The Orchard Grower: Create and Harvest As Many Prospects As You Want

By Ron Butt, CFP

The goal of this book is to connect technically competent professionals with consumers that desperately need their service.

Ron Butt, CFP has been helping individuals and businesses accomplish their goals for over 30 years as a financial planner. In addition he established one of America’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms, (ARGI Investment Services, LLC) and comprehensive fee based financial planning firms. He has helped numerous advisors reverse their tedious often unproductive new business approach, from an unplanned cold call sales method, to a system where abundant viable prospects in the market seek them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Dec 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483417738

Book preview

THE

ORCHARD GROWER

Create and harvest as many prospects as you want

Ron Butt, CFP

Copyright © 2014 Ron Butt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1774-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1773-8 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 12/22/2014

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1   What’s My Type?

Chapter 2   Hunter, Gatherer and Farmer – How Do They Differ?

Chapter 3   Do you have a Transaction or Consultative Sales Model Organization?

Chapter 4   The Purpose of a Purpose is to Have a Purpose

Chapter 5   Transition from a Sales Organization to a Marketing Organization

Chapter 6   Success Stories—Case Studies of the Temperament Types

Chapter 7   Applying the Platinum Rule

Chapter 8   Orchard Growing in Review

Endnotes

Acknowledgements

T his book would not be possible without the personal experiences I have witnessed and participated in with the wonderful people of ARGI Financial Group. To all those individuals, both past and present, I say thank you for allowing me to share in our mutual success. Joe Reeves, in particular, has been a fantastic business partner these past 18 years and continues to serve as a model Orchard Grower.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Sydney LeBlanc for helping me to refine my thoughts, to Marcia Jaggers for helping me to organize those thoughts into a readable form, and to Tina Butt for tirelessly reviewing and correcting the grammar.

Introduction

T here are multiple contributors to an organization’s and an individual’s success. However, from my personal business experience, I believe there are three critical areas that require particular attention. The first is approaching the market in a manner that draws customers to the organization. This requires positioning to move from selling to marketing. The second is placing the right type of individual in the correct position based on the sales model. The third is supporting the sale and ongoing service with an optimal team whose natural gifts and talents are exploited. Placing the right type of individual in the optimal position begins with understanding the differences in types and innate preferences. Optimizing the natural gifts and preferences becomes the cornerstone for success.

Why did I write this book?

Most importantly, I want future generations of financial advisors, or any occupation, to be able to identify a business or market where they have real passion and can gather as many clients from the market as they desire. All too often, talented professionals fail, not because of their technical skills, but due to incompatible marketing skills. And all of the technical and marketing skills is for naught if there isn’t a real desire to make a difference -- it’s critical to love the work and the business, and instill the same in associates. This book will help you, the talented professional, reach as many prospective clients as you desire. Taken to its highest level of implementation, application of the concepts in this book can create more prospective clients than you or your company can handle. I have been told many times by clients, friends, and coaches there are two ways to go out of business: the first is not having enough new business coming in the door; the second is having too much business coming in the door.

Ensuring that you have enough leads is the prescription for success. The approach to the market determines if there will be enough. Enough, a nebulous word – what does it mean? Is it the right amount at the right time, or is it the amount you projected in this year’s business plan? The decisions made to draw clients to the firm will have the single greatest impact on growth. Will you indiscriminately knock on doors? Even a blind hog eventually finds an acorn! Or, like an Orchard Grower, will you think strategically? Is there a means to identify a likely client, one with real needs and interests that can be met with one of your current products or services? Better yet, real marketing to achieve enough may mean creating a product or service for a defined market that is so distinct and remarkable, clients begin seeking you.

So, consider how the concept of a selling paradigm might shift to a marketing paradigm as we take a brief look at the second critical area: aligning natural talent in the business using a disciplined approach. Small business owners particularly need a practical, easy-to-understand guide for how to build a successful, well-functioning team around them. Correctly aligning the people who make up your team will determine both the level of success or failure of the individual and the company.

I have repeatedly witnessed companies promoting their leading salesperson to the position of sales manager. Generally, the unseemly belief is if someone can sell the product or service better than anyone else, he will make a good sales manager. Sadly, however, the exemplary strategic planning, organizing, staffing, budgeting, and computing skills required of a good sales manager are often not the same skills found in an outstanding salesperson. Often, once the management placement error is made, it’s too late, and the impact of a poorly performing leader becomes exponential in the organization.

The third critical area closely follows the second one. The professional simply cannot be successful without an effective team to support him or her, and the right team requires individuals naturally matched to their roles throughout the organization. Learning the concepts found in this book, and applying the associated discipline, will help you make appropriate critical hiring decisions in your organization.

We begin by helping you decide your individual type. The next step will challenge you to think about the current placement conditions already in your organization as well as the ideal ones. The tools will help guide you on a path to determine, based on natural preferences, who within your organization should be in each key position, and how to evaluate not only the person currently occupying it, but also discern what type should be there.

Why is this book significant?

How many families suffer because they don’t have access to good professional care? I’m talking about care of every type. What if you are the best dentist in the world and no one knows about you? How do you create the buzz to get people to pay attention?

The book A Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell gives an example of Hush Puppies shoes. The company was almost bankrupt when a few celebrities started wearing its shoes -- suddenly shoe sales began to multiply. How many people would have lost their jobs if Hush Puppies had gone out of business? This is a great example of marketing and the impact on a single company, but there is more at stake. America didn’t become great, nor will it remain great, without considerable cooperation. As business owners, we owe it to our local, state, and national economies to share best ideas. Through the free flow of information and best-practice sharing, we can all live better and ensure the same for future generations. Granted, though I recognize there are still a few cynics around.

Pundits, such as investment analyst Larry Edelson, have been predicting the end of America, as we know it, for eons. I believe our country is on the brink of the most amazing growth we have ever seen. The entrepreneurial spirit is still alive in America and, using history as our guide, every recession has made us leaner and meaner. The more severe the recession, the more inspiring the growth has been afterward. As I look back over the last 14 years since January 2000, I am reminded that the clocks and computers did not stop working when Y2K occurred. The world didn’t crash with the tech bubble nor did it with the real estate bubble of 2007. The ominous forecasted rise of China taking over the world economically with some sinister plan to destroy the American way of life is just not going to happen.

Remember in the 1960’s when everything was manufactured in Japan? During this period Japanese goods were notorious for their poor quality. But, as Japan developed a middle class, their wages slowly climbed until they became the second largest economy in the world. During the 1980’s when the Japanese were lending America money so that we could buy their goods, everyone thought the American way of life was over. They even had the audacity to come to the U.S. and buy Rockefeller Center! Surely this was proof Japan had surpassed the good old USA, and we should just take our toys and go home. The game was over, and they won. Now, Japan is our best trading partner and goods made there are no longer regarded as junk!

China will continue to develop, and it