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Are
You a 110% Gorilla?
by Brian Taylor, Start-Up Specialist
Allow
me to pose a question: If I handed you a bunch of brand-new computer parts
and asked you to build a fully functioning computer without using
a set of instructions, could you do it?
You might reply, "Brian, my VCR still blinks 12:00 and you expect me to put a computer together?"
Or you may say, "Well, if I had enough time and someone to help me, I might be able to do it."
Perhaps you would respond, "Yep! I could do it in my sleep. Do you want me to tell you about the seven layers of the OSI Model?" (NOTE: Ask your favorite computer techie about this model--it has nothing to with Cindy Crawford.)
Now, allow me to rephrase the question: If I handed you a bunch of computer parts AND a set of clear, easy-to-understand instructions, would you feel reasonably sure that you could assemble the parts correctly and create a fully functioning computer?
Having a set of well-defined instructions makes implementing a project much easier and a lot more enjoyable. To help you integrate the Bill Good Marketing System® into your practice, BGM has created a set of clear, easy-to-understand instructions in the form of the 110% Gorilla Chart.
You have often heard Bill give the definition of the System--it is a computer-based client marketing, prospecting and office management system. The 110% Gorilla Chart is a comprehensive listing of the computer-based client marketing, prospecting and office management tasks that combine to make up the System and allow it to function smoothly and predictably. Bill has stated that without the 110% Gorilla Chart, the System will quickly become an "incomprehensible thicket."
The first Chart was introduced as "The 100% Gorilla Chart" at the 1989 Users Conference. It was updated in 1994, and it is currently being revised to reflect the changes in the marketplace and the needs of our Gorillas. In his recent E-Gorilla messages, Bill has highlighted selected items on the Chart, giving you his perspective on why and how to use its tasks in the daily operations of your practice.
As you read this article, I invite you to refer to your copy of the Chart. You should have a poster-sized version posted in your office (if you don't, please contact your Marketing Support Consultant).
At the top of the Chart, there are sections for your Vision Statement and Mission Statement. The body of the Chart is divided into nine sections:
Computer Operator
& Database Maintenance
RR's Work Habits & Continuing Education
Staff Management Team System Use
Service Support
Sales Support
Client Marketing
Prospecting/List Development
Selling Skills
Business Planning & Other Goals
Each section has its own lists of tasks to be completed. There are currently 125 total assignments that must be completed in order to become a 110% Gorilla.
As you look at the Chart, you may think, "Uh-huh . . . 125 tasks. No problem! I'll just add them to my list of the 578,492 other things I need to do today." Keep in mind that the Chart assignments are to be done in a scheduled manner in tandem with your team's structure and familiarity with the System. It is the responsibility of your Marketing Support Consultant to help you work on and complete the assignments as part of your marketing schedule with you and your team.
Let me give you an example. Susan Brokerman is an RR for the firm Reliable Securities. Her online 110% Gorilla Chart was activated on 04/01/2004, and she and her new CO are working on the Chart assignments given to them by their Marketing Support Consultant. The Consultant updated the team's Chart on 04/13/2004 as part of his scheduled call with the team. To verify what has been assigned and/or completed, Susan logs on to the users' section of the BGM website and views her Chart online by clicking on the link titled "My 110% Gorilla Chart." Here is what she sees:
Let's take a closer look at the categories on this Chart:
- Tasks in Process: listing of items that are going to be complete in the near future
- Tasks Due: items that must be completed prior to the team's next call with their Consultant
- Tasks Past Due: items that should have been completed by the assigned date but are unfinished
- Completed Tasks: tasks that the team has completed to date
- Tasks Failed: assignments the Consultant gave the team that were not completed successfully
- Tasks Not Applicable: on occasion, Chart tasks may not reflect the business strategy of a team, and the Consultant may choose to waive them
- Priority Summary: the order and sequence in which the tasks are to be completed
- Progress Meter: the current percent of Gorilla the team has achieved
- Current Assignments: documents that help educate the team on why and how a task is to be completed
As Susan completes more assignments, her Consultant will update the Chart, thus increasing the "Gorilla percentage" she achieves. More importantly, she will generate momentum and move toward the goals she had in mind when she purchased the System (doubling production or working half as much in two years) by updating her database daily, improving contact with her Clients, locating viable Prospects and managing her office as she builds and trains her team.
