5 ideas for BDM prospecting
How to you ‘hunt’ for business? Recently I was meeting with coaches of personal banking lenders and they wanted ideas to help their lenders be more proactive in finding business – rather than waiting for it to walk in the door. 
Here are 5 ideas I sent to the coaches – ideas that you can adapt for your ‘hunting’.
1. ‘Second Opinion coffee’: This could be done by phone or by email. It can be done with cold prospects or with other people a lender has a relationship with.
For example here is a sample cold email schema that you can adapt
(Subject): New contact/’Second opinion coffee’/potential saving of dollars on your home loan
(Copy)
“Hi Mr/Ms x,
We haven’t met before. I work as a personal lender at the BAC branch at Red Hill.
Let me pitch you an idea.
What if you could have a no obligation Second Opinion on your home loan rate (assuming your have a home loan) over a free coffee, at a your café of choice, in just 20 minutes, at a time that suits you?
I’d love to buy you that coffee. I’ll give you fresh ideas that might help save more dollars from your existing loan provider – and I promise I won’t put any hard sell on you to switch providers 🙂
Please contact me/I’ll phone you to see if you want to take advantage of this offer.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Michelle Meeks, Personal lender
2. LinkedIn search and referral script (adapted from recommendations of Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn)
Below is a script I send to specific LinkedIn connections of mine for Introductions. This script could be adapted by lenders.
Peter,
Hope you’re well.
Can I ask for your help?
If yes, do you know Kumar Poontoobie of PTLK – well?
If you do, would you be willing to introduce me to him? If not, that’s fine – don’t give it another thought.
If you do think it’s appropriate for an introduction the below format might help you. Feel free to edit/ignore it as you see fit.
Thank you.
cheers,
michael k
+++++++++++++
From: Peter Dexter
To: Kumar Poontoobie
Subject: Introduction Kumar P and Michael K
Hello Kumar,
I’d like to introduce you to someone I think you’ll enjoy meeting – Michael Kelly, Director of Kelly Speech Communication. Michael is an executive communication coach, business pitch consultant, leading body language and speech expert.
He regularly provides media commentary and analysis on how leading CEOs, CIOs, politicians and other high profile public figures communicate, and on how they can improve their personal communication impact.
Michael has been a popular presenter for an array of CSA events over the last two years.
He has been one of the most popular presenter at our Future Leaders Institute in. As well he has led a leadership roundtable for my PQR branch as well as delivering a highly successful branch forum presentation on ‘Mind if I listen in – fresh networking and body language techniques that pay off’.
Michael has a particular interest in helping digital/IT executives ‘Be heard in the boardroom’.
Michael wanted to be introduced to you.
For more information on Michael here are his website and LinkedIn profile:
– http://kellyspeech.com.au/
– au.linkedin.com/pub/michael-kelly/0/796/1aa
I’m sure you’d enjoy getting to know Michael so I’ve cc’ed him here.
Best regards,
Peter D.
3. Networking
Here is a link to my blog post on Networking
4. Outbound phone call script after email or posted letter
I used to make more outbound prospecting phone calls previously than at the present time. Still it has its place. Below is a talking script your lenders can adapt when they get a live call with the target person. (I acknowledge that getting a live call can be a challenge, and that voicemail may not be listened to).
“ John, I send you an email/posted letter (after a referral from x etc.). I’m Michael Kelly. Do you have 50 seconds? (if they don’t I’ll quickly end the call and say I’ll phone back)
(if they do say yes)
“John . . . let me cut to the chase . . . Firstly I acknowledge that you have systems in place to develop your people and I don’t want to change those . . . One area that has been resonating with my clients of late are my techniques in how to listen and speak under pressure in challenging customer and senior stakeholder interactions. . .
I’d love to present myself as an additional resource for you in the development of your people.
I’d like to send you an email with my field-tested Listen and speak under pressure template. How does that sound?” (then you would play it by ear at this point and if you get permission to send an email, you’d start your funnel processes for turning a prospect into a client).
5. Showcases
Intermittently I arrange a breakfast meeting and get a luminary speaker colleague of mine to speak and invite prospective customers along.
Perhaps you could arrange a domain expert in an area of the home buying process to be a speaker and invite local people to attend. This event need not be large.
Your CALL to action/HOW to apply for this post: In the next seven days trial one of the above ideas and reflect on its impact.
p.s. Check out this post on the value of seeking out ‘loving critics’
