The Ultimate Q4 Prospecting Blueprint | LinkedIn Live

Ed, you guys are, you guys are learning. I'm going to stop recording these because what's happening is I get 30, 40 people to sign up and then like eight show up because they just think they can get the recording. So we're going to change that in the future.

Here's where we're starting today, guys. We are going to talk about social media and how to improve your content on social media. I'm going to share three things. Brian, none of this is going to be new to you because you've been through the academy, but it's a good refresher if anything else.

And I want to go over these three things because.

I've had a lot of conversations lately with advisors, clients and non clients about content. And I'm watching a lot of people get frustrated. And it's interesting because when I ask them why they're frustrated.

Their answers tell me a couple key things about what they're focused on.

When it comes to their content. And they're focused on the wrong things. And so what I want to use this webinar today for is if you, if somebody could turn their mute off, somebody's got a loud background. Thank you. If you truly want to use LinkedIn, for example, to grow your business, to create opportunity.

LinkedIn, you have to do two things well, and this is not one of the takeaways, but you got to do two things well. You have got to.

Make sure you have good connections.

And you have got to make sure you are creating awareness, which is content.

And if you're just using LinkedIn to make connections and send messages to try to schedule appointments, it's not going to work because you're not creating any awareness. It's no different than making a cold call to somebody who has no idea who you are. But when you create content, you create awareness. People start seeing who you are, they get to know you. Heck, they might even start liking you without ever meeting you. And it's going to make everything else you do with your prospecting more effective. And that's, that's also one of the things I want to make sure I get across on social media. Rarely does social media lead to appointments and wins immediately. It creates awareness. This is why so many agencies still refuse to get on the bandwagon about social media. All they care about is quick wins. How many appointments did you schedule? Awesome. I still have to create awareness to schedule appointments. So what I want to share today is the three things that I think have helped me the most. And they are three things that I see A lot of people not focusing on. And if you could just make these shifts here and apply them to your content, social media will be more effective for you. When I say social media, again, most of you on this call are probably B2B, business to business. So LinkedIn is going to be a key platform for you. If you're on this and you sell individual insurance or Medicare, maybe Facebook is a great platform to be on as well. So let's start with number one. The first thing I want you to remember when it comes to improving your social media content.

Is you have to grow your audience if you want to grow your awareness.

So I will have advisors who have 2, 300, maybe up to a thousand connections. They start creating content and then they're mad because it doesn't get the engagement they want. And I say, well, how many connections do you have? And they're like 289. Well, that's why you don't have a ton of connections yet. So. So the first thing you have to do, guys, is to improve your use of social media. LinkedIn, you have got to grow your connections. Now here's the key thing you've got to remember with growing connections, quit accepting everybody's connection request.

As you start creating more content for LinkedIn, by the way, you're going to get more connection requests because people are going to start becoming more aware of who you are. But you got to be careful. You got to have a good filter. My filter on who I accept connections from is, is this somebody that I could potentially do business with and is it somebody who could help me and I could help them. If the answer is no, I decline it. So you have to put a filter on whose connections you are accepting. I know too many peers that you go look at their profile and they've got 18,000, 25,000 connections and you're blown away by that number. Yeah, half of them do nothing for them. I don't care how many connections you have. Yes, you should grow them, but they need to be quality connections. Again, rule of thumb should be can you do business with them and can they help you and can you help them? If I get a LinkedIn request from a LinkedIn lead generator expert, am I going to be able to help them? Are they going to be able to help me? Maybe, but I don't need it. No thanks. And I don't do that to be rude. It's like I just don't see how our connection is going to be beneficial. So that's number one. Now on the flip side, Sending requests. You've got to be very detailed about who you're sending requests to. If you've been in my academy, you've worked with me, you know, we have talked about demographics versus psychographics.

Everybody on this call, if you're in the, I think everybody here is in the insurance industry. We've all been taught on how to identify prospects demographically, right? Size, location, industry, what else? Revenue, you name it.

