What’s the best way for a financial advisor to network: virtually or in person?
Question from a subscriber: “Some of these in person networking groups cost $3,000. Am I better off just doing online networking?”
The advantage of in person networking is that it can cause you to make progress faster because the ability to interpret someone’s body language is a primal need we have in order to trust them. However, it takes more administrative time (travel time, getting dressed up, etc.) and you may have to pay more.
Virtual networking is usually cheaper (you can join most social platforms for free) and faster. However, it’s more difficult to build trust and differentiate yourself from other advisors in a highly competitive setting.
Take this action TODAY:
Think about your personal strengths and weaknesses as a networker.
- Do you have family obligations or other disruptions (such as kids, lol) that make it hard to consistently show up in person?
- Do you have social anxiety and fear interacting with people in real life?
- Do you have the patience to filter through spam emails, spam postings, and other virtual networking garbage before you find the right community? Or to even build your own?
- Do the targets you want to reach actually frequent online platforms? For example, if you want to network with 70 year olds, they are most likely not on LinkedIn as much, because many aren’t working anymore.
- Are you good at thinking on the fly when you socialize, or do you prefer a slower, meditative interaction?
- How important is a geographic focus? If you are looking to get clients across the country, you may be holding yourself back by focusing on a local group that meets in person and has no online presence.
Sara’s Upshot on financial advisor networking
The directive to “get out there and network” can be very frustrating for financial advisors. You have to match your personal strengths to the method of interaction before you invest time and money, because if not you can and will waste alot of both.
Yeah?
Yaaaaah.
BOOM – there you go, today’s marketing tip for ya!
-Sara G
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Thanks for reading. See you in the next one!
-Sara G
