Al McBride 0:03
Welcome to the dealing with Goliath podcast. The mission of dealing with Goliath is to sharpen the psychological edge of business leaders with skin in the game, who wants to be more effective under pressure, uncover hidden value, and increase profitability.

Al McBride 0:17
With expert guests across the business spectrum, we deliver gems of wisdom, delving into their methods, their thinking, and approach to business life and problem solving.

Al McBride 0:26
This is the grand a cup of insight, long form podcast interview format, where we take the time to really delve in that little bit deeper into our guests experience their stories, and to get those prices nuggets for you. So I’m your host, Al McBride.

Al McBride 0:42
My guest today is Brian Traichel. Brian has, with more than 20 years of experience and professional sales. He’s a master connector sales strategist, sales trainer, coach and presenter.

Al McBride 0:56
And he’s worked with many well known authors and speakers, more than 3000 real estate professionals. Brian focus is on helping sales professionals, business owners and senior leadership teams, grow their businesses increase brand visibility, and create a Top of Mind awareness using LinkedIn.

Al McBride 1:16
Brian’s personal motto is moving your ideas into action. Now I have to say I’ve been working with Brian recently in a group which was organized by a mutual friend of ours. Brian’s sheer depth and breadth of knowledge around LinkedIn and sales principles in general, the level of strategies and tactics was just incredibly impressive.

Al McBride 1:39
And even just applying a few of them have already started to seeing complete changes and yield results. So I can personally vouch for his methods and approach really delivering fruit very, very quickly. So it’s, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show.

Brian Traichel 1:56
Thanks for having me, Al. It’s definitely a pleasure to be here with you and your community and help us spread the good word of LinkedIn and, you know, proves, why we should all be on it and spending more time. So I’m really excited to share what I it’s been a journey for me over 16 years when LinkedIn first came out, and it started very small. And yeah, it’s been around for a while,

Al McBride 2:16
that that’s an interesting one. Because a lot of people you know that the stats are that, you know, people spend a lot less time on LinkedIn and Facebook. But yes, the actual yield for business is what 10 20, 30 times compared to Facebook? So it is where business gets done, isn’t it? It’s a remarkable platform.

Brian Traichel 2:37
It really is. And that’s the thing about there’s such an aversion to LinkedIn, people like well, you know, my client bases on Facebook, yes, but they’re also on LinkedIn. So if you’re going to spend the time to post or do it, anything on there, just carry it over. It’s really the same mindset is you don’t have to separate the two.

Brian Traichel 2:54
And I’ve always said, you know, it’s not two personalities, you’re the same person. So it’s not who I am on LinkedIn, this is who I am on Facebook, integrate, right, integrate your message, because there’s unlimited opportunities for everybody.

Brian Traichel 3:08
And there’s no, I don’t believe in the I have to be professional here and then not so professional on Facebook. So with the pandemic, that’s really kind of shattered the that that line where people can kind of just show up now.

Al McBride 3:24
That’s a brilliant thing. I mean, I think I’m nearly the opposite. I largely abandoned Facebook, because it was just going to all the people I hang out with now in a business context, virtually speaking, but hardly any of us use Facebook, but loads of us go back onto LinkedIn.

Al McBride 3:40
You know, check messages, check updates, what what are people that you want to do business with share all that kind of stuff. But you’re touching on something really, really interesting there?

Al McBride 3:43
So what would you say are some of those common myths about LinkedIn and about sales on LinkedIn doing business on LinkedIn, in general? Because you touched on one of them was that you have to be super formal, I have a very different person. So that’s definitely one of them. So let’s talk about that. So

Brian Traichel 4:07
yeah, so I think you know, the myth. I mean, the number one myth, of course, that probably everybody I’ll use the generic everyone right, which is probably not true. But in speaking to that is, the first thing was several years ago is Oh, LinkedIn. One is I don’t have the time for it. It’s just another thing I have to manage. Okay. Second is, isn’t it just to get a job? Right? That’s what people would say. Okay. Right.

