mistake that people make as they craft their individual career success is forgetting to pick their head up and look out to the horizon to see where they

• Processed- The best leaders always have a game plan for architecting success. For yourself, know what the plan is, review it regularly, and work diligently to increase the effectiveness of your work. Process is the foundation for success regardless of your chosen path. Rarely is there a tremendous leader at the top of an organization who hasn’t developed a fundamental process to craft his ongoing accomplishments.

• Diplomatic – In today’s world diplomacy might be another word for “inner voice.” How often have you seen careers destroyed by people who say something politically or socially incorrect? It takes a concerted effort to manage your inner voice. However, in the long run it is a critical component of one’s career longevity and growth.

• Committed- If we learned anything coming out of 2008’s and 2009’s economic downturn, it was that great leaders are committed to moving the ball forward. Those that were paralyzed by severe challenges and change, and who usually jumped out when the pressure was turned up, were the ones that “retired” rather than committed to addressing the next business agenda. How have you addressed the difficulties in your career? Do you double down or jump out of the way?

• Fortitude/Persistence - This characteristic is best summed up

by Calvin Coolidge who once said, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

• Disciplined – Discipline is personified across multiple areas, but over the years one of the most consistent indicators of a leader’s level of discipline that I’ve seen is a commitment to continue on page 10…

I CARRY THE BAG | WINTER 2011 | 55

By JB Bush

7 Unspoken Truths for 2011:

What We Don’t Say to Customers Speaks Volumes • Be fully present in the moment. When your attention drifts, the quality of the relationship suffers; avoid distractions and train your mind to dismiss irrelevant thoughts.

The time has arrived to say goodbye (and good riddance?) to 2010 and begin our preparations for the New Year. One best practice is to look at the messaging and presentations that you delivered over the past year, then make the necessary adjustments to reflect the current environment and to match the state of mind of your customers.

• Relationships depend on the exchange of information between two people. The quality of the relationship is dependent upon the value each participant contributes to the other. To best relate to your customer you should:

As you pour over those presentations to come up with the right words and the perfect message, consider this: less than 10% of communication comes from what we actually say and the words we actually use. The vast majority of the message comes through the tone and volume of our voice and the facial expressions and body language we exhibit. The same principle holds for your customers and prospects, whose nonverbal reactions and responses during discussions can communicate much more to you than the words they use.

In addition to being experts in their products and customers’ businesses, the best wholesaling professionals possess excellent interpersonal skills that build trust, respect, credibility, likeability, responsibility and accountability. Those interpersonal skills enable world-class wholesalers to build relationships by matching their communication skills to their prospects.

Before you walk into a meeting or pick up the phone, consider how your communication style contributes to, rather than contaminates, the relationships you are working to build and solidify.

Here are some tactics you can use to build the best possible relationships.

-- Pay close attention to the customer’s reactions and responses. Keep your eyes and ears open and notice any shifts in mood, body language or voice.

Focus not only on what is said, but how it is said. Use both verbal and nonverbal cues to make sure that you completely understand what your customer is communicating.

• Be mindful of how your own feelings, attitudes, beliefs and intentions impact the quality of your relationships. Once you are aware of them, learn to manage your internal signals. Often our own biases and paradigms cloud our ability to fully communicate and understand the messages being communicated to us.

• Approach your customers without judgment. Accept customers for who they are and remember they are doing the best they can. Separate your reaction from your response and work to avoid escalating your tone and communication style, especially when you are under stress.

-- Align yourself with the other person.

People like people who are like them.

Match characteristics with your customers and prospects to help create trust and respect.

-- Be in step on as many characteristics as possible. Be curious about the other person and ask him or her about positions, responsibilities, goals and plans, both professional and personal.

By asking questions, the customer feels important.

-- Listen more than you talk. When we truly listen, we show we care. Look closely at the speaker and restate what you’ve heard so he knows he has your full attention. continue on page 12…

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By Paul Bednar

5 Reasons Your New Year’s Fitness Resolution is Doomed to Fail!

When did you have your moment of truth? Was it in the dressing room at the department store? Or was it when you couldn’t zip up your jeans without lying on your bed first. Maybe it was when your 4-year old niece knowingly announced, “You’re fat!” at the last family gathering.

What happened to your New Year’s resolution to turn over a new leaf; start fresh; become the athlete you were in your teens; give up all your bad habits and finally fix what ails you and your health?

Like any ritual created by madmen hoping to make a fast buck, New Year’s resolutions are doomed to fail.

The $40 billion fitness industry knows it and is lying in wait. The first quarter is to the local gym franchise what the Christmas season is to retailers and what tax time is to accountants: boom time; a whole year of sales compressed into a few weeks. While the industry may have good intentions, the result of this feeding frenzy – just like your 7 pound holiday overindulgence – is your failure.

No matter what you’ll quit, or start to do more of, as of January 1, 2011, there are reasons why your New Year’s resolve is doomed to fail. Psychologists have measured them. However, before you kick back and decide that this means there’s no reason to work on eliminating bad

habits – remember we know that what can be measured can be managed.

Take a look at the following techniques that can increase your odds of success – regardless of the date on the calendar.

1. Start today. Fitness is a lifelong pursuit. Begin today.

Write down 3 goals and tell 3 friends what you’re starting today – get them to commit to 3 goals as well. Then do it. It can be as simple as walking around the block – 10 minutes is 10 times better than no minutes and you can add 10% daily.

2. Choose an activity that you love doing. I’m often asked, “What’s the best fat burning exercise?” My answer? The one you will actually do!

Persistence and consistency are the keys to creating success. Find a group or a coach to help you keep moving toward your goals.

Having personal attention and/or a community that works with you can make all the difference in whether you show up for yourself.

4. When you experience a setback, get over it! Review the circumstances that got you there. Review means think about it for a few minutes and then get back on track without a second thought. There’s no need to beat yourself up or consider your battle over. It’s the daily choices that make the difference.

5. Consider what motivates you and create a visual aid to help you remember. For example, I know someone who quit smoking because he had a pack of cigarettes with a picture of his child under the cellophane. Every time he wanted a smoke he would pull that pack out and his motivation was staring him in the face.

The best part of these five steps is that you can choose them any day of the week. I guarantee that if you start now, you’ll have the best New Year’s Eve you’ve had in years because the day after will feel just as good as the day before.

Paul Bednar is the President of 2nd Wind Wealth, Inc. If you would like to improve your fitness or your finances, you’ll need to know where to start, how to keep going, and what your goals should be. Paul offers readers of this publication a free health risk assessment, health risk report card and a 90 day health improvement plan. A $350 value. Call today and get started.

(913)945-1008 or paul.bednar@ gmail.com

3. Celebrate your successes.

Each workout and each smart food choice is a victory. Each pound lost or mile logged is an even larger victory. Give yourself credit for keeping your commitment to yourself.

I CARRY THE BAG | WINTER 2011 | 77

By Don Connelly

It’s the 90%, Not the 10%

43 Ways Wholesalers Become Great Sales people do things right 90% of the time.

Once in a while we don’t get it right. We make a mistake. That’s true of advisors, that’s true of wholesalers, and that’s true of most people in most professions all over the world.

I once had a boss who obsessed about the 10%. He was as sarcastic as he was negative.

His attitude was a toxin that seeped through the entire sales organization. Nobody was ever completely at ease; and very few of the wholesalers, if any, had a particularly good self-image. Even when he was joking around, his words had poisonous barbs affixed. He got away with it because the performance of the funds was great and near term performance sells. Positive cash flow covers up a lot of warts.

Believe it or not, I miss him at times. I think about him a lot. It’s obviously true about time and the healing of wounds. I learned a lot from him, a whole lot; and one lesson resonates more than all the others: It’s okay to dwell on the 90%.

I am now in my forty-third year in the Financial Services industry. For that long, I have been watching wholesalers call on advisors and make presentations. I know a lot about

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wholesaling and wholesalers.

Here, then, is one positive trait, habit, or observation for each year since 1967, laid out on the table in an attempt to build the ideal wholesaler. At the risk of being sexist and in an attempt to avoid typing ‘he or she’ one thousand times, I’ll call this ideal wholesaler Sam or Samantha.

Our ideal wholesaler knows that differences sell. How many times a year does an advisor look up to see a guy wearing a white shirt, power tie and blue suit, or a well-dressed lady carrying a briefcase standing in his office or at the front of the boardroom selling the same products at the same price? Sam knows that he is the difference, not his product, not his price and not necessarily his service. He has figured out what makes him different and he explains that to his advisors. When they use his products, he comes with the deal. They know that, as a true partner, he’ll be there when he has nothing to sell.

In addition to selling his products, Sam markets himself. He’s good at making the advisors want what he has, but he knows they want more than the product itself. They want what the product can do for them. The

typical wholesaler is selling a financial product and the typical advisor is buying peace of mind. That’s where Sam stands out. He is well aware that the advisor’s goal is not to find the ultimate product. The advisor’s goal is to build up a profitable business that will allow him to educate his kids, pay his taxes and retire. Sam buys into the advisor’s goals and lets the advisor know that if he partners with Sam, every move Sam makes will be with the advisor’s best interests in mind.

Samantha also knows that the more successful wholesalers become, the more they drift away from the basics which made them successful in the first place. Samantha always sticks to the basics. She has consummate verbal and organizational skills, and she treats her territory like a business.

Samantha has developed her verbal skills through hard work and determination. She has a few great sales stories and she tells them over and over again. She is great at giving a formal presentation, including every necessary part and glossing over nothing. She doesn’t let a day go by that she doesn’t practice giving a presentation and asking the advisor for a portion of his or her business.

