Episode 16: 7 Profile Updates All Bankers Need to Make

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. 

Happy post Fourth of July, Thursday, everybody, and it's a week after the fourth, but we were off last week, Brynne  had a much needed vacation on the shore. And so it's great to have you back Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  00:45

Oh, I'm thrilled to be back as much as I love the beach. I actually love this even more. So I'm very excited!

Jack Hubbard  00:52

Me too, and I just got back from a training session yesterday in Massachusetts. So it was great to be in a classroom again and it's great to be with you today to talk about a very important subject, seven areas where we need to talk about improving our pipeline. So let's dive right into this one Brynne, the first one, You know, when I did the work at the bank yesterday, there was only one person in the class who actually had what we're going to talk about right now, which is the banner. They're so easy to do. And so important.

Brynne Tillman  01:27

Yeah. And so this is about improving the profile will do pipeline on another one, just clarifying, and the banner is really important. The banner is real estate, right? This banner is like a billboard. Now a couple of mistakes that people make the first one Jack is that they don't even have one. The second mistake is there's too many words, and no one's gonna read it. The third one is its bad branding. As a banker, the brand is really important. Now I get it, people buy from you but the bank’s brand, consistently across the board is really important. It's a visual reputation moment. Yes, I know that name, there's credibility in the marketplace with that name. So we want to make sure that that banner really represents you and your bank.

Jack Hubbard  02:29

Absolutely. And there are some community banks who have done a really good job. We could name 100 of them. But you know, Bank of Ann Arbor has done a great job, and Michigan Vidya bank, and Massachusetts has done a really, really good job. So it's, that's where this marketing and sales partnership can really come in. But to your point, and you're right, it's not about the pipeline. However, if you do a good job with your profile, you may put some stuff in the pipeline. And one of the things we need to look at is the headline. You know, Brynne, there are about 1.3 million commercial lenders. And I see, unfortunately, in America, and I unfortunately see on their profile headline many times, that's exactly what they put, what should they put instead?

Brynne Tillman  03:16

Oh, this is such a great question. And let's talk about the job of the profile. And then we'll transition to the job of that headline but the job of the profile is to get your prospective customers to be interested enough to keep reading. When we think of a headline, think of a newspaper headline, if you go into a 711. And you look across, you know, the big table with all of the newspapers, the goal of the top of the fold that headline and the graphic, which is your banner is to grab your attention and get you to want to read it. That's the job of that headline. Well, that's the job of the headline in your profile. 

So if you have a commercial banker at ABC credit union, they're like, who cares. But if we put in our little formula, which is who do you help? How do you help them? And what you do, right, and there's a little bit of results, you get in there. So let's start with like, Who do you help? So working with Ann Arbor, business owners who are growing quickly, you know, and look, we're looking to meet some hefty goals in the next couple of years. Oh, I'm an Ann Arbor business owner looking to do that. So if you're a regional, it's great to throw that in because they're really resonating with that. And they're like, Yeah, that's me. And how do we do this? Through a holistic banking approach? We're not just a lender. We're a team. Trusted adviser or your trusted adviser. So now that's so much more powerful than commercial lenders at ABC bank.

Jack Hubbard  05:11

Absolutely. And it's really, really easy to do. One of the things I always suggest to bankers is that, you know, go look at other commercial bankers that have some really good headlines. And it's really easy to do. I have a question before we move on to the next one. Because I had this yesterday in class, how often would you suggest bankers changed their headline during the year?

Brynne Tillman  05:41

Well, I hate to say it depends. There are some folks that you know, this is what they do day after day, week after week but let's say we have a banker who now is responsible for going after manufacturing and that is their primary focus for the next six months to a year. That's a great opportunity to move it from Ann Arbor business owners, to Ann Arbor manufacturing companies. Just throwing in Michigan today, why not? So when we think of it, from that perspective, we're using this to attract the right people. So that's a good opportunity to change it out. Now, if you're like me, I am AB testing stuff all the time and changing things out. So you know, every few weeks, I might have a couple of tweaks. But what I'd say is, rather than focusing on changing it focus on every couple of months, take a look at it and say is it still resonating, or is still positioned to resonate with my prospects. And if it's not, then you can make that change.

