By Weld Royal

Today many wealth management firms have ended the practice of using unsolicited outbound calls to find new customers, or cold calling. Not so C. James Taylor, who manages a team of 18 people and more than $3.5 billion in assets under management in a New York-based Morgan Stanley practice. He says cold calling works well if modified for today's prospects. "We're cold calling...That's where I kind of grew up. But not in the traditional way. We're connecting with the people on LinkedIn," he says.

On our latest The Way Forward: Next Generation podcast , the advisor discusses why he "tore down" his practice in 2015 to build it up again to offer planning services. "I was 27, and I looked at my practice, and it was not what I wanted it to be. It was terrible. It was more like a transactional practice, not really a planning-based practice," Taylor explains.

Restructuring a practice. Today the Taylor Group focuses on tax, financial, estate and other planning services, after a process of rebuilding led by Taylor, who handpicked members of his team to lead certain functions. "I want this person to do planning, this person to do business development, this person to do servicing," he explains of the team restructuring. The group also created systems so that routine tasks could be quickly and easily handled thanks to an organized series of steps.

One example is business development, which Taylor says starts with old-school cold calling. "We talk about technology, and we're big adopters of artificial intelligence, big adopters of technology," he says. "But at the end of the day, people want to work with people and talk to people."

Upfront research. The business development process involves a lot of research on the companies and people they're targeting, such as someone's work tenure and who they might know in common. Before the initial phone call, the business developer sends out a calendar invitation with an agenda. "So right off the bat, they see this team is professional, Taylor Group, here's what we're going to be talking about."

During the first call, they describe the Taylor Group's approach to planning, and offer freebies, such as regular research reports. "They're getting weekly touches from us that isn't just coming from us picking up the phone and having another conversation with them or being annoying," Taylor says. A positive first interaction looks at whether the client is a good fit for Taylor's team and discusses Morgan Stanley capabilities such as family office resources, tax and estate planning, and wealth management banking.

The close. If the call is successful, a live planning meeting ensues, in which the advisors builds out the prospect's financial plan by going through the person's net worth statement, discussing goals. Then they will conduct a recommendations meeting, taking a deep dive into the team's recommendations. "We'll talk about our cost, our fees, and how we would get you from where you are now to working with us, at which point we're going to ask you to hire us," explains Taylor.

A sales process that starts with cold calling combined with knowledge of the prospect's experience, responsibilities, and interests helped the Taylor Group expand even as it changed its focus. "This is the golden age to be an advisor. I think it's the golden age just to be alive. There's so much knowledge out there that you can get at your fingertips, " muses Taylor.

Write to advisor.editors@barrons.com

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April 10, 2025 16:14 ET (20:14 GMT)

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