5 Opportunities for Business Bankers to Use LinkedIn to Win New Clients and Deepen Relationships with Existing Ones

5 opportunities for business bankers to use LinkedIn to win new clients and deepen relationships with existing ones

5 Opportunities for Business Bankers to Use LinkedIn to Win New Clients and Deepen Relationships with Existing Ones

By Dan Swift

The internet is packed with best practices on how banks can leverage social media to market to business owners. Less has been written, however, about why and how the individual banker should lean into social media, particularly LinkedIn.

Long gone are the days when business owners were forced to rely just on information provided by a banker. Business owners have access to information like never before. Consider this:

  • The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) found that buyers are 57% of the way through the purchasing process before they engage with sales professionals.
  • Forrester found that 74% of modern buyers conduct more than half of their research online before they speak with a salesperson.
  • IDC found that 75% of B2B buyers use social media to learn about potential vendors.

The internet changed the game. Business owners have the power to research your bank, your products and services, your executives, your competition, and you!

Here are 5 opportunities for business bankers to use LinkedIn to win new clients and deepen relationships with existing ones:

  1. By sharing content on a regular cadence, you can continually put yourself front of mind with business owners in your network and position yourself as a trusted advisor. By doing so, you will be the first person they contact when ready to engage.
  2. Share content on LinkedIn to educate your network on how you and your bank have helped business owners achieve their goals. The ideal outcome is for a business owner in your network to see your content, happen to be in buying mode, and engage directly. The alternative—and this is the amplification effect of social media—is that your content will be shared by someone in your network, perhaps by a friend, client, colleague or family member. The amplification effect moves your content into that person’s feed and your message out to business owners in that person’s network.
  3. Showcase the right mix of content. You will seem salesy if you only share content about your bank. Roughly 50% of what you share can be about your bank. Another 25% should be about the banking industry, trends, useful information that would benefit business owners—but importantly should not be specific to your bank. The final 25% should be content on a topic that you are passionate about. This humanizes you on social media. Remember, people buy from people they trust and can relate to.
  4. Follow business owners on social media to understand what’s important to them in business and life, and tailor your message accordingly. Social media allows bankers to identify when prospects are showing buying intent. Insert yourself into their buying cycle earlier to influence the decision making process. People never forget how you made them feel. Social media provides life events such as birthdays, work anniversaries, and job changes. Slowing down to acknowledge what are likely important moments for that business owner, and not trying to sell or start a business conversation in the process, goes a long way in building relationships. Be human.
  5. Search LinkedIn to find business owners, leverage social insights to identify what is likely important to them on both a business and human level, and determine the best path to a meeting. Oftentimes this is through a warm introduction from a trusted contact in your network. To amplify the opportunity for warm introductions to business owners, get into a cadence of connecting daily on LinkedIn with every single person with whom you have a meaningful business or personal interaction that day.

Dan Swift is CEO of Empire Selling, the digital selling methodology helping sellers and companies survive and thrive in an increasingly digital world. Previously, he was a member of the senior leadership team at LinkedIn. There he launched LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Financial Services, Insurance and Banking, and created the LinkedIn profile optimization program Resume to Reputation. In 2015, Onalytica Research named Dan as one of the leading social selling influencers globally. 

BASYS Processing as a business partner 

If your processor isn’t delivering strategies to help grow your program and personal service to your customers, please call BASYS Processing at (800) 386-0711. Let’s talk about creating a business partnership that will help you meet and exceed your goals. 

BASYS Processing features: 

• A friendly, live voice will answer the phone when you or your customers call; no automated phone systems.
• In-house PCI Compliance team to walk your customers through the process step-by-step, improving security and reducing costs.
• Thorough Market Analysis followed by mutual plans and goals to grow your portfolio.
• In-depth initial training and ongoing bootcamp training for bank staff.
• A full suite of turnkey marketing assets that can be customized with your bank branding. 

About BASYS Processing 

BASYS Processing provides credit card and debit card processing services, plus solutions that include terminals, virtual terminals, e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale, customized to fit any need.  Banks, associations, and software partners depend on us to strengthen their reputations and relationships with their customers by providing remarkable service paired with ultimate flexibility and pricing. Merchants depend on us to make accepting credit cards and debit cards convenient, safe and affordable. BASYS was founded in 2002 on one philosophy: to take care of our merchants, partners, and employees so they never want to leave. We are dedicated to working one-on-one with our customers to design the perfect solution. BASYS is Personal Payment Processing. 

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