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When you call on a prospect, if they have (or will have) any interest at all, it is almost certain they are going to look at two pieces of your online real estate before they are willing to engage with you: your website, and your LinkedIn profile.
If they are going to move beyond their casual--likely suspicious--interest stage to one of engaging with you, there are a couple of things you should know as you nurture and tend to your online real estate. First, if you appear to be like every other broker/agency, they’ll quickly move on to Wordle. Second, if they don’t see something that makes them feel as though you are talking directly to them, they’ll soon be watching cat videos.
How’s your website?
Because many of you don’t have control or influence over your website (and also that fixing a broken website is a longer-term project), I’m going to touch on this piece of real estate briefly. Most of this blog will focus on your personal LinkedIn presence.
Your website has the potential to be the most powerful and effective tool in your marketing, prospecting, and sales toolbox. However, it is rare that a website meets this potential. Most are more likely to fall into the “prospect and sales prevention unit” category.
We’ve written many times about how to leverage this valuable real estate, so I’ll remind you of a few missteps common on websites that contribute to prospecting and sales prevention. These include:
- Offers to “Get a free quote”
- Lists of all the carriers you represent
- Boasting claims of “Serving the greater metro area for X years”
- Pointing out that your service is what makes you special
- Outdated visual experiences that make it look like you communicated with the web designer via fax machine
If this list hits a little close to home, and it will for many/most of you, fight the temptation to run straight out and hire a website builder. Getting this valuable real estate in order is a much bigger project than slapping some lipstick on the pig.
Your personal online presence
While not everyone has control or influence over their website, everyone has control over the other critical piece of online real estate: your personal online presence. As you work to create an impactful online presence, there are three things you need to establish and nurture: trust, familiarity, and recognition.
It used to be said you had about seven seconds to make a positive first impression. In today’s online world, you must make a first impression before even meeting someone. In fact, their early online impressions of you will likely determine if that meeting ever takes place.
Trust
You must start building trust with your prospects before they meet you. You do this by positioning yourself as an educator and problem solver who understands the challenges they face in running their business and with their overall HR/benefits program.
Nobody wants to discuss the products you sell until, and unless they recognize, they have a problem (yes, insurance, but also compliance, technology, communication, etc.) that you and your product can help fix. If your messaging focuses largely on products, you’ll lose them right away.
Selling is an emotional game. While they won’t get emotional about your products, empathizing with them about their likely problems and challenges will get their attention and form the beginning of an emotional connection.
Familiarity
You need to be consistently active on LinkedIn. Logging on and lurking around doesn’t count. You need to engage with content shared by others, share your own original ideas, and do this multiple times per week. You need to be seen, and you must participate in order to be seen.
If you are more of a LinkedIn voyeur rather than an active participant, start small with your engagement. Set ridiculously small weekly goals to establish the habit and make participation part of your online DNA. For example, set a goal to:
- “Like” someone else’s post at least once each business day.
- Comment on someone else’s post at least three times per week.
- Post an original thought at least once per week.
Warning: Don’t compare your level of activity to that of the One Percenters you see constantly. Your goal should be to have a greater presence than the majority of your competition. Fortunately, although also sadly, that’s a low bar.
Recognition
Finally, let your personality come through. When your buyer meets you face-to-face, they need to see that you are the same person as the online personality they were expecting to meet.
I had an insurance advisor ask me, "What if I share my personality/opinions/ideas/beliefs on LinkedIn and a potential prospect doesn't like what they see?"
My response was, "What if you don't share them, and they become a (misaligned and incompatible) client?"
Being authentic and genuine builds trust, fosters strong relationships, and enhances credibility. Customers can smell insincerity, and it isn’t a pleasant scent. Because our industry is already looked at with distrust, you have to demonstrate that you don’t fit the stereotype and are genuine and radically transparent.
Running head start
In today’s online world, selling starts way before the first meeting. Use this to your advantage. Sure, it takes effort, but you have the opportunity to build trust, familiarity, and recognition before your first conversation. When you come into a first conversation with the distance your online presence has created between you and your competition, you have an almost unfair advantage.
And isn’t that what all salespeople want?
Content originally published on Q4intelligence
Photo by fizkes