Jack Hubbard  06:53

You know, Lee Iacocca always used to say half of my advertising is wasted. My problem is, I don't know which half and it really is a good point, when you start talking about the headline, the headline is not going to get people to say, oh, I want to buy a banking service from you. But it may deter them from going down the rest of your profile that we're going to talk about. And that's what's really important at 3:1 in the morning, when a company owner says, I'm tired of my current bank, I'm looking for somebody else in Ann Arbor, or Boston or wherever the case might be. Well, that does lead to the next thing that we want to talk about in the profile. And that is the whole idea around call to action, getting people to say, “Oh, there's a way to contact that person.”

Brynne Tillman  07:41

Yeah, so the call to action button, the CTA button, it's in the top of the folder, and it was right under the number of connections that you have. When you click on the little pencil to edit. If you go all the way to the bottom, there's a place that will say a website link. Once you put in a link, it'll have website text. So if you have a calendar link that you want someone to schedule a 15 minute consultation, if you have any book you want them to download, if you have a video you want them to watch, right, this is the opportunity to put a link that takes them to wherever you want them to go. That next step of pull the action is what action do you want them to take for the next step.

Jack Hubbard  08:31

And when you mentioned videos and PDFs, and all of that, it's a perfect segue into our next element of the profile, which I love and this program is going to be on both of ours right after it's over. That's called the featured section and Brynne It's interesting. If I am not on creator mode, it's in one area and if I am in creative mode it's a different area.

Brynne Tillman  08:56

Ah, that's actually really important. And I didn't think of that. So I'm glad you mentioned this, right. So when you're in the traditional mode, your featured section is pushed down. And more texts like your about section are up top. If you aren't in creator mode. And by the way, if you go down to the resources in your profile, you'll see if the toggle for creator mode is on or off. If you're in creator mode, your featured section goes all the way up and this is the scroll stopper. This is the visual right? So like Jack said, as soon as this is over, we're going to pin this to our featured section. 

So in the featured section, you can have your activity. You can upload ebooks, you can link to websites, there are lots of different types of content that you can feature. If you're doing events. And you have an event coming up. You can feature that post. So really, this is the dynamic area when we talk about how often we Change the headline. I think even more importantly is how often do we change this featured section? And if you are actively posting, I would say weekly, we should have new fresh content here. What are your thoughts on that? Jack?

Jack Hubbard  10:14

Yeah, I don't think there's any question and and here also is a great opportunity, I think, for a commercial banker or a branch manager, mortgage person, wherever they work at a bank or credit union, to partner with their marketing department. And one of the things I hope marketing continues to do is to kind of step up, continue to step up and work with their bankers to make sure those featured sections can be very rich and full. I agree with that.

Brynne Tillman  10:44

Love this love this. Okay, what's the next one?

Jack Hubbard  10:48

It's an interesting one. And it's probably one we could talk about for quite some time. It's the about section and one of the things I'd love for you to address, obviously, the global perspective on the About section, but something new that LinkedIn has done around some unique things at the bottom of your about section.

Brynne Tillman  11:09

So I love that. All right, so I'm gonna go in order and end with that, but that's really important. So your about section most of us have our passion, our mission, our years in business, and my why. And what we believe is, although it's really important for us to share that we have to earn the right for them to care about it. So we really recommend taking your story and moving that into your experience. So then what is the summary about? It's really about your prospect about your client? So let's start with the challenge, right? 

