How to Convert Social Media Conversations Into Sales

Because I have built this system of reviewing profiles and searching for prospects via connections, I get 100 referrals each month – 95% of them come from social media. Because of my massive network, people are searching for me. I get about 5-10 requests to connect on LinkedIn per week now because of the network I've developed over the years.

Tell us a story about a specific referral or introduction that converted into a sale. 

There was a well-known, very successful attorney in Fort Wayne with a wife and two kids who was looking for a financial representative to help him with his financial planning. He simply went through LinkedIn to search for a financial expert, found my name and noticed that we had dozens of connections in common. One day he sent me a note that said, "I know you're connected with a lot of friends. I have reps cold calling me and trying to trying to connect because they know I have a lot of money, but I'd rather do business with someone who is connected to those that I know."

From then on, he has been a great client of mine. Trust is essential. My clients trust me to help them achieve their long-term goals and protect the people they care for most. Trust is one of the central reasons clients choose to work with me and choose to work with a strong company like Northwestern Mutual.

In Hearsay Social, we have a popular feature called Social Signals that allows reps to get notified of major life events in their connections' lives on LinkedIn and Facebook. Are you using this feature and if so, how has it helped you?

Yes, Social Signals has been great. For me, it helps me learn more about my clients before I step into a meeting or just stay in touch with them on a regular basis. Instead of picking up the phone like in the old days asking what was going on, I have an idea of how I can help and the direction of our next conversation.

In the last eighteen months, I've received over 4,700 Social Signals from Hearsay – about 65 per week including birthdays, weddings, engagements, babies, moves, job changes and other life events.  I don't have time to be on social media all day, so Social Signals helps me filter out a lot of noise that isn't as relevant. When I get signals about a current client, it makes it like we never left each other from the last meeting.

When it comes to building credibility and sharing content on FB and LI, how do you choose what to post?

I use the content library which includes hundreds of compliance-approved posts created by the marketing and communications teams at Northwestern Mutual, hosted in Hearsay Social. The most important thing for me is adding my own voice. I have a large network of friends and family who know my voice and the stories that I like to share. I always try to modify the content from the library to make it my own. I get more engagement on the posts that way as well.

Any last piece of advice that you'd like to share with your fellow reps? What is the single most important thing to do on social media today?

The first step is to send friend and connection requests to all of your current clients. People use Facebook and LinkedIn differently. People post pictures of their weddings, new babies and new homes on Facebook, whereas on LinkedIn, you find out when they have changed jobs.

All of these are important life events that you should be involved in. Once you've sent requests to your current client base, start sending requests to recent prospects that you've met. Timing is everything in our business and knowing when they have major life events will be prime time for you to stay in contact to help them on their path to financial security.