Now that you see the power of the 110% Gorilla Chart, please review it with your team as part of the agenda for your upcoming Weekly Staff Meeting. As you complete the tasks on the Chart, please let us know how they impact your business. You can email comments to your Consultant or to marketing@billgood.net with the subject line "Our 110% Experience." Keep up the good work!
Form
Your Alliances Now
By Tony Parmenter, Start-Up Specialist
I
don't know if you have tuned in to Survivor on CBS or not, but
I am a die-hard fan. The beauty of this show is that it takes people from
different backgrounds, forces them into tribal units, and makes them fight
each other to the bitter end. As in most "reality" TV shows,
there is only one winner. One person comes out on top with all the clams
and the others go home with nothing. Your business is like that, too--you
have also been grouped into a tribal unit fighting against your competitors
to gain control. Some of you will be "voted out," and others
will end up as the ultimate survivors in their areas. What makes you a
winner in the "survivor" game? The answer is in your "alliances."
Strategic Partners can serve as valuable allies as you fight to come out on top. A Strategic Partner is a non-competitive financial professional who believes in and needs your business as much as you believe in and need his/hers. For example, if you are a financial planner, odds are your Clients have selected CPAs to take care of all of their tax needs. Do you know who these people are? Do the CPAs know who you are? Even if you don't directly see it, your business with your Clients is influenced by decisions that other financial professionals help them make.
In the past, many advisors have chosen to drip on a large group of CPAs, sometimes 12 or 15 at a time, in hopes that they will provide referrals. And traditionally, you were doing well if you received three or four referrals from all of those CPAs. The days of spreading yourself out are gone. Instead of dripping on multiple CPAs for those referrals, try finding one good CPA. A Client could help you locate the right person, or maybe there is someone in the community who would match well with you, or perhaps you have an old college chum who fits the bill. However you select him/her, you'll want to pick just one Strategic Partner in a particular area. Why? Because you also want that person to have just one financial planner he/she works with--you.
Once you have found the right person, you will want to sit down together and come to some sort of agreement. An example of this type of agreement is the one between Bill Good and Peter Montoya, Bill's newest Strategic Partner. As part of their agreement, once per quarter, Peter writes an article for the BGM newsletter and Bill writes one for Peter's. Coz Green, Bill's right-hand man, went to Peter's office and taught him and his staff about our System and practice and Peter came to Utah and taught the BGM staff about his business. They strive for an equal, symmetrical exchange. That is what you are looking to establish with your Strategic Partners. If you send referrals to a Strategic Partner, he/she should be sending referrals your way (and vice versa). These types of things, as well as any other arrangements you want to make, should be discussed and worked out with the Strategic Partner before any real exchange occurs.
You can establish Strategic Partnerships in every related, non-competitive financial field, with CPAs, tax preparers, will and trust attorneys, estate planning attorneys, residential real estate agents, commercial or industrial real estate agents, mortgage agents, divorce attorneys, etc. All of these financial professionals can benefit from an association or partnership with you just as you can from a relationship with them.
If you're interested in finding out more about forming and tracking Strategic Partnerships, Bill Good has written a White Paper on the topic: Working with Strategic Partners. This document will help you include your Strategic Partners in your System so you can track the referrals you give as well as those you receive. You can even arrange to set appointments for the people you are referring and track them in a special Scheduler for the Strategic Partner.
The survivor game has begun, and the players are already forming alliances. Start building your own strategic relationships now so that you won't be "voted off the island" and lose the game!
Gorilla
Training
By Ryan Reyes, Senior Support Technician
As
anyone who has attended the Gorilla Training Seminar® can
attest, learning the Gorilla® program can be daunting.
I remember sitting through the seminar as a new hire, thinking, "How
the heck am I going to be able to support that? It's a beast!" I
imagine that any new System user in any firm who sits down to use Gorilla
for the first time thinks something similar.
The key to overcoming "GorillaShock" is understanding the program. To help you do this, BGM has developed a variety of training tools for new Gorilla users, from BGM University® to WebEx™ classes (including real-time and archived classes).
