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April
2004 Gorilla of the Month: Regi Armstrong - full transcript
For each issue of the Gorilla Times, Bill Good selects a Gorilla who has shown outstanding performance with the System or had some other great accomplishment to be the featured "Gorilla of the Month." He then interviews this Gorilla to find out what has brought him/her success. This issue features Gorilla Regi Armstrong. Regi discusses how the System has helped him build his team, organize his business, increase production, keep in touch with Clients through firm changes and the transition to fees, and plan for the future.
Bill Good: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome you to this interview with Regi Armstrong, who is honored as being the Gorilla of the Month. Regi, are you there?
Regi Armstrong: I sure am, Bill.
Bill: Great. And you are in Florence, South Carolina. You came on the System, I believe you said, four years ago this month.
Regi: That's correct.
Bill: And when you came on in 2000, you were doing just a bit under or right around $300K, right?
Regi: That's correct.
Bill: And when everybody else was taking a dive, did you take a dive?
Regi: No, not really. Again, for the two years after I came on the System, we also decided to go completely, or at least mostly, fee-based, and I also transitioned and continue to increase assets and production.
Bill: All right. Good. This year, let's see, we're doing this in late April of 2004, you're at $400,000 year-to-date, with a shot at the magic million.
Regi: That's correct.
Bill: All right. We expect you to report a satisfactory result on December 31st of this year.
Regi: Very good.
Bill: All right, now, Regi, let's go into some of the things that you've done in building your System. When you came on, what did you have in the way of support staff? Where were you?
Regi: I was at a traditional brokerage firm then, where I'm independent now. But back then, I was sharing an assistant with three other brokers--that's all I had was a part-time assistant, essentially. She was mine when she could fit me in.
Bill: Right.
Regi: When I went to Boot Camp . . . I guess it was March of 2000. When I came back, one of the first things we did was work out kind of a bonus schedule and how she would carve out sufficient time so she could screen my calls and that kind of thing. And that's all I had to begin with. And then I started the process of finding a CO and so on.
Bill: All right. And you did that. At what point did you decide to make the transition to independent?
Regi: That actually happened two years ago.
Bill: Okay.
Regi: Okay. Two years ago. April 2000 to April 2001, I went on the System and just basically ran the System by the numbers, just like you taught us. I guess the only thing I did out of the ordinary was I probably hired an SA a little too early, but it still worked out. And in 2001, I started a pretty fast-paced transition to fee-based business. And then in April of 2002, I left the wirehouse and went independent.
Bill: And never looked back, huh?
Regi: Never looked back.
Bill: Okay. Good. Now . . . what does your team look like?
Regi: I have a full-time Service Manager, Leslie. I have a part-time Computer Operator/Receptionist; she'll also fill in and do a little bit of our filing and service work when there's no CO work left to be done--that's Claudine. And then I have a full-time Sales and Marketing Director--that's Lee Carter. And right now we're in the middle of an interview process for a second SA.
Bill: Okay. Now why do you think you need a second Sales Assistant?
Regi: We're at a point where Lee has my schedule booked two to four weeks at a time now. It's pretty tough to get on my schedule, except for a few blocks here and there. And it's getting to the point where I want to make sure I provide full service for every single Client. I don't want to stop growing yet, so we need another Sales Assistant to continue to keep talking to all the Prospects (because right now, we attempt to talk to all of our Clients, and make sure we talk to them every ninety days, and the Prospects . . . of course Clients take priority over Prospects). And now our non-contact rate with Prospects is starting to inch up a little bit, and we know it's time to get somebody else in here.
Bill: Okay. An interesting thing, Regi, that we discovered ten or fifteen years ago, is as you sail past this million-dollar mark, what tends to happen is you need to split each of your two critical positions. Your Service Assistant will divide, kind of like an amoeba, and become two, and your Sales Assistant will become two. And your Computer Operator will go full-time. And the ratio is important here: It takes 2 1/2 to 3 people, support staff, to support a million dollars in production. We figured that out pretty early. But then the question became, as the Gorilla System® developed, how do you go to two million? Well, the answer is you keep the same structure. But it takes 2 1/2 to 3 people to support the second million. There was a fellow on our System--he's actually a Regional Vice President for one of the big firms right now--and when he got to a million dollars, he started building the two-million-dollar team. And if you think you can go to two million with the one-million-dollar team, you can't. It doesn't work that way. So, to develop new business, what are you doing?
