Use Face-to-Face Prospecting

Knock and the door to success will be opened.

By Barbara De Jong

Before I started in financial services, I was a full-time writer. I had worked on corporate annual reports but didn’t take the plunge into working with individual clients until a friend who knew I was studying to get licensed convinced me to go with Edward Jones.

What sold me on them was their commitment to meeting prospects face-to-face, and developing your relationships organically. I do believe in the personal introduction—no phone cold-calling. In my case, it meant just walking through my neighborhood and knocking on doors.

I’ve never called anyone out of the blue. The only time I call someone is after I have asked permission from them to stay in touch to talk about possible options for their financial future. Door knocking isn’t unlike other forms of marketing in terms of success: I get a lot of people who aren’t interested in working with an advisor; some are interested but need time to think about what they might want to do; and some are interested. Sometimes, I’ll have a great conversation with someone and I won’t talk to that person again for a few months. On other occasions, they stop by with their financial statements the next day.

Regardless of how the introduction goes, I’m not an anonymous caller or a piece of junk mail. I have an advantage in that I’ve lived in the neighborhood in which I work for 14 years.

I opened my “office” in October 2003, although I didn’t take possession of the actual building until last August. But lack of a brick-and-mortar presence didn’t seem to matter. In fact, I was surprised by how many people were willing to work with me—either out of my home or when I was sharing space.

What’s the result of all this shoe leather and door knocking? In fewer than two years, I’ve opened 230 accounts, 95 percent of those are with people I didn’t know before I got into this business. This means that 95 percent of my business came from knocking on doors.

Barbara De Jong is an investment representative with Edward Jones in Denver, Colo.