What Two Super-Rich People Said It Takes to Connect with Them on LinkedIn

Or returns, or something.

What if they said something like, “I have a way that you could be able to reach 25-times more people using this new charitable strategy.”

Um, I would not believe it…Honestly…One way of putting what you just described is this: Someone reached out to me over the internet and asked to be my financial planner. I mean, also I’m sending $25,000 to this address in Nigeria because the guy has 25 million bucks and if I give him $25,000 to help him get his money out he’s going to split it with me. Okay? You can believe that, too. I…wouldn’t do it.

But would you connect with somebody who was a financial planner just if they said they wanted to be in touch with you?

…Say I decided I need a new financial planner. The first thing I would do is ask who accountant recommends, who his clients like. The second thing I would do is ask my friends who had financial planners.

What Guy Kawasaki is teaching us

In this vignette you can clearly hear skepticism. This mindset is very common with successful people who are frequently approached by advisors. And rightfully so; they have something of value to protect and there’s clearly a lot to guard against. As I said in my podcast about how to connect with big shots on LinkedIn, most of the time the pickup lines are pretty cheesy.

This is the first rule of online prospecting: When you say something to a prospect, say it the opposite of how the typical advisor would.

If you are in the dark about what this sounds like, just check out any LinkedIn advisor profile feed (or two or three) and you’ll see that (unfortunately) they are communicating the same bland content that nobody wants to hear.

So, not surprisingly, Guy wouldn’t be open to a cold message from an advisor. However, he does place a high value in what the people in his network say. And that’s exactly what LinkedIn is set up to do. You could build a very nice business using the second- and third-degree connections of your LinkedIn network.

Here’s how:

• Connects with all your clients and centers of influence on LinkedIn

• Research their second-degree connections who are also connections of their clients. You can do this using the search bar (click the magnifying glass) at the top of the page and applying filters. Look in “all filters,” – there is actually a field for “connections of.”

• Ask your client for an introduction to client’s connections. This has to be done in the right way. Like Guy said, there has to be a reason for the introduction, whether it be service, performance, etc. The introduction, by the way, doesn’t have to be through social media just because you do the research through social media. Email or in-person introductions work as well.

Listen to this clip at frame 11:05 of this episode to hear how the conversation went verbatim.

Jeffrey Hayzlett

Jeffrey Hayzlett is chairman and CEO of C-Suite Network, an author, keynote speaker and podcast host, as well as a former judge on Celebrity Apprentice and Fortune 100 Executive. Hayzlett is also the author of three best-selling business books: Think Big, Act Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless, Running the Gauntlet and The Mirror Test. Hayzlett is one of the most compelling figures in business and an inductee into the National Speaker Association (NSA) Speaker Hall of Fame.

Jeffrey and I were discussing his views on social media when the conversation turned to his experience with advisors trying to get his business on LinkedIn. Here’s a summary of the conversation.

Hayzlett: Every day on LinkedIn, for instance, I probably get 20 or 30 messages, people who want to have coffee with me. Are you frickin’ nuts? I don’t have time for coffee. I don’t have coffee. Maybe a Scotch.

Yeah. Fun!

But they don’t know me. And so they assume they know me and they assume –

Okay wait hold on. I just did a whole podcast about that, about how to reach out to somebody on LinkedIn Instant Messenger. So you conceivably would be the target for them, the kind of person they’d be targeting. And now I’m not saying everybody message Jeff on LinkedIn – nobody do that – what I’m saying is what kind of a message…would you want to receive from somebody that you would kind of say, “Wait a second. Maybe I should kind of take them up on this.”

Well, number one it’s going to be a referral from somebody else I know.

…What if someone says, “I know Sara Grillo.”

No, it has to come from Sara. Sara says, “Hey Jim Johnson just did this for me and I suggested that he also do this for you. I’m connecting the two of you.” That would mean a lot more to me than Jim Johnson contacting me and saying, “Hey I know Sara.” Well, okay great. So do 4,355 others in her Linkedin network.

…Could it be something like, Sara said to follow your [the advisor’s] blog?

Build a relationship with me, yeah…all of the above…build the rapport with me over a period of time and the relationship. Yeah. It’s important for you to do that.

I’m in the C-Suite. It’s a trusted relationship. I will grant you sincerity in the relationship to begin with but now it’s about your competency and reliability if you want to build my trust. And so if you show me that you’re competent and you’re reliable, and I see this over and over and over, that’s more likely to resonate with me than show me a big bang and then it’s over with.

To hear the actual conversation for yourself, listen to this clip starting at frame 11:32.

What Jeffrey Hayzlett is teaching us

It was striking that Kawasaki and Hayzlett both said the same thing: The best case is a referral by someone they trust. However, where Hayzlett differed from Kawasaki is in seeing the value in an advisor who proving him or herself over time.

It takes time to build a brand and, as Jeffrey says, you must consistently do this in order to build credibility with a savvy person. Look at it from a successful person’s perspective: There’s a great deal at stake. Remember the phrase “seeing is believing?” The more visible you are, the easier it is for people to trust you.

This is where advisors who “can’t find the time” are losing the game. Disappearing from social media for weeks on end compromises your visibility. It’s not a transaction, it’s a relationship. This echoes a sentiment I expanded upon in my article, “Social media is an IRA not a cash register” that you can read here.

Sara’s upshot

Although Guy and Jeffrey differed in their level of comfort meeting advisors through LinkedIn, the common denominator was the idea of social credibility. Although they said it in different words, the initial response in both cases was the same: It would bode well if someone they trust recommended the advisor.

From this advice we can gather two things. Advisors should deliver outstanding service and it must be noticeable. Are you truly delivering something outstanding, so much so that your clients notice and will respond affirmatively when you ask for the referral?

If introductions are the best way to meet people, there’s no reason not to leverage your online network. LinkedIn makes it easy to see who is in the network of the people who are your first-degree connections. It’s no secret anymore like it was when many of you started in the business – use the transparency to your advantage. You don’t have to be in the dark about who is in your clients’ networks.

Do the work and ask your connections to introduce you to specific people in their network who you have checked out. Don’t just say “Could you introduce me to five people you know on LinkedIn who could be good clients for me?” You’re giving them more work to do!

I recommend that my clients connect with at least 10 new second-degree connections per week via referrals. Please reach out on APViewpoint if you would like further ideas on how to do this.

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in quantitative finance.

Read more articles by Sara Grillo