But we've not been taught how to identify prospects psychographically, which is how do they think, what do they believe, what do they stand for? Now, the downside of searching for connections on LinkedIn, right, is you can't qualify people psychographically by looking at their profile. So you're going to have to use demographics to make connections. So you should, if you have a good idea of who your ideal prospect is demographically.

Use the demographics to go search for them on LinkedIn. Go to the search button. Maybe you do business in the Dallas, Texas market. So you're going to focus on Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. You're going to focus on head counts of 51 to 200, whatever that is, and you're going to focus on CFOs or CEOs or HR directors. Use those search filters to filter out and create a more detailed list of potential connections.

Now, when you have this list, here's what you got to be careful of. Too many people try to start qualify that qualifying them even deeper. At this point, if I go after CFOs in the Dallas Metroplex, I have a list of CFOs in the Dallas Metroplex, I'm not going to judge who I should connect with and I shouldn't. I'm just going to start making connections because at this point I don't know if they're a fit or not. That's okay. But heck, if they're a DFW CFO and I sell in dfw, they could be that is a much higher quality connection than anything else. Adam, you asked what are your thoughts about accepting connections from competitors.

At this point? Because this is going to lead to step number two. Guys, you need to be focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's prospecting. So again, I'm going to go back to the question. Unless you want to collaborate with said collect competitor and if you're focused on your prospects, I just probably decline it. That's just my opinion.

Not that you're. Again, not you're trying to be rude about it. But hey, I'm focused here. I'm on this platform to make connections with prospects or COIs. So the first step with LinkedIn to enhance content is make good connections. You have to grow your audience. I've used the analogy about being the mayor of your town. Your connections on LinkedIn, that's your town, whether it's 200, 1,000 or 10,000, you've got to go find new residents for your town. But they need to be the right residents. So that's step one. If you want to enhance your content and its performance, grow your connections, you have to block time in your calendar to do that.

Now, one rule of one.

Heads up, you want to be careful of with sending out connections. You send out more than 100 in a week, LinkedIn's gonna flag you. So be careful, don't dance with the devil, don't get close to 100, but block time every week to just go search and make some connections. Guys, it's a numbers game. Some will, some won't.

And I'd be doing that right now if I were an advisor, because you got about two months, two and a half months to go get after it for the fourth quarter.

And a lot of these potential connections, guess what they're going to be looking at in the next two, three months? Renewals. And my guess is a lot of them aren't going to get pleasant renewals from what I'm hearing in the market. And you hit that message on the right day at the right time, guys, they're more apt to respond.

So step one, grow your connections. Step two to enhance your social media content. Please, please, please remember this tagline, performance over popularity.

You are on LinkedIn for one reason.

Prospecting.

So when it comes time to creating a piece of content, don't look at what your peers are doing. 90% of them are going for popularity. Go look at who's commenting and engaging on their post. Other advisors. Is that helping them grow their business? No.

You just care about one thing and that's talking to your prospect.

What does that mean? That means your engagement might look a little lower but than your peers. But who cares? You're targeting it, you're putting it at the right person.

And that leads to the metric side of this performance over popularity.

There's three metrics you ought you get with each post. You get impressions, which used to be called views. You get likes and you get comments.

We want to focus so much on the likes and comments, right? It's like a dopamine hit. They love me.

But here's what you want to remember.

Most people, you end up doing business with as a result of a connection on LinkedIn will never like or comment on your stuff.

As often as I post, guys and I have some posts that get a shitload of engagement if, pardon my language, most advisors who I actually end up hiring our company for work never comment on our stuff.

But they see it.

That's the point. So if you're going to focus on one metric with your content, it's that impressions metric, not the likes and the comments. And here's why that's important.

If you focus on the likes or comments.

You'Re going to tend to want to create posts.

For the metrics, not because it's something that's coming from your heart. Here's what I mean by that. You sit down and you say, okay, I want to create a post this week. If you're just focused on the metrics, you're going to ask yourself this question. What can I post that's going to get a good reaction?

But do you actually believe in what you're about to say, or are you just doing it to get a reaction? When you post from here.

