When Texas financial advisor Gail Benner attended Peter Montoya seminar in Denver in June 2003, she was on pace to make about $40,000 that year. What's more, she had heard every speaker and trainer under the sun, and none of them had made any difference.
"I'd seen everyone you can imagine, Zig Ziglar, you name it," she says. "I got a wonderful education in securities, but I was working very hard, maybe 60-70 hours a week, and it wasn't happening." But when Gail started networking with her fellow students, she realized they were a higher caliber of people than she had seen elsewhere. That's when she knew this experience would be different.
25% of the Clients, 75% of the Income
Then she started watching the Brand Strategists, coaches who work closely with each individual. "And I realized they were really interacting with their groups, picking apart what each person was doing," she says. "There's wasn't anything canned; they had different answers for each of us, based on our experience and our approach. That's when I thought, 'What could I do with a coach for a year instead of a weekend?'"
At that point, Gail decided that she wanted to make something happen. She wanted to be a top producer. "I made a commitment to myself for the next 12 months," she says.
Today, Gail's Peter Montoya experience is transforming her career. A specialist in working with women who does most of her business in securities and life, long-term care and disability insurance, she's already on pace to surpass the $100,000 mark in income for 2004, and she's so busy with high-quality, affluent clients that she now refers lower-end clients to another advisor.
Under the advice of Peter Montoya and Kathy Townsend, her Brand Strategist, Gail has quit working directly with virtually all her clients except those who fall into the "A" and "B" categories. If this seems like a high-wire act without a net, it's not; those clients make up 25% of her former caseload but provide more than 75% of her income. Her goal is to work exclusively with A and B clients, spending less time on more affluent women who can provide plenty of referrals.
Cruising for Business
Her secret? Building her Brand by taking her clients and their referrals on four-day cruises. "Kathy told me, 'Come up with something different to do,'" Gail says. "So I came up with idea of doing financial seminars on Carnival Cruises." Carnival jumped at the chance and offered Gail quite a deal: they split the cost of advertising with her, she pays nothing for her cruise, and her clients pay full price (about $450-$500) and almost always bring along multiple referrals.
While on board, they get pampered and sit through a low-intensity financial seminar that’s a lead generator for a more intense seminar back on land. "I'll always bring in something fun, like a pro photographer," she says. The tactic has been so successful that Gail hopes to host four cruises per year. "The whole attitude of my clients has changed," she says. "I became someone they had never dealt with before. Now the referrals just flow out of their mouths."
Coaching is Everything
For Gail, what made Peter Montoya work was the coaching of the Brand strategists. "The coaches are everything," she says. "They listen, and they're there from the very beginning. They're helping you with every step. Working with Kathy Townsend, I learned to think outside the box."
The hardest part of the whole experience, she says, has been setting goals and fitting her natural energy and independence into a plan. Once she did that, everything else just fell into place. "I am very independent," she says. "That's why I could never work for someone else. It’s hard to get me to set goals. I've learned a lot about goal setting."
And now? "I did not know it could all happen this quick," she says. "When I told my professional colleagues how much business I was doing, they were certain I was doing something illegal. But it's just Peter Montoya." |
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