If you were given a $5.00 bill EVERY TIME...
Imagine you have a glass jar on your desk...
And you have an intern sitting next to you all day long. And the intern's only job was to put a $5.00 bill in that glass jar every single time you did one of the following outbound activities...
Phone call made (to secure an appointment)
Text message sent (to secure an appointment)
Email sent (to secure an appointment)
LinkedIn message sent (to secure an appointment)
Facebook message sent (to secure an appointment)
Any other activity (having the intention of securing an appointment)
This $5.00 is yours to keep. You can take it to the bank
(or quick deposit from your smart phone)
And the clincher is - This $5.00 is given to you REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME..
How many outbound activities would you make today?
WRITE YOUR ANSWER DOWN!
No...
I mean it... WRITE IT DOWN!
Ok. You got it?!?
Now, let's do some math.
(*we will call these outbound activities "dials" in the remainder of this message)
I've been in the financial planning industry a decade now. I've been blessed & fortunate to know and consider as mentors in this business a large number of Top Producers & Leaders. Many of them suggest that 40 dials/day is "the right amount of effort."
They would say that 40 dials is NOT a great job. They would say 40 dials is THE JOB.
To be clear, the 40 dials is only the first piece.
They are the LEADING indicator. The 40 dials is the EFFORT. So we all should also agree on these 2 statements:
Leading indicators should be followed by lagging indicators.
Effort should be accompanied by effectiveness.
My point... The whole purpose of all of these dials is to reach people & schedule meetings so we can fill our calendars and make a greater impact in the lives of our prospects & clients.
So, here's a case study...
Most Financial Advisers work somewhere between 200-225 days/year. This factors in all of their personal/travel time, company meetings, agency meetings, etc.
Let's say someone works 225 days/year and does in fact make 40 dials/day. So this means that they would make 9,000 dials over the course of that year.
9,000 x $5.00 = $45,000
I don't know anyone who gets into this business to only make $45,000/year... In my humble opinion, this business is too hard to only make $45,000 per year.
I would pause though and encourage you to consider this... Most businesses start with 2 things:
1) Financial equity
2) Sweat equity
And the financial equity to gain access to this MIRACLE career - Your General Agent/Managing Partner contributes the majority of this on your behalf. The company that you decided to partner with does this part for you.
When we all made the decision to build our career here, we decided to bring our sweat equity to the table.
Humbly, I'm not so certain that 40 dials/day is necessarily sweat equity. Perhaps that is equivalent to showing up to the gym. 60, 80, 100/day... That might make us sweat a little more...
So some more math.
60 dials/day x 225 days/year = 13,500 dials/year x $5.00/dial = $67,500
80 dials/day x 225 days/year = 18,000 dials/year x $5.00/dial = $90,000
100 dials/day x 225 days/year = 22,500 dials/year x $5.00/dial = $112,500
How many dials did YOU write down earlier?
$112,500 with the majority of financial equity being contributed on our behalf...
Would you consider that an acceptable top line in your first year of your business startup?
Would that create an ideal profit margin in your first year?
And for those of you who are perhaps more seasoned... more tenured... more EFFECTIVE...
Do YOU know how much YOUR dials are worth?
Maybe $10? Maybe $15? Anyone worth $25-$50?
When we know what our effort is worth it makes that phone a little less heavy!
This business is about "controlling the controllables!" Let's focus every day on those activities that we have control over!
Dave