That'S what matters most. So that's another mental shift I want you to remember. Performance over popularity. But when you post whatever you're about to say, please believe in what you're saying. Don't just do it to generate a reaction. You here's I'll give you guys a classic case study from yours truly. This was back in 201617 and I was often criticized by peers in a humorous way of being too Pollyanna. And I had an advisor friend of mine at the time challenge me to be a little more brash in your face. And if you guys know me, that ain't me. And I ended up writing an article for LinkedIn. This is back when my main thing I did on LinkedIn was articles, and it was like calling out brokers. Even though I was one, I was calling them out saying, hey, if you don't change your ways, you don't start doing the cost containment. You're going to be an afterthought. Guys, I damn near wanted to take a shower after posting that.

Did it get reactions? Oh yeah, good and bad. But it wasn't me. I purely did it for the reaction. And from that moment on I said, I'm never doing that again.

So post what you believe in. Don't post just to get a reaction and performance over popularity. Which leads to step three. Before I get there, Kim, you asked how do I get rid of all the contacts that I have That I really don't need. You can just go through them, Kim, and just start deleting them. I forget what the actual thing says that delete or. I don't. I was gonna say unsubscribe, disconnect. There's a way you could just go through and disconnect with them. And I don't even think they. I don't even think they get the notice that you disconnected with them. So don't worry about it. They don't see it.

But. Good question, Brian. I think you asked that same question in the academy. Should I scrub my list? Yeah, if you, especially guys, if you've had a job change or a career change in the last year or two, it might be worth going through that list. Gabe, I know you're on this webinar. You within the last few years switched role from the wholesale side of the business to the retail. So at one time you were focused on brokers, now you're focused on businesses and private employers. Might be worth going through your list.

Just a food for thought. Now don't eliminate everybody, but the better quality of the list, the better the performance. So we've got step one. You gotta focus on growing your community with the right people. Because the more you have, the more engagement and awareness you'll create. Step two, performance over popularity. Just speak to your prospects. Don't post to get a reaction out of your buddies.

Step three, now we get into actual creating content. What kind of content should you create? Guys, right now there are two pieces in content you have to create. Right now I teach five different types. But the two I lean on the most are this.

Call it stories and statistics. I try to create taglines that are easy to remember. Stories and statistics. What do I mean by that? Number one, let's start with statistics. Use your LinkedIn content, whether it's pictures, graphs, video to teach. So when I say stats, think of teaching numbers. Now remember, performance over popularity. So just speak to your audience. Here's a classic example where, where brokers hesitate. Imagine you're an advisor and you focus on small group.

Could we argue that a video on what is a deductible would be an awesome video for a potential small business owner?

Because a lot of small business owners don't even know what it is. But you're hesitant to create that video. Why? Because what are my peers going to think? We all know what a deductible is. Why would I do a video on that?

Aha. Doesn't matter. All that matters is is it going to help your Prospect. And if you're an advisor who focuses on the smaller markets, basic education is going to go a long, long way.

So when I talk about educating your prospect guys, you got to teach. Use your content to teach. And remember, you're just talking to your audience. Imagine you're in a conference room with a prospect at a whiteboard and you're teaching.

Especially if you go after larger business. I see some advisors on this call that I know go after larger business, but you are not one of the big firms. You have got to find a way to differentiate yourself. This is how you do it. You want to get attention of a big prospect. Let them see you on LinkedIn teaching some good stuff because your competition is not doing that. Now, here's something. Here's where I know your head probably went when I said this. But, Andy, I'm a little hesitant to do that because I don't want my competition to see it.

Two things you need to remember. Often, whatever you're teaching about your competition, I'm just going to say it is too lazy to do anything about it.

And number two, they may even work for an organization that doesn't let them do it.

Gabe, I'm looking at you because your heads, your face is on my screen right now. You guys have a very specific, almost intellectual property, right? The IP of the physician network, right? Teach about that all day long, dude.