Sam has made the decision to be positive because he has never met a successful pessimist. He knows that advisors will forget a lot of what he says, but they will never forget his attitude. He uses his optimism to keep himself motivated when things turn against him. He knows that a positive attitude is mandatory in the financial services industry.

For that very reason, Sam has chosen to stay away from negative people.

Sam outworks his competition. One small thing he does is go to work an hour early every day. There are 250 working days in a year. Just putting in that one extra hour per day allows Sam to work thirteen months to his competition’s twelve. There are wholesalers who are better-looking than Sam, who come from more money than Sam, and who went to a better college than Sam. However, not one wholesaler in America outworks Sam. Sam is a blue collar worker in a white collar world.

Samantha has a strong self-image. Nobody can make her feel badly without her permission. She knows that when an advisor does business with her, it’s not simply that he is doing her a favor. She is doing him a favor.

With that first ticket, she is willing to buy into the advisor’s business model; she is going to call the advisor regarding bad news before the advisor has a chance to call her; she will never allow an advisor to run the corporate maze with a problem; and she knows that advisors lose confidence in a wholesaler when the wholesaler fails to communicate on a regular basis. She meets these challenges head-on everyday.

She sets goals. Her goals are magnetic, her goals are flexible, and her goals are always written down. She loves the satisfaction that comes with crossing an item off her goal list because the goal has been met.

She is a great manager of time. In fact, every day she makes it a point to eliminate one activity that is not contributing to her success.

Sam has made his loved ones aware of the challenges he faces; he has made the lifestyle adjustments he needed to make to allow himself to work hard without feelings of guilt or anxiety.

Now the first 10 pieces of the puzzle are put together.

Our ideal wholesaler is beginning to take form, but there are still 33 pieces left on the table.

Which one to choose next?

I think the next logical ingredient is resiliency.

Samantha cannot control the market. She can only control her reaction to the market, so she has a contingency plan to get her back on track when setbacks occur. That way, she is never playing catch-up.

Samantha is both efficient and effective. Peter Drucker always said that being efficient is doing things right. Being effective is doing the right things.

Sam teaches his advisors to ignore the white noise. Even though change is always in the air, two things never change. First of all, clients always have goals. When a child is eighteen, it’s time for college. It doesn’t matter if rates are high or low. It doesn’t matter if there is a Republican or a Democrat in the White House when it’s time to retire. Secondly, advisors have to make a living. Never lose sight of your client’s goals, Sam tells his advisors. You’ve got to make a living. Everything else is white noise.

In addition to having a good self-image, Sam is very self-confident. It never crosses his mind that he might not succeed. He can and will do whatever he decides to do.

Sam is very patient. He knows that accomplishments come in baby steps.

When he goes to bed each night, he knows he accomplished his goals for that day.

Tomorrow’s goals will come tomorrow.

Samantha gives 100% day in and day out. An advisor will never have the opportunity to say that she is mediocre or that she doesn’t try her hardest. Even though she may have given her presentation 1000 times, when she gets in front of an advisor, it’s opening night.

She never takes rejection personally. She will not allow rejection to make her feel badly.

“No” means not today. It doesn’t mean never.

She knows that when an advisor says no, he is rejecting her idea; he is not rejecting her.

Sam keeps it simple. This is a simple business and he refuses to make it complicated. It takes years to get simple. Simplistic is naïve. Simple is beautiful.

Sam knows that if he does a good job, advisors will not necessarily give him more money next time. That is a delusional business plan. He makes it a point to go back and ask for further business, again and again (and again.)

Samantha writes a business plan annually and reviews it quarterly. She follows the plan religiously. That way, running the territory

doesn’t get in the way of growing the territory.

She lets the competition get up in the morning and hunt, kill and eat whatever comes their way that day. She gets business on purpose, in a very deliberate fashion.

We are just about half-way home and Sam and Samantha are looking pretty good, but there is a lot that can be added to make our ideal wholesaler truly formidable. We don’t just want to build a good wholesaler. We want to build the best wholesaler in America. So back to the lab!

Samantha knows that three things must happen before an advisor will do business with her and she focuses on meeting all three requirements. The advisor must like her, the advisor must trust her, and the advisor must think that her products make sense for his business model. Advisors have a great deal of choice and Samantha makes sure she is the logical choice.

She knows that the size of her paycheck is totally dependent upon her ability to create and maintain long-term relationships. She is adamant that everything she does adds value to her relationship with the advisor. She is never selfish. She does nothing for the short term.

Sam knows that if he wants to get to the next level, he has to get beyond unprofitable advisors. Any good business owner thinks that way.

When things happen on schedule, trust is built.

Sam knows that he will build trust if he does what he says he will do. To overpromise is to underperform.

Sam asks his advisors for referrals. He knows that referrals come from the inner circle, so he makes sure that he is always referable. He also knows that the more his advisors know and understand his business model, the more apt they are to refer fellow advisors to him.

Samantha also has no problem approaching any advisor in her region. She doesn’t want to just stumble into a branch and meet advisors by accident. She decides whom she wants to meet and meets him. She has written a mission statement with a message that defines her. It becomes her value proposition.

Sam has a marketing plan. He knows that the amount of time he spends marketing himself this year determines the amount he will grow next year. He leaves part of every day for marketing.

I CARRY THE BAG | WINTER 2011 | 99

At the beginning of every year, he does a SWOT analysis of his business. He is acutely aware of his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Samantha segments her territory periodically.

Segmentation validates the 80/20 rule. She knows where her business is coming from and she knows which relationships are the most profitable.

When Samantha walks into a branch, she knows that if she wants to educate, she can tell the advisor how wonderful she and her company are. She also knows that if she wants to do business, she must only talk from the advisor’s point of view.

Samantha urges her advisors to never discuss the short term. She knows that in politics, the short term is crystal clear and the long term is murky. In the investment business, it’s the short term that’s murky. The long term is crystal clear. This business is a marathon, not a one hundred yard dash. There are lots of lucky sprinters. There has never been a lucky marathon winner.

Samantha never walks into a meeting without a great sales idea. She gladly passes the idea on to her advisors and asks that they, in return, use the idea to generate business for her.

When he’s in a slump, Sam gets proactive.

He does not want to be like a leaf floating aimlessly down a stream. When the business gets tough, he comes out with the gloves on.

Sam is great at overcoming the advisor’s objections. He turns an objection into

a question and very clearly answers the question.

Samantha never confuses her career with her life. She knows that wholesaling can be a beast; and, if she doesn’t control the beast, it will control her. She has friends, she has a mate, and she has other things in her life.

She keeps a very even keel, in order not to be consumed.

Sam takes responsibility for his own actions.

He knows he cannot control his compensation or his territory and he refuses to worry about things he cannot control. When things go poorly, he shoulders the blame. It’s never his boss’s fault or the economy’s fault. Conversely, when things go well, he takes the credit.

He’s a great listener. Before he gives a presentation, he knows where his products fit in and how to position them. Giving a presentation without doing enough listening is presumptuous.

Sam knows he’s compensated very much the same way a doctor is compensated. If he’s not in front of an advisor, he’s unemployed.

Therefore he does not spend 70% of his time getting ready to get ready.

Samantha knows that one bad hour will ruin her day. One bad day will ruin her week. One bad week will ruin her month. One bad month will ruin her quarter and one bad quarter will ruin her year. Therefore she never has a bad hour. If she feels she’s not working up to par, she will take a walk, run an errand or go to movie. However, when she’s working, she’s

working the right way.

It would never occur to Samantha to run and hide. She knows that the more uncertain the times, the more certainty clients will demand from her. That’s the price she pays for being in the advice business.

Lastly, Samantha has taken a younger wholesaler under her wing and she mentors him. She was mentored when she was young and wants to pay forward a good deed. She lets younger wholesalers light their candle from hers.

The interesting thing about our ideal wholesaler is that he is not an outlier. He doesn’t do anything that you cannot do if you make up your mind to do it. Excellence is simply doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Decide right now that from this day forward you will never do less than excellent work!

Don Connelly is perhaps the nation’s most successful advisor to the financial advisory industry. His career on Wall Street spans over 40 years and includes positions as stock broker, financial planner, branch manager, wholesaler, national sales manager and for nearly 19 years he was company spokesperson and Senior V. P. and Senior Marketing Officer for Putnam. Now as founder of CampConnelly.com, an extraordinary e-boot camp, Don’s timely and provocative sales ideas are available to thousands of financial professionals, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

12 Traits of Great Leaders, continued from page 5… fitness. Working out at the gym or getting a run in daily, despite the rigors of the job, keeps their mind fresh and their body energized to meet the demands of long days.

• Intellectual Curiosity – The drive to continue learning, to diversify their knowledge outside of their career path, is often a component easily recognized in senior leadership.

What do you read or study when you are done absorbing your business periodicals? Great leaders are frequently found reading biographies of icons from history to see what components made other leaders so memorable. They may be seen 1016 SUMMER 2011 2010 | I |CARRY I CARRY THETHE BAGBAG 1 0| |WINTER

learning about societal issues or studying the ramifications of global warming, but whatever their chosen path, a recognizable thirst for learning is demonstrated among great leaders.

• Decisiveness – Leaders can have insight, vision, charisma, curiosity and all of the other critical traits, but if they can’t make a decision they won’t craft a lasting or impactful career.

How do you rate on the “decisive” scale? There are numerous online tests you can take to get a gauge of your own propensity to assimilate facts and draw a conclusion. Those leaders with analysis paralysis are not the ones we remember over time.

