hasse said:
These guys are punting such ****e, I'd say anyone that invest with them is a total retard, but having said that I have experienced the hard sale tactics they employ and it really is nasty case of bullying in some instances.
yep - was a 3-4 call process where I worked (where I worked briefly that is - since I resigned in disgust) - except for one guy who was a complete natural and would pitch people on the first call
First call was often a follow up to a free stock report they'd requested or could be almost completely cold - or sometimes could be to a lead who'd been called by about half the office already.
Basically the first call would go through the stock report - have a brief chat with them - find out a bit about them - get in a few power punches and yes tags & drop a few anchors about AIM but don't tell them you're a small cap broker at this point - tell them you'll send them a brochure in the post - don't hesitate to call me etc..
Second call would be a follow up - to confirm they had got your brochure - if you'd noted down some of their blue chip holdings in the first call you'd give them some news about them (normally pulled straight from cityAM!!!) + give them a brief market update (courtesy of the yahoo finance page!) + you'd try to find out a bit more about their portfolio, what they do for a living, income etc.. - not in a pressurized way - just dropped in naturally in conversation. - You'd also start to gear them up towards spanking them - ask them what their best performing stock was then say "well knowing what you know now would you have invested in XYZ when it was a small cap - course you would you'd have made a killing" (you also ask them what their worst performing stocks are - which comes in useful later) - tell them they might need to take a look at some good capital growth opportunities in the near future to really make their portfolio perform
First and second call you'd get some initial objections - and so you need to come up with a variety of canned responses
examples
objection "I've already got an accountant/financial advisory"
answer - "thats great, I've got two - thing is they sell me packaged products & give me tax advice - they know nothing about equities"
objection "I've already got a broker/ I want to run this past my broker - see what he thinks"
answer - "Would you tell your wife you're going to see your mistress, No! - course you wouldn't - plenty of people have other brokers - the brokers don't need to know that..". "your broker hasn't been performing for you etc..etc.." "I just want to look at 10% of your portfolio to give you some capital growth opportunities etc.. etc.."
objection "I've been burned before, Reg S stock etc."
(there is a broker in London that was bad for spanking people with Reg S - so you can guarantee they were a former client with them)
answer "was that with XYZ.. oh thats terrible a few of my clients have had trouble with them, let me assure you we are FSA registered etc...etc.."
you may need to do a third call with them to get them to properly open up & clear their objections
Basically you get plenty of info about them and gear them up a bit - "Jon I've got to go now, terriblly busy etc..- just a thought my analysts were looking at something this week that we are going to put forward to some of our top clients - now I'm not sure if I'll be able to get you involved but I do like like you and think you're a guy I could do business with - there will be a limited allocation of the stock but if I can get you in on it I'll give you a call - you understand it does have to go to my existing clients first though - I'd need you to move quickly on this though so If I came to you next week would you be able to get (10k/20k etc..) to me"
objections - "not sure etc.." -
"well of course you're not sure I've not necessarily got anything for you - but you're a business man jon & if I can come up with a business opportunity for you and you like it.... and I like it... then you can move on it yeah!"
"want to run it past my wife"
"come on jon - do you phone your wife from work and ask her to help you make business decisions - course you don't - this is a business decision what do you want to involve your wife for?"
"no money"
(recall his worst performing stock)
"what about your XYZ stock - they're doing very badly now - I really wouldn't hold on to them etc..."
or
"your a business man jon - if you see a good idea that you know makes good business sense you'll find the money for it"
the next time you call them you give them a T-up - very quick call - no time for them to chat - make it sound like you're rushed/excited -
"great news jon - the analysts have looked at something and we're ready to move - I wouldn't normally do this as your not an existing client but I've managed to secure you an allocation on this provided we decide to move on it tomorrow - analysts are just crossing the t's dotting the i's as we speak - no time to talk - clients to phone - will call you tomorrow"
then the next day or 2 days later - "Ok jon this it.....(go through fantastic pitch the best company ever - looking for 300% return etc..etc.. blue chip contracts, have met the management etc.. going to be the next cairn energy etc.."
shouldn't get any objections at this stage if you do the first few calls properly - though the main problem is people agreeing on the deal then not sending the cheques in. The brokers that work at these places are complete oxygen thieves - most of them are from essex & half of them don't know any different - they actually think they're 'working in the city' as a 'stock broker' when they are basically doing a telemarketing/sales job - only selling equities as opposed to mobile phones/second hand cars etc...
If you want to really **** off/wind up the spank merchants then act as dumb as you can on the phone - pretend you're ultra wealthy & the stupidest investor ever - tell them you'll invest 100K just to try them out & make out that you've got millions in your portfolio - you could even try to blag a free lunch off them while they are trying to pitch you - then when they come to recco day & try to spank you just don't send the cheque in/or hang up on them - & when they phone back asking for it etc.. - laugh down the phone at them - they'll think they've bagged an elephant - everyone in the office will think they're a hero for about a day or so till they realize you've been winding them up - you will get to waste a load of their call time but building them up and making them think they've bagged their biggest client then knocking them back down again. Laughing at them after a blow to their ego like that will probably depress them for about a week and lower their enthusiasm when they're speaking to other clients. A lot of the people in these places are under constant pressure to perform by senior brokers/managers etc.. many of them will be on the edge of quitting - something like that could actually be the last straw for a few of the weaker ones.
