How To Prospect On LinkedIn Successfully In Less Than An Hour Per Week

Let people in. All right, gang, who would like to use LinkedIn more effectively, but it takes so much freaking time.

That's what we're here to talk about today. So I'm going to show you a couple things, guys, that.

I look at every week that has helped me make sure that I am prospecting effectively, not spending a ton of time.

Now, the one that often takes people the most time is content. If you want to create content for social media, that is what keeps us sitting here for an hour trying to figure out what we're going to talk about, because I don't know what to talk about. So what I want to share with you guys today is a couple things, Just a couple steps you can take right now to actually be more effective on LinkedIn. And I always start webinars like this with the goal. And I'm going to pull this. I pull this up every. Let me share my screen every webinar now, because this is the truth, gang. This is where most of us sit today. Most of you sit in obscurity. All right?

The biggest challenge brokers, advisors, industry partners have right now is not enough prospects. Know who you are.

I made a post today about some insurance marketing truths a lot of people in the industry disagree with me on. And one of them that I believe is true is the reason you're not growing as fast as you want is not because your lack of knowledge. It's not because your lack of resources. Not enough people know who you are. That's it. Think about how we've all been taught. If you've been in the industry at least 10, 15 years, we have literally been taught to call people who don't know, know us.

Now, unless you're magical on the. On the phone like I am not, that is a long road to success.

So when I had to build my own strategy eight years ago.

I said, okay, I'm here. I was in Colorado, guys. Literally in a market. Nobody knew who I was because I just moved here. You talk about obscurity. Most of you are at least probably in a market where you have some connections, right? But you're still dealing with this. And you'll notice on this side, the guy's pushing against the wall, right? Every door you're trying to open is hard.

Where we all want to be is here.

We want to have people recognize us. We want to be pulling prospects to us.

Now, I'm going to be very honest about Today's topic. The two ingredients you need to do it well on LinkedIn is consistency and patience. My Question to you is, do you have enough patience?

You see, in our industry and in marketing at large, there is what's known as direct marketing and brand marketing. Can anybody guess what our industry has focused on forever?

Direct or brand? Which one? Direct.

Pound Spend a ton of ad money. Just pound the prospects. Ask for their business. Ask for the business. Ask for their business. Guys, if you really think about it, really selfish act. Because all you're doing is asking, you're trying to take, which you still can do, but you can't forget brand marketing. You got to get people to know who you are.

And that's what LinkedIn is. LinkedIn is brand marketing. So I wanted to set that that clear. And so the question is, how can you be more effective on it without spending so much time? So let's talk about it. I'm going to go to my profile and I'm going to show you guys what I do. A couple things I do on a weekly basis to be effective. First thing, guys, is yes, you need to be sending out some.

Connections on a weekly basis. But here's what you don't want to be doing.

Don't hire a service that's going to send out a bunch of emails or a bunch of connections as fast as you can. That is direct marketing.

That'S trying to turn LinkedIn into a direct marketing funnel. Now if it works for you, God bless you. I don't believe in it. How many people have gotten a direct message from a somebody that looks, looks like spam?

They're using a direct marketing service.

And again, if it's setting up appointments for you, God bless you. I just don't think it's effective in the long haul.

But what I want to do with LinkedIn is I want to establish brand recognition. Now I have used this analogy a lot, guys, and this one, if you're, if you're frustrated with LinkedIn, I hope this helps unlock something for you. Here's how I want you to view LinkedIn. LinkedIn is your community. So if you go to your profile, you have 200 connections, 510,000. It is your community. You are the mayor of that community.

You have two jobs as mayor of the community. Got to get new residents to move in, the right residents and you got to make the ones that live there feel proud they live there. How do you do both? You send out connections to people you believe can be prospects and you create content that they like.

But now we get into the time consumption part. I get it Andy, but it takes me a frickin hour to create a post.

So here's a couple things I want you to think about as you prospect on LinkedIn. Number one, when you send out connections, three things I'm going to share here. One, when you send out connections, remember that you can only identify a prospect on LinkedIn demographically.

