Calling all Financial Traders!
Calling all Financial Traders!
I went to a cocktail party the other week and met a financial trader who worked in The City. We were talking generally about the use of the phone and how it could be used to influence key individuals to attain specific business outcomes. He then went on to say how important it was in his work to be able to call fund managers about particular investment opportunities and raise their interest. Nearly all the time this would have to be done by leaving a voicemail message and hope that they would return his call. I asked him what this would be worth if the fund manager returned his call and the outcome of the dialogue was successful. He said this could be worth millions of dollars/pounds/yen! to the financial institution concerned.
This got me thinking about applying my level of expertise to help put together a success strategy to make this work more effectively. So here are my thoughts:
1. For each trader, who do they know who does this exceptionally well i.e. get calls returned and how can they learn from their strategy. What specifically do they do they makes this work consistently well? Is the impact in the specific message or in the delivery i.e. how they use their voice?
2. How can the trader use background research about the fund manager himself to add a genuine personal element to the voicemail message. e.g. I read with interest that you….
3. How can each trader modify their voice delivery so that it “matches” but not mimics the fund manager’s voice tone in the message. In this way the fund manager is more likely to return the call because they sound “like a person like them”
4. If and when the call is returned ,how can the trader ensure they engage immediately with the fund Manager to drive the call to the outcomes they want? The trader must have his call route planned and above all make sure he is in the “right state” so they he sounds credible enough to get the outcome he wants.
Any Traders of you out there reading this, please let me have your feedback as I am very keen to develop this further.
Thanking you in advance
best regards
David
definitely, the use of the telephone in this way is merely extending a relationship marketing approach to business. By making the recipiant of the call feel as if they know you in a more personal way they will ultimately feel more personally involved, as if they are a part of the organisation themselves, and thus chances of loyalty and perceived added value are greatly increased.
many find telesales marketers irritating and yet none can deny their crucial role in the vast majority of business to business dealings. perhaps a happy medium needs to be found between personal elements of knowing your client and realising the significance of relationship calling?
I loved the site, I am a self employed telemarketer and found your site very interesting, so much so I just want topick up the phone.
Do you have any tips how I can take my business further and employ some telemarketers to do some of th ework for me?
Hi David,
I am not a trader, but work in a telesales environment, where the stakes are relatively high (my market is the Pharmaceutical industry!). I read your request with interest and had some thoughts… (surprise, surprise..). I shall respond through my own experience which may or may not be relevent…
On leaving messages. This is very dangerous. The decision makers receive anywhere between 20 and 200 messages a day. Come end of day, the messages that they didn’t get to are binned, according to a VP a Pfizer. Furthermore, when leaving a message s/he will become irritated if you leave any more. Forget leaving messages, my friends! Roll your sleeves up, make a call list and hit the bricks/ make the calls… Sooner or later, you’ll get the decision maker on the other end of the phone and you can pitch him/ her to your heart’s content!
If you don’t like that particular brand of coffee, call their PA and a.) find out when they will be available b.) ask whether they can set aside 10 minutes on behalf of their boss so you can have a chat with them.
None of us are that important or that successful that we don’t need to make use of the basics…
Anyway, this is just what works for me; hope this helps…
Stuart
Hi Stuart, many apologies for the very late response but i have just recently relaunched my blog! Thank you very much for your great thoughts, I think the easiest by far is to set up 10-15mins telephone meetings via their PA or admins. In this way you are not having to make dozens of calls in hope that you will get to the VPs and above all be in the right frame of mind to receive the call. Please do subscribe to my mini-course I would really appreciate your feedback!
Hi Lynn, many thanks for the great feedback on the site. If you are going to source other telemarketers, in my experience the best sources are out of work actors because they “sound” right and nearly always make the right impact from the very outset. Also the NLP community, if someone is NLP trained and has a good voice that is a fantastic combination of skills/capability which will get great results. Pls do subscribe to the mini-course. Like Stuart I would be very keen to hear your feedback.
thanks again David