Let's examine BGM University first. BGMU offers web-based training that involves slide show demonstrations and hands-on instruction with PowerDrills®. There are nine main sections in the University:
1. Introduction to
Contact Groups
2. Understanding the Contact Group
3. The Finder Screen
4. The Scheduler Screen
5. The Info Sheet
6. Advanced Messaging
7. Contact Management Strategies
8. Campaigns
9. Team Management
The section names are self-explanatory. The sections are ordered in a logical progression that moves students through increasing levels of understanding. Students start at the basic level of group structure in Gorilla. They then learn to use the various features of Gorilla to manipulate and manage contact data. The final section on Team Management covers how to organize a team by using the Gorilla software to best manage and manipulate information.
This approach attempts to fulfill two aspects of understanding the Gorilla program. First, it teaches new users the mechanics of the software, and second, it explains the philosophy or the "why" of the way Gorilla works. It is helpful to keep in mind that the Gorilla program is an electronic manifestation of the philosophy of the Bill Good Marketing System®. Once users have gone through the Tutorials and PowerDrills, they will have enough information to complete all the tasks necessary to run Gorilla. (This is not to say there isn't more to learn, though!)
Once users are trained to use Speedbuttons, print letters, run campaigns and use the various tools Gorilla has to offer, it is time to learn how to manipulate the program. This is where WebEx comes into play. WebEx is a powerful tool that allows our BGM staff to show your staff how to use and manipulate Gorilla, either in real time or in archived class sessions. Through the power of a virtual desktop and an online conference call, the instructor shares his/her desktop with users over the Internet, allowing everyone to immediately see what the instructor is talking about. This way, the instructor can show users how to use Gorilla to fit their specific needs.
I know you are thinking, "This training is going to take so much time!" While it is true that training can be time-consuming and may initially not appear to be time well spent, consider how much time it will save you down the road.
Let's look at Section 6 in BGM University, "Advanced Messaging." This course is approximately four hours long. That seems like a lot of time, but lets look at what this section covers:
- Sending Single Messages
- Setting up Test Records
- Setting up WinFax
- Message Setup Queue
- Defining New Messages
- Processing Referrals
- Sending Birthday Letters
- CO's Daily Task Checklist
This one section covers about 50% of what the Computer Operator is going to be doing on a daily and weekly basis. How much time would your CO spend trying to figure out how to do all this on his/her own instead of going through the training?
Now let's look more closely at WebEx. Users who have gone through the University training best utilize the real-time and archived classes, but these classes can be useful for untrained users as well. This method of training allows users to discuss questions about what they are seeing as those questions arise, and if the users are viewing an archived class, they can listen to the questions that other users have asked. WebEx classes cover a broad range of topics, from use of the software to advance marketing theory. Whatever your needs may be, there is probably a class for you. And in addition to the existing classes, users can also request specific class topics. Anywhere there is a need for learning, a WebEx class can be created to meet it.
BGM wants you to succeed. We have provided you with the tools to prepare your team to use Gorilla to its full potential. Technology will continue to bring changes to the way we work and train, and it is our intention to offer a variety of resources to help you and your team. For now, be sure to take advantage of these great online tools, and you will see the benefit of time truly well spent.
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Mission
and Vision
By John Fox, Start-Up Specialist
Does
your business have a mission and a vision? If you struggle with these
concepts, you are not alone.
There is an old adage that people perish without a vision. Another sage axiom states that if we do not know where we are going, we end up somewhere. If you don't have a clear mission and vision, then I submit you are operating at a distinct disadvantage.
Your mission is your destination and your vision is your roadmap. Without knowing your goal, how can you choose the journey to reach it? And even if you know your destination, how will you get there if your steps are not clearly laid out?
The mission is the what. The vision is the how.
Why do mission and vision matter? Because you want to create a professional identity in the mind of each Client and Prospect. You want to own the mental real estate. But if you cannot state what your mission and vision are, how in the world can you expect others to know them?
Identity begins with the very first contact with a new Prospect. With the Monthly Drip, Wilson, Connections and Strategic Partners Campaigns, you want to plant your message deeply within each respondent's consciousness, i.e., that mental envelope. This message must grow as the Prospect progresses towards becoming a Client. The idea is to turn one-time customers into life-long buyers--raving fans for life.
