I publish exclusive content about financial advisor lead generation. Here are my responses to the common questions that people tend to have when they are considering joining the Sara Grillo membership.
Why is there a $100 sign up fee?
I hear you. People are often curious why there is a $100 fee for sign up due when you join the membership (monthly ongoing fee is $35/month).
This is because there is a significant amount of background work that goes into onboarding each member to the back end of the portal, LinkedIn group, webinar list, etc at inception so that everything runs smoothly. In addition, sometimes the members will require some help navigating the startup and accessing the content. I’ve created a FAQs document that they can use which addresses most issues, but sometimes there is more onboarding work that needs to be done.
You create free editorial content frequently (articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, webinars). Why should I pay for this membership when I get an email in my inbox from you each week for free?
Good point.
My membership provides you with:
- Three short training videos. The videos are typically less than 10 minutes long and demonstrate steps to follow to attract new prospects online.
- One exclusive interactive membership webinar in which I demonstrate the training video tactics via screen share and you can ask questions.
- Access to coaching through my exclusive members-only LinkedIn group in which I will provide guidance and advice on the tactics I’ve demonstrated.
The membership content differs from my editorial content in a few important ways:
- My videos demonstrate the actual steps you take in an easy to follow format and the replay is available on demand. You see the LinkedIn tactics demonstrated. In contrast, in my blogs and podcast I only describe these in general terms and no concrete steps are outlined. I may give an example but those are words only, not live, step by step instructions that are demonstrated with real life examples you can see.
- In 2019, my editorial content is going to cut down a bit in volume and also it will be focused less on the nitty gritty of LinkedIn strategy and online branding and more upon my thought leadership and keynote speaking.
- It’s not just articles; it’s coaching, too. While very few people take me up on this, you do get online coaching through the members LinkedIn group. You can also ask me questions on the members only webinar each month. While you’re not getting direct one on one phone time, you are getting access to my consultative advice which on an individual basis goes for $250/hour. So if you do the math on that, just because you’re getting the advice in a group setting, you’re saving a huge amount of money.
There are so many LinkedIn messaging programs. Why should I pick yours?
Yeah, I’m with you on that!
You’re probably saying this because you’ve checked out some of these artificial intelligence type LinkedIn messaging programs. They say they’ll send 100 messages from your LinkedIn ID to viable prospects every week or something like that, right?
Here’s what’s they’re missing (btw, I made a YouTube video summarizing the problem with social media AI services if you want to watch me instead):
- After a certain number of unresponded to connection messages, LinkedIn (in the past) has put people into the “doghouse” where your ability to message new people without their emails is taken away. I can’t say for sure this is what they’ll do going forward but LinkedIn has recently taken many steps to eliminate spamming and it’s likely they’re not going to let people get away with mass messaging for too long.
- When you are communicating one on one with another person, there is quite simply no shortcut to sincerity. If you want to get somebody to pay attention to you, you’ve got to pay attention to them first. In my membership I show you how to do this in a way that can build your pipeline over time.
Simply put, there’s no substitute for quality and authenticity. Although I’m a big fan of scalability, unfortunately with most of these LinkedIn messaging services you’ll just be paying to become part of the noise in their inbox that people want to ignore.
Authenticity wins. Without it, there’s no basis for growth and nothing to scale in the first place.
I already have LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Great! My membership is extremely complementary with LinkedIn Navigator. From Navigator you’ll be able to find people easily and that’s where my membership is really useful: knowing what to say, how to follow up, what to post to your feed, etc. so that you can get meetings with the people you find through searches.
There are so many LinkedIn training programs. Why should I pick yours?
In addition to the reasons stated in the response to the question above, the advantage is time efficiency.
My training videos are less than 10 minutes long and some are only 2-3 minutes long only. This was designed for busy people who don’t have a ton of time to spend on LinkedIn but still want to take action to get results.
Let’s be real: what financial advisor has time to sit around and be on social media all day?
What are the training videos about?
Here are the titles of the first 10 videos:
- Getting Center of Influence Leads through LinkedIn Search
- How to Not Screw Up Talking to a COI on LinkedIn
- The Easiest Possible Way to Get a COI’s Attention on LinkedIn
- How to Look Cool (Not Sleazy) in LinkedIn Groups
- The Fun Way to Meet Prospects in LinkedIn Groups
- Creating a LinkedIn Community That Rocks
- December Bonus Video – Proven Lead Generation
- Rebranding Your LinkedIn Profile
- The 1,2,3 Combo
- 4 Killer Ideas for LinkedIn Content
A few sample links are included below.
What results/ROI do people get?
I would never offer advice that I myself would not follow. I’ve used these techniques for years and my experiences, successes, and failures form the basis for this membership content. Using these techniques has brought me clients, speaking engagements, introductions to hard to meet people, and it’s all happened in a natural way that everyone was comfortable with.
Although the membership itself is at its nascency at the time of me writing this article, people are already getting these results. Some have reported getting meetings and referrals from COIs. Others have said that it has led them to expand their networks in ways they never thought and has been a great benefit as a result.
I can also tell you that in my overall work with advisors as a marketing coach (those who aren’t on my membership), many of them have had success using the techniques that I teach in my membership.
I’m not sure I can afford this. I want to make sure I keep total marketing costs down.
Right on. I love smart buyers and I myself am careful when it comes to spending.
If you would like a marketing budget sheet, I can send it to you. This will help you get a handle on your overall marketing costs for the year.
Having said that, this is arguably the best value out there that you can get for $35 a month. You’ll be guided through how to run a LinkedIn campaign to your target market from start to finish. If you bought this advice from me on an individual basis it would run you $250/hour.
This was created for the financial advisor who either:
- is disciplined enough to drive the marketing effort themselves instead of hiring somebody else
- can’t afford a huge marketing bill each month (bluntly put)
Let’s say you were to invest time in watching my videos, doing what the instructions say, and taking advantage of the opportunity to get coaching from my webinars or LinkedIn groups. All of the resources available to you through this membership are worth well over the $35 you’d pay each month (and of course the $100 sign up fee due at inception).
We’re too tightly regulated, especially when it comes to social media.
Let’s be real; financial advisor compliance at some shops is downright stifling.
The good news is that my whole approach to marketing is geared towards getting you away from how advisors typically behave (which compliance isn’t such a fan of) and more towards acting like a natural human being. And compliance usually has very few bones to pick with that, because we’re steering clear of the technical stuff.
I’m creating a new way of communicating and that applies to everything you do as an advisor, from social media to blogs, speaking engagements, the whole enchilada.
And if your social media compliance team has really got you on lock down, there’s still a great deal of value in knowing how to use LinkedIn as a research tool. I cover this in my first few videos. Some of these techniques don’t have to be executed through LinkedIn; you can use social media for the research and actually execute the communication through email.
Sara’s Upshot
Did I cover it all? If I’ve addressed your doubts, please go ahead and click here.
If not, I want to hear from you. What did I miss? Please go ahead and send me a message through my contact form and let me know what else is on your mind.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll join me as a guide through your LinkedIn journey!
