Bob Pearson • Portland, OR
Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.
I have been in the advisory business for close to 30 years, and I am pretty old-school in the way I have always gone about developing new clients. I have tried a variety of techniques over the years, including holding seminars on topical planning and investment themes, but my greatest success has always come from direct current client referrals and from simple hard work in developing my network of contacts and then working the network.
When I was building my practice, I would make eight to 10 calls a day, which would take an hour or so. I made a point of spending on average one hour per day making phone calls to clients, friends, acquaintances, and targeted cold-call prospects. From all of those calls, I would probably be able to schedule around 14 appointments per week and maybe 10 of those would actually occur. I did that week after week, and year after year, and that’s how I grew my client base—calling people I knew and also getting referrals from those people.
But the key to this was in finding a way to make it meaningful and productive for the prospect in the first few meetings. Of course, there is always the basic chemistry check—whether or not we are able to establish a common ground for discussion—but that is usually the case.
I think the process works best when it starts with some basic “getting to know you” types of questions related to their finances: What are your broad financial goals and objectives? What kinds of things have you done in the past, or are you doing now, in the way of financial planning, savings, and investing? What have you liked or not liked, and what has your comfort level been with things you have done in the past? Each of these areas provides plenty of opportunity to drill down and find out some below-the-surface attitudes about money and investing.
That tends to open the door to describing the sophisticated third-party money-management techniques and strategies we use for clients. A picture is worth a thousand words. I show some basic “mountain” charts on the performance of the market over the past 20 years and where some sound exit and entry points could have made a huge difference for a client. The focus on active investment management has become an important
differentiator for our firm.
Disclosure: Bob Pearson is a registered representative and an investment advisor representative with Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. (TFA). Securities and investment advisory services offered through TFA, Transamerica Financial Group Division, member FINRA, SIPC, and a registered investment advisor. Non-securities products and services are not offered through TFA. Managed Wealth Financial (MWF) is a financial services marketing organization comprised of Associates of World Financial Group Inc. (WFG), a financial services marketing company whose affiliates offer life insurance and a broad array of financial products and services. Insurance products are offered through World Financial Group Insurance Agency Inc. (WFGIA) or its subsidiaries. WFG, WFGIA and TFA are affiliated companies. MWF and TFA are not affiliated. 7300 SW Hunziker, Suite 214, Portland, OR 97223 503-684-4010. TFG006660-06/15
Photography by Joni Kabana
