 
By Michele Bupp
Matthew Cuomo’s mantra—“prepare, prepare, prepare”—not only helped him earn two bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and then design missiles for several years, he says it has facilitated the slow yet steady progress of his new career as a financial advisor.
“I used to develop plans necessary for missile construction. The same principles of preparation are involved in financial planning, ... carefully integrating key elements to reach an ultimate goal,” says Cuomo. The 33-year-old says he was successful in his former career, having patented two engineering products before leaving the field in 2002, but he yearned for work that would give him a greater sense of fulfillment. “Helping someone care for his family if he lost his income—that gives me a purpose, a real reason to do what I’m doing,” he explains.
Today, Cuomo works for Prudential in his hometown of White Plains, N.Y., where he has applied his methodical, scientific approach to a target market he rightfully claims to know quite a bit about—dentists, oral surgeons, orthodontists and periodontists. His father and twin brother are oral surgeons practicing locally, and Cuomo convinced them to get his name added to the agenda of their upcoming professional association meeting—one that would bring together 1,200 dental professionals from five counties.
True to his mantra of preparation, Cuomo researched the dental association with the purpose of finding out all he could about its members. This valuable information, which is the first part of his three-step preparation plan, helped him narrow his lecture to only those subjects of most interest to his audience.
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| “I don’t talk about products. I talk about process.”
— Matthew Cuomo |
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Step 1: Know your stuff.
He asked the association for its:
- Total number of members, with breakdown by dental specialty
- Age range or median age
- Average career length
- Marital and family status
- Gender differential
He warns: Don’t ask for contact or salary information of members when scheduling a speaking engagement, he warns, because it “positions you as someone who is interested in selling only.”
Before his presentation, Cuomo asked permission to email board members a few quick questions to ascertain their most pressing financial and insurance concerns. To prevent redundancy, he also obtained a list of speakers over the past year to check if another financial planner or insurance agent had lectured to the association. When he found that someone had spoken on group health insurance, he avoided that area.
Step 2: Educate, don’t sell.
Cuomo is unflinching in his tactics. “I don’t talk about products. I talk about process,” he says. When he meets a group for the first time, he typically:
- Introduces himself.
- Explains what financial and insurance advisors do, and the specific market he serves and why he has chosen that market.
- Discusses current financial trends and forecasts.
- Engages audience on subjects of special interest to them, which could be planning for children’s education expenses, retirement planning, estate planning, charitable giving or long-term care.
- Offers to supply further information on finance and insurance to members on a regular basis, e.g. through the association newsletter.
- Never mentions his products and services.
Once he’s finished his session and the meeting has adjourned, he chats with members and answers questions, hoping to secure client meetings. When he’s successful in attracting a client, Cuomo arranges an initial consultation at the client’s location.
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| “I ... OFFER MY CELL PHONE NUMBER ... AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO CALL ME ANYTIME, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.”
— Matthew Cuomo |
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Step 3: Get to know your client.
Cuomo is diligent about making the best-possible first impression and seamlessly obtaining pertinent information without being intrusive. He factfinds in a conversational manner to reveal the client’s personality, and approach to life and money, asking:
- What was your worst investment? What did you learn?
- What was your best investment and why?
- What troubles you the most about your financial future?
- What do you want to happen here?
- Draw me a picture of where you see yourself in five, 10, 20 years.
He warns:
- Don’t make the atmosphere formal or rigid.
- Don’t sit across from a prospect; use a round table or sit on the same side of a table or desk.
- Don’t give a prospect a 20-30-page questionnaire to fill out. Rather, you ask him the questions, and you note his answers.
- Don’t ask a prospect, during that first meeting, how much money he:
- Has saved
- Plans to invest with you or what insurance he plans to buy from you
- Makes or counts as income
Occasionally a prospect declines to go further with Cuomo for whatever reason, but he says he doesn’t allow his disappointment to influence his speech or manner. “I immediately, politely offer my cell phone number (if they don’t already have it), and encourage them to call me anytime, seven days a week. ... I want to be someone they can count on, so that in time I can call them my clients.” Cuomo then asks the prospect’s permission for him to periodically send emails of financial updates or new insurance benefits.
Even though Cuomo measures the progress of his three-year-old business as taking mere “baby steps,” he knows it’s “all part of building a business the right way.” He swears by his mantra of careful preparation before each and every prospect meeting and group presentation, as well as maintaining his focus on the dental field. “It’s worked well for me so far,” Cuomo adds, who reports three new clients as a result of his networking at a recent dental conference.
DECEMBER 2005
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