Kathy Freeman Godfrey is the President of The Kathy Freeman Company, a retained executive search practice she opened in 1992 to focus her work exclusively within the investment industry. Since that time, she has completed hundreds of assignments working with premier firms across the country in asset management, wealth management, service provider organizations and investment technology. Functionally, Kathy works with senior sales and marketing executives where she can leverage her extensive assessment process to ascertain for her clients, best in class talent for their firms.

Internals have Feelings Too

We Do it for You, Gold and Glory Let’s ignore the allusion in the title for now, I’ll get back to it later – there isn’t much time to waste! With the 2011 annual goal set, and your renewed aspirations to win that custom-made suit at next year’s sales conference, you may want to consider the following tips for coaching your internal to be all they can be!

GIVE US OWNERSHIP While the territory is most obviously your baby, we are much more likely to go the extra mile when you assign specific counties, cities, branches, or teams to us. Why? It makes us feel responsible and valued. More

importantly, it makes us think you like and trust us enough to give us some power.

Make sure you assign opportunities that are outside of your normal rotation; we can clearly demark our victories (we are all egomaniacs too.) Make sure the allocated areas are not just Pikers and regions filled with “Model Business Only” branches. Success here will give us reasons to feel genuinely engaged in the territory, while giving us talking points for our reviews with Desk Managers.

HOLD US ACCOUNTABLE…BUT EXPECT TO BE ACCOUNTABLE If you want to know that we are working as hard (hopefully harder) than you, then hold us accountable on a daily basis. How do you, without offending, ask us to prove that we are working hard, talking to the right people about the right things, and adding value to your clients and dollars to your paycheck? Ask us to give you an end of day e-mail with our top 5 contacts for the day – under the guise, and hopefully the reality, that you are going to utilize this information to follow up on the leads we generated. In exchange for this list, we completely expect you to actually follow up on these leads, or tell us why they are bad ones. One way or another, we are either being reinforced in the behavior, or you are given a chance to coach us on qualifying leads. You do qualify and send us your leads, don’t you?!

DON’T FORGET WE RELY ON YOU TOO Don’t forget, you are our meal ticket, and we know it! If you’re a lazy bum, trust us - we know. As long as the monthly run is over 100%... unless it’s not. In which case, we are telling our coworkers how worthless you are, and that your ineptitude is why we need to borrow money for coffee so we can make more contacts. How can you avoid this obviously false assumption? Send us useful follow-ups to your meetings, so we can hold you accountable too. You don’t care what we think? Then consider it a selfserving activity. Without good leads, we are going to have to act like this is a game of trench warfare, not sharpshooting. Without direction from your latest interactions, we will be forced to use the phone like an AK-47, spraying the territory with a haze of product, continue on page 12…

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Internals Have Feelings Too, We Do it For You, Gold and Glory continued from page 11… hoping to get a few trades. This is an enormous exercise in wasting energy, resources, time, and credibility. Make a calendar appointment at 5 p.m. every day to send us an e-mail with at least your 5 best meetings, their topic, and any other useful info.

SEND THEM OVER, BUT QUALITY COUNTS Let’s start by pointing out that we know you have “productivity metrics” too. You need so many meetings per week so that the mucky-muck you loathe back in the home office can justify his existence on early morning conference calls with the other externals he runs. We aren’t judging you, and we definitely aren’t spying for the enemy (these conference calls that you are required to dial in for - we are required to be present for), so save the laundry list for him. Only send us credible, real meetings, which have a discernible purpose. This means that Barron’s 1000 FA, the one that popped by your branch lunch to grab a slice, politely took a fact sheet without so much as an audible grunt, then departed, probably can remain off “Today’s Meetings” e-mail! If you drown us in follow-up calls, and we get a lot of calls that start and end with, “…oh yeah, he was here last week, right?” – expect us to begin discounting that list the same way we label perceived flirtations from our office crush – “Might mean something, but I’m less likely to get hung up on if I ignore it…”

MOTIVATION FOR INTERNALS, LIKE THAT OF MEDEIVAL CRUSADERS, BOILS DOWN TO THREE REWARDS: 1) GLORY - Praise us! When we speak, when you speak to other externals, and most importantly, in conversations with our manager, your manager, and anyone else who may one day be able to give us an external gig, or juice this quarter’s discretionary bonus check.

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2) GOLD – We play to get paid! Just like you, we love this profession for its ample opportunities to exercise our EQ Skills, flex our inner psychologist, and implement the sales process chart in the “boardroom.” However, when you drill right down to it, the Beatles had it right – “The best things in life are free, but you can keep ‘em for the birds and bees – MONEY, THAT’S WHAT I WANT!” It may seem crass, but why else would anybody endure the same ups and downs, if not for the paycheck. To motivate us, we expect you to close deals, break down doors, and collaborate with us to be #1 in the division. AMEX Gift Cards and additional territory travel are also appreciated.

3) AFTERLIFE– For us, getting the nod to go outside equates, in wholesaling terms, to the aforementioned Crusaders’ shot at eternity inside the Pearly Gates. Mentor us, teach us, and encourage us in our undying quest to achieve this goal. Most importantly, assure us that, if in a reasonable amount of time you don’t get enough of #1 or #2, you’ll give us a shot at the role you’ve left for greener pastures!

The Anonymous Internal Wholesaler, M2M, began his career as a Financial Advisor. Working out of an Independent Division Firm in their NYC office. M2M was recruited to his current employer just before the last Bull Market ended. Anonymity was decided upon so that he could write bluntly and honestly about the views of Internal Wholesalers, without fear of offending External Partners, or reprisals from Managers referenced.

7 Unspoken Truth for 2011 continued from page 6…

In addition, it’s important to maintain contact and maintain the relationship even if your customer is not in the buying mode. This lets the customer feel valued and appreciated.

Good business relationships serve the needs of all participants – not just the salesperson.

It goes without saying (but it’s definitely worth repeating!) that it’s equally important that you follow through on your commitments and maintain your accountability. You will improve your standing every time you demonstrate your responsibility and accountability, and when you meet or exceed the expectations you set with your customers.

By incorporating all of these tactics you not only build credibility; you also build lasting relationships - the key to being successful in today’s market. These strong connections will lead to larger referral pipelines and new sales channels as you develop a reputation for being one of the best in the business.

JB Bush has more than 20 years of success in senior management and executive sales positions with established companies as well as start-ups. He has successfully navigated the complexities of nearly every type of sales challenge. By leveraging his expertise as a build-out and turn-around strategist, paired with his belief that training should be fun, JB arms his clients with solid education, salesready messaging and the confidence that they can win. He is a sought-after keynote speaker and trainer who can deliver highimpact results by maximizing and leveraging his clients’ investment in the ValueSelling Framework and Essentials, a series of leading edge web based training modules on essential sales skills. jb@jbbush.com

By Ivy Naidstadt

3 Surefire Secrets to Guarantee Your Next Ovation I recently received a call from a VP in a Fortune 500 company who wanted to improve his speaking skills. When I asked him what he specifically wanted to improve, he shot back, “Oh Ivy, you know those speakers who get the audience’s attention from the very start of their speech, then hold them in the palm of their hand throughout their speech and at the end, the audience is on their feet applauding wildly... I want to know how to get that!”

Here are a few secrets the “best of the best” speakers use to bring audiences to their feet.

Secret # 1: Craft an Audience-Focused Opening.

A presenter was preparing to deliver an important speech at a conference and asked me to review his talk; a lot was riding on it. He started his speech by saying, “Good morning.

My name is Philip and I’m President of Arco Financial. In the next half hour, I’m going to be telling you all about our company and the

significant impact we’ve made in the industry.

By the end of our time together, I think you’ll agree we are the number one leader in the financial markets we serve.”

What’s wrong with this picture? If you want to bring your audience to their feet at the end of your presentation, there is a more powerful way to begin. You must shift your focus from yourself and onto your audience.

Always frame your message from your listeners’ point of view. Let your listeners know from the very start that you are invested in their needs and concerns, and choose words that actively demonstrate your desire to help them.

After discussing this with Philip, he changed his approach. Afterward, it sounded something like this: “Before coming here today, I had a chance to speak with some of you and I understand how concerned you are about doing business in

this tough and uncertain business climate. In the next half hour I’m going to share with you some of the challenges we’ve recently faced at Arco Financial and some of the strategies we’ve put in place to overcome them. My hope is that you will take this information back to your companies and use it to increase your chances of success.”

By shifting your focus from your successes to how your ideas will help your listeners succeed, you’ve taken your first step towards your goal.

“Audiences have one thing in common, they are all different”

-Robert Zend Secret # 2: Weave Customized Examples throughout Your Talks.

This takes some extra time but it is completely worth it.

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I was speaking at a conference in Kansas City last spring for a group made up of diverse government agencies. This presentation was originally developed upon request for leaders at Princeton University. The two audiences were quite different in terms of how they would apply the information. To prepare myself, I set about conducting strategic research. First, I sent out questionnaires to all of the conference attendees, and then I followed up by speaking directly to several people via phone.

Secret # 3: Take it for a Test Drive Lastly, I want to share a secret I recently learned from a person I coach who has my deepest respect and admiration. He is in the Financial Services industry and is frequently called upon to sell tough business directions to top management in his company. These are not easy presentations! He knows that in these high-level meetings, many members of the senior management team may not voice their true concerns in front of their colleagues.