No. So if I go to search and I want to look up Denver, Colorado, okay, and I want to look up people in Denver, Colorado, and I want to use my filters to try to lock in on people, all these filters are forms of demographics, right? Are they first connections? Are they second connections? What industry are they in? What's their job title? I still don't know if you're a fit for me or not.

But at least I can identify you might be a fit demographically. So I want people to remember that don't try to qualify your prospects. So dang hard, before you send out an invitation.

If I want to talk to CFOs in Denver, all I need to know is you're a CFO in Denver.

So that's number one. You're don't try to pre qualify people. Just if they meet the demographics you're looking for, send out connections. By the way, guys, the trick to do this fast is to just search. Don't judge. The reason it's taking you so long is you're judging every connection. Should I do it? Should I? No. Hit send.

Now here is the key. Guys, a little trick. If you want to stand out. Don't just hit the generic send button that the LinkedIn generic invitation sends out. Add a note, you get a choice, you get an option to add a note. If I want to connect to Nicholas Mertz. If I go connect, I can add a note. Add a personal note, I always throw out. Hey, Nicholas, Andy would love to connect on connect with you here on LinkedIn if you're open to it.

Now I can copy and paste that message gang and go. Hit then 10 or 20 more connection requests switching in the name of the person. And that can take 10 minutes. The key to it taking 10 minutes is I don't judge.

I don't spend so much brain power trying to determine if they're a fit. I don't know if they are yet, but I want them in my community because they meet my demographics.

I do webinars for you, right? You are my audience. I don't know if some of you are fits, but you know what, you're an advisor and industry partner. So demographically you fit the bill.

That's exactly how you have to view connections. On LinkedIn. So that's number one. Now the only thing you got to be careful of, gang with connections.

You can't send more than 100 in a week.

So be careful. Like I said, you send out 10 or 20 a week. It'll take 10 minutes.

You do that every week of the year. You've sent out over a thousand connections.

Nice little town.

Now the flip side, just so everybody knows, you're going to get a lot of invitations from people, right?

My suggestion to you is if they don't meet your demographics for prospect, or you don't think they could be a center of influence in some way or shape or form, do not accept the invitation you get to choose.

Because the more you fill your community, your town, the right prospects, the better it'll be.

Question. Even the invite message seems bland. Where's the why you want to shut? I don't. I'm not trying to tell them why I want to connect with them yet, Andrew. I'm just saying, hey, I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn. You got to remember this is a numbers game. If you send out 20 invites a week, six or seven will accept 13, 14 won't.

If you want to try to include the why you're reaching out, go ahead. That's up to you. I just preferably personally use the hey, would love to connect with you here on LinkedIn, if you're open to it. That's it.

That's number one. Connections number two. Let's just talk about content quickly.

Not going to go into the details, but if I'm, if I, if I can give you one piece of advice. If you want to use LinkedIn to grow your business and create a little brand recognition.

You have to post content.

I just went through my live academy before this call. Today topic was LinkedIn content. And one of the things I taught guys that there's two pieces of content you want to consider.

Personal stories and educational content. Why? Because you teach, you bring value and you let people get to know you.

That simple. Before the pandemic, if I asked you, what are you going to do to build a relationship with your prospect? You buy them a cup of coffee, take them launch round of golf. Right now, we can still do that. But is it as effective or as prominent as it was pre pandemic? Not really. It's harder to build a relationship with a prospect than it used to be. This is a way you can do it. How? Teach me something and let me get to know you.

And I am. I'm here to Tell you, gang, you don't need to be perfect. Showing up in the three piece suit looking like the expert. Nobody cares about that anymore. How many people have been on a call with a decision maker of some sort, whether it's on your team or even a prospect and they were in a T shirt or a sweatshirt.

Guys, you don't need to be the. You don't need to look the expert part anymore.

But you need to create content to make your community members feel damn proud they're in your town.

Now. Here's the key, Andy. That's time consuming. Okay.

If I challenge you to create one post a week.

You don't need to do more than that. And I said you need to post something that is going to teach me something if I'm your prospect or it's going to let me get to know you a little bit. And you took 15 minutes to come up with a post. Could you do it? I think you could.

The reason it's taking you so long is you're judging the content before you hit post. You're so dang worried about what your prospects might say, your peers might say.

Just hit post.

And if you do that once a week.

