I’m being asked to connect on Linkedin.com but worry that it’s just another way to waste time. Am I missing something?
If you missed the telephone when it came out, would it have cost you time and money? We can bemoan the changes that put a cell phone in every palm and made things like LinkedIn part of business, but that would be wasting time. Rule 5 in the Principles of Excellent Performance is “Make reality work for you”. If you don’t, it is sure to work against you. (Ask and I’ll email the list)
The reality is that we live in a strangely contradictory society. On one hand, everyone with a phone and a bank account joins a “Do Not Call List” and a “Do Not Email List” is on the horizon. And yet, everyone joins social media for the sole purpose of being contacted all the time. Go figure. Social media, like LinkedIn, is the communication medium of our age. It’s how we do “community” today. It’s the height of permission marketing – it’s encouragement marketing.
And, don’t tell me that your clientele isn’t involved with LinkedIn so you don’t have to either. At a recent meeting in Washington DC, we learned that the fastest growing group of new social media users is women in their sixties – maybe the last group you might expect. So, if you want to communicate with people as they prefer to be contacted, you will get on board. Social media like Linkedin is a tremendous communication and marketing tool if you use it effectively.
LinkedIn is business social media. That means it works well with people in business. If that’s your market, you are in the right place. Use it to connect with prospects, clients and centres-of-influence and stay top of mind with them. However, clear up four issues before you get involved.
First, decide on your best connections. There are “riches in niches”. Know your target market.
Second, clarify the problems you solve so you can promote the right solutions with connections. This is your expertise.
Next, determine the products that solve these problems. Build them into your communications. This is your specialty.
Finally, create a package of products focused on solving the problems. Packages make for easier promotion and better value absorption.
Your LinkedIn “Profile” has six parts:
Name – Use your usual name. Don’t be formal or people will miss you.
Picture – Use a quality picture that looks like you – today. No logo here.
Professional Headline – This isn’t your title. It’s the benefit of your work.
Industry – Be as specific and different as you can from the selections offered.
Summary – Write 150 words about the benefits clients experience when you solve their problems.
Specialty – This is the real, specific reason people want to deal with you.
Then, open a Twitter account and post smart one-line advice to your profile from it. You’ll be advising clients everyday and building your reputation. Use Linkedin. It’s the way to connect today.
Productivity is killing my life insurance business. I’m now overwhelmed delivering policies and have no time for business. I’m losing because I’m winning.
What can I do?
Thankfully, you aren’t taking the easy way out – dropping the policies in the mail and calling it a day. Too many advisors take this route but it lessens your value in the marketplace. This lack of personal service puts you on the same level as bulk suppliers. That won’t preserve our much needed credibility.
Your current approach to policy delivery is the cause of your trouble. Booking delivery appointments at the same time you sell is asking for exactly what you have today – up and down production. While this is a good problem to have because it takes success, it doesn’t have to be that way.
Delivering policies during prime selling time unavoidably and unintentionally creates the feast and famine syndrome. You can’t both deliver and sell (except to add new business or get referrals).
Actually, it’s even worse than you think. The built-in lag time on closing and completing sales combined with the produce/deliver cycle means there is routinely a period of “nothing” after the delivery part of the cycle – Sell, deliver, nothing; sell, deliver, nothing… “Lather, rinse, repeat”. It’s a vicious circle and you are right to search for a solution.
The solution is not that complicated. Only deliver policies in non-prime selling time. Here’s how it works.
The standard sales interview approach is always to book the next appointment before leaving the last. This routinely translates into booking a delivery appointment at the end of a selling interview. At that time, it seems just as simple to book a delivery appointment at the same time and day as the sales appointment, only six or eight weeks hence. The rationale is reasonable. The day you sold worked well. A couple of months from now it should be good too.
Peak and valley performance
But, it’s a fatal flaw in the plan and causes the peak and valley performance.
Try this instead at the end of the selling interview. Say, “The policy should be available in about six to eight weeks. I want to deliver to you in person so I can explain it to you and present a small gift (policy wallet). I’m in your area on a regular basis and once I have it, I’d like to call and drop by for 15 to 20 minutes. It might be on short notice but it is important I hand it to you in person. Would you mind?” The usual response is “no” and you are in business.
This “backfills” holes in your calendar with deliveries when you have cancellations, no-shows or postponements rather than booking them in prime time.
An equally good alternative approach is to book deliveries on Mondays or Fridays. These are usually non-selling days and otherwise “dead time”. You can “backfill” them too.
Either option keeps you in business continuously. It’s a simple approach to avoid peak and valley production. In addition, you can make it work and eliminate the valleys.
| My profile
Share