So Ann Arbor manufacturing companies are challenged with balancing, inventory and cash flow, I'm making this up, right? Here's what's happening. And here are three areas that these business owners need to do in order to ensure that they can fill all their purchase orders, while paying their payroll at the same time without sacrificing payroll. Okay, I know I'm pushing this, but right, so now we're doing this. So what do we do?

Number one, make sure you've got a revolving line of credit that you can pull from at a reasonable interest rate, right, whatever that is. Number two, right. So now we're giving advice. We're not saying “Hey, we'll give you a line of credit.” We're first framing it in what they need. And then they're gonna go, Oh, my banker hasn't talked to me about this. Right? So here are some things that you need to do, right, like, and maybe it's even, here's some things you should expect from accessing your line of credit. How easy it is, right? If that's your strength. So we talked about this, and then in the so this is the about section? Yes, we're educating them in the about section. 

Once you've done this, we've now earned the right to just momentarily talk about how we help. So you know, my focus is helping manufacturing companies in the Ann Arbor area, ensure that they're not missing out on any opportunities, because you're short on inventory, or whatever that is, right. Okay, that's what I do. Now, that's obviously going to bridge the insights you provided. But that's what we want. And then there's the call to action here different from the call to action button. But the call to action here Now Jack is you know, if you're currently challenged with bouncing, inventory and cash flow, let's chat. Even if you already have a banker, I'm happy to share insights of things that you can do right now, in order to close that gap. To take the stress off of the low bank account, whatever that is, ultimately, maybe you want to deal with receivables, maybe you want to deal with…

Talk about the challenges that your ideal prospects face and you will attract those prospects. and then make sure you've got a calendar link, we're big fans of calendar links, make it really simple but make sure you've got your phone number, your mobile number, your email, I had a banker, the other day say to me, you know, I'm really uncomfortable putting my mobile number out there. And I said, you know, that's fine, maybe get a Google number, but you want people to be able to access you. One of the things I've always said is if you don't have your banker's mobile number, get a new banker. He's like, we need to be accessible. So if you're uncomfortable with your cell number, it's very inexpensive. Go out and get a Google number that forwards to yourself.

Jack Hubbard  15:14

Absolutely. Look at Kim Johnson makes a couple of really good points here. Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  15:21

Hi, Ken! If you're selling something the about section is about how you can serve your customer and solve their problems. 100%. If you're a job seeker, yes, this is different. The About section is the value we'll bring to your future employer. Yeah, and we're talking solely about social selling not about seeking jobs, for sure but a lot of times, I'm just going to throw out there that I have learned from LinkedIn job experts is that your about section is your cover letter, if you're in job search mode, but we solely focus on business development. So that is definitely our perspective. And Jeff, thank you so much, Jeff, it said that this is great. 

Jack Hubbard  16:03

Great to see you, Jeff! And Brynne, before you go to this kind of surprised thing at the bottom of the about section, you make such a good point about the about section is not about you, but about how you can help and one of the things we talked about yesterday in class is that every business has seven basic financial needs. And in your about section, you can kind of say if you're a treasury management person, for example, My expertise is helping business owners manage their cash effectively and efficiently and then if you have three bullet points about examples of what you've done in a very generic way, now you're establishing yourself as a credible resource, but you're not pushing a product down someone's throat. That's huge, subtlety Brynne but it's, and it's something that Penny Faust, who's on line with us to who has done this really well in her entire career. That's a subtlety that really does make the sale, but jump down to that last part, because this is kind of new.

Brynne Tillman  17:13

Yeah, and I love this. So we can have up to 50 skills listed on our profile, we can now highlight five of them in the profiles about section. So when you are scrolling down, and although the above sections are typically condensed, they have all kinds of little stars, and it really jumps out at you. And you can have five key skills highlighted there. I love this. So for here, I don't care if you're good at Excel or PowerPoint, the skill that we want here is treasury, commercial lending, like what is the offer? Now you can put excel in the rest of your skills at the bottom, I'm totally fine with that. We're not even gonna talk much about skills today but these are the ones that visually will appear in your profile that people will connect with you and you know who you are professionally. So we want to make sure that that is aligning with what your customers want to see.

