You will plan a month of prospecting that you could show to your compliance team without edits.
Most prospecting plans are written as a sales target with some activity attached: close this many cases, so make this many calls. They tend to fall apart in week two, when an approval has not come through, a list turns out to be unusable, and the pressure to hit a number starts to leak into first conversations. This exercise builds a plan the other way round. It starts from the rules and ends with a target you can actually control.
The test of a finished plan is simple: you could hand it to your compliance team and they would return it without edits.
Write down every channel you plan to use in the next 30 days. For most representatives that means some mix of personal network messages, phone calls, referrals from existing clients, social posts, talks or workshops, and roadshows or events run by the firm.
Beside each channel, write the rule that applies and where it comes from. Use what you learned in this module and in Prospecting: build a pipeline that does not run dry. Marketing calls and texts to Singapore numbers need a DNC check unless you hold clear consent, under the PDPC rules. Any use of personal data for marketing needs consent or another basis under the PDPA, and only for the purpose given. Posts and materials that mention products, returns or the firm need your firm's approval. Events follow your firm's event rules. And in every channel, your introduction names your title, your firm and what you advise on, as in lesson 6.3, Say what you are, every time.
If you are not sure which rule applies to a channel, mark it and ask compliance before the plan starts.
Go through the plan and mark every piece that needs approval before it goes out: posts, slides for a talk, flyers, event materials, scripts if your firm reviews them. Beside each, note how long approval usually takes at your firm, from your licence summary in lesson 1.4.
Then work backwards. If a talk is in week three and slides take five working days to approve, the slides must be submitted by the end of week one. Put the submission dates in the plan. Anything that cannot be approved in time moves to next month, rather than going out unapproved.
Count conversations in your weekly targets and leave sales out of them. A conversation means a real exchange with a person about their situation, whether a coffee, a call or a first meeting. You control how many you start. You do not control how many turn into sales, and a sales target in a first contact is exactly what makes the contact feel pushy.
Choose a number you can keep up alongside your existing clients. Then work out roughly how many people you need to contact to get there, based on your own experience or an honest guess, and label it as a guess until you have a month of data.
Finally, add a recurring step for records. At the end of each prospecting session, or at least once a week, update your contact list with the source, consent basis and DNC check date for everyone you contacted, as in lesson 6.1, DNC, PDPA and the contact list you inherited. Note any approvals received and file them. A plan without this step tends to leave a gap that only shows up when someone complains.
Here is the outline of Daniel's plan. The figures are his own examples.
Channels: personal network messages on WhatsApp to people he knows, using the source and consent columns he built in lesson 6.1, with a DNC check through the firm's process before any marketing text or call. Referrals from his first six clients, asked for only after a meeting where he has actually helped them, with the client checking with their friend first. One educational post a week on Instagram, submitted in a batch for approval. One lunchtime talk at a friend's workplace in week three, educational only, with slides submitted for approval in week one.
Approval dates: posts submitted on day 2, slides on day 4, both with five working days allowed.
Targets: six conversations a week, so 24 over the four full weeks, with the last two days of the month kept for review. From his first month, he guesses he needs to contact about three people for each conversation, so roughly 18 contacts a week, or 72 for the month. Every one of those needs a recorded source, consent basis and, where he will call or text, a DNC check.
Records: every Friday afternoon, 30 minutes to update the contact list and file approvals.
His plan has no sales target in it. His manager asks about that. Daniel explains that his sales depend on conversations, and the conversations are the part he can plan without pressure.
A finished plan fits on one or two pages. It lists each channel with the rule that applies, shows which pieces need approval and the dates they will be submitted, sets a weekly conversation target with the contacts needed to reach it, and includes a weekly record-keeping step. Nothing in it would need to change if compliance read it.
The activity below asks you to write your own 30-day plan with each of those parts.
Write a 30-day prospecting plan with channels, applicable rules, approval steps and weekly conversation targets.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).