Episode 48 Jack Rants with Brynne about 2024

Jack Hubbard  00:01

I've had the privilege of being in and around banking for more than 50 years. Lots of changes during that time. We've gone from Ledger's to laptops, typewriters to technology. One thing, however, remains the same. Banking is a people business. And I'll be talking with those people that make banking great here on Jack Rants With Modern Bankers. 

Hello, everybody, it’s Thursday and it’s Jack Rants with Brynne!

Brynne Tillman  00:48

Hey, Jack, how are you? Great.

Jack Hubbard  00:52

All as well. LinkedIn is acting a little bit slow today. But hopefully, we'll have a fast paced program here today. Looking forward to it.

Brynne Tillman  01:02

Yeah, it is wonky. I got a little nervous. I couldn't look at profiles today I couldn't. And I'm like, Oh, my goodness. But it looks like everyone has wonky at the moment. So

Jack Hubbard  01:15

It happens from time to time. So but we're all good. I want to start by actually talking about next week's show. One of the things I like to do toward the end of the year is to do articles and posts on what I call books, blogs, and, and pods. And so one of the things I'd love to do next week with you, is to kind of review some of the books that have kind of been important in 2023. Talk about a couple of blogs that we both look at and listen to, and some podcasts as well. So that'll be fun for next week. But this week, we're going to talk a little bit about 2024. And we're going to kind of jump back and forth around sales and LinkedIn. Now it all kind of blends in together. But there are some things you can do in sales and non sales that will really help you from an activities perspective. So I'll start with you. Tell me talk to me about one thing that a banker could be doing in 2024 to help them around, integrate LinkedIn into the sales process.

Brynne Tillman  02:31

Yeah, so one of the things that it's a three parter one thing. But one, the first partner is to connect with all of your clients and connect with everyone you're having conversations with. So that's the first part. The second part is to develop your ideal persona, based on who you want to talk to and what is their geographic location. If you particularly love working in industries, all that fun stuff, make sure that you've built that ideal search. If it's in Sales Navigator, you've got a real deep dive in identifying who those folks are. If it's in the free LinkedIn, you can do it, it's not nearly as robust. But it's still important to do and then number three, is when you get on a call with your client, pull up that list and then add in the filter connections of their name, and see the people that they know that you want to meet. And so the number one activity in 2020, for the bankers to be doing is searching and filtering all the connections of their clients or COI eyes, their referral partners to to identify who they know that that the banker wants to meet, and position themselves to get warm introductions. And now there is a lot to do. But if a banker simply does that full pipeline every day of the week, you know, so yeah, go ahead.

Jack Hubbard  04:16

I wanted to ask you about the last one you talked about. Remind me again, what that Oh, no. So you talked about conversation. So I really believe that one of the most important skills that a great salesperson has is the ability to transition. And so if I'm on a virtual call, or if I'm on a phone call with somebody and I have on my screen, who their first degree connections are and the filtered list, etc. I think one of the important things is how do you address that? And so for me, it's not just jumping into the list, but it's a transition. It's kind of like you know, hey, Britain as we We're talking, you know, you're talking about some of your clients and some of our mutual connections. I was thinking, as I was preparing this call, you know, you and I know a lot of people in common, for example, and then I might go to the top three that I really want to talk to. And I'm gonna say what brings, you know, Mary, and John and Sam. And I'm curious how you know them. And, gee, I'd love to be able to get to know them a little bit like you do.

Brynne Tillman  05:28

Yeah, I mean, I think that's fabulous, especially when it's spontaneous. You can also, I guess, primate earlier. So if you're on with a client, and you're like, Oh, this is a good time, that is a perfect methodology in encouraging it, I often will be a little proactive as well. So I might reach out and say, Hey, Jane, we're going to be talking next week, I hope and I happened to notice, you're connected to quite a few people on LinkedIn, I'd love to get in front of, can we spend three minutes where I can review the names with by you and get your thoughts, so that there's also an opportunity in advance and they're not blindsided? And? And then you can be more direct? Because you've already said that? So? Yeah. And I love it though, because bankers get stuck. Now I'm on a call. I didn't set it up for this to be a referral call. But based on the feedback I just got, this is the perfect time for me to get referrals. How do I say that without being salesy and spammy? So Jack? Perfect. That's,