By asking specific questions designed to gain insight into the nature of their current challenges and what was important to them, I was able to retool the presentation. Weaving specific industry examples throughout and even adding new segments to my original presentation significantly increased the relevance of the talk for this group.

Not satisfied to let the cards fall where they may, each time he is giving a presentation he takes it upon himself to gain consensus ahead of time. He sets aside private time with key players and previews his talks with each one. After eliciting honest (and sometimes painful) feedback, he makes refinements to his presentations. When “show time” arrives, he knows he has stacked the odds in his favor and he hits a home run!

The program was met with an enthusiastic response and the extra effort even paid off with an immediate invitation to speak again the following year.

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If you follow these surefire professional speaking secrets, your audiences will be on

the edge of their seats and you will be on your way to receiving that standing ovation you’ve always wanted.

Ivy Naistadt is known worldwide as an expert in helping clients reach their professional communication potential. As the author of the highly acclaimed book, “Speak Without Fear” (Harper Collins), nationally recognized speech coach and speaker, Ivy has helped business professionals and others deliver successful public presentations for over 20 years.

Her diverse client list includes such leading organizations as IBM, Pitney Bowes, The New York Times, Merrill Lynch and Princeton University. She is frequently interviewed on radio, television and has been featured in numerous publications including, The New York Times, USA Today and The Daily News. To learn more about working with Ivy or to hear a sample of her new audio book, go to: www.JoinTheIvyLeague.com, or email: Ivy@jointheivyleague.com.

By Julie Threewit

12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Scheduler Scheduling can be the thorn in a wholesaler’s paw, yet most would agree it is a critical part of the job. Many firms now require future scheduling with a specific number of appointments set two to three weeks in advance. Scheduling help can be a simple and effective way to capitalize on a wholesaler’s limited and valuable time. Finding a strong partner to assist with important yet timeconsuming administrative tasks allows the wholesaler and internal partner to focus on clients, prospects, and sales while fulfilling management mandates about appointments.

Many companies encourage scheduling partners and provide a preferred vendor for scheduling, or they allow wholesalers to hire their own schedulers. Some wholesalers would like to have scheduling help but company policy may not allow the support.

One long-standing argument against using schedulers has been that the wholesaler misses a sales opportunity by not making the appointment phone call themselves. Those of us who operate scheduling companies, as well as many wholesalers, managers, and financial advisors disagree. There is agreement, however, that a number of factors should be well thought-out when considering a scheduler.

When wholesalers ask Michael Coutre, First Vice President and Branch Manager at RBC Wealth Management in Santa Rosa, California, for a meeting, the conversation ends and the call is transferred to his assistant. “We all have to manage our day and prioritize.

I am supposed to be on the phone with clients, prospects, and wholesalers sharing

want one. For top performers in any field, the more you free them up to be in front of clients (taking away administrative work), the better. If a scheduler can keep the wholesaler busy and in front of the right people, then the wholesaler is going to be a stronger performer.”

important information. Making appointments is not doing business. I have delegated my calendar to my assistant; she’s in charge of my appointment setting.”

Scheduling companies that specialize in working with wholesalers are nonlicensed partners that know the industry and understand the difference between administration and sales. Ashley Tracy, President of Specialized Schedulers, says, “My reaction to the lost sale argument has always been that schedulers are not to be used for sales. Schedulers help maximize efficiency so the wholesaler can be more effective and get it all accomplished. Schedulers maximize productivity by providing a necessary valueadded service.”

Ed Sierawski, Founder and President of Sequoia Systems, sees the argument against using schedulers as a bit of a red herring.

“Any good wholesaler would never miss an opportunity because someone else made the appointment call. Personally, I can’t imagine top performers not having a scheduler if they

Because all wholesalers are not created equally, there needs to be segmentation when management considers the use of a scheduler. Sierawski adds, “With the vast group of wholesalers in the middle of the pack, using a scheduler would be questionable. The wholesaler would have to possess a high proficiency in territory management to justify a scheduler. New wholesalers or low performers need to master territory management; the bottom 20% are not good candidates to work with a scheduler until they become more established.”

MFS Investment Management believes in supporting its wholesalers by providing an approved vendor for scheduling. Mark Warren, Managing Director at MFS, explains that hiring a scheduler can be good, bad, or ugly. “If you have a good team, it’s good. If you have a not-so-good team, it is probably bad; if the wholesaler does not manage and lead the process, it will always be ugly. The wholesaler needs to give good direction to the scheduler; if they are willing to do that and take responsibility for their business, then having a full schedule will be the result.

If the wholesaler wants to turn everything over to the scheduler, go on a scheduling vacation without any rhyme or reason to their process, and make the scheduler the head of the process, then they are crazy. The

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scheduler is the implementer of the process the wholesaler develops.”

Wholesalers considering a scheduler should first look in-house. Many firms have approved vendors for scheduling. Background checks, licensing and insurance verifications, as well as contracts and form of payment, are usually handled between the firm and the scheduling company, allowing the wholesaler to quickly get started with a scheduling partner.

Companies that specialize in working with wholesalers are the next best choice. These firms know the industry, compliance issues, and the specialized nature of scheduling calls for wholesalers. They hire, perform background checks, and train experienced individuals to support the wholesaler.

They are typically licensed and insured appropriately and have the contract and billing process designed for easy start-up.

Finally, there are many qualified Virtual Assistants providing experienced help to wholesalers. A more thorough interview and background check would be required when considering this option. Finding a VA with past experience in the industry, as well as a thorough understanding of compliance issues and privacy policies, is imperative.

Virtual Assistants Networking has a valuable resource to help clients find the perfect VA. Go to http://www.virtualassistantnetworking. com/howtohireavirtualassistant.htm for more information.

Whatever your solution, start strong …

• Have rotations/loops in order going forward a number of months. The territory management and rotation strategy the wholesalers use to handle their own schedule is the same plan the schedulers will carry out. Most scheduling firms provide territory management planning if needed. The more information your schedulers have about your travel plans, the more successful they will be in securing forward scheduling.

• It helps if the contact list you share with your scheduler is ranked. You or your internal should handle all cold calls and prospecting.

In order to stay efficient and productive …

• Talk with your scheduler when you have a bit of windshield or airport time. A quick phone call to review the calendar will help you get the schedule of your dreams.

• Interactive scheduling leads to a full calendar. You can easily secure future meetings as you finish an appointment.

Your internal may add activity as a result of prospecting calls. Stay in communication with your scheduler via email to avoid meeting conflicts.

• Review and update the contact list regularly.

When used suitably, schedulers can be a valuable part of any team. They will ease the stress of appointment setting, resulting in a better performing wholesaler. Sales are not lost, in fact they are improved.

Julie Threewit is founder of The Appointment Biz, a scheduling service for wholesalers she started in 1996. Since that time, the company has become the preferred vendor for scheduling at many of the top financial services firms and strategic partners with wholesalers across the country. You can reach Julie at 800-547-4966 or jthreewit@theappointmentbiz.com.

12 Questions you should ask a scheduling company or virtual assistant: • General knowledge. Describe what you know about my position. What is your understanding of what the scheduling job entails and what you might like and dislike about the work?

• Technology. What software do you use to document your outbound calls, conversation notes, and new activity?

• Zones and rotations. Do you have geographic knowledge of my territory? If not, how will you learn?

• The outbound call. How will you introduce yourself to the contact and request the meeting?

• Customer service attitude. Consider the following scenario: A financial advisor takes your call, but s/he is obviously annoyed and frustrated about the interruption. How would you respond?

• Keep me informed. How will you deliver the new activity and changes to my schedule?

• Respect for privacy and compliance policy. How do you deal with sales or product related questions?

• Priority management. Describe how you balance scheduling for more than one wholesaler.

• Outbound call schedule. I know the best times to reach my contacts. Do you have time in your schedule to make calls during those hours?

• Partnership. How will we work together to stay productive? What will we talk about “in person” versus using email or voicemail?

• Accountability. How do you track your time and detail your work?

• Billing. How will I be charged?

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By Rob Shore

Ways to Make COIs Love You Centers of Influence (COIs) are some of the most influential yet often overlooked assets that wholesalers have in their region. These connected and frequently powerful individuals can hold the key to your next level of production. Their ability to open the doors to producers, offer insights into their firm’s best practices, and assist wholesalers in navigating the waters of a particular organization are simply invaluable. with these Great Eight. You want to provide contributions to their success and well-being so that when they recognize a place where you may be of value to someone, they will feel willing to mention and recommend what it is that you do.”

Sam recommends that these are the individuals that you want to touch on a monthly basis. To organize the process, simply start by writing down the Great Eight people with whom you have a meaningful relationship. Then create a plan of what you’re going to do each month for the next 12 months; a plan to stay in front of and in communication with, and to deliver value to, those eight people.

Why is it that so few wholesalers spend meaningful time nurturing COIs? The answer is many-fold. At the top of the list is simply that wholesalers frequently feel ill- equipped to face off against these higherpowered contacts.

Sam Silverstein, Founder of The Accountability Academy, offers that wholesalers should view COIs in a “Sphere of Contribution.” He says, “If you have individuals that you can contribute to, add meaning to what they’re trying to do, help them achieve what they’re trying to achieve, then ultimately these people are willing and able to help you get to your goals.” Sam continues to explain,

“It’s the law of reciprocity. It’s a matter of give, give, and give. You are doing so because you want to give, and you know that over time those are going to be the people that naturally want to give back to you.”