Al McBride 4:31
So one is that it’s just like this virtual CV, which it can be,

Brian Traichel 4:37
well that it was intended, you know, for to have a network, right. So the, the whole concept of LinkedIn was yes, you can get a job but it kind of morphed because recruiters were using it to find in place people and they started going that and there’s definitely a functionality there.

Brian Traichel 4:52
But originally it was meant to create a network of professionals in your sphere of influence for each area, almost like a mini band. If you had your own cons here, who do I know that’s an attorney in my network? Who do I know that’s a real estate agent in my network.

Brian Traichel 5:08
So the goal was to build a solid trusted network of professionals that you could go in, search your connections and find that service or product that you were looking for, right. And then what happened was, it turned into expanding outside of your network and then getting more connections and more opportunities.

Brian Traichel 5:26
So it keeps changing. But the original concept was to make solid connections. And if you really break it down, it’s a connection request, right, you’re sending a connection request. And then if we go further into the word connection, we are trying to build a connection with the person in a relationship.

Brian Traichel 5:45
So the idea is to really have a great referral, you know, where you can trade leads, share information, and help each other. But people have gone with the more I need to start sending more messages connecting with more people. But what they’re not realizing is that if you’re on LinkedIn, and you have 500, plus connections, you have to ask yourself, do I know all the 500 people already existing within my network, right?

Brian Traichel 6:08
And those people do, right? Right. And those 500 people know, 500 people. So when you look at your second degree network, you could have upwards of 100,000 people that are within reach of speaking to, but what happens is people go, I need more and more and more. So I need more connections. It’s like, well, let’s just stop the more connections and figure out who do I know right now? And could that turn into a referral or a sale?

Al McBride 6:30
Okay, very good. So what are some of those other mistakes that people make when they use LinkedIn?

Brian Traichel 6:37
Well, there’s a lot. It’s

Al McBride 6:40
a big area. Yeah,

Brian Traichel 6:41
I think the big areas are is not truly engaging with people in sending connection requests with no meet right? Or no message. So if you’re going to connect with someone, there has to be a reason or something prompted you to say I wouldn’t just arbitrarily say, Oh, I like that person’s profile photo, I think I’m going to connect with them. Right? So we have to say, Hi, Al, this is Brian, I’m looking to expand my reach in the UK with podcasts be great to connect.

Al McBride 7:10
Right? So there has to be something somewhat relevant.

Brian Traichel 7:12
Yes, you want to anchor the invitation, whether I’m expanding my network with industry professionals, or this and this, but and then you want to follow up with that person within two to three days, because what happens is, you’ll get the response, most people are willing to accept your connection requests, as long as your profile, you know, looks up looks good, and is well presented.

Brian Traichel 7:31
But what happens is, is nobody neither party follows up with a phone call or a messaging, scheduled something or they just go in your heap of contacts to be forgotten. And then wait, it’s kind of a wasted effort.

Al McBride 7:46
Because so many times we’ve got these sort of blank requests, but the job title the their job title or their areas seems kind of interesting. So and as you say, they seem legit enough.

Al McBride 7:58
So you go, Okay, yeah, we’ll run with that, then you don’t hear anything, or even I’ve sent them some saying, Hey, thanks for reaching out, you know, what are what do you What’s your differentiation? What’s your take on such and such? And then there’s no reply. And you think, why’d you reach out to me? And that’s what

Brian Traichel 8:16
people are asking, they’re scratching your head is like, wait, wait, let me get this straight. You asked me to connect with you. I responded saying, hey, great, how can I help you and it goes radio silent. So there was really not, there was nothing in that transaction.

Brian Traichel 8:30
So I have a rule, which is, engage or don’t engage, right? So you can as your invitations are coming in, obviously, you want to build out your network, it’s beneficial to get as many solid connections as possible. But I’m slowly not going to respond to every single one.