Takes another 15, 20 minutes of time.

Quit overthinking your content.

And by the way, when it comes to the educational side of your content, you have one job. Talk to your prospects. Quit trying to impress your peers. Nobody. There's, there's plenty of, plenty of insurance celebrities in our industry that aren't selling jack crap. They're really popular. Are they talking to their prospects? No, they're talking to their peers. Talk to your prospects.

If you sell small group business, you need to be on LinkedIn teaching me what a deductible is. You need to be teaching me how to set up my first health insurance plan. That's the stuff I want to see if I'm a small business owner. But you're afraid to do it because my peers are going to mock that. They're going to laugh at that. Who cares? You're talking to your prospects.

You want to become a celebrity. Post stuff for your peers. You want to get business. Post your prospects.

So that's number two, guys, we've got step one, make connections. All you can do is qualify people demographically. Just send requests. It's a numbers game. Two, you have to post content to make people damn proud they live in your community. Don't judge it, just post it. Educate them and let them get to know you. That is the number one strategy that'll have you Going into prospecting meetings with a leg up on the competition because the prospects already know who you are and you've already been bringing them value.

Number three.

This is the time saver. Remember, this whole webinar is about how to do this without spending a ton of time. Now, some of this, I'm going to be very honest, helps if you have a premium subscription versus the basic. And I'm here to tell everybody that is on this webinar, if you don't have a premium or navigator, it's worth the 80 bucks a month it is as long as you're using.

But what I do every week.

Is now that I'm posting consistently.

I go in and I check out this metric right here.

Again, if you've got premium or navigator, you'll see where this is very, very helpful. I have 880 profile views that's over the last 90 days.

This metric I click on once or twice a week.

And as I scroll down it's going to tell me who has checked out my profile.

The limitation you have if you just have the basic is you can only see so many premium navigator, you could scroll forever.

This statistic, this metric is teach telling me who is coming and looking at my profile. Now here's the key. Your profile is your personal website. If you have an agency or your partner, your website has metrics, right? Who's coming to our website? Who clicked what? This is that metric. This is saying who is coming to your personal website.

There's a reason they look at you. Maybe it's because I don't even know who the heck this guy is. I gotta check him out.

By the way, if you get more consistent with content, guess what? That number is gonna skyrocket.

I go in here once a week and here's the strategy I apply.

If you are a second connection checking me out and I think you fit the bill demographically, I'm going to send you an invite.

Just like I showed you guys in step one.

If you're a first connection, we're already connected.

I'm going to do something different. I'm going to send you a voice message. Now, if you're unfamiliar with this guys, if you got the mobile app of LinkedIn, which if you don't, I highly recommend you do, you can send voice messages to first connections.

Up to 60 seconds. In fact, I know I've sent some of you on this webinar some messages.

I'm going to go and send somebody like Tyler Christensen a message. It's going to sound like this.

Hey, Tyler, it's Andy. It's been a while. Fill me in. What's new? What's, what's going on? We should check in. We should check up or catch up.

Now, how many of you have first connections with people you've never met?

We all have a bunch of those. If they're a first connection, a prospect that I've never met, I'm going to send a message. Tyler, it's Andy. You know we've been connected here for a long time, never actually met. Would love to put a voice to the face. If you're ever open to it, let me know.

I am here to tell you guys that strategy of going in here, sending out requests and those voice messages to first connections has led to more conversations that has led to business than almost anything else I've ever done.

That's why the 80 bucks a month in my opinion, is worth the investment.

It is literally telling me who's looking at me, gives me the ammo to send them messages or connections which leads to conversations.

And I am here to tell you I made up my own statistic. Voice messages on this phone, using LinkedIn. LinkedIn Voice Messages is five times more effective than trying to leave a voicemail on a cold call.

Most people don't know the voice message feature is there even though it's been around for two years. It's a pattern disrupt to them, which is perfect for you and it's a great way to connect. They're like, holy cow, I didn't know you could do that.

But I am here to tell you guys, by walking onto this platform every week and making 10 to 20 connections.

By not judging or trying to pre qualify them too hard.

By posting content.

Even if it's once a week, to save you time and not judging what you're posting. You're just here to teach and let your prospects get to know you.