How do you get started building the Sphere of Contribution? “To grow your business, you need COI targets. We call those targets the Inner Sphere of Champions and the Outer Sphere of Champions. For the Inner Sphere, your ‘Great Eight,’ focus on eight individuals with whom you have a relationship, who know what you do, and who can articulate your value, both product and service,” Sam says. He adds, “Your goal is to maintain especially close relationships

He reminds us that it could be as simple as finding an article on the Internet and sending an e-mail with a link. Maybe you read a great book; send a copy of the book to these individuals. “The most important thing,” he says, “is that you want to maintain contact and presence of mind, and you want to maintain the delivery of value.”

The Voice of the COI We asked five leaders to share their thoughts about building and maintaining effective COI relationships. They represent COIs from broker dealers, wirehouses, insurance agencies, banks, and credit unions. All of these leaders have been in the business for a significant period of time and they base their insights on interactions with hundreds of wholesaling professionals.

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Ways to Make COIs Love You Follow through. “We have road shows and our product partners frequently offer to have their internals help drive attendees. Yet in all these years I have never had a roadshow attendee mention that they showed up as a result of one of those calls. It makes me wonder if the offers to assist are sincere.”

Fake and cheesy. “Be real. People want to deal with genuine folks and COIs will see through the ‘cheese’ every time.”

Directness of communication. “Everybody is just too busy to spend a lot of time on small talk. Get to the point.”

Genuine energy. “COIs know when someone is going through the motions. Conversely, it’s easy to spot someone who is doing the job with passion and is living their role as a ‘lifestyle’ and not just a J.O.B.” Absence of pettiness. “Don’t call me and air the dirty laundry of your firm. There are enough politics in our shop - I don’t need to hear yours.”

Bob Blecki, Director, Fixed Annuity Sales LPL

Remember it is about value-added content and not product. “Recently we had three partners sponsor and provide content for a day dedicated to sales skill building.

No product. It was very valuable.”

Assist advisors in building their marketing plans.

Understand the systems of the programs that you call on in order to work with advisor to mine the book for prospects.

No ‘frat boy’ edge means he doesn’t need wholesalers to provide ‘good times’ for groups. He does need a business consultant approach for his reps.

Stay within allotted times to speak at sales meetings. “I recently had to cut off a wholesaler who ignored the time and there was clearly no end to his presentation!”

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Mark Hoaglin, VP Investment and Insurance Services, Patelco CU

Here’s what they had to say. Note that more than once offers valuable insigh

Be respectful of time. “I almost never talk to wholesalers who have not scheduled time to speak. However, for those that call ahead and want to schedule 10 minutes, I almost never say no.” He also emphasized that for him 10 minutes was the magic number. Not 15 minutes. Not half an hour.

Calls that come to him for an appointment, if placed by a scheduler to plan the first meeting, will almost never get calendared. “To me it feels like a generic and random cold call. The first call should come from the wholesalers themselves.”

“I don’t want a commercial for all of your products,” he said. “Pick two best ideas. Make them two that I should remember and pass along.”

“Take a broader world view” and be able to work with managers in a consultative framework. Be able to discuss products in the context of the manager’s and the bank’s greater sales and marketing objectives.

“Sales channel compression is a mixed blessing.” On a positive note, it allows for wholesalers that work in wires to bring that learning into the bank. On a negative note, some wholesalers “are unable or unwilling to do the handholding necessary with some of the sellers in the bank environment.”

“Smart enough to understand the differences inherent in a bank sales environment.”

“Are able, and willing, to spend time with B level producers in the program to help get them up to A status.”

“Ability to leverage technology.” Use technology to efficiently reach groups of reps at once via WebEx. Don’t bash competitors’ products.

Do not try to circumvent rules and procedures of the broker dealer or the bank.

Bruce Stava, Program Manager, First Brokerage America, LLC

t we have left any duplicate thoughts intact, as the fact that these were mentioned ht about the importance of their ideas.

“Time I spend with a wholesaler is a time debit. As a result, give me something selfless - and get to the point quickly.”

With great wholesalers you can’t tell the size of their territory. That means that they are not sitting down and spewing a canned story that they have repeated 100 times.

“For me a perfect meeting is: 3 minutes: Rapport building

The best wholesalers know the terminology of our shop.

“During our integration with Bank of America we actually had wholesalers that helped us navigate the acronyms and helped us map the BOA to Merrill acronyms.”

3 minutes: An idea to make my life easier (or more profitable) as a manager 3 minutes: On your product.”

Selfless means sharing the resources that wholesalers have at their disposal. This might be from their firm and/or it might be sharing what works at the complex up the street.

As a manager of wholesalers, it is critical that you assist them in understanding who the COIs are. Using business intelligence you should be able to name them, file them, and get them into a proper quarterly rotation.

Don’t let wholesalers decide independently who is the best (read: most profitable) COI to see.

Delineate between an obvious COI - say a branch manager - and who is an influencer. Have a plan for both.

Don’t waste your money on ‘frat boy’ activities (read: drinks.)

Get to know the rules, then abide by them and respect them.

Clearly understand my goals.

Everybody wants a clear feedback system to report wholesaler activity in COI footprint.

Internals need to be better trained to place meaningful COI calls.

Ralph Grant Investment Specialist South Carolina Agency, Mass Mutual.

Know that there are other resources besides the manager that can be just as valuable. Some managers will not meet with wholesalers, period.

Former Complex Manager, now Wealth Management Specialist Merrill Lynch

As you begin the New Year, rethink your approach to COIs. Develop a clear process and make a commitment to follow it. You will be rewarded with deeper and more meaningful relationships that can significantly enhance your access to sellers, improve the breadth of your story, and have a powerful impact on your top line sales.

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By Tommy Spaulding

Generating Meaningful ROR

–Return on Relationship There are dozens of wonderful banks in the Denver metro area, and I’ve gotten to know many of the top leaders at these institutions.

Whether I’m setting up another non-profit, building a new business, or just taking care of my family’s finances, there’s no shortage of banks from which I might choose.

However, I have a long relationship with Vectra Bank, and it has little to do with the fact that I know its president and several of its executive leaders.

It’s because of Lindsay Burr.

Why? Because Lindsay makes deposits in our relationship that go well beyond the transactions she’s required to provide as the Business Banking Assistant of my various accounts. In short, she understands Relationship Capital.

For example, a few months ago I was making some routine deposits at the bank and I stopped by Lindsay’s desk to say hello. We started with what I call an NSW conversation—news, sports, weather. Then she began asking about my children and the activities in which they’re involved. Not only did she ask, but she listened, and not only did she listen, but she acted on what she learned.

A few days later, I got an e-mail from Lindsay that went something like this: “Tommy, the last time you were in the office you mentioned that your soon to be five year old daughter Caroline is interested in horses and wants to take riding lessons. I didn’t tell you this at the time, but I’m very passionate about

horseback riding and I know all the best stables in the area. One takes riders as young as 5. Here’s the number and information, if you’d like to give them a call.”

I knew nothing about horseback riding, but thanks to Lindsay, my daughter is now enrolled at one of the top stables in the area.

Additionally, when Lindsay took the time to listen to and address a need that has nothing to do with my bank accounts, she made a huge deposit in our relationship account.

It is because of Lindsay’s understanding of Relationship Capital that I’m so loyal to Vectra Bank. For Lindsay and Vectra Bank, that’s the ROR—Return on Relationships.

Many of us can and should do more to build relationship capital. We have to move beyond the transactional and the NSW conversation toward what I call Fifth Floor Relationships— our most intimate, transformative relationships. This is where we share life with people in an intentional, committed fashion.

Unfortunately, most people are overly satisfied with NSW Relationships, and they’re missing out on the richness of life—not to mention the benefits in business.

Social scientists suggest we can’t maintain more than three to five close relationships, in fact they point out that very few people even have that many. If we make an intentional effort to build Relationship Capital, we can have a dozen or more Fifth Floor Relationships. We can also have many other relationships (like mine with Lindsay Burr)

that are working their way in that direction or that are comfortably and appropriately parked on the third or fourth floors.

There are dozens of tactics and strategies for generating this type of ROR. For ICTB readers I want to focus on the Law of Elevation—the idea that we’re making the most of our relationships when we’re intentionally lifting others to places they can’t go alone.

There are three essential components to the Law of Elevation—Advancement, Link, and Lift.

Advancement. When we look at the people we encounter in life, at least one question should always enter our minds: How can I help this person reach her full potential? You need to know the dreams and aspirations of the people around you. Those can be personal, as well as professional. Then you need to seek opportunities to help them achieve those dreams.

This goes beyond what most sales people understand as “Solution Selling.”

Advancement allows for a measure of altruism. Think of it as “Solution Giving,” and the bottom-line result is that it helps create a network of clients, customers, and co-workers who will become what Ken Blanchard calls “raving fans”—for a lifetime.

Link. Most of us have been in situations where we’ve realized that two or more people we know really could benefit from a relationship with each other because of their positions, professions, or personalities. When continue on page 29…

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By Bill Smith

bonus: from the reps desk

30 Tips That Propel High Achievers Editor’s note: As a wholesaler, how much value would you place on the ability to read an advisors mind? If you understood the advisor from the inside out wouldn’t that give you a huge leg up over the competition that is flying by the handles of their briefcase?

Enter The Happy Advisor. Bill Smith has written a new book designed for financial advisors and, courtesy of Horsesmouth, ICTB got to hand select this sample chapter for our readers. We believe that the book offers insights that are valuable for wholesaler’s dealings with their clients, and the wholesaler themselves.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat”

-Theodore Roosevelt

This quote from Teddy Roosevelt has been a favorite of high achievers for nearly a century.

