How To Use LinkedIn To Lock In Your Client's Confidence

Let's hit record. Well guys, we're excited to have you guys here today. Very curious as to what peaks people's interest for showing up on the webinar. But what I love about this webinar today we're gonna go one hour. So a little, little housekeeping rules here. Jen and I are going to be talking about how to use LinkedIn to lock in your clients confidence in you. And Jen and I had talked about this being an idea a few weeks ago. About a month ago Jen I think it was. And there's a lot of you on this webinar today that probably know me. You still may be wondering who the heck Jen is and vice versa, you know Jen. And you might be wondering who the heck I am. So before we dive in, Jen, I'm going to let you take a minute to introduce yourself and then I'll do the same on the other side.

Sure. 35 year insurance industry veteran insurance carrier broker. Built a book of business over the last six years running my own company, Genuine Shift where we focus on helping companies in the insurance world grow by leveraging the talent in their client service.

You know, division. Right, Those group of colleagues that are client facing without sales goals.

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, welcome Jen. I'm excited to have you guys. Anybody here who may not know who I am, My name is Andy Neary, CEO and founder of Complete Game Consulting. I too have been in the insurance industry for 23 years. Chris Vincent, I can see you and I think of you because you were one that asked me this question. So why did you stop insurance selling insurance guys? I realized I had a gift for coaching and I wanted to build a program. One thing I was always good at in the industry was getting attention from prospects and I wanted to build a program or a company that could help others do the same. And, and so Complete Game Consulting, what we do is we help insurance professionals like you turn brand awareness into business growth. The reality is you're not getting enough attention from your prospects. Not enough of prospects know you exist and we help fix that. So here's why Jen and I wanted to come together.

A lot of people recognize our company for LinkedIn.

And Link. The perspective on LinkedIn in our industry is that it is a platform for producers. And if you were to go evaluate LinkedIn profiles for teams, not just producers teams, you are going to be sadly disappointed for many. And I'm going to let Jen give her perspective here too. And the the reality of this folks, especially if you're in a sales director role, a manager role or you own your agency is you are creating an impression with your clients and your prospects on LinkedIn, whether you realize it or not. Because they are going there to check you out.

And if what they see leaves an impression you don't want.

It could be the reason why they decide to go somewhere else and you didn't do anything wrong. It could also be the reason why you never got an opportunity to talk to them in the first place. So Jen, I would love to hear your thoughts on that as well because I know this is a topic we think LinkedIn equals sales, but we know it's a platform that can be utilized by the whole team.

Absolutely. So without question, we know that LinkedIn can supercharge a job search, it can help anybody in sales and marketing. But the reality is that LinkedIn is not an online resume. And in all of my years of working with client service professionals, that's typically how they think about it. When the reality is in today's world, whether we like it or not, each person's LinkedIn profile is like their personal website.

And it's become standard practice now for any of us. Right. If I buy something on Amazon, I check out the review. I don't book a hotel without looking at TripAdvisor. And the reality is that's what your customers are doing. New buyers, new stakeholders, et cetera. And when I saw this wild disconnect, I wanted to do something about it and raise awareness. Self inflicted wounds, in other words.

Yeah, 100%. So here's how we're going to roll today guys. I don't run your standard webinar. We're not going to scroll through a bunch of slides. We have a few slides we'll share at parts but I'm going to utilize this like a fireside chat. So I wanted to bring Jen on. Jen has a lot of experience with account management, account exec team with genuine shift. And so we're going to walk through three things. Three takeaways we are going to give you today is number one, when a producer wins a new account and there is that transition to the team, that's a big transition to the team. Right? How can we make sure our online presence represents what we want so that there is a smooth transition to the team. Number two.

How can the team make changes to its LinkedIn profiles to represent credibility, consistency and clarity. And those are going to be some very tactical things you guys can take away from today. And number three, we're actually going to talk about how non producing teammates can actually support business growth on LinkedIn. So Jen and I both have some strategies for you on that. And so with that being said, guys, if you have any questions, two things. One, write it down, hold off. We're going to provide some time at the end, or if you just want to get it out of your brain, you can throw it in the chat box and then Jen and I will make sure to get to it at the end. Now just a quick heads up guys, I'm actually at the end of this going to give you something that I think you're going to want to see. It's an offer for our LinkedIn seminar that we are running in a few weeks. So I'm just giving you a heads up. I'll talk about that at the end if we earn the opportunity to do so. I think you're gonna love what you see. But with no further ado, Jen, let's just dive in. So let me go right to the first question here. I wanna ask you today around this topic. Locking in using LinkedIn to lock in your clients confidence. You know there are significant differences in marketing capabilities in our industry, right? Whether it's interest commitments amongst LinkedIn agencies and I think they're. Is this prevailing perspective that.