And three, find out who's checking you out.

Send out more connections, send out voice messages. Those three things can be done in a lot less than an hour a week and you can be hyper effective on LinkedIn.

Now the last thing I didn't share, which again doesn't take a whole lot of time, is if you want to get the attention of a prospect on LinkedIn. Remember what I talked about? Direct marketing versus brand marketing. A lot of peers, a lot of people in our industry go on LinkedIn again and all they do is ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. That's direct marketing. You want to get a prospect's attention, don't ask. Why don't you go check out their content and leave comments on their content?

If they're actively posting, you want to get their attention. The best way to get their attention is to start leaving comments on their posts.

Imagine you're at a networking event, live networking event, and whatever that prospect is posting, they're saying to you in a circle at a networking event, you guys are in a circle of people.

How would you reply if they, if they, if they, if they said, you know, talked about a project they're working on or something they're proud of, you'd say, that's awesome. Congratulations. You might ask a question to learn more. That's what you should comment on. That's how you should comment, just like you would be in a live networking event. So I share that as an extra bonus because a lot of people struggle with, well, how do I get my prospects attention? You're frustrated because you're trying to ask and you're not getting their attention. Go give, go leave comments on their stuff if they're active. But I am, I promise you guys, if you just focus on these three things, connections, content, and checking out this metric right here, you can have a thriving LinkedIn strategy that's going to help lead to conversations down the road. Remember, consistency, patience.

It'Ll work. So we got seven minutes left. Those are the three things, guys. Write those three things down. What questions, comments, hesitations do you have that you want to ask right now? Now's your chance.

Indeed. Somebody asking the question, which I agree, Is it premium or Navigator? It's red here.

Yep.

Does it matter?

No. You know, a lot of people like my opinion, guys. Navigator lets you, you know, in fact, you guys can still see my screen, right? If I go to Navigator.

The thing I like about Navigator is I can actually save searches, I can create lists, and Navigator is always automatically updating list for me if like a new CFO came on or whatever. The thing that Navigator also gives you an advantage over at is you can send unlimited messages to second connection. The problem it has, though, this is what I don't like about it. When I get that message from you. Have anybody ever gotten a message that says inmail?

That's a message coming from Navigator from somebody who's not connected. It looks like spam.

Hi.

Hi. So that's why I don't, I don't like making adjustments to my live schedule with you guys. So we don't do any schedule here. I can send a message to the scheduler so I can give you the phone number to call. What Would you prefer.

Yeah, Adam can use it because we need to change.

She's scheduled for chemo tomorrow. Okay.

So we wanted to give that slot.

Okay, let's see here. Do you know your Kaiser number by any chance? Yes, I think you can mute him. I am. Just give me a second, gang. 8794. Okay, there we go.

So Andy, one of the another questions I have.

Yes, sir.

So I do small group 25 to say 70.

Yes.

My biggest thing is I've tried to use LinkedIn and I'm not making excuses. It seems like the young, the lower, the smaller companies don't update as much have you found? I mean they don't update their cfo, their BP or their.

That might be true, Rhett. And here's what I would tell you to do. Really focus on your content. This is. Guys, the key with the key of all three of those steps, connections, content, checking out. Who's checking you out. Content is the key because content. You saw that graphic of brand recognition. You're pulling people to you guys. When you create good content, you're going to get people reaching out to you. You're going to pull people to you over time. So Red, if they're bad about updating their CFO or office manager, whoever, just keep funneling the right content to those people. Okay. And you'll start, you'll start siphoning out good opportunities. Okay. Consistency is the key by far. But the last thing, guys, with Navigator versus Basic Premium Navigator, really no difference. When I send out connections, I still send them from the basic platform. I still send private messages from the basic platform. Navigator is great for lists. That, that's, that's my view. Okay. Yep. Couple more questions. Using someone else's content example. Do you mean David Torno? Yeah, yeah. If you guys want to share somebody else's content. Okay. Leave your own editorial on it though. Why are you sharing it? Why should I read it? So make sure. If you're going to share somebody's. Give us your own editorial on who it is. Stacy G. Andy, how are you tracking who you have contacted? Here is how.

When I send messages.