Regi: We continue to do seminars. We fine-tune our workshop . . . practically every month we're fine-tuning one variable or another. And our workshops continue to bring in a very nice amount of Prospects that become Clients. Lately, we've talked a lot about taxation and how investments and taxes work together. That has brought in a much higher caliber of seminar attendees. We also changed locations. We've been using a great restaurant in town and have pretty much run it to the ground in many ways. We decided to switch it to the country club, which we had used about four or five years ago with modest results. I don't know if it's because we're further along in the business, better lists, more experience, but now all of a sudden going back to the country club, with a better seminar, I think, and more ruthless prospecting, we're filling the seats with much higher quality people. We had (in fact, we have) a pretty large-sized Indian medical community here. (That's Indian from India.) And all of a sudden, a whole bunch of them came to one workshop, and a then a bunch came to another workshop. And now we're doing back-to-back meetings. In that community, from what I've experienced, if you do a good job, a lot of them become your Clients. And so the seminars have been, and continue to be, Bill, a big part of our prospecting pipeline.
Bill: So, you're opening, on average, how many new Clients a month now, Regi?
Regi: At least five--sometimes as many as eight.
Bill: Okay. So you're branching out. You'll do a hundred new households this year.
Regi: Very likely.
Bill: All right. Now, a year or two ago, you developed and we promoted what you call the Armstrong Frustrated Campaign.
Regi: Yes.
Bill: Are you still doing it?
Regi: I was up until just recently. I had to fine-tune it. We're probably going to launch it again, probably within another month or two. The do not call list and everything with the do not call regulations really threw in a major crimp, because we had to figure out which people were on the list. At that point, we were hiring a new CO, and I didn't want a brand new CO messing with my list and the Do Not Call List Utility. Finally, we have gotten all that straight and we can punch that back out. With the campaign, the first time we ran it and the second time we ran it, we had outstanding results, and we believe it can still do well. We're going to fine-tune the letter for where the market is now. Again, when we first did that campaign, the market was at its low point, practically, because it was basically January to March of '03. We're in a slightly different scenario now. The letter still seems to work, because when I call prospective Clients and ask the same questions--I still use those five questions as the basic questions I'll ask someone--I still get excellent answers. I still get what I'm looking for. So we're going to launch that back out.
Bill: Okay.
Regi: We're just kind of tweaking the letter a little bit, letting people know the market has moved along a little bit. Are they still frustrated that they are not as far as they'd like to be, perhaps?
Bill: Right. There's something about that word "frustrated" that tapped into a well. Now, when you make those revisions, you will naturally forward them to the Head Gorilla, correct?
Regi: Of course, of course!
Bill: Okay, good--because it's a campaign that a person can launch without a lot of money to pay for it.
Regi: Absolutely. It's a really simple campaign. The key thing that it did for me was at a point where in our seminars, we weren't getting the people we wanted--we were getting a lot of eaters, you know, a much higher ratio than we were used to--it was just getting very, very frustrating out there. People had that "deer in the headlights" look.
Bill: Right.
Regi: They really were just tired of everything. There were just too many of my Prospects that I just did not know where they were on the assets scale. And then all of a sudden, just throwing out that questionnaire, and asking what bracket they fit in and whether they were interested in fee-based investments or investments that had some sort of guarantee--that really seemed to open up a lot of doors for us.
Bill: Good. And if you're listening to this recording [or reading this transcript], by the way, and you're on the System, just go to the Campaign Center and check out the Armstrong Frustrated Campaign. There's all these goodies that Reg is talking about. So, you've got your team in place, and on the 110% Gorilla Chart, you're one of the two or three highest--last time I checked, you were at 96%--talk a little bit about implementing the System. What was your attitude on just doing that chart, that silly chart?