Jack Hubbard  06:43

That's a really good point. And you've added a new statement to my vocabulary. I've always told bankers that it's important to have urgent patience. And what I mean by that is, you wake up in the morning, and you say, Who am I going to have a conversation with today? How can I help somebody today? How can I add some value today, and I have to do that in an urgent kind of way. As a senior manager, I have to have patience that if I'm doing the right thing as a banker, good things will happen. So urgent patients, I like flexible consistency, I think it's really important for a culture to, okay, this is our culture. This, if you play for the Cubs, this is our culture. If you work for the bank, this is the culture However, you also need a little flexibility, because there could be some markets that you operate in, that are ag markets, you could have some markets where you have a lot of market share, you could have some markets that you don't have any market share. And so you're going to act differently toward the market based on that. So flexible consistency, and urgent patients and you've added a third one to me. Planned spontaneity, I really liked that phrase, because it allows you to do what you said and what I said because somewhere, if you plan it, you say, Okay, I'm gonna take the direct approach. That's great. If you do it my way, and you do the indirect approach. I think, either way, you've got to plan this. There's got to be some planning around that. But let me ask you one other question of the three that you mentioned. Did we do a training program? You know, you did it virtually. And I was face to face with a bank a couple of weeks ago. And as I was going around, the bankers at and one gentleman who had an SSI score of, I think 63, which is terrific, and he did. He said, You know, you asked me about all my clients? Well, I'm connected with all my clients. And then I said, Yeah, what about your clients? So what I want to know from you is sure, I connect with the CEO and the CFO. But beyond that brand, if I'm a banker, and I'm talking to, I want to get connected to folks in the company and accompany them. Who should I connect with in the company? And why? Yeah,

Brynne Tillman  09:03

That's a great question. So I'm gonna go to the why first, and then we can talk about it. So why do we want to connect for lots of reasons? I'm going to give you the number one reason: LinkedIn tells us there's a 20% turnover year over year that CFO typically will have a five year term. So if you have five CEOs that you're talking to, one of them is leaving this year. So we need to socially surround an organization because we're at risk if a new CFO comes in, they have their own preferred bank. Right? And so we need a foothold beyond just that CFO, we need to build relationships that will defend us, and that will champion us when that new CFO says hey, you know what, I want to bring in my banking relationship and they're like, no, no, no, no, we have a relationship established already. Right? So that is the number One reason why the number two reason is cross solving. That's what I learned from you. I love this, right? Your CFO may know things that are going on, but they don't always recognize that there's in sales, they're expecting a huge RFP to get accepted. 

And now they're going to have some cash flow issues to buy the inventory, they need to produce whatever it is they need to sell. The CFO is not always 100% in the know about what's coming down the pipe, they know what's here, based on the company, so when you have strong relationships, and you're talking to sales and marketing and operations, and maybe you're talking to HR, and they're saying, hey, you know what we're going whole heart out, you know, in in hiring in new areas, maybe there's, you know, a new office opening up or whatever, you have some insider information that you may never get from that CFO. So that's another reason right? And the CFO will be involved. But you're getting involved early in the process. So you can actually help them plan and say, Okay, your next step is, here's, we're gonna go for the line of credit to solve that problem, or whatever that might be. And I could probably come up with eight or eight or 10 other reasons why, but I actually think I answered both questions within that spiral of my brain.

Jack Hubbard  11:36

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I want to talk to you when you talk about socially surround, see, so I love the words that you come up with, because it, it really does paint a picture in my mind, if I look at the company, and I'm gonna go into the C suite, I do want to socially surround myself there, I want to, I want to talk to the marketing person, if they're in the C suite, I want to, I want to make sure I connect with the HR person. And I think one of the big mistakes bankers make is they fail to connect with the executive assistant of all of these folks, because a lot of them are on LinkedIn. If I'm a young banker, one of the things I need to think about is maybe the CEO, maybe I connect with the CEO, if they're a client of the bank. But what I need to do, especially for prospects, is to connect with maybe lower level people in the organization, not only lower level people, but those people that don't mean lower level in a bad way. But it's those newer bankers and newer manager level and below, there you go, that's a good, that's a good way to look at it. So that we can kind of grow up together. There's a term that a couple of our clients use that I love, it's called a bit they're called Baby bankers. And if I'm a baby banker, and a new banker, I don't have much of a network. But I can start on LinkedIn so powerfully and work with those at manager level and below, because eventually, they're either going to move up in the organization or are going to move out and go to another.