So with every phone call, face-to-face meeting, seminar or monthly letter, you must reinforce your identity, your mission and your vision. And that takes consistency and time.
A Clear Mission Statement
The goal of a mission statement is simplicity. You need to state your mission conversationally.
First, think about planning a road trip to a city you have never visited before. For example, let's take your experience visiting Bill Good Marketing®.
Why did you come? Don't be nebulous. Be specific. You purchased a turnkey, computer-based, campaign-driven, client marketing, prospecting and office management system. You invested in a tool to build your business.
So why did you come to Utah? You came to learn how to use the Gorilla® program. That mission is clear. It is specific.
If your mission is not clear and concise, it will be like a fluffy pink piece of cotton candy, which looks good until you take a bite--then the substance turns to sugary goo.
Be concrete. Be specific. Don't use fancy titles or concepts. Just say what you want to do. At the most, use one or two sentences. With any more, the message gets lost in mush.
Next, consider how you should answer when someone asks, "What do you do?" Don't use titles like Certified Financial Planner, accountant, life insurance agent, etc.
Make it simple. I do--when asked, I say, "I am a marketing coach."
Simple statements plant a seed. The listener thinks, "Hmmm, that is what he/she does." Then the seed germinates. The person starts thinking, "How does he/she do that? What does that mean?" That is when the person asks more, so have your answer ready.
A Clear Vision
The next goal is to make someone interested enough to ask for more information--to generate intrigue.
Let's think about what you did after arriving at Salt Lake International Airport. From there, you either rented a car or took a bus, cab or shuttle. Then you headed for Bill Good Marketing. Going south, you could have stayed on that wannabe freeway we call Bangerter Highway. Or you could have taken I-80 east, connecting with I-215 south. Or you could have stayed on I-80 until intersecting with I-15. On any of these routes, you drove south to Draper and to our corporate office.
The point is you knew WHY you were coming and for WHAT reason, but you still had to plan the HOW--and that is the same point for defining your vision.
Going back to the question of "What do you do?" and the idea of giving a one or two-sentence answer to plant a seed, we now need to explain HOW we do what we do.
For example, a teacher might say, "I help little kids become happy big kids." I say, "I teach clients how to maintain their business and grow some more."
Simple. Straightforward. And so easy to say!
Putting It Together
The mission says what; the vision says how. This is common sense. It is not rocket science, and it does not require you to be brilliant. But you do need a low-IQ approach and an action plan.
Even if this sounds hokey, I want you to set aside some quiet time to think about and define your specific mission and vision. I want you to brainstorm, either alone or with your team. In fact, this would be a perfect exercise for your next Weekly Staff Meeting.
Make this a timed event. Write down everything, no matter how silly it seems. Then pare things down to the essential truth of each concept as I have done in this article.
From there, promote your internal buy-in. It is critical that each team member knows how his/her job fits into the mission and vision. In each Weekly Staff Meeting, refer back to these ideas as the spine and ribs of your business.
Print your mission and vision on stationery and business cards. Post them in your office. And be sure to let your BGM Marketing Support Consultant know about them, because your mission and vision statements will be added to your online 110% Gorilla Chart as constant reminders.
Know this: Dreams are nebulous, and unfulfilled hopes are pipedreams . . . or worse, nightmares. Ours is the privileged task of helping you codify your dreams. Only by writing them down and putting tangible timelines on them will you turn your dreams into attainable goals.
Remember, your mission and vision are keys for success. They will better enable you to serve your Clients--and in doing so, you serve yourself.
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The
Magic Machine
By Brian McDonald, Director of Software Support
For
all the computer's magnificence when it comes to increased efficiency
and productivity, you can't computerize everything.
You can't computerize personality, which means you can't computerize sales. The sales process involves personality, knowledge, innovation and emotion. You can't have all of that when you are using only ones and zeros. Sales takes the creativity and information processing that only human beings have. Despite that fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 81.4% of employees in the financial services industry do use computers at work.
In this age of technology, it has become all but blasphemous to question whether computers aid the productivity of their users. It's like claiming you can't stand American Idol reject William Hung--it is just unacceptable. Have you ever given thought to whether your computer is helping your personal productivity? If you have always taken that notion for granted, you may want to consider taking a step back to examine your computer habits to determine whether they really make your work more productive. A computer can be a very useful tool. However, there are some habits an advisor can form when it comes to technology that may result in the computer becoming a negative influence on productivity.