Brian Traichel 8:44
So you know, you could say thanks for connecting. Great, great to be connected and just get a message out there. That’s a non engage. But an engaged invitation would be I would accept it and say, Thanks for reaching out, what’s the best number to reach you? I have some questions about your business. So I keep it very vague. But that little question mark is probably the most powerful tool in LinkedIn. Okay, that’s

Al McBride 9:07
an interesting tip right, right?

Brian Traichel 9:10
Curiosity is a human behavior that is very true to form on LinkedIn. So in my questions are transparent and they are true, because I literally do have questions about your business. You just don’t know which questions I have. Right?

Brian Traichel 9:24
Right. So the curiosity, what kind of questions do you have Brian, or more in the line of the podcasting? What’s the best number to reach you at? Question mark? Right. So I’ll keep I’ll keep that conversation going.

Brian Traichel 9:37
Now, again, I am a background in sales. And I’m not here to manipulate the conversation or do anything to you know, that’s not, you know, with integrity, but there is a there is a sequencing in order to get people’s attention, because we are bombarded enough.

Brian Traichel 9:52
And curiosity seems to be that little missing link that gets people to say, Oh, that’s an interesting message. I wonder, I wonder what that’s all about. Otherwise, it’s Hi, Al, thanks for connecting, here’s my, here’s what I do. Here’s a link to my website. Here’s my calendar link. And by the way, I don’t really not concern anything about you. But this is all about me. So hey, let’s schedule a call.

Al McBride 10:14
Right? So it’s the classic thing of, you know, get the focus off yourself, get it all to the other to the other. In negotiation, we’d say, you know, like the counterpart, but you could say who, or in presentations, it’s the audience, but it’s the same principle.

Al McBride 10:27
This is not about you. It’s not about you, it’s about them getting that principle clear. What sort of other principles would you bring in then as a general, general ideas that are good to get straight when you’re getting on LinkedIn?

Brian Traichel 10:41
Well, I think really, the reality is, is my whole concept is based on Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence people. So I’ve taken that book, which was written in the 40s, or 50s. And it stays true to this day, which is about being interested in people, right, there’s that, you know, you know, people imagine everyone with a sign around their neck that says, make me feel important, right?

Brian Traichel 11:03
So we have to, we have to look at their profile, and really read it and understand the person and maybe again, you know, gather why they reached out to us, but look for a common connection, whether we do business or not, it’s about networking, and being visible. So when the topic of real estate comes up, or the topic of a CPA, you could say,

Brian Traichel 11:22
Oh, I know someone in my network that does it, I’ll make an introduction. So the more opportunities we can be seen, the more chances we have. And we’re not paying, you know, a large amount of money or $0, to use this LinkedIn account. So it’s a great resource, right?

Brian Traichel 11:39
But going back to the the How to Win Friends and Influence People, I’ll literally, I’m a military veteran, US Air Force, you know, I went to Eastern Connecticut State University, I’ve played these sports, I’ve been in these clubs. So I look for people’s profiles that may have something of common where we went to the same school, or we both served.

Brian Traichel 11:58
And then I’ll start the relationship building, you know, with something we have in common, or I see you’re both Boston Red Sox fans, or some some, you know, or you like the NFL.

Brian Traichel 12:06
So, you know, there’s so much information on LinkedIn more than Facebook, which is surprising, because people think it’s not Yeah, but they don’t realize it, because what happens, they sit down, they start putting their profile, and they’re not realizing how much data they’re putting out there, which creates a psychographic profile.

Brian Traichel 12:23
So if you were to really study a person’s profile, you will learn how they talk, what they like, and you can get a pretty good sense of how to engage with them. Right? So if you study any NLP, or you know, human behavioral characteristics, it’s all there. It’s gold. It’s just a matter of how do I interpret this data?

Al McBride 12:43
Right?