Jack Hubbard  18:18

one more thing in the About section. And by the way, Brynne I think Penny Faust makes a really interesting point. It is kind of a workaround for this, I don't want to show my mobile phone on my LinkedIn, she says your office phone should be automatically forwarded to your mobile phone. That's perfect. That's that that really works out very well. That's a very, very nice workaround. But back to the about section, before we leave it, one of the things that we all need to realize is that we have about 2600 characters that we can use, and that's important real estate. But the thing that's really important, too, is the fact that LinkedIn only allows you to show I think it's your first three or four lines. So it kind of goes back to that headline, Brynne that you've got to make this so compelling that they click see more. And I'm sure you know, you taught me how to do this. I'm sure you'd like to comment on that.

Brynne Tillman  19:17

Yeah, well, I've called this a call to read, right? What is your first line that gets them interested enough to click see more? So I think on mine and I shouldn't know this, but I think on mine, it's like learn top social selling tips. Right? And then so if you think about the challenge might be there but whatever it is, that's a second headline, a sub headline, right, a sub headline that is important enough to create enough interest to get them to want to click and see more.

Jack Hubbard  19:51

Yeah, no doubt about it. And what about recent successes in the about section? I think when you – I’lll start, you’ll finish. I think when you talk about recent successes, it's how your client has been successful, because that makes you successful. And it makes you successful enough that other people want to talk to you (and add that to your featured section) Yeah, absolutely. So one other thing I wanted to mention, emoji pedia, and you probably have others that that people could talk to. I'm not a huge fan of emojis, but in your about section to help set it off, because you can't do capitals, you can't do metallics, you can do checkmarks, or telephones or something that would indicate certain kinds of things in a professional way and that is able to be used in in your about section but we digress. Let's talk about one of the last two things we want to discuss today. And that is experience. But before that, Jeff Baker has a comment.

Brynne Tillman  20:56

Yeah, if your bank has RingCentral, you can use the phone app to utilize text office phone and email. Good to know you know, I know the name RingCentral really, really well. And I did not know they did that. So thank you for enlightening me.

Jack Hubbard  21:13

That’s great. So number six of the seven is your experience section. Talk more about that.

Brynne Tillman  21:19

So I love the experience section. This is where people now… if they've if they've scrolled down this bar, they're interested in you. Right? So now we tell your story. Don't talk about your job description, you know, don't copy and paste it from your resume. This is where people will get to know you like more personally. So start with your story. Why are you in banking and no excuses that you say I was the first job I got out of college. So that's why I'm in banking, because I hear that a lot. But you stayed. Right? You stayed why? What is it? 

This is where you can talk about my passion is really about helping small businesses in the Ann Arbor area just reach their potential. Why is that important to you? Really connect, in this case emotionally with those folks where they go, man, this person is really committed to my success. So talk about and I have my story of why LinkedIn talk about your story of why banking, then talk about how you help, if you want to list your responsibilities, fine, it won't make a difference but ultimately, the real value in this is that they're connecting with you.

Jack, here's the magic for me. And this is something that we do that I'm not sure very many other people talk about, which is the thread. The thread in experience. So, you know, that is meant to be you know, I started off as a teller and then I became, you know, Assistant Branch Manager, then branch manager, then in a market market manager with a director, director. And so it threads your positions, but we can use this from a marketing perspective as well. So we, for example, we will have, you know, our title and our story. 

And then we might have our role. We have an elearning membership program. And we'll talk about that instead of being a job description. It's an offering so for bankers, you can thread together, I work with manufacturing companies retail, right pizzerias, whatever it is like you can you can list the company or the industries that you serve, or you can let I mean, you can use this you can list commercial lending lines of credit, Treasury services. 

