Have you heard of social selling? Many wealth managers I speak to haven’t, yet they may be doing it without realising it. The basic idea is that an increasing number of firms are using the major social media platforms (primarily LinkedIn and Twitter in the case of financial services firms) to ‘sell’ without actually ‘selling’.
In terms of the business case for the proactive use of social media to build your business, according to LinkedIn:
- Just over 63% of social sellers report an increase in their sales revenue, versus 41% of non-social sellers
- 84% of social sellers use LinkedIn; 48% use Twitter
- 74% of consumers do research online before making a buying decision
- 65% of buyers feel that a vendor’s content had an impact on their decision to buy
- Your next generation of clients are 5x more likely than previous generations to think that social networks will be the hub of their financial information in the future
Pretty compelling stuff. So here are my top tips for wealth managers to get to grips with social selling:
1) Just because you have a LinkedIn profile doesn’t mean it is resonating with your prospects and clients. Is it written in the first person? Have you written an interesting and engaging summary that is not just a list of your career achievements but actually tells the reader how you can help them? Have you added a company brochure or other material to your profile? Is it keyword-optimised?
2) Have you run advanced LinkedIn searches for your target clients or introducers, saved them and set up email alerts? How much can you find out about your target contacts before you connect with them? Please don’t just send a generic invite when you connect – tailor it to the reader.
3) Does your employer have a LinkedIn Company Page and are you following it so you can like, comment and share regular updates with your contacts? Are you following your competitors, introducers and target firms on LinkedIn and Twitter?
4) Do you have a content strategy, either at a firm or individual level? How often do you post? Is your content informing and educating your clients (good) or is it a sales pitch (bad)? If someone engages with your posts, what is your process for responding?
5) Sync up your phone’s address book with the Twitter app and follow all of your contacts on Twitter. This is great way to stay informed and may provide ‘social signals’ as a reason to get in touch.
6) Can you build in LinkedIn conversations into your day-to-day ‘real world’ activities? For example, ask your clients and prospects if you can connect with them on LinkedIn. Or maybe you can ask a satisfied client or introducer to write you a LinkedIn recommendation.
As you can see, there is a lot more to social selling than simply having a LinkedIn profile. Many of my clients are thinking about how to ‘future-proof’ their business and social selling is a great way to begin this process. Finally, check out your personalised Social Selling Index to see how effective your LinkedIn activities are.