Brian Traichel 12:44
And that’s pretty fun. Actually, when you break it down, and you’re not being manipulative again, you’re just really trying to understand that person, because most people are waiting for the sale. Okay.

Brian Traichel 12:53
When’s he gonna pitch me? what’s coming next? Is he really being authentic? And when you call someone and have a conversation, and there’s no talk about, well, this is how much it costs. They’re kind of like, wait, what, what just happened? Someone just called me, and they never sold me anything.

Al McBride 13:08
Right. So how do you move it on? Then?

Brian Traichel 13:12
You ask them what they need, what are they looking for? Right? Yeah, what you know, how can I help your business? What’s your target? Are you familiar with how to use the LinkedIn platform? Do you understand the search parameters?

Brian Traichel 13:23
You know, you can do this? No, I wasn’t aware of it. And I’ll show people you know, how to do it. And then they’ll they’ll say, Well, how do I learn more, I said, Well, if you’d like to, we could work together, we could do a webinar, but I’m not there for really, because the sale happens when you provide the value anyways.

Brian Traichel 13:38
So by by adding value, it’s a five, maybe I’ll get a call three months from now, I just got a call, you know, from a client from two years ago, whose son now is graduating college and wants to get their LinkedIn profile.

Brian Traichel 13:50
So it’s just a matter of the momentum in front loading everything to really get that benefit. So it’s, you know, people like, well, when am I gonna get a sale out of this? How soon is it? How long does it take? It’s like, can’t answer that question.

Al McBride 14:03
And that brings me to another subsection of the same conversation, which is, what are some of those little red flags you have? When someone approaches you? What what triggers that one maybe is around expectation? Oh,

Brian Traichel 14:17
well, so the red flag as far as a perspective of inbound invitations, when you know, someone’s gonna suddenly put you on a seven, seven to 14 day drip campaign, right, which clogs up your inbox there, you’re gonna beat the red flag is going to be probably more than two sentences in the in the connection requests.

Al McBride 14:36
Right? Okay. So when people say more than that, maybe they need to, oh, yeah, short and sweet.

Brian Traichel 14:42
on LinkedIn. If it’s legitimate, you know, connection request is going to be short and sweet. But if it’s very long and drawn out, it’s not a connection request is not meant to send a message. It’s meant to connect, right?

Brian Traichel 14:52
The message comes after connecting. Okay? And another great way to do it is if you’re looking to determine if a human did Or an Autobot did it they’ll have your name, right? And then a comma, and then there’ll be like two spaces, then a message. If I even see that I just delete it. I don’t even read it.

Brian Traichel 15:09
Because it was done by an automatic, you know, because nobody would normally type like that. So, if I do, which makes me nervous, right, okay. Yeah. Well, that’s, uh, that’s more takes the form of an auto, you know, automated, you know, type of thing. So try and keep it super brief. I tell people imagine you’re texting someone. That’s the way I communicate on LinkedIn.

Al McBride 15:33
Right? Gotcha. That makes a lot of sense that makes right because people

Brian Traichel 15:36
don’t have time when they’re managing so many different things, emails, three accounts, this platform. In the thing about LinkedIn, it is b2b, it’s a b2b platform. So it’s short and sweet. No one’s offended if you just say great. What else or very to the point. So you can be very Matter of fact, and no one’s going to slight you for being very, you know, gruff, or, or any of those things. So it’s, it’s okay to be short and sweet.

Al McBride 16:02
Okay, that makes sense. Oh, talk to me about more some of the some of the errors and expectation when you work with clients, what are they coming to as often? So they’re like, yeah, I keep hearing about making loads of connections and loads of deals, or sales through LinkedIn. Okay, Brian, help me. So when they come to you, what are some of those faults and thinking,

Brian Traichel 16:23
What? Well, the first one is always like, well, when can I expect results? Right? Let’s define results. Because I say, Well, I can tell you what your results are instant. They’re like, What do you mean? I said, Well, you asked me what kind of results so you’ll get instant results? Well, how so?

