The Game of Numbers: Professional Prospecting for Financial Advisors

I am just starting out my career as a financial adivsor and my mentor recommended this book before I starting my job. Before reading I was getting nervous about the idea of prospecting everyday; however, Nick gives a lot of great information in his book and helps you understand the importance of prospecting even later in your career. There are also alot of great tips about how to approach your prospects and ways to better yourself as an advisor. A must read!

Nick Murray takes on the #1 issue that advisors struggle with in their attempt to build a financial services practice - prospecting. Forty three years of experience are distilled into a very readable 209 pages that will leave you wanting to get out there and fight for your career. Mr. Murray makes it clear that prospecting is really about defeating the fear of prospecting. To this end, in part one of the book he sets a foundation for prospecting with what we as advisors believe. The second part of his book deals with behavior. How we respond to "no" is vital to an advisor's long-term ability to prospect effectively. There is no magic pill, but there are definite approaches we can take to free us from the power of rejection. This book includes some great scripts that will help an advisor find his/her voice in speaking to complete strangers about the most important financial decision in their life, and not sound like a corny used car salesman. I particularly Mr. Murray's approach to "the question behind the question." For me, that was worth the purchase price on it's own. Finally, I found several techniques that I can employ immediately in my practice, such as what to say at the end of every "failed" interview. That said, this is not a book of techniques but of profound wisdom about the science and art of prospecting in 2011.

I'm not a big Nick Murray fan. I read his "New Financial Adviser" book and wanted to scream because he seemed to have no connection with new advisers like me. It was all too easy for him. Sure, anyone can succeed with 250 clients who have an average portfolio of $1 million. But how do you get there from here if you're starting out in the business or otherwise struggling to build?This book answered that question. A friend recommended it to me, and I just couldn't believe that it was the same Nick Murray who wrote the other book. He thoroughly examined all of the obstacle that advisers face when looking to build their businesses, then offers real-world solutions that you need to read over and over again until then are engraved on your brain.I was reluctant to spend this kind of money on yet another prospecting book, but this was worth every penny. In fact, I'm going to his web site to see if he has it on CD so I can listen to it in the car. To many other business-building books have about 20 pages of useful information, and the rest is either repetitive, ridiculous, or rubbish. This book has gems on every page.This might sound like I'm Murray's agent or PR guy, but I'm not. As I said, I'm not a fan in any way. But I love this book and highly recommend it for anyone just starting out or struggling to survive in a very challenging industry.

Terrific book. I was quoting it to my employees after the first chapter. I am recommending it strongly. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner I find it spot on with regard to business development and client acquisition. But I am also a novelist and freelance financial writer and had already read Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art" which Mr. Murray refers to in his preface. That book is also a worthy read, and I found the information in "The Game of Numbers" equally elucidating and motivating. I think most professionals in engaged entrepreneurial-ish endeavors (who don't wake up each day knowing they will get an automatic paycheck just by showing up at work) can benefit from reading Nick Murray's book (and Mr. Pressfield's as well).

This book was recommended to me even though I am not a financial planner. It really works for all positions where you need to keep prospecting for business. It is not so much of a "how to" as to a "why". I think in business, of any kind, reaching out to people, learning about them, catering to what would help them, is a great idea of a fantastic salesperson in any position. It also makes you a better person overall.

Great read!

It is so well written that I feel like I'm reading a novel that I don't want to put down! All of the other positive reviews made me buy it. So glad I did. Makes me feel great about myself despite my fears of prospecting. However, the one caveat that I have with this book is that feeling good in our line of work is okay, but actually going out and doing something about it is KEY. It's the only way to survive. With that said, I have not found that this book forced me to ACT. However, you can't blame that on the book. After reading it, you'll have a clear understanding why you aren't where you want to be in your business and how to get better.

This book is very useful and is easy to read. It will help you establish the right mindset to not only succeed but thrive in any sales field but especially the financial services industry. Amazon way over charged me for it and I would now always recommend shopping elswhere for better prices on books! I recomended this book to several friends and they bought it new for a third of what I paid to Amazon. Fortunately I feel the book is still worth the money I overpaid to Amazon.

this is a very good read, will also get you reading war of art by steve pressfield which it is based off.Thanks