The job is basically retail sales of financial investment products like mutual funds, annuities, and individual securities like stocks and bonds. You are required to study and pass licensing exams to sell securities as well as life insurance products. It is not a nine-to-five job, especially when you get started. Hours are long. Though not required, expect to be working ten to twelve hour days in order to build your client base, including Saturdays. Up front, you will spend a lot more time selling yourself than you will selling financial products. The reality is that a client has to like you and trust you before they will invest any money with you. Other than family and close friends, most people will not trust you after one meeting or contact. It takes a concerted effort to make those initial contacts and then follow up on any questions or concerns the prospect might have, as well as trying to bring the prospect new information that might be relevant to them.
The job, at first, involves a tremendous amount of cold-calling. Jones even trains you to go door to door in the neighborhood where your office will be located to introduce yourself to people. That is not a simple task, especially because most people don't really want to talk to you at all. And the ones who do have money to invest often already have an existing relationship with another advisor. The basic premise of the Jones system is to make 25 quality contacts per day. That includes any conversation where you present an appropriate investment idea to a prospect or client and ask for the order. Calling your best friend and talking about your kids for 15 minutes doesn't count. Nor does calling a prospect and asking what they think about General Electric. You have to present the idea and you have to ask for the order. The 25 contacts idea sounds very simple, and conceptually it is not difficult to grasp. But once you have tried talking to 25 strangers behind closed doors, you begin to understand the difficulty. Also, try calling 25 people you know in the same day. It's not as easy as it sounds. Most people aren't home. Even if you have a cell or work number, you will wind up getting voicemail most of the time. Voicemails don't really count for the 25 contacts/day. So in a typical day, plan on making at least 50-75 calls or door knocks to get 25 contacts. In 100 contacts, you may get 2-3 orders or less as a new advisor.
Your real goal is to try to set up appointments at the office or the prospect's home. It is the appointment where you have the best opportunity to see how a person is reacting to your sales pitch. The phone might work in the long run for existing clients, but most sales for a new advisor are going to be made in person during a meeting. Your goals is to schedule at least 12 meetings per week. The result of this effort is to open up new client accounts. There are different account types depending on the client goals. You could open a brokerage account and invest money for the client in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, money market accounts, etc. You could open a retirement account, such as a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. You might help a small business owner open a 401K account, or a SEP or Simple IRA. You might be working with a trust to set up an estate. You might be helping a younger couple set up a college 529 savings plan for a new child. You might be working with someone who just inherited money, someone who just sold some property or a business, or someone who is concerned about how to minimize taxes on their estate when they die. The investments you recommend depend on the needs of the client. Jones motto is always do what is best for the client. However, it your job as an advisor to help clients understand an investment that not only helps them achieve their goals, but does so in a way that minimizes their risk. Jones does that by trying to focus on diversified quality investments.
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