Pitched by a Broker - Part II

I always liked getting pitched by brokers, it helped me to sharpen and strengthen my game on the phone. The last thing any broker wants to do is to unwittingly pitch another broker it's sort of like selling a new car to a used car salesman. Not only will he convince you that a used car is better, he'll probably end up selling you one of his own. Just for kicks and giggles I ask him about the other competitors out there, like Qualcom. He dives into it with passion and a convincing tone as to why Nokia is better, then silence. The pitch break, where the broker runs out things to say and starts asking you questions, "Are you still maintaining your account with Mark Allen?", bemused I say "yes". Then my mind starts working on overtime, and a smile comes across my face. I give him the "think about it" excuse followed by the "liquidity" excuse just to gauge the response. My smile grows wider as he gives me his rebuttals, I felt sorry for him those rebuttals had been recycled for the past 20 years. No wonder prospects always say, "All you brokers say the same thing.", Jesse was text-book. Literally reading the rebuttals off the page, slowing down as he got to the end of the page and I heard the movement of paper in the background as her turned to the next page of his rebuttals.

Unfazed, he followed up with the competitive account pitch, "put me up against your other brokers, I'm telling you.......", as his voice trailed off in my mind I remembered the fact that he brought up my old Mark Allen IRA account. Like a lion pouncing on a bewildered wildebeest, Jesse jumps straight in, "So i have your best address here at 135 Boyle Rd, Staten Island and your date of birth is October 19th. 1977?" Alarms started going off in the back of my mind, crap, I did have an old IRA account before at the previous firm where I worked but how the hell? "Woaaah Jesse, how did you get my information?", classic response, "Well ummh, from our database we have researchers etc. who find information for us", "Really", I respond, "How much do you pay for that?, "Well it varies from 200 bucks up". I was getting bored and really needed to get back to pitching my prospects, so I let him have it. "Do me a favor, call your researcher and get your money back, because if they did enough research you would know that I'm a registered rep. in the business; silence, click.

I grinned to myself, this business had gotten lazy. The art of cold-calling and prospecting had fallen to the wayside and the black-market business of purchasing client account statements had become the norm. Times were looking grim for the business indeed and I needed to go have another cigarette.

Pitched by a Broker - Part I

Early spring 2009, the market was in turmoil providing as much insight into its future as a blind palm-reader. I was having a cigarette outside my office building on Wall Street, watching the tourists and trying to make an educated guess as to whether retail stores and tourism would replace the Wall Street known for its commissions and bonuses. I gave a huge sigh and tried not to self-prophesise my way out of a career. It was a good day, I had already closed two accounts and it was only 10:00 a.m. I considered myself not good, but lucky because I was an empath by nature. I was always two steps ahead of the emotions coming from the guy on the other end of the phone, but more on that later.

The cell phone rang, "Hi Ira, this is Jesse Malone from East Hudson Securities". "What's up?". Now, brokers get calls from other brokers typically for a few reasons, mainly to pitch the broker into joining their firm. Typically the recruiting broker gets a 5% over-ride on the incoming broker's commissions, not a bad set-up. So i wasn't surprised until he gave me the back door pitch, " Well last time we spoke I brought you RIMM at $65 it's now at $95, I'm calling today to talk to you about Nokia, are you familiar with this company?" Jesse did not screw around, I liked the hard-rough New York accent and the determination in delivery, he was giving me an earnings play pitch. With the earnings play pitch; there is always a sense of urgency like a shot of Tabasco sauce. After his first close, I decided to have a little fun and dashed back to the office to put him on speaker phone for everyone to listen and learn.