Literally your competitors can't copy that, right? So, guys, teach more than you're comfortable teaching. This goes back to the strategy I've shared before. When I used I started my newsletter back in 2015, I would literally take a strategy, put it on a PDF and say, this is what it is. Here's how it works, here's why you need it. And I knew when I was hitting send, the prospect could literally forward it to their broker and say, hey, what do you know about this? But I didn't care because I knew they were going to do nothing about it. And it led to business social media content the same way. Teach, teach, teach, teach. Andrew McNerland, you're on the call. You represent a pharmacy solution. Don't assume every broker knows about pharmacy. Teach the basic stuff. They love the basic stuff.

The second piece of content. So we've got statistics. Teach.

Storytelling, folks.

If you can take.

Lessons you've learned in your life.

Both business and personal.

And put it out as a piece of content, that is the number one way to get a prospect to relate to you. I had this conversation with a agency client of mine on Tuesday. We were talking about this Very exact same thing. And they just didn't. A lot of them were struggling with putting out the personal stories. And I asked him this question. I said, okay, pre pandemic.

Why would you take a prospect out for dinner, play golf, cup of coffee? Why? Why would you do that? Well, I wanted to get to know him. How easy is it to do that now, post pandemic? Not as easy as it was. Some of you are probably doing business with prospects now. Before that, you literally can't because they're in different markets. So how do you get to let them get to know you? Your content, it's just like the cup of coffee or the round of golf.

So when you share personal stories and guys, they can be the most mundane things that happen in your day. But if it's a lesson you've learned that has impacted your career, your life, whatever, that's what your prospects will relate to because they have gone through it, too.

The number one compliment I get on my content is when I get on a call with an advisor and he or she says, man, that post you put out on Monday, I thought you were talking right at me.

Because we related that content related to you.

So don't be afraid, guys, to let your personal stories, personal part of your life, come out through lessons. And again, you can do that with video, you can do that with pictures. Doesn't matter. Now, if you're gonna post something personal, that's more of that. Hey, look at me. See me. That's for Facebook and Instagram. I'm talking about personal stories that are tied to business or life lessons.

That's powerful stuff.

So if you just start using LinkedIn between now and going into the fourth quarter to grow your connections with the right people. Which means, by the way, as you can, as you create more content, you're going to get a lot more connection requests. You're probably going to decline a lot of them. Number two, performance over popularity. Just speak to your prospect.

And number three.

Content creation, personal stories, storytelling, and statistics.

If you do these three things, three. The three things, guys, I promise you, you're going to have so many more prospects who are aware of you. And then when you sit down to pick up the phone, you sit down to send an email to a prospect, that awareness has been created and it's going to make all of that more effective. We're about to get in a very noisy part of the season.

You need to stand out.

LinkedIn is an awesome way to do that. Instagram and Facebook, guys, you've got to pay to Play. Nowadays you want to get any attention, you got to put ads in there. LinkedIn still doesn't need it yet.

So get after it. Create some awareness.

And don't overthink it. Guys, if it's one post a week right now, cool. That's it. Don't think you've got to be there every day.

So with that being said, we've got seven minutes. Questions on connections, questions on content, questions on performance metrics. Fire away.

Hey Andy, I got a quick question.

Yeah.

As far as posting things on LinkedIn, would you try to be. Would you concentrate on one specific area or would you. Or would you mix it up? And what I mean by that is you mentioned like, I believe it's Andrew that I see there. That is in.

The pharmacy spend.

Yeah.

So like, would you like there's compliance? I mean, we could go on and on about all the different things. I mean, is there. Would you kind of.

Yeah, yeah. Good question, Greg. Andy's a little different just because he sells a pharmacy solution. So he's going to be really focused on that. You're an advisor. So I was. Here's what I would tell everybody to do. If you have struggle, if you're struggling with content, sit down here this week or next week and say, what do I want to become known for with my content? Here's what I mean. I did this a few years back and I said, here are the things I want to be known for. When I was an advisor, cost containment was one, I want to be known for cost containment. Number two, time management. So you see a lot of content around that. I post around time management discipline. And then number three was mindset. So I'm gonna post a lot of stuff about mindset. Just pick some stuff you wanna become known for and then create your content around that. Cause what happens is if you stay consistent at it long enough, you will become known for that. And not that I am the perfect time management guru, guys, but I have a lot of people who reach out to me now for time management, especially with clients because they have seen this stuff for that long. For me.