Brian Traichel 16:37
Well, if I send you someone a connection request, and they accept it, instant results, right? And then send them a message, they respond back to you, that’s a results, that’s really on the the user, it’s not the platform, how it’s how you engage with that person. So the results really are instance, it’s just a matter of how many steps it takes in that conversation to present to them follow up.

Brian Traichel 17:02
So the sales process has to be very well defined, when you’re using LinkedIn, if you think that someone’s gonna land on your profile, and call you because they have to have your service, that doesn’t happen too often, right, they may connect with you, and then you’ll have a conversation. But most people say I’m looking for this, and they just, you know, pull out their credit card and buy your product.

Brian Traichel 17:24
So by having a great profile does not mean that your door is gonna be knocking, or your phone’s gonna be ringing. So that’s definitely a misconception, you know, did all this work on my profile, and nobody’s called me, they’re not going to call you it’s not there for that. The only thing that profile serves is for you to be in a good position for people to accept your connection requests, or your keywording.

Brian Traichel 17:49
And your showing up. So it does have some merit. Don’t get me wrong, but as far as, you know, weighting that with actual direct business is very limited, right? The business comes as you being a hunter, right, going out Biz Dev, business development, and creating a campaign, and also sticking to that campaign, because I’ll have people I’ll show you, here’s what you do daily, weekly, monthly, you have to do this for at least 90 days before you really get that front loading in that momentum going. And then guess what happens?

Brian Traichel 17:55
Well, Brian, it didn’t work. Okay. How many? How much time did you spend on it this week? Well, I was only on it for one day, this week. Okay. Every day, it has to be consistent. So if you’re not consistent, it’s not going to work. You may get lucky. I mean, there’s always that random chance that you’ll something will pop through.

Brian Traichel 18:38
But it has to be consistent, because that visibility builds on that momentum, right. And over time, the amount of people seeing you and responding gets magnified. And that’s when your phone starts to ring. Hey, I happen to see your post, I saw your comment, I got your message.

Brian Traichel 18:53
Thanks for the birthday wish. Really appreciate that. So that’s where you have to manage many different components to get the full results. And in for me birthdays is probably the most overlooked area as as small of a thing as it could be. Because you know, Facebook has birthdays, so does LinkedIn, but saying just happy birthday wasn’t working. Because that just says Happy Birthday out. And you’re like, Okay, great. Thanks. You read me back, say thanks. And that was our exchange. But I started thumbs up

Al McBride 19:23
or something.

Brian Traichel 19:24
Right? Yeah. So it’s really it kind of falls to the ground. But when you start engaging with people and say, Hi, Al, happy birthday, hope you’re doing great. any big plans for the for your birthday celebration?

Al McBride 19:37
Start the question mark starts the conversation. All

Brian Traichel 19:39
of a sudden people were like, Oh, yeah, thanks for asking, Brian. What have you been up to? You know, I’ve been great. What’s the best number to reach you out? Let’s catch up on a phone call. And then take it offline as fast as you can.

Al McBride 19:51
Very cool. Very cool.

Brian Traichel 19:53
Yeah. So and again, if people think they need to manage it, but you’re managing a business, LinkedIn is not it’s just something extra, this can literally propel your business, you know, 10 times what you’ve been doing, or three times, depending on what effort you put into it.

Brian Traichel 20:09
So it’s so you want to look at it a little bit differently and say, This is a tool. And it’s the most overlooked and underutilized, but highly SEO platform that now people are starting to jump on board, right. But it’s not, it’s not anything new.