So take advantage of that real estate kind of an extra FYI, on this one, and I think it's really important to keep in mind their search engine optimization value in the title lines. So if someone's looking for commercial lending in Ann Arbor, and you Google it, Google is indexing those sections in your LinkedIn profile. So it's very likely that if you do this well, that you'll show up in a Google search.

Jack Hubbard  24:33

And that's exactly why these profiles should be completed. Because if you don't have an about section, you're going to lose out if you don't finish your experience section. It's not going to happen for you. Well, the last thing we want to talk about today in the seventh and we've covered them very at a very high level and certainly we're happy to talk to anybody about it down the road is recommendation. Not one way or Two ways.

Brynne Tillman  25:01

Oh, gosh, Jack, I love this so much. So let's start with two ways: one, I got so excited. I'm in class. All right. So typically, we ask for recommendations, we get recommendations that may have five or six. And that's nice. There's social proof that you've done well. Absolutely, ask your clients when you've done something great. And they say, Oh, my gosh, we could not have had this new building without you. Thank you so much, we could never have expanded without you. You've had a great impact, we're going to ask them to put in that recommendation.

Brynne Tillman  25:46

What if we consider recommending them? What a great client they were to work with. This is really important. For a lot of reasons. We're solidifying relationships with them. We're creating loyalty and we're leveraging the real estate on their account. Very few people are getting recommendations. Most recent one is at the top, when other people are looking at them. Maybe it's for recruiting purposes, for whatever it might be. And they look at recommendations, yours is at the top. 

Now talk about a great communicator, easy to work with, pleasure to work with. And then you know, this is how we helped solve the problem with them. And I wish every client were like them, this is a wonderful opportunity to really make them feel good and leverage their profile to continue branding ourselves in the marketplace.

Jack Hubbard  27:03

And when you reach out to somebody, and you do a recommendation for them, one logical thing is they might want to do one for you. And when they say to you, I'd love to recommend you or if you reach out to somebody and say, Would you mind recommending me, help them and guide them with certain words that you want the marketplace to see frictionless, great experience, tremendous resource, trusted advisor, words like that, that come out of someone else's mouth, in effect, you could say it yourself, but it's never more powerful than if some other client or center of influence says that about you.

Brynne Tillman  27:46

I love that. You know, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I know we spent almost a half hour talking about this. But you know, the whole point here is that you guys, you've heard kind of how important thing is that all of these sections be optimized. This is your landing page. This is what people say, when they Google you, they're getting here, this is representing you. If your profile is a resume, not a resource, you're going to lose opportunities. But if it's a resource, and you can resonate with your buyer and provide value, you will get requests to connect or even a better acceptance rate of the people you're trying to connect with and as you know, we'll teach all the time, you know, as you're sharing content, you're drawing traffic to your profile, and your profiles job is to convert that connection to a conversation.

Jack Hubbard  28:49

Well, and I think to wrap this up, Keith brings up an interesting question about another way of creating COI ties and it brings me to the point of answering keys and then kind of mentioning it to everybody. We have 30 minutes here and we love topics. And I think that, that topic, Brynne would be an outstanding topic maybe for next week if you do it. And the rest of us come back. But if you want to message Brynne or myself, if you're connected with us, please let us know what other topics you want. We're thrilled about it.

Brynne Tillman  29:25

Yeah. Or join the modernbanker.com/publiclibrary. And there's a community where you can ask the question, and we can answer you there too. So themodernbanker.com/publiclibrary, but Jack, I think this is a great topic for next week. Thank you, Keith.

Jack Hubbard  29:43

I think it is too! Well, Brynne, thanks for your time today. Thanks, everybody for joining us, and for participating actively in this great topic. We'll dive deeper into this COIs and many other things every Thursday at noon Eastern time because, Brynne, it's Thursday. It's Jack Rants with Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  30:04

Yay. Thanks, guys. See you next week.

Jack Hubbard  30:07

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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