Evaluate your computer usage by asking yourself a few questions.
1. DO I USE THE COMPUTER TO DO MY JOB?
The answer may seem obvious, but do yourself a favor: Define your job in its simplest terms and then re-evaluate the question. If you are like most of our clients, your job is helping people make quality financial decisions. You do this by paying attention to their needs and staying abreast of market information so you can match their needs with the best available choices.
How does your computer assist you in this process?
A. It aids
in research.
For most advisors, the computer is a great research tool. There is no
other way to have so much information as readily available. If there is
a specific stock or fund company you are researching, all the information
you need is right there. So does computerized research help you do your
job given the description established above? Sure.
B. It allows
instant orders.
A computer gives you the ability to assist your customers at the exact
moment when it is most appropriate (like changing investments in their
accounts at a moment's notice due to changing market conditions). This
is certainly a productive way to use your computer to do your job.
C. It records
detailed information.
Another good use for a computer is recording detailed notes on each interaction
with Clients or Prospects. That way, you can make the best decisions for
them based on that information. It is easy to refer back to your notes
to help you make decisions about investments, and it is also easy to justify
your actions based on notes taken in past conversations.
Unfortunately, most advisors don't use the computer for these activities alone. Instead, they use it to do things that are really somebody else's job.
A. Service
via email.
Most advisors use their computers for email. However, for some reason,
many tend to approach replying via email a little differently than replying
with a telephone. When someone emails a question that is clearly service-related,
it is a knee-jerk reaction to send a reply indicating that you will take
care of the issue. Some advisors then forward the message to the Service
Assistant, asking him/her to take care of the problem (bad idea), and
others just answer the question or fix the problem themselves (worse idea).
There is no question about why advisors shouldn't handle service issues
on their own, but the problems caused by forwarding an email along are
not quite as apparent. When you do this, you teach the email sender to
filter all service issues through your email address. Do it enough, and
you could end up taking the time to read and forward dozens of email messages
every day. An easy way to curb the problem is to reply the first time
to let the sender know you are forwarding the issue to your Service Assistant,
and that if there are any further service issues, the sender would be
served more promptly by sending them directly to the SV. (You can borrow
the message text almost exactly from the Find the Money letter.) Eventually,
Clients with service issues will go directly to your Service Assistant
for help.
B. Editing
and creating letters.
Another example of using the computer for a job that is not your own is
editing and creating letters. It has never taken me longer than five or
ten minutes to hand-write a business letter on a piece of paper. I never
have to change margins, adjust spelling, or (my pet peeve) adjust a correction
the word processor made when I knew I was right in the first place. These
kinds of activities can double the amount of time it takes you to create
a quick letter. Then you have to save the letter. And while you are in
the program, you may as well just print the letter, right? Add enough
"might-as-wells" and you will spend thirty minutes doing a five-minute
task. Let your Computer Operator do all that work so you can do the job
that allows you to continue to employ him/her!
2. DO I LET THE COMPUTER LURE ME IN?
The computer can be very seductive. Most websites are set up to keep you visiting them for awhile. They want to make you read things you may not have thought you were interested in. How many times have you checked your email and clicked an interesting news story link instead of your inbox just so you could give it a quick read? How many times have you received an email that invited you to take a look at a new product or service and taken the bait? It is easy to sit down at a computer and waste an enormous amount of time doing activities other than the one you set out to do. There is so much available that it is hard to not get distracted.
But the Internet isn't the only way the computer can lure you in. While opening a folder on your computer to look for a particular file, you may find another file you forgot you had. Before long, you are looking through a number of things that have nothing to do with the contract you were looking for--pictures you forgot about, a letter you meant to finish, etc. All of these things can be a detriment to completing the task at hand.
Avoid the temptation to stray from your original intent. Each time you turn to your computer, make sure you know exactly what you are turning to it for and do not get sidetracked. Doing so will make your computer work for you rather than making you a slave to its seduction.