Issues with marketing capabilities is just a large firm problem? Think of the Alphabet houses in our industry, the big houses, right? But that's not the case. This is an issue no matter how large or small your firm is. Talk about that a little bit.

That's correct. Whether this is you are a, a small regional firm or you are in a team, in an office of a large publicly traded broker, this is something that impacts you, impacts your buyers. So whether or not you have a big marketing department, branded assets, all that, the reality is your buyers are all humans walking the earth, making decisions about who they're going to trust and who they're going to work with. And so our solutions may be a little different, how we show up and how we describe things on LinkedIn, but this is an issue that affects everybody and can help anybody.

So let's talk about the handoff then. You know, producer comes in, wins a new account. You know, it's, it's not uncommon that if you go check out LinkedIn right now and you look at a lot of producers profiles, it looks good, right? It looks dialed in. But one of the first impressions you have to make when winning a new account is you have to build confidence with that new client. That client has to be confident in your team, in your opinion. Right? Now let's talk about the time Length. How long does it typically take, in your opinion, to build that confidence with new clients?

It's such a great question. Part is influenced by how your teams collaborate during the sales process. Right from the open, the nurture and, and then the close. Some firms, it's very separate. Client service doesn't come in until we've got the aor, the bor, then they are assigned. So that's a cold start. I may have been out there prospecting and I'm talking about, hey, our people are the difference. We have an awesome team. But if I'm the new buyer, this is kind of an opaque thing and everybody calling on me is saying the same thing. So when we've brought somebody along, the ae, the am, whoever it is, through the process, they've been building credibility throughout. But time is an asset most people don't have. So let's assume that it's kind of the finalist meeting, the last meeting, or we've just gotten the win. And so then you're starting off from an org chart, a slide or just some names to wanting them to start relying on this team. And we know what happens if that doesn't go well. In eight months, someone's telling you and me that they can't sell because they keep getting pulled into client service. It's like, well, right, because we set it up that way. We didn't position our skilled client service colleagues to have a quick start. And my, my.

Recommendation or observation for everyone is that when people check on LinkedIn and they already now have a degree of confidence in someone's seriousness about this business, the respect that they are shown because they don't have some janky, forgotten about LinkedIn profile, which seems like a disconnect from everything I've been hearing the producer say. That means that we skip some of those initial steps and can actually get into doing the work and not somebody testing you or having you jump through hoops while they're trying to figure out if you're serious.

Yeah. The analogy I give for everybody listening in is Jen and I were talking about this yesterday. When you are participating in an RFP or I go to your company website and I see the team page. Right. The team bio. Everybody has a professional headshot. Their name is fully spelled out. There's a little description about who they are and their expertise. Right. Nobody would ever compete in an RFP or have a website page dedicated to your team that is not fully built out, that does not include professional, accurate.

Photos or list their, their role and your competitor's name.

Correct. Yes.

And, but what's interesting now is if you go over to LinkedIn, assess your team does, do they have that same perspective on LinkedIn? Because here's what Jen and I often see. Sales producer, profile, fully built out, looks good, great headshot, great headline, I know exactly what you do. And then I go look at the team and here's what I see. I see an account manager who has no profile picture, no banner. I see another account exec who instead their name of being, their name's not Jennifer Davis, it's Jennifer D. And she has not updated her profile in three years and it still says she works with her former employer. Or worse yet, you have an account exec who barely has a presence on LinkedIn. And I go to their profile and the picture is completely outdated and it says they have 22 connections. If you don't think that is not creating an impression, folks, it is.

And this comes back to what I want to talk about today with Jen. Guys, I'm not just talking about the client, the big client you lost in the last three years and you're trying to figure out why you lost them. It could have been they didn't think you were big enough for them. They didn't think you had the team to help them. But how many opportunities are you not even getting right now because of that? Any thoughts on that, Jen?

Yeah, it's like the word I'll often use is just kind of sloppy. And in a world where details matter and we are so thoughtful and serious about contract review and our project management and our advocacy. See, for clients, it's just this disconnect. So if we want to present as if we are a thoughtful, serious, aligned team, why wouldn't we be that intentional? And I guarantee unless a listener has done this exercise before with me or somebody else and taken a look, I guarantee you will find somebody who's on your team who it still has their former employer on there or they didn't end the former employment. So it says they work at both places, which, you know, we know doesn't happen. So it's just, it's, it's silly and it's such an easy fix.