Brynne Tillman  13:04

Right. And when you're building those strong relationships, you're really banking on long term relationships that pay out year over year. I'm going to throw in one more that I haven't talked about in a long time. But if this is a prospect for you, and you're struggling to get insights, and understanding potentially, how their relationship with their current banker, LinkedIn, in particular, Sales Navigator is brilliant at this, we can look at people that used to work in that, like we can find the past CFO, folks that used to work in the company that you're going after, and you can reach out and say, Hey, Jane, I noticed you worked at ABC a couple of years ago, I'm going to be speaking with Fred next week, I see you're connected. You know, I'm wondering how well you know him? And do you have any insights that you might be able to share? And by the way, do you know what bank they're using currently. Now, you could also find that out if you had roll Pro, jump in and find out the banks that they're using. But understanding even the culture and how they chose may be how they chose a bank in the past. All those things actually can be found by looking at people that used to work there that you have a connection with, or you know that they love to talk about their former employer.

Jack Hubbard  14:34

That's very true. And you mentioned real pros, one of our sponsors, I also want to throw in a dime here for vertical IQ. Because next Wednesday, Susan Bell and I are going to be on Jack rants with modern bankers and Susan's going to talk about a variety of things, not directly about vertical IQ, but surrounding it and some of the issues and some success practices that her people have seen. But I want to talk About socially surrounded in a little different way. We're going to socially surround some bankers from January 16 through about seven weeks and seven consecutive weeks. And we're going to talk to them about some really key ways to use LinkedIn from a public workshop perspective. We're going to talk about enhancing your profile and content strategies for warm market prospecting. And we're adding, which is really cool. For anybody that joins, they're going to get 90 days worth of one on one, one on group coaching on Tuesdays at noon Eastern time. It's kind of an exciting brand, because we just launched yesterday, and today, the marketing and my email is blowing up with lots of people wanting to join.

Brynne Tillman  15:56

I have added to the list, but it's ready. It's primetime. Wait, let's see. So we want to register and what is the link for the modern banker.com/linkedin sales training?

Jack Hubbard  16:10

I think so. Yes, correct.

Brynne Tillman  16:13

Okay, so I am correcting this

Jack Hubbard  16:18

real time, this is live TV, folks.

Brynne Tillman  16:23

So that the QR code is now updated. And give me a moment. And it's going to be the modern banker.com/linkedin sales training. Yay.

Jack Hubbard  16:44

So it's six weeks starting January 16. We're going to do it, I think it's two o'clock Eastern time for now. And you are going to lead this program. And I'm going to kind of walk through and maybe add a few comments here and there. One of the nice things about it is that at the end of the session, there's a bonus session about Sales Navigator, which I really like. And there's going to be some changes around Sales Navigator and 24. This one is going to be some of the basics of Sales Navigator, which as we've talked about is such a powerful

Brynne Tillman  17:19

program. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. And we're really going to cover some of the essential things that bankers need to do to be successful in 2024. So, you know, bankers, your traditional sales, does not change, right? What you are doing today is absolutely vital. So none of what we're saying is stop doing this and start doing this. What we're going to really talk about is how do you integrate LinkedIn, the data in LinkedIn, the reach of LinkedIn, into your sales in a way that gets you to Hello faster? And that's really what this is designed to do. It's about getting to the right person. Now, is it going to be a sales Hello, call? Not always, sometimes it's a networking call. Sometimes it's, you know, I'd like to interview you for a content call. Sometimes it's Hey, let me know, I'd love to share with you some insights that might be able to help you do X, Y, and Z. There are many reasons to have a first call. So the goal of this is to start trust based conversations without being salesy in 2024. It is the year of relationships, but not just about making new relationships, but leveraging the relationships that you have to make new friends. I want you to think about going back to your college days. Who are your friends? You started with a roommate. And then the roommate met some people and you met some people. And then you introduced each other freshman year right away, right? And they're probably still your friends today. But what happens is you meet you know, you meet a friend, and then they bring in the other friends and they bring in the other friends. And that's all relationship driven. So when you meet that new friend of your roommate, I'm going through this with my kids, right? But when you meet this, when you and I'm talking about networking, I'm like, these are the people you're going to do business with for the rest of your life. Right. So So but what happens is, they bring someone into the conversation and there's an immediate connection. It doesn't feel cold, because they came in through a trusted friend. Well, this is how 2024 banking is going to go. It's about networking and sharing your friends with your CPAs. And with the tax folks. So now, in today's world, it's it's you don't have people down the hall. So we're using LinkedIn as your hallway. Your LinkedIn is the ability to search and filter your connections, connections, and allow them to search and filter your connections, and then mutually bring folks together in order to expand your relationships.