People will start recognizing you for those areas. You just got to stay consistent. Good question, Greg.

Gabe, if you have now, okay, that's a promotion, I won't read that. You can go to the chat box and read that from Gabe. So any other questions, guys?

Thanks, Gabe. I appreciate that. It's well deserved, buddy. Here's one more tip, guys, on metrics. I want to share if you. Now this only applies if you have premium or navigator. Just as a heads up, there is a metric in your profile that says who's viewed your profile. Now if you have the basic, you get to see like three or four people who viewed you. That's about it. But if you have the premium or the navigator, it's unlimited. You get to see everybody who has looked at your profile. That's like somebody coming to your agency's site and saying, who's looked at our website? One of the best strategies you can deploy, guys, is I'd spend time in that list every single week because the more content you create, the profile view number is going to go up. And for some people it skyrockets.

Because people are going, who the hell is this person?

That is a perfect opportunity that if they're a first connection and it's a prospect, send them a message on LinkedIn, hey, would love to connect, it's been a while. Or if they're a second connection and could be a prospect, perfect time to send a connection request. So the other metric I would focus on is who's checking my profile out. Because LinkedIn is basically telling here, here's who's thinking about you. Even if it's for five seconds, I don't care. You thought about.

Basic stuff, guys, I know these are simple things. If you just lean into them, it's going to make your LinkedIn experience so much better. Any other questions?

We're all good. We're all, we're all LinkedIn gurus now.

Andy, I don't have a question, but Christian on here, did you miss, maybe you missed it in the chat?

Did I miss it?

Yes, I have my thoughts, but this is your webinar.

How do you, how do you go about adding new people to your LinkedIn network that you don't know yet, but want to know? Okay, go ahead, man.

You get personal with it, right? Like, don't, don't send me that generic. I just pushed a button and boy, I'd like to. Hey, Greg, I'd really like to join your LinkedIn network. Like, that's, that's an automatic delete. I don't even care if it's the Pope. I just won't, I won't respond or take that one. But I try to scour their profile, I go to their website, I find something to connect and engage them with. Hey, I was on, you know, hey, Ada, she's in California. I'm going to try to track you down. Hey, I was on a webinar with Andy Neary. Noticed you were on there too. What was your Takeaway. How often do you attend his events?

Just.

Just something to try to make a connection.

Right.

Great point. And Christian, if that. You're going to be connecting Christian with most people who don't know you. And so the best way to put that out there, like you either one, to Andrew's point, leave a personal note. I do something as simple as, hey, Andrew, would love to connect with you here on LinkedIn. It makes it very, very apparent I'm not trying to schedule a meeting with you. I want to connect with you on LinkedIn. The second thing is you want to get their attention, Go find their content and start engaging with it. Before you guys ever connect, start engaging with their content if they're posting. And then when you send a connection request, they're going to be a hell of a lot more apt to accept. Great question.

All right, guys, two minutes. Last word and then I will leave you alone. By the way, I'm going LinkedIn live at 10:30 my time here in two minutes. But anyone wants to jump over, I am talking about the best sales closing technique no one fricking talks about. So that's where I'm going next. But guys, if you're an advisor.

And you know you still have to win some business before the end of the year, if you're cruising right now, blowing through your goals, God bless you. But if you still got to win some business for the end of the year, dude, men, women, I know some of you have already signed up. Please consider the Broker Branding Academy. I know I'm pitching right now, but it starts Wednesday. It's the last one of the year. 12 weeks, all recorded. This is what I'm teaching. Marketing system, sales system. You still have a lot of hay to make, guys, between now and the end of the year when your competition shuts it down because they're focused on renewals, you need to crank it up and you need a plan to do it. So please give it consideration. We have a few more seats left. Just shoot me an email, text message, whatever. If you want to know more, it starts Wednesday though. So with that being said, everybody, you will get the recording in a couple hours for this webinar. I'm going on LinkedIn live here right now if anybody wants to jump over. Otherwise, I will see you guys later.