Stacy, it's going to show up in. If I go back to the basic platform in messaging right here, it's going to show everybody I sent messages to.

Even the connections. I sent out a connection request to Michelle Vander Noth. It's going to track it. So it's actually easy, Stacy, to go into your messages and see like how who are the people I sent messages to last.

I think we had One more question here. Did we, did we not?

Are you accepting? Okay. Are you accepting? And then if what meet them if they're not a fit? Is share. Is sharing the same as posting? Sharing? Ret to your answer your question, not technically the same as posting. Sharing can be effective though. Guys, like I said, if you're just hitting share, not effective. Leaving your own editorial effective. By the way, if you work for an agency that requires you to share their stuff and all you're doing is sharing, please tell your agency it's doing nothing for you.

Does nothing for you. That's the biggest mistake the big firms in our industry make. Does nothing. I'm being honest. The last question I think that popped up, where did it come from? Chat, chat, chat. There are software programs for LinkedIn marketing. Are any of them safe to use? Be careful, Stacy. Of the direct marketing, the ones, the Autobots that are constantly sending connection requests, then they're sending us a scripted thing. That's the stuff that looks like spam. I get them every day and I can sniff it out in seconds. I want it to come from you. So that's my advice. Other people will disagree. I want it to come from you.

I know that saves you time, but I'm going to tell you it's not going to be. You might get some meetings. In the short run, you're not going to win. In the long run, that that's my best advice I can give you. So guys, how my last question or last point? Three things I want you to remember. Connections. Even if it's 10 to 20 a week. Two, you gotta post content, even if it's once a week. Educate them, let them get to know you. And then step three, if you got premium, you got navigator. Check out who is checking your profile and connect with the second connections who are demographically aligned. Send voice messages to the first and you'd be surprised how many good connections and how many conversations you end up having. You just do that each week, guys. It will take less than an hour every week. If you break it up in three 15 minute segments. Great. And you can be hyper, hyper effective.

So last thing I want to share, guys, and then I will let you run. Just a reminder, we are actually super stoked that as of yesterday our online academy became public. So you know, I do three live academies every year, 12 week programs. I get a lot of people tell me I don't have the time, Andy, I'm not paying three grand. So we came out with the online version of it as of yesterday, over three hours of coaching, you get the whole workbook the academy members get for a fraction of the price. Plus today, I will tell you one more day. It's for 733 through today. So here's what I want you to do. The recording is going to come out in about an hour. If you want to know more information about this.

Shoot me an email reply to that email. I'll send you the link. But as of yesterday became official, we're super stoked about that. It's our academy. You take it at your own pace, you can take it within two days, take it all month. It's up to you. So super excited about that. Any final questions, guys.

You're going to send us each a link to that or you or we have to go to your LinkedIn page.

Here is what I'm going to do for you folks as a bonus. And I know we got people jumping off right now, so give me one freaking second.

Do, do, do. Landing, landing. I'm going to put something in the chat box if you are interested. Where is it? Right here. Copy URL. I'm just going to put it right in the chat box, guys. You want to know more? Copy and paste this sucker right here.

That'll take you right to the page. Learn more about our the program. So if you want to know more, it's all right there. It tells you what every module is, what are the topics. LinkedIn is one of them. LinkedIn is actually dedicated to two modules. So if you want to know more, sign up. I'd love to have you. You don't, you don't even have to deal with me. You get the recording.

Andy, is this, is this the same course that Jen Latour and those group.

Those ladies, they took the live version the 12 week, which we do three times a year. We're not running anymore this year because as I know, as you know, Q4 comes and everybody's like, so now this is the same course. You just take it at your own pace.

Okay? And also, this isn't. It's not a time. Because right now, fourth quarter, this. Take advantage. But you can start applying it maybe December when you slow down, you could.

Start applying it next week. If you do want to take the whole thing, it's over three hours of coaching. If you want to consume the whole thing. Thing this week, next week.

No, can you can. Because I'm so busy right now. Can I postpone?

Oh, yeah, yeah. There, there's no time for it. No time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good question. All right, guys, you need any questions or have any, you know where to find me. The recording will be out in about an hour. And have a good afternoon.

Thanks, Andy.

Thanks, Andy. Awesome, guys. See ya. Bye.