It’s packed with wisdom, but what would you say is the most important phrase in the quote? Most readers would agree that it is “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” How about the second most important? I would suggest that it is “who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error or shortcomings…” Yet when you see it in print, that phrase is often left out.

EMBRACING FAILURE It seems to me that our generation is in denial about something that Teddy Roosevelt knew very well: High achievers err and fall short, fail, and crash and burn again and again!

how do we separate activity from results?

Here are 30 effective strategies used by top producers; try them out for yourself and see how your stamina improves: 1. Remember something my friend Jim Christman said when I suggested I couldn’t handle a particular mechanical task: “How do you know that you can’t?”

2. Compile a list of things that you had never done before but succeeded at doing once you tried.

3. When you show courage, even in something small, record the date and the action.

In our profession, and indeed in all professions, high achievers don’t insulate themselves from failure. Rather they welcome it and rack up many failures in the course of a day or a week. They know that they are able to accomplish so much precisely because they are willing to work through challenges such as prospects who say no, marketing campaigns that don’t work, and thorny problems that hike their anxiety.

4. When you tackle and succeed at something that seemed overly complicated to begin with, make a record of it.

That’s not to suggest that it’s easy to power through failures. As one industry veteran put it, many of us, like weary boxers, tire of taking so many body blows. So how do we get ourselves to attempt things, without regard to whether we succeed or fail? In other words,

6. Write up affirmations for yourself and read them out loud three times daily until your subconscious has absorbed them and they have replaced the “can’ts” that undermine you.

5. Keep the previous three lists in a tabbed notebook and read that notebook daily in order to remind yourself of your capabilities.

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bonus: from the reps desk 7. Practice being ridiculous. Eric Saperston graduated from college and camped around the country in a VW van interviewing famous people about their lives. Many people thought he was crazy, but in the end, he not only interviewed 300 successful people (actor Henry Winkler and the chairman of Coca-Cola, to name but two), but now runs a film production company with millions of dollars in contracts. Eric says, “When people think you’re nuts, it gives you a wide range of behavior to take advantage of.”

8. Develop and use an end-of-day ritual.

That way, you will be able to close the book on each day, with all of its successes and failures, and you won’t carry it with you.

9. Develop deeper relationships with your spouse, kids, and friends, so that you’re cushioned against even massive failure.

Have many fulfilling aspects to your life so that business is not everything.

10. Determine how much each of your actions or dials is worth to you in dollars and cents (regardless of the outcome), and keep that figure written on a card in front of you. One advisor determined that her average outgoing dial, whether successful or not, was worth $50 in new business to her. Who wouldn’t punch in a few numbers for $50?

11. Stop imagining other people are so together. They aren’t! And we all should have stopped comparing ourselves with other people a long time ago, about the time we graduated from high school.

12. Create excellent habits, because then the daily decisions no longer have to be made. (Read or reread “The Common Denominator of Success,” a 70-year-old speech that speaks as directly to us now as if it had been written yesterday).

13. Read or reread The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino. Many advisors credit it with much of their success. So

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does the actor Matthew McConaughey!

14. When you face something that seems so complicated that you just can’t get a handle on it, set a kitchen timer for 45 minutes and work on it for only that amount of time, then stop. You can do anything for 45 minutes. And you’ll be surprised at how many of these monsters take only about 10 minutes once you get started.

15. Get a friend or two to work on the project with you. The Bible says that although one string can be broken, even a strong man can’t break a rope with three strands.

16. Encourage someone else. Take the focus off yourself.

17. Memorize motivational poems such as “Don’t Quit” (by an anonymous author).

your mistakes early.

26. Adjust to changes, such as needing glasses or learning new software. Life changes. You change. Get over it!

27. Turn it all into a game. Keep score of the activities you do, which, along with your attitude, is really all you can control.

28. Collect a list of your favorite inspirational sayings, such as “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step” and “He who is outside his door is halfway there.”

29. Read biographies of people who have weathered many failures on their way to success. Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Marie Curie, even Teddy Roosevelt. He didn’t make that speech just because he was a witty writer. He said those things because he had lived them!

18. Be audacious!

30. Have fun!

19. Do 10 things in the time others would procrastinate over one.

20. Put it all in perspective. What’s the big deal?

21. Read or reread the great Nick Murray’s description of putting quarters into a slot machine, knowing that they will pay off one day. It’s in The Excellent Investment Advisor.

22. Be willing to take the time to solve any problem. Given enough time, an ant can carry away an elephant.

23. Develop consistent processes and write them down so that the anxiety of “how to do it” is no longer there after the first time.

24. Listen or relisten to Aaron Hemsley recordings such as “The Psychology of Maximum Sales Performance.”

25. If you have to eat a live toad, don’t sit staring at it too long! Call those difficult clients or handle those difficult problems early in the day. Own up to

This article is an excerpt from The Happy Advisor,

by Bill Smith. Bill is a widely read columnist at Horsesmouth and a veteran financial advisor at one of the largest broker/dealers in the U.S. During more than 30 years as a successful advisor, he has analyzed every challenge and obstacle one could possibly face in the pursuit of a successful business, and he’s come up with fresh approaches for overcoming each one. Learn more about The Happy Advisor and buy it for yourself, your team, and the advisors you serve at http://www.thehappyadvisor.com/HA_corp_ wholesalers.htm

By Kip Gregory

7 Ways Savvy Wholesalers Can Harness Social Media Want to become a better business partner to the advisors with whom you work? Here are seven simple steps you can take to enhance your networking using social media sites like LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com), and Twitter (http://twitter.com).

1. Keep tabs on your network. Astute wholesalers find out on which sites their advisors are active and connect with them there. Then they monitor those sites to stay current on what those advisors are doing—status updates, people with whom the advisors are connecting, groups in which they are active, etc. One important tip: be selective about who you invite; don’t shotgun everyone in your address book. Send no more than a handful of personalized invitations at a time so you can dialogue with those who respond without getting swamped.

2. Know the rules. More and more companies are publishing policies about advisor/employee use of social media.

Learn what those policies are—not just at your firm, but for the organizations with which you do business. That way you’ll know how to direct the advisors and other key client contacts with whom you work about reaping the benefits of social media while steering clear of activities (like posting recommendations from clients) that can get advisors in trouble.

3. Keep an ear to the ground. So much is being made of using social media to broadcast your message that it’s easy to overlook the most immediate and practical benefit of becoming active with these sites: “listening.” Social networking sites can be

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a goldmine of intelligence on the people and firms with whom you work, as well as the people and firms with which you want to join forces. Try searching for advisors you’re meeting with this week and you’ll likely find some rapport-building factoids on their profile page you didn’t previously know—where they began their career, their alma mater, the groups in which they have shown interest, or maybe their birthday.

That kind of data gathering requires no approval and can provide valuable insight.

4. Build a golden rolodex. The essence of social networking is “give to get.” One way to do that is to add the top service professionals in your territory to your network—and then look for opportunities to help them. Think realtors, business coaches, recruiters, luxury car dealers, even the local golf pro—anyone who’s in demand with successful advisors. Then the next time an advisor mentions a need for that kind of help, you’ll be ready with a solution. Everybody wins, and you get the credit as someone who knows the people to call to get things done.

5. Follow companies. One of LinkedIn’s most valuable features is how it tracks personnel changes at companies—who’s been promoted, who’s recently joined a company, who is leaving—and aggregates that information on a company profile page. For anyone interested in money in motion, such information can be priceless.

You can start the advisors with whom you work down that path by going to http://www.linkedin.com/companies and searching for firms in which they are interested, then showing them how to use the intelligence LinkedIn provides.

6. Join groups. Both LinkedIn and Facebook offer members the ability to start or join a special interest group. Today LinkedIn has over 750,000 special interest groups, with more than 1000 new ones added every day.

Several are dedicated to wholesaling and are great resources for sharpening your skills. Groups offer members the chance to engage in discussion, locate others with similar interests, and keep current with what’s happening. Showing your advisors how to pinpoint groups that reflect their interests or their ideal client criteria can be very effective ways of differentiating yourself.

7. Stop pushing product and start solving problems. The best reason to become proficient with these sites is to strengthen your consulting chops, moving beyond product to helping advisors with whom you work to ascend to a higher level of sales productivity and profitability. The results can be impressive. Over the past year, one of our mutual fund clients has used these strategies to generate more than $300 million in new assets for the firm.

Teach the advisors with whom you work how to leverage even a few of these ideas and you can enjoy similar success.

Kip Gregory is the founder of The Gregory Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that helps wholesaling organizations and their distribution partners improve sales productivity and profitability by unleashing the power of resources they already own. You can reach him at kip@gregory-group.com or connect with him via LinkedIn at http://www. tinyurl.com/link-to-kip.

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By Peter Arethas

By Peter Arethas

Conquering The Gatekeeper:

Are You a Keymaster?

I had the privilege of being a moderator at Fund Forum USA in November. With over 75 CEOs, CIOs and Managing Directors presenting, Fund Forum bills itself as the only conference to bring together the global broker-dealer and asset management communities. I mention this because a significant portion of the conference was directly dedicated to distribution.

Looking back, one session in particular stood out. It was titled, “Inside the Mind of the Gatekeeper.” For those of you that still think of the 1984 blockbuster comedy “Ghostbusters” when you hear someone called a ‘gatekeeper,’ I can assure you that the panelists did not include Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd or Harold Ramis.

In fact, these gatekeepers are even more important to those of us in wholesaling.