Yeah. You know, next question here I'd love to ask you, is LinkedIn? I can't remember the exact year it came out. If it was 0405 was. I can't remember. But it originally started as a recruiting tool. Right, That's. And I think a lot of people still operate on LinkedIn as if it's a recruiting tool, but it has Changed a lot over time. It is more like Facebook today than it's ever been. But a lot of organizations still use LinkedIn as a recruiting tool, especially when it's going out and finding account execs and account managers. Right. How is this connected to an organization's overall growth?

I think there are a couple of ways to look at this. One might be considering that the trained, experienced account executive and account manager is as important for an agency's growth as a producer with a book of business they can move because our industry does not have enough people to do the work. And every agency that's on this call right now has aggressive growth goals. And they either are concerned or should get concerned about how they're going to staff and do the work that they're promising in the sales cycle. So if we accept that that's true, and then I get into the recruiting and yes, there's comp. And whether they can work at home or all those types of things. But the other growing trend is their perception of your respect and investment in client service as a craft, as a profession, and it not just being all about salespeople. And if you think they are not looking at those clues everywhere, they can find them, whether you think that's fair or not, they are. So they'll go and look and think, well, I don't know, these people don't look like they're taking it very seriously. So I think that's a perspective that a lot of people don't, don't think about.

Okay, well, I intended. With that being said, I wanted, you know, my thought on the whole recruiting side. I just had a conversation with a client this morning who's very active on LinkedIn. Now, he is a producer, but as a result of his activity on LinkedIn, you know what started to happen with his organization? They have producers and account execs who want to come work for them.

Oh, indeed, indeed. That visibility is not just you think about your potential buyers, it's new clients to your organization and also those potential new employees. Great, great point.

And I want everybody to hear that this happens every single time we work with somebody on their LinkedIn presence. The unintended consequence they don't realize is that yes, it will help you create credibility and awareness with your prospects, but it also becomes a recruiting weapon. Right, because you will have people who want to come work for you. And to your point, Jen, it is hard enough right now to find tenured, good account execs and account managers. Imagine if they started coming to you and asking to work with you.

And it's funny, Andy, you may have this happen as well. And I was laughing with you yesterday. I have a slide I often use. It says, you know, but, but Jen. And there's probably one you could have. But, but Andy, because somebody right now is listening like, but, but Jen, our client service people aren't on LinkedIn. I don't believe you that that's going to work.

I would.

What if you're wrong? What if there's the percentage that you don't know about and if it costs you little, you don't have to build a big whiz bang contrabulator and it's one of the few things you could do that's high return, low cost, low effort. So just why wouldn't you do? Why wouldn't you?

Well, and I'd even go a layer deeper for the folks that are on right now. And you're thinking, Andy, I, I don't even know if my Prospects are on LinkedIn unless you are an extremely rural market. And I have some clients who are in very rural markets. Guys, I'm here to tell you they are on LinkedIn and they' only going to continue getting on it more. Why? Because your buyers are getting younger. And as the CFOs and the HR directors and whoever you're working with, the presidents get younger, guess what? Everybody's attention is in one spot. And it's this thing in my hand today. My question for everybody on this webinar is do you guys have a strategy to be inside this phone? What does your team's presence look like inside this phone? Because this is where everybody's attention is.

Another trend, Andy, is more and more agencies, because of the talent problem, needing to hire outside of their local area. And so the world of let's all just go to lunch together to kick off a new relationship has become harder. Some of our buyers aren't looking for that kind of legacy way. Some of us think about relationship and some of the contacts we work at aren't local. So you may have everybody local, but the risk manager or the VP of HR may be five states away. So when that happens, people will default to using proxies such as looking on LinkedIn to get to know somebody 100%.

Well, let's answer a question we know some people might have as they're listening to the recruiting and how this can actually be a recruiting weapon for you. I'm going to pull up a slide. I want everybody to take a look at this. We'll have a little fun with this. Jen, you have this slide you use. And what you often hear from folks is, jen, I don't know if I want my team's LinkedIn to presence, LinkedIn presence to be all that good because that could open the door for competitor to come poach some of my people. I know you've got a thought on that.

I do. I. So I see my friend Eric Ross from 212 on here. So you know, Eric makes a.