GAMA International Journal Jul-Aug 2013 - 31

to written business, but that would not be adding a
new member to their practice. we needed to help our
associates gain “prospect connects” (first-time
appointments with a nonmember, or prospect).
numbers can be amazing tools. jeffrey D.
engebose, ClU ChFC CFP CaSl FiC, one of our zone
partners, did a little research and found that if a new
associate obtained 24 new members in a year’s time,
more than 90 percent of them would have successful
practices after five years. on the other hand, the new
associates who had 12 or fewer new members were
likely to leave the business within 18 months.
So how many prospect connects would it take per
week to surpass the magical 24 new members? Better
yet, could we double that to 48 and be rock stars?
again, we went to the numbers. To get to 48 new
members, we would need to add roughly one per week.
Typically, we were adding a new member for every
three whom we met with. half of our initial prospect
meetings resulted in further appointments.
we had our formula.
getting the numbers

Six prospect connects per week would lead to three
sales opportunities, which, in turn, would lead to one
new member. if an associate got 24 or more, he or she
was probably going to be very successful. That was a
number i could hold new associates accountable to. So
my colleagues and i created the “weekly Prospecting
review Form.”
The form became a tool we could use with
associates to hold them accountable to their
prospecting activity. associates would track the
prospect connects they had scheduled for upcoming
weeks. if they had six for the next week, they were on
target. if not, i would follow up in our weekly one-onone sessions to see how they could make it happen.
From there, we would identify five prospects to call for
each connect they needed to get to six. For example, if
they needed two connects, we identified 10 prospects
to call. it’s amazing how successful people can be when
simple attention to detail becomes an integral and
deliberate part of their plan.
identifying the prospects

So exactly where do the prospects come from?
all financial associates provide a list of 100 people
whom they could call to tell about their new career.
Then we conduct what we call a “wheeling” exercise,
in which the financial associate’s name is written in the
center of a white board, and that associate is asked to
identify the people closest to him or her. we add those
names to the board and begin to illustrate the web of
relationships that exist in this financial associate’s
sphere of influence.
after this step, i ask the associates a series of
questions about what they do for fun, where they go to
church, what groups they belong to, and the people
they engage in these activities with. it doesn’t take long
to generate a list of 75 to 100 people. we then identify

Paying It Forward
One of the first things financial services associates
learn when they join Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans is The Thrivent Way: “We help strengthen
Christian communities by helping our members be
wise with money so they live generous lives.” I had
studied it and memorized it, but at one point I had
to ask myself whether I was really living it myself.
Was I holding myself accountable? Upon reflection,
I decided I could do better, that I could be more
generous.
I discovered that there were as many as 400
children in St. Peter, Minn., a town of 10,000
in south-central Minnesota, who often go hungry
on the weekends, but that there was a dedicated
group of individuals working to change that. The
Children’s Weekend Food Program provides healthy,
nutritious food for these kids to take home so they
can come to class on Monday morning ready to
learn. Along with a colleague and friend of mine,
I give my time to this organization by assisting in
preparing weekend food packets that are sent home
with children. The Thrivent Way is to strengthen
Christian communities by helping them be wise with
money and live generously. Financial associates
and members alike are encouraged to be actively
involved in causes for which they have passion.
Examples include serving through ThriventBuilds with
Habitat for Humanity, serving in local food shelves,
and serving as leaders in organizations such as
Young Life.

the people we will be calling right away and those we
may get to know better in a small-group activity.
Then something happened that i didn’t anticipate:
many highly motivated associates began wheeling on
their own. They created “Top 24 Prospects” lists. after
meeting with someone in the top 24, a new name
would be added to the list. i offered guidance as they
considered their prospect lists, such as helping them
identify the most valued clientele whom they would
wish to replicate. But for the most part they were doing
it on their own. we had created a culture of
prospecting.
Vetting the Vets
once we were off and running with our new financial
associates, we wanted to transfer these practices to our
veteran producers and create the same prospecting
culture to ensure that they too were fully engaged in
new-member growth. we began by appealing to their
passion for helping people be wise with money to live
generous lives. Then we added a competitive element.
in addition to following their desire to serve, they
became motivated by their drive to compete and win.
here’s what we did.
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GAMA International Journal Jul-Aug 2013

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