Their formal titles are Managing Directors at major wirehouses, and their roles are to determine which distribution firms get preferred status on the shelves of their broker-dealers.

Just like their “Ghostbusting” counterparts, these Managing Director ‘gatekeepers’ repeatedly emphasized that if you are a distribution firm that wants to walk through the doors of the brokerage firms, your wholesalers need to be ‘keymasters.’

Who are these keymasters? Here are three that they believe their local Investment Managers want.

“The Expert” “The Expert” is more than a walking, talking prospectus for his company’s products; he (or she) also knows where he fits in an asset allocation model. He can implement a financial planning strategy for the fussiest

of advisors while being able to explain this strategy to their most inquisitive clients. He sells solutions and ideas, not commoditized products.

I identify “The Expert” wholesaler by asking my financial advisors which company gets the first e-mail or phone call on the more complex cases. I typically hear only one or two names mentioned. Invariably, their answers do not focus on product details.

Nearly every time they will mention a wholesaler by name and discuss his or her ability to find solutions.

Here’s the secret: The Expert doesn’t necessarily have to come up with a financial advisory solution on his own. In fact, the true Expert simply knows how to use the full breadth of his company’s resources better than his competition. He will get his advance markets team involved early and often. While he may delegate the case work, he absolutely owns the communication.

“The Coach” Every successful investment leader that manages multiple locations has “The Coach” on his roster of wholesalers. If they didn’t have one in 2007, they definitely had one or more in 2010. Look at how their world has changed over the last three years.

Their firms are enacting new compliance responsibilities based on financial reform measures dictated by legislation. Their advisors are exiting the industry, going independent or selecting a very large upfront check from the competition.

Additionally, their budgets and access to outside resources are dwindling.

With all of these duties battling for attention, investment managers still need to train their financial advisor sales force.

Here’s where I call the “The Coach” into the game. Call it zone coverage if you want.

The investment manager cannot be in three locations at once. In a bad week, he or she cannot even be in three locations continue on page 27…

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What’s in Your Bag?

Profiles of Great Wholesalers

Ray Eissa is a top performing Vice President for AXA Distributors and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, a leading financial protection company and a premier provider of life insurance, annuity, and investment products and services.

He has been their wholesaler in the South Florida region since 2004.

Geography? Half the state of Florida and the Caribbean. So bottom line, if there’s a palm tree and an ocean, I cover it.

Favorite travel location in your territory?

I’d have to say San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Favorite haberdashery? Jos. A. Bank because they are stylish and in every part of my territory to cover whatever happens on the road. Just recently I had luggage lost and had to present on stage in 3 hours.

I walked into Jos. A. Bank wearing jeans and a golf shirt, and I walked out in dress shoes, a blue pin stripe with a white shirt and power tie ready to go.

Hotel loyalty? I’m a Marriott man, Gold.

Age? 52 in April. The gray hair doesn’t hurt here in Florida when you’re going on a point of sale with an advisor. Experience definitely helps out in today’s world. I think it’s an advantage.

How long carrying the bag? Since 1994 With whom did you start? I was with the Prudential Insurance Company of America. I was their brokerage director here in Florida.

And I started wholesaling life insurance on the high end -- $1 million to $50 million face amount.

What kind of bag do you carry? Tumi. It’s got my initials on it. My wife bought me a brand new one and it’s still in the closet because that Tumi takes a licking and keeps on ticking like the old Timex’s. You know, it’s broken in!

Channel(s)? I focus on the Independent channel, except for Puerto Rico where I cover all channels.

Automobile? 2007 Chevy Tahoe with 104,000 miles on it.

Favorite hobby? I’m an outdoors guy. I like hunting and fishing. As a wholesaler, I spend all my time either in seminar situations, broker presentations, or wining and dining.

Just getting out on the open ocean fishing, or out in the woods and hunting gives me a little peace and quiet.

Lady Gaga or James Taylor? James Taylor Favorite industry publications to read?

Investment News, Ignites and Financial Planning Magazine Last book that you read? The Tipping Point

by Malcolm Gladwell.

Smartphone? No. I carry the all-weather, all-purpose, military-designed, wholesalerapproved phone. It’s a Samsung and it’s got all the Internet capability, but it’s waterproof.

I can drop it; it’s very durable.

Best year in production? Dollars brought in the door was back in ‘02. Monetarily it was ‘08.

continue on page 29…

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By Kara Newman

10 Unusual Wines That Are Well W Argentina, and despite its seductively sweet white peach, lychee and honeysuckle aromas, it is surprisingly relatively dry. Torrontes is excellent as an aperitif.

Assyrtiko (Greece): This grape is native to the volcanic ash-rich island of Santorini, but now is increasingly planted elsewhere in Greece. Prized for its ability to express terroir, Assyrtiko is a refreshing wine, usually displaying citrus and mineral flavors, which has a pleasing acidity. Some liken the flavor profile to Riesling. It’s often found blended with less-acidic grapes, like Sauvignon Blanc or Sémillon.

Red Wines To paraphrase that infamous line in the film Sideways, “No more *%#@*%# Merlot!” Yes, a good Merlot can be wonderful, but so can these fabulous alternative reds: Imagine this: you’re entertaining a client at dinner, and you’re handed the wine list. What to order? Do your eyes automatically gravitate to the most expensive bottle on the menu?

You don’t have to order a $300 bottle of Bordeaux. In fact, by expanding your wine knowledge you stand a better chance of impressing your client, and you’re doing your budget a favor, too.

Consider the following interesting and unusual varietals at your next client event.

Many thanks to Ramon Narvaez, wine director at Washington, D.C.’s Adour at the St. Regis, for some of these suggestions.

White Wines Some sommeliers say the key to finding a great white wine is to remember ABC, or “Anything but Chardonnay.” Personally, I have nothing against a good Chard, but it’s good to try something new. Keep in mind that while Chardonnay may rate its own section on a wine menu, often these may be lumped as orphans under “Other White Wines.” Here are a

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few adventuresome white wines to try: Arneis (Piedmont, Italy): Floral-scented and full-bodied, with flavors of peaches, pears, and apricots. Although it is now consumed as its own varietal, sometimes it is still referred to as “Nebbiolo Bianco” or “White Barolo,” a nod to the fact that at one time it was used to blend with Nebbiolo grapes in the Barolo region, to soften the harsh tannins.

Albariño (Northern Spain): Jancis Robinson calls Albariño “the perfumed, elegant aristocrat of the Rias Baixas in Galicia.” It is noted for its light body and crisp, relatively high acidity, which makes it a natural to pair with bold and spicy foods, like a seafood paella. Albariño grapes are small and very sweet with unusually thick skins, which help the fruit tolerate the damp climate and also contribute to the acidity and flavor that characterize Albariño wine.

Torrontes (Argentina): Look for this fullbodied, aromatic beauty at your favorite tapas bar. It’s the classic white wine of

Dolcetto (Piedmont, Italy) The name means “little sweet one,” so named because it is naturally low in acidity. After Barbera, it is the most common red grape of Piedmont and, in youth, can be mouth-fillingly delicious.

Growers love it because it ripens much more easily than the challenging Nebbiolo or Barbera.

Gamay (Loire area of France) If you prefer lighter, less tannic reds, Gamay may be a good choice. These wines tend to be lightcolored, often with a bluish tinge, and they are often described as “fresh” and “fruity.” Most Gamay is not intended to age, which also helps keep the price point affordable.

Tempranillo (Spain) If your usual go-to is Cabernet Sauvignon, try Tempranillo, which is similarly high in tannins and acidity. The name comes from the Spanish word temprano, or early, since this grape ripens relatively early.

In addition to Spain, fashionable Tempranillo is also grown in Oregon, California, and Australia, as well as Argentina, where it is

Are You a Keymaster, continued from page 24…

Worth a Try called Tempranilla, and northern Portugual, as (Tinta) Roriz.

Sparkling Wines Whether toasting a business or personal celebration, don’t automatically call for Champagne. Instead, try one of these equally festive sparklers: Cava (Northern Spain) The grapes traditionally used for Cava - Macabeo, Xarello, and Parellada - make for a light, white, fruity, perfumed wine.

Lambrusco (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) A pretty and aromatic red-wine sparkler with lower alcohol content compared to Champagne.

Some describe the scent as strawberrylike. Compared to lighter sparkling wines, Lambrusco is a bit fuller-bodied, and surprisingly rich on the palate, with lots of ripe fruit.

Prosecco (Veneto, Italy) A dry, crisp, sparkling white from the Veneto region of Italy – and the main ingredient in a proper Bellini cocktail. Excellent for seafood pairings.

There you have it: a sampling of budgetfriendly and off-the-beaten-path alternatives to supplement your wine options, whether your taste (or your client’s) runs to Chardonnay, Cabernet, or Champagne.

Kara Newman writes about wine and spirits for publications including Wine Enthusiast, Sommelier Journal, and Serious Eats. She is also the author of “Spice & Ice: 60 TongueTingling Cocktails.” For more, read the Spice & Ice blog, and follow her on Twitter: @karanewman

in a week. The Coach fills this gap. He will teach the rookies how to sell, he will help the average producer jump out of his comfort zone and consistently reach new levels, and he will assist the star performers in training their staffs. The Coach is more than a wholesaler; he is a de-facto Sales Manager too.

“The Connector” Investment Managers love “The Connector.” This wholesaler is the hub of information for everyone in his territory.

He knows all the players. He knows the latest local information in the industry, and he knows how to be professional.

“The Connector” never actively recruits advisors or advocates for specific firms, but he will be a trusted reference for both. The Connector knows the difference between important, relevant information and worthless local gossip.