3. WHAT DO I DO WHEN MY COMPUTER GOES DOWN?
This is the biggest mistake I see computer users make. We want to be involved when our computer has a problem. Beyond that, we want to drop every other task until the computer problem is fixed. At a past job, I once arrived at work and found that the power was out. I wasn't surprised to see most of the employees standing around talking because, "Hey, the computers are down, what are we supposed to do?" Before long, the phone rang, and the receptionist looked around the room terrified. She didn't utter the words, but her face said, "What do I do?"
Guess what, folks--phones worked long before the computer came along. Meetings took place, notes were kept, business was done. I politely picked up the phone and placed it next to the receptionist's ear. Nervously at first, she began going through her regular answering procedure. A sentence or two into the conversation, she realized she could do everything to serve the caller that she had been doing before, despite there being no soft glow from the computer screen.
4. DO I LET COMPUTER TECHNICIANS DO COMPUTER REPAIRS?
Another common mistake is for people to be so interested in a computer problem and its repair that they set aside their normal tasks in order to troubleshoot or watch the troubleshooter. To understand how silly this is, imagine that a pipe breaks in the office restroom. The plumber is in the office next to yours. Do you suppose you would start tearing a hole in the sheetrock so you could identify the source of the problem? Or do you think you would tell the plumber there is a break for him to fix in the restroom? Further, while the plumber was working, would you stand next to him the whole time demanding that he keep you informed of each step taken to fix the problem? Surely not! The pipe is broken. The plumber is fixing it. When your computer breaks, let the computer tech fix it. Now, obviously, user input can sometimes help troubleshoot computer problems. You probably won't find a plumber asking you to describe what were you doing when a leak started, but if a computer tech has questions for you, answer them and get back to work. Let the person do his/her job so that you can focus on yours.
5. DO I MAKE MY OWN DIAGNOSES OF COMPUTER PROBLEMS?
Occasionally, I speak with Clients and find out they are not using Gorilla® because of a technical issue. If I press them on what the issue is, we usually discover that the problem is either easy to fix or easy to work around. Considering the complex nature of technology, it should come as no surprise that the average computer user does not have the necessary knowledge to be able to define an absolute stop condition. I always think about a person whose car battery dies calling the junkyard to come get the vehicle, saying, "Shucks, Cletus, it just ain't workin' no more!" Call a technician and let an expert decide whether the problem is a show-stopper or not. This is true for even the most complex issues. If your firm tells you that you cannot use the network for awhile, for example, don't assume that means you cannot use your database. There are a number of ways to share data between machines. A network is usually the best way, but it is not the only way. Don't assume you know what options are available--find out from a technician.
I'm not sure there has ever been a business tool with the power to both increase and decrease your daily productivity to the same degree as the computer. Be critical of the ways you utilize your computer. Doing so will give you the power to make this tool work only in your favor.
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April
2004 Gorilla of the Month: Regi Armstrong
For each issue of the Gorilla Times, Bill Good selects a Gorilla who has shown outstanding performance with the System or achieved 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 [is] in Florence, South Carolina. You came on the System, I believe you said, four years ago this month.
Regi Armstrong: That's correct.
Bill: And when you came on in 2000, you were doing just a bit under or right around $300K, right? 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 . . . 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 . . . 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: 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 . . . 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: 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. 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 . . . 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 . . . 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'd been using a great restaurant in town and had 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 . . . 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 . . . are you still doing it?
Regi: I was up until just recently. I had to fine-tune it. We're going to launch it again, probably within another month or two . . . 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 . . . 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 . . . [and] 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 . . . [at one point] in our seminars, we weren't getting the people we wanted . . . 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] . . . and you're on the System, just go to the Campaign Center and check out the Armstrong Frustrated Campaign [for] 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 doing . . . the chart?
Regi: Well, actually . . . 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 . . . 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 . . . I 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, which paid for the System within forty-five days. So it still worked . . . 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 . . . 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] 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] 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 . . . yeah, I tweaked it for some areas, 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 . . . because when I [do], 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 . . . 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 . . . 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 . . . [Plus] 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 . . . 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 . . . I'm working, really, about four days a week right now instead of five. 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 . . . 39 now? 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 . . . 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 always, but they'll also have another person . . . 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.
NOTE: This interview has been condensed for online posting. To read it in its entirety, please click here.
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