Jack Hubbard  20:36

Absolutely. And the other thing people often say is, well, you know, Brian, you're on LinkedIn all the time, because you better be on LinkedIn all the time. That's what you do. How can I, as a banker, find the time to do all of this, you developed? And we're gonna, we're gonna have one session on a day in our life to talk about that one?

Brynne Tillman  20:59

Yeah, so the interesting thing is that we have a day in our life and I think week five, we are deep dive focused on what to do, what to say. And in a structured, process driven way that drives results that drives conversations. And so I'm really excited about that. But I want to back up what you said for one second, because it made me think of where I stood in 1992, when I was working for Dun and Bradstreet, because they rolled out CC mail, which was email before it was email. And I was in sales, and I was cold calling every day and I had a nut to make, right like I had to get to sir. And my manager, Marian halls, had a meeting. And she rolls out CC mail email internally. And I remember looking at my colleagues going, Who has time for this, there is no way I can bring this into my daily life. This is all consuming. 

Now imagine not having email today. When you embrace it, it saves time. When you embrace it, you have faster, more poignant conversations, you get to Hello faster, you get your point across. Although I still believe in physical mail, not everything needs to be right. So we've got right , we've got opportunities to just quickly get messages through email. And you know, all this. Well, I believe LinkedIn is right now in that 9092, maybe 94 spot where people say, I don't have time for this. Well, when you embrace it, and you leverage it the way that Jack and I will teach you, you will have more time to do more productive things because your pipeline is filling faster, because you're getting to conversations faster, because you have more business faster. We're getting to Hello, faster. Absolutely.

Jack Hubbard  23:30

No doubt. Well, it's exciting. And it starts January 16. That goes for seven continuous weeks. And one of the weeks I'm going to actually take over and do a little ranting of coaching. And so this is a real opportunity for students and you'll be blended into our current mastering LinkedIn for bankers audience, but it's a good opportunity for students that join for $197. What a great deal.

Brynne Tillman  24:01

Thinking, by the way,

Jack Hubbard  24:04

you know, inflation and all the rest of it. It's a good value. And so you join, and you bring your ideas, you bring your success, pet practices, and you bring your challenges. We have people coming every week saying things like, my headline isn't exactly what I want. Can you help me build a list? And what we do on those coaching sessions is actually we'll go live on LinkedIn. And we'll say, Okay, here's what you do. Now you go do that. And so it's one on one coaching, but there's an action orientation around it. So I get to do that one week. Brynn. So this would be a really exciting program. I'm thrilled.

Brynne Tillman  24:40

Yeah, I am, too. And I'm so thrilled to be doing this with you. Yeah. So So remind us again, what is next week,

Jack Hubbard  24:49

probably. Next week, we're going to talk about books, blogs, and pods. And we're each going to bring a few books and blogs and things like that and there might be some carryover in it. And, but but and you all bring your ideas. You know, one of the neat things about this program is it's interactive. And so bring your comments and ideas. And we'll be happy to. We'll be happy to talk about that. So great to see you as always about 2024 and all the opportunities that we can have to help bankers and we'll see you next week.

Jack Hubbard  33:08

Thanks for joining us for Jack Rants with Brynne brought to you by our good friends at Vertical IQ and RelPro. We're live on LinkedIn every Thursday at noon Eastern time helping bankers turn connections into conversations. 

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