The Connector may recommend services such as a third-party compliance solution for a medium-sized brokerdealer, provide a contact at a hotel and conference center for a large regional meeting, or suggest a qualified and licensed candidate for a top producer looking for a new assistant.

Think of the best Connector as a communication hub with many different spokes. On the job spoke, this wholesaler knows which wholesalers are looking, which territories are opening, and when it is appropriate to play matchmaker.

On the product spoke, the Connector knows which firms are expanding their preferred product mix or which firms are eliminating a key rival. On the key account spoke, he knows which investment managers’ careers are on the rise and which ones will soon be on the sidelines.

information and national best practices outside of his own broker-dealer. The wholesaler that connects Investment Managers is irreplaceable because no other professional in our industry has daily access to multiple broker-dealers.

Whether you are “The Expert”, “The Coach,” or “The Connector,” one consistent theme emerged from the minds of the Managing Directors at the Fund Forum conference. The old model of wholesaling is dead. They do not want lunches and they do not need product pushers. As the ‘gatekeepers’ for a combined 30,000 financial advisors sales force, they want wholesaling firms filled with experts that can coach and connect with their roster of financial advisors.

Therefore, if you want to open the doors to their brokerage firms, you need to be a ‘keymaster.’

Peter Arethas is the President of American Trust Investment Services and the Founder of WholesalerBriefcase.com. Peter earned his M.B.A. from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate of Business where he graduated in the Top 10% of his class and received the John N. Nicholson Fellowship for both academic years. He obtained his B.S in Business Economics from Indiana University.

Peter began his career as an assistant stockbroker in the Chicago financial district which led to roles such as Financial Advisor, Investment Manager, Vice President, External Wholesaler and Broker-Dealer President.

He can be reached at: peter.arethas@ wholesalerbriefcase.com or on LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/peterarethas/.

Through the Connector, the Investment Manager is plugged in to both local

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Generating Meaningful ROR, continued from page 20… we act on that thought and connect those people, we’re providing a link that can make both of their lives better.

It might include a business deal or be strictly personal, but we build relationship capital when we help our mutual friends help each other. Often times we can see how Person A can help Person B who can help Person C who, in turn, can help Person A. We just have to see the connections and help make things happen—we have to see our relationships like a game of chess, not Monopoly.

Lift. We live in an ever-cynical, eversophisticated world, so it’s not unusual to find our motives in question when we hand out praise like candy from a dish. However, we can’t let that stop us from making legitimate praise a major component in our relationship toolkit.

I’m not just talking about compliments.

Those are nice, and we all should hand out compliments when they come from the heart. You should also look for opportunities to really lift the people around you in ways they wouldn’t expect. Recognize and honor people, inside and outside your organization, with more than a thank-you note. Hand out “third party compliments” by telling someone’s boss or significant other what a great job that person is doing or what a wonderful person she is. Nominate people for awards. Arrange a tribute dinner for someone who deserves it.

Lindsay Burr didn’t know of my friendship with the president of her bank, so she had no idea I would write him a personal letter singing her praises and that he, in turn, would share that praise with her peers.

When we practice the Law of Elevation by exercising Advancement, Link and Lift, we

fill bank vaults with Relationship Capital. It improves the culture of our organization, it strengthens our relationships with clients, customers and the community, and, most of all, it makes us better people.

Every one of us has customers and clients, and, therefore, opportunities to build relationships in ways that are beyond the transaction. Lindsay finds ways to build relationships outside the banking transaction, and that makes all the difference.

Tommy Spaulding is the New York Times bestseller author of “It’s Not Just Who You Know.” Transform your life (and your organization) by turning colleagues and contacts into lasting, genuine relationships, published by Random House/ BroadwayBooks. www.tommyspaulding.com.

Profiles of Great Wholesalers continued from page 25…

How do you work off stress? Relaxing on the patio with my wife. I live out in the boonies. I have a lagoon-looking pool and tropical landscape. I have a little drink and just listen to the wind blow through the palm trees Pet peeve? People that aren’t open-minded.

In today’s world they’re close-minded and they don’t realize things are changing.

Family 411: Married; it’ll be 25 years this April.

Two children. Steven is a senior in college and my daughter Kelly is a junior in college.

Alma Mater? Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Death row final meal request? I would have to say surf and turf, filet and lobster tail, and an ice-cold beer - Corona.

College job? Bartender – worked my way through school.

Life after wholesaling? Probably doing something part-time in the industry to keep my mind going; likely from a consulting standpoint, either in sales or training. My background’s in tax and estate planning and advanced markets. I was big on the value-added side and I still am, and I really enjoy that, helping people on the training side. I would do that just to keep my mind sharp.

Best wholesaling advice? I had a mentor by the name of Bruce Johnson who had been around a long time and showed me all the ropes. He taught me just to be patient and let things come around.

What’s the secret of wholesaling longevity?

Integrity and consistency. Integrity means doing the right thing for your brokers and assisting them with doing the right thing for their clients. My product doesn’t fit every time. It’s having the integrity to say that the

other guy’s product is better suited, and here’s why.

Consistency means year after year doing the same type of events. I do a lot of CE cluster meetings and I always do them in January and February, and then again in September, teeing up for the end-of-the-year push. I use virtually the same locations, but obviously with different topics.

That’s one of the things that my advisors have always told me, they know what to expect.

They know the meeting will be good, they’re going to learn something, and they’re going to leave with something of value added for them, and I’ve been doing that now for 15 years.

The above is the expressed opinion of Ray Eissa and does not necessarily reflect the views of AXA Equitable Life Insurance or any of it’s affiliates. Ray Eissa is a registered representatives of AXA Distributors, LLC and an agent of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company.

AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company is the parent company of AXA Distributors, LLC. Member FDIC (NY, NY) AXA Distributors, LLC, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 11th Fl., New York, NY 10104 For Financial Professional Use Only NP10241 (10/10)

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Ways to Know it Mig

1. When you wake up, it takes a minute to remember what city you’re in and which hotel you’re staying at, especially if it’s still dark.

2. You speak to your internal more frequently than your significant other, your children, and your mother combined.

3. You know the directions to every broker’s office in your territory, but you need a GPS to find your way home.

4. Your 8 year old can explain the difference between front end, back end, low and no loads.

5. Rather than old sports injuries, you have old luggage carrying injuries.

6. You’ve been asked to donate your liver to science, just to see what that many martinis do to a liver.

7. Your friends and family are all in salesforce.com, and they are in your rotations.

8. You’ve now completely overcome the need for sleep.

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9. You’ve also completely forgotten how to cook.

10. You’d like to find the right person, but you don’t have time to date more than once a month.

11. You spend more time in Las Vegas at conferences than you do anywhere in the town where you live.

12. You’ve grown tired of Hawaii.

13. You use time management as a tool to fit in date night with your significant other.

14. On your annual family vacation you’d like to go to that exciting, never before seen, exotic location called the backyard.

By DeeAnne White

ght Be Time to

g a B e h t p U g n a H

15. You once considered dressing your child up as a wholesaler for Halloween, because you know no one can ask for the business (candy) like a wholesaler can.

16. When your kids ask what things were like when you were young you reply, “Mutual funds paid 8 percent commission, and annuities paid 12.”

17. All the other wholesalers in your territory call you “old timer.”

18. A peek in your closet reveals 15 suits and one pair of never worn blue jeans.

19. You make up an occupation at dinner parties so that you don’t have to explain what a wholesaler does.

24. Your role playing skills now rival a Sir Laurence Olivier performance.

25. You’ve just found out that your son is going away to college, and the last time you checked he was 3.

26. Your significant other has to photograph you, with date stamping, to prove to others that you really do exist.

34. If you’re home for more than a week you get restless and look for excuses to get back on the road.

35. You can recite a prospectus from memory.

27. You have a BMW frequent buyer card.

36. Your second home in Mexico is finished...and paid off.

28. No, really...lots of people forget their children’s birthdays. And names. And faces.

37. You can’t think of a single reason why you shouldn’t hang up the bag.

29. You know the opening time of every hotel gym in your territory.

20. You’ve decorated your bedroom to look like a room at the Marriott so that you feel more at home.

30. You can’t stop thinking about the good old days of no limit expense budgets.

21. It’s been a very long time since you’ve been home on the sofa with a pizza for Monday Night Football.

31. The wholesaler parade at regional meetings reminds you of the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons.

22. One word. Technology.

32. At business dinners you’ve begun to imagine your clients are actually guests at your B&B in Italy.

23. You’ve asked if you can expense your psychologist visits because all you talk about is work.

33. Your car’s odometer has rolled over to 0 so many times that you can’t even remember how many times it’s happened.

DeeAnne White is a girl adventurer, traveller, American expatriate living in England, who is a lover of cricket, golf, wine, Jimmy Choos and life.

She’s also a former Fortune 50 executive and a life long lifestyle designer.

During a 20 year career in financial services, DeeAnne was a successful advisor, wholesaler, National Sales Manager and Executive Vice President. After walking away herself, she’s become a writer, public speaker, and lifestyle design coach who began LiveTheCharmedLife to inspire others to envision a life designed by and for them.

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Just another great tip I picked up at Wholesaler Masterminds‌

Sweet new laptop, Johnson!

Wholesaler Masterminds specializes in peer group and individual coaching for wholesalers and managers. Our laser focus is on practice management ideas that allow our clients to realize their career, income and personal goals.

Contact us today for a complimentary discussion: 949-891-1117

www.wholesalermasterminds.com 32