Brian Traichel 20:23
Right? Microsoft bought it in 2016, I think for $23 billion, or something, you know, so I’m crazy. So obviously, they see the value in LinkedIn, though, it’s not going away. So if you want to put you know, you know, stack your deck, definitely make LinkedIn a part of your daily, you know, business, as well as using it for, you know, having a company page and things like that. So, to me, LinkedIn serves as my own website, I don’t even have a website, there’s no need for me to have a website, because

Al McBride 20:52
the LinkedIn profile makes a lot of sense, in that way that, weirdly enough, I am suddenly getting a lot of requests, mail from people who do what you do you know, who are experts at LinkedIn, which I find strange. I hadn’t I didn’t particularly remember seeing them before.

Al McBride 21:12
But suddenly, they’re there. They’re just wondering, because you did mention in our training quite a few points of differentiation in your approach. I just wonder what what you what you what you believe those are compared to you know, someone so someone says, Okay, I need my profile improved, I need to make LinkedIn work for me, How are you different from some of your competitors? Because I know you distinctly are,

Brian Traichel 21:36
right, well, the competitors are looking at LinkedIn as a is as a landing page or some type of marketing funnel, right, a lot of the people are taking the internet marketing approach, and they’re trying to put my banner has to be a banner of this is what I do.

Brian Traichel 21:53
And you know, the number one, you know, coach, or and that’s fine. I mean, there’s, there’s a platform for that. But it’s really, they’re really getting into the I want to make this a sales page. And it’s not about sales, selling, but it’s about the individual, right, you’ll have certain things in there that you do and how you help people. But the people who were, you know, they’re missing, like half the sections to if you look at someone who would professionally hired someone to do their LinkedIn profile, they don’t even fill out their accomplishments section.

Brian Traichel 22:22
And the accomplishments section has probably another eight or nine subsections, which if you utilize that, you start playing SEO. So when you ask what’s what different as I actually repurpose content over and over and over throughout the profile, so you know, where others have it once in their profile, you’ll have it 30 times, and it’s strategically placed, where to the naked eye, you wouldn’t even notice it. Right?

Brian Traichel 22:49
Right. So it’s about positioning, and also what’s important, so people overlook so many things in their life that they’ve done that they go, that was no big deal. Like here in the US. There’s a lot of organizations and probably in the UK to where, you know, like the Salvation Army or the goodwill.

Brian Traichel 23:06
I always ask people, well, you know, in volunteering, have you ever, you know, you don’t have to be a volunteer, but you know, say, Brian, I’m not that active in the community, but I contribute a lot. Well, that’s really the same as volunteering, you’re volunteering your contribution to an organization. So when you start thinking about, have you ever given blood? Yes, you’re a blood donor.

Brian Traichel 23:25
Okay, so you’ve contributed in your donor? Have you ever purchased an unwrapped toy for Christmas and contribute it to the toys for tots program? Yeah, I’ve done that. Have you ever dropped clothes off at the goodwill? Yeah, I’ve done. So let’s start listing all these things that you’ve done, as well as education, courses, all those things start to compile right publications, honors and awards people.

Brian Traichel 23:48
If you look at LinkedIn, when you really get into the the weeds, it’ll say, honors and awards. It doesn’t just say a word that says Honors and awards. So you could say, I always say, Have you ever run a marathon? Well, that’s quite an honor. I mean, have you ever climbed the tallest, the tallest peak, right? And people start realizing that Yeah, geez, and I go in my my office, and I have not myself, but I have all these medals from the five K’s and the three K’s in the marathons I run, it’s like, that’s kind of an honor to have done that many.

Brian Traichel 24:17
And guess what, you’ll end up connecting with other people who also are engaged in the same, you know, hobby or interest, so everything counts. And don’t be afraid to kind of play around within the lines on LinkedIn, to use those opportunities for more keywording and more connecting with people.

