"Usually I don't persist with someone who doesn't respond when I follow up. But now my pipeline is dry and I don't know what to do. What do I say when I reach out to someone who isn't responding to me?"

Call the person (no email or text) and say this: "I have a question. A while ago we met and talk about our services but you have not moved forward. I want to make sure you are taken care of. But to do that I need to know something."

Pause. They'll go, "Okay."

Then you say: "It's just I feel as if I have wasted your time but not solving the problem you came to me for. I want to get this taken care of so you can finally get what you need from someone and achieve the financial health, the stability, the financial clarity you deserve."

Pause.  They will probably look at you with shock in their eyes.

Continue. "Either I can fulfill what you need, or if I can not then I will personally find you someone who can. Because it's no good being in this holding pattern, unable to move on, unable to get served, unable to reach the goals you want to. Right? 

Pause.

Continue: "I say let's get this done and move on right now, regardless of whether or not the person winds up being me. Let's start here. What were you looking for in a financial advisor, that you felt I wasn't able to give you? Like I said, I'm fine if I'm not the one you wind up with."

If you call and they aren't there, leave a voicemail.

If you leave a voicemail and they don't respond, send an email with the subject line: "IMPORTANT: need to take care of this right now." Insert the script I just wrote you above.

It may sound brash but this works. There is too much ho-hum prospecting that goes nowhere and wastes everyone's time.

Read the monthly *Nick Murray Interactive Advisor Newsletter* (NMI). 

This is the best training for professional Advisors. Read it, absorb it, and make notes for yourself. Pay special attention to counter-cultural investment principles, phraseology, aphorisms, and turns-of-phrase."

One of the most important things you can do for your business is have a succession plan in-place in case of your demise or incapacity to conduct business - just as we advise our clients to get term life insurance. This should be easier than it actually is. At my previous B/D, in which I was a founding partner, I spent *years* (almost a decade) trying to get a ownership &  succession plan in-place for our Advisors, but to no avail. At IP got it established in **two days**! 

It's a **one-page DocuSign**, no lawyers required, written in English and easy to understand. IP truly has an Advisor-First philosophy."

According to Nick Murray, what are the THREE critical variables in a good long-term portfolio?

1. stock/bond mix, the cost, amount of diversification.

2. diversification, performance, rebalancing.

3. rebalancing, stock/bond mix, cost.

4. cost, diversification, performance.

5. stock/bond mix, diversification, regular rebalancing.

6. performance is all that matters.

Answer = 5