Regi: Well, actually, one of the things--I can't remember if you told us on one of these kinds of calls before I went to Utah or after I arrived--but one of the things I remember you mentioning is if you only partially implement this System, if you just use bits and pieces, you have a very expensive paperweight or a very expensive contact manager. So, I took the attitude, as I do with a lot of things, that if I'm going to invest my time and money, and essentially purchase and adopt someone else's blueprint (or as you put it, I'm getting the car, not just the engine), then I'm not gonna try to redesign it. Let me drive it for awhile before I decide if something needs to be tweaked. So I made a commitment that the first twelve months, I was gonna do what it took to follow the recipe. And then later on, maybe I'd have enough experience to tweak it to my needs and particular circumstances. And that's really the key thing we did. I, first of all, did not think I would get much out of the Find the Money Campaign. I'd only been a broker for two-and-a-half years when I went on the System. I thought, Why waste my time? My Clients, I know them all. And I was half-right and half-wrong. When I ran the Find the Money Campaign in 2000, I didn't get a ton of money, but I got 33 referrals out of it, which paid for the System within forty days, forty-five days. So it still worked. Then I followed the Old Prospect Card Campaign, even though I didn't have a lot of old Prospects. That also worked. A bunch of people jumped out of the boat. So I just followed the rest of the rules. Again, I think the only thing I really violated the first year was I hired an SA probably three or four months sooner than I should have. And that worked out, too, because he didn't work out. I ended up getting the same guy I've got now, Lee, at about the right time. So that was the first thing--I just followed it. And the people who have worked with me from your organization--in terms of our conversations, and making sure I'm implementing things quarter by quarter--the first twelve months, we followed that religiously. I think that's a big part of our success.
Bill: Well, we have a slogan that says, "There are no System failures. There are only failures to implement the System."
Regi: And I agree. I've got one or two people that I still keep in contact with from my class, and one of them, unfortunately, has had some challenges with one of his managers in implementing the System. And . . . I mean, I'm sure he's doing fine otherwise, but he's not been able to use the System optimally. And it's unfortunate, because I'm sure he'd be doing great if he did that.
Bill: So, what have been the benefits of the System for you?
Regi: Well, first of all, it helped me--I mean, I'm sure I could get to a million-dollar production regardless--but it was a matter of getting there sanely and in a timely manner. And what I mean by "sanely" is we transitioned our business to being completely independent, and besides my former broker/dealer suing and doing all that. We were able to bring just about everybody over that we wanted to bring over. One of the benefits was we had been in such tight contact with our Clients that when we went independent, everybody followed. I mean, we'd done so much brand-name marketing of the Armstrong Wealth Management Group, which is the name of my team, that I remember when we went over to LPL--we're with LPL now--and they got LPL paperwork, they said, "Reg, I thought I was coming with you. What's this LPL paperwork?" because we'd been branding Armstrong, Armstrong, Armstrong. And they'd been getting these drips over these two years. And so one of the key benefits we received when we did go independent is, with maybe two exceptions, every single major Client came over. We transitioned well north of 95% of all of our assets. And so that was a key benefit--to run a team in an intelligent fashion without having to figure out, how much do I pay this guy? Yeah, I tweaked it for the area, but I had a track to run on.
Bill: Right.
Regi: That was very, very important and useful--the ability to use various letters, the expertise of producers who are much bigger producers than I am, both back then and now. I got their wisdom, letters that have been tested in the trenches, so to speak, out there. They work! For example, about every two to three years, I do the "High Flight" letter. I say every two to three years, but I've done it twice: I did it my first year for Memorial Day, and I did it, I think, last year.
Bill: Right.
Regi: I'm gonna do another one this year. I think I'm gonna use the Oliver Wendell Holmes letter this year.
Bill: Oh, that's a great one.
Regi: And then next year, I'll probably do "High Flight" again, because when I do the "High Flight" letter, I mean, just about anyone who went to WWII or had a relative in WWII is calling me. I got so many kudos for that. And I still continue with the birthday letters, as an example. The ability to have separate birthday letters for every age that's out there for a Client . . . especially, again, while the majority of my Clients are retirees, I do have a number of them in their late 30s to early 50s, and they still have children. And the comments I get--"oh, little Janey was so excited to get her birthday letter"--it's invaluable.
Bill: It generates incredible word of mouth.
Regi: I'll give you an example. I had a lady come into my office two days ago. She made an appointment--said she had retired from Wachovia (the bank), and she had heard all kinds of good things about us from her customers at the bank. And she was coming to visit. So we, obviously, one of my assistants, booked the appointment. She came in. I found out she had retired and was looking for a job, actually. She was Series 6 licensed and wanted to come work for us because everybody she had tried to move who was with us, she couldn't. They kept raving about us. And so the word gets around when you take good care of people.
Bill: Interesting. So is she the one that you're, that you may go to for your next, uh . . .
Regi: We'll keep her in consideration. She tested well in the basic skills test. And that's another example of something I think the System provided me--the basic skills test on new hirees. Just because they pass the basic skills test, it doesn't mean they're going to be the lead candidates for the job, but if they fail it, you definitely don't want to hire them. And that really helped me. I don't see the candidates until they pass that basic skills test. Ever. I just don't even see them. In fact, they have to pass through all of my staff before I even talk to them the first time.
Bill: Good.
Regi: That also was track to run on--things I didn't have to invent myself.
Bill: Yeah. It's clear you could have invented it. There's not a lot we've done that you couldn't do, but there's just so much to be done.
Regi: Right. The thing is, I've got better things to do with my time. I'm a Deacon in the Church, in the Catholic Church. I take off every Wednesday and Friday afternoon unless there is business to be done. Even though we're on pace, annualized, we're up about a hundred percent, you know, over year right now, just trailing twelve. I'm looking at my numbers right now, as a matter of fact. But I don't work most Wednesday afternoons, and I don't work most Friday afternoons. I am this Friday because I've got two very good appointments, but I'm working, really, about four days a week right now instead of five. And I couldn't have done that without a system, or if I had to invent a system. I would waste all my time doing that.
Bill: Right. Well, very good. So, you're how old now?
Regi: I'll be 39 this year.
Bill: All right. And where do you expect to be at age 49?
Regi: Right here in Florence. My family and I love it here. We're not originally from here, but it grew on us and this is home. And that's the other thing about the System--just the constant contact. We've been able to have Clients who are home-bred here, and they'd still rather do business with us. They have no loyalty to locals because they realize that we're very different. But at age 49, what I anticipate is, with the size of community here, unless I really want to go a ton out of state, you know, I don't know if we'll top out at 2, 3, 4, 5 million [dollars]. I doubt it will be much above 2, but, hey, I'm not gonna put any upper limit on it. I'll see where it takes us. But what I see is an expansion of my team to a point where I'll eventually have two, perhaps three financial advisors with me, not as independent brokers running their own books, but more like CFP/CPA-type individuals, so that every Client, especially as we start working with high net worth Clients, every Client will have two heads on their account. They'll have me, but they'll also have another person with me--like Lee, for example, if he graduates from a Client Sales Assistant later on--so I can be on vacation in Hawaii, and they can always reach me by cell phone, but there's also another person in the office who knows their situation intimately, not just, you know, should they buy or sell Krispy Kreme. There's someone who knows their position from an estate-planning standpoint, from a tax standpoint. That's where I see us going. Because here in Florence, in my opinion, there's no one else like us to serve the high net worth market, and I still have a ways to go to get it to where it should be. I know a lot of the higher net worth clients up here, a lot of them do business in Charleston and Columbia, because there is nothing here. And we're trying to bring it here. And I think the System's gonna help me do that as well.
Bill: Very good. Well, Regi, you've done a marvelous job. I'm please to have played at least some part in the success. And if we helped you get there faster, then well done to us for helping you do it, and well done to you for doing it. Thanks for your time this afternoon--I look forward to seeing you make it to 110% Gorilla.
Regi: Thank you, Bill.
© Copyright 2004 by Bill Good.
All rights Reserved.