Brian Traichel 24:35
So you know, if you look at the accomplishments section, that’s probably the most underutilized section of LinkedIn, you know, languages publication, so it just goes into organizations people like I’ll ask every organization you’ve ever been a part of, even though you’re not a member, you were a former member, right? The key word so that’s so all of a sudden your one page you know, CV turns into A 32 page because yeah, that’s,

Al McBride 25:04
that’s a very important I think people maybe take that. Take that parallel too far, you know the way, in a lot of industries, your your resume needs to be well, one page or two pages, and they think maybe LinkedIn needs to be the same. But as you said, it’s actually the other way around, you can really fill it out.

Brian Traichel 25:21
Right? We have a, I don’t know if you have CVS in the UK, but there’s a joke. I mean, the CVS receipts are probably you know, this long when the when you checkout and you buy a, you know, some bubblegum and you get a 30, you know, this receipt, you know, a mile long, so you really want your profile to be as long as possible because it condenses, but the words are behind it.

Brian Traichel 25:43
So, and most people aren’t reading and if they do, it’s okay, because there’s nothing there. That’s not true. But we really want to put as much as we can. So overload your profile to the point where it’s ridiculous, and then back it up about a step.

Al McBride 25:56
Right? Okay, good.

Brian Traichel 25:58
Take it to the line.

Al McBride 26:01
More rather than less, okay, I love that approach that it sounds like you’re, you’re based more, in a sense, as you said, a word that keeps coming up is connection in the not in the button sense. But in the actual human human to human connection. And, and seeing, again, that that phrase you remind me of is served on sale is that same sort of approach, right?

Brian Traichel 26:28
It really is, in a lot of ways. And there’s enough business out there, if you know for, for everybody, because, you know, the one of the things I try to do is I’ll notice, actually, you know, mistakes on people’s profiles, which are legitimate punctuation errors, or duplicates, or their websites, links aren’t working, their phone numbers not listed.

Brian Traichel 26:50
And I spend most of my day calling people and letting them know that their connections are exposed, or by the way, your links not working, they had no idea. And they just say simply Thank you. You’re welcome. Is there anything I can help you with?

Brian Traichel 27:02
Not particularly, I just really thought I’d bring it to your attention as professionals, one professional to another, you know, if we were out to dinner, and you had a little thing, I’d probably say, Hey, you got a little piece of it, you know, that’s good. Do you want to let your friends and your colleagues and your network run around?

Brian Traichel 27:19
So you know, that strategy alone, if you mind and looking for mistakes, and people’s profile, people aren’t offended, they’re actually very grateful that you took the time to notify them, because how many other people in their network are looking at that person walking around with you know, that? So they’re very appreciative. And then they’ll say, Well, I don’t know how to fix that, or how not to do it. And I’ll simply say, Are you in front of a computer? Yes. Okay, great. This is what you do go here, go here. And they’re like, thank you so much like, so what do you do again?

Al McBride 27:48
Right.

Brian Traichel 27:49
Where are you?

Al McBride 27:51
How do you know these things? Yeah, exactly, exactly. Suppose that goes into neatly into the next question here. What do you love most about your work? What? What really gives you a good, a good boost?

Brian Traichel 28:03
Well, that’s a great question. Because that’s, first of all, I’ve been carrying the LinkedIn towards, you know, for many, many years and fell on deaf ears for a very long time, but I never quit. I said, No, I don’t care. The next platform is I’m sticking to LinkedIn. This is a picture pony, and run back to good horse there in the

Al McBride 28:21
end. Right, but, right, it’s,

Brian Traichel 28:25
it’s it’s true and steady, it’s not going anywhere. But the thing I love the most is that when I work with people to do their profiles, I’m asking them questions from high school to today, right? At 20, soon to be 2020. So I’m taking they’re literally 30 years of experiences and condensing that into an intake form, and seeing what we can sort out.

Brian Traichel 28:49
But what I like about it is that I know more about those clients than some of their friends, do. I know more about their clients than some of their families do. Because they didn’t think it was important. So and what happens is, is that I’ll say this all the time, because you’ll come to me and we’ll have a conversation, I’ll ask the same question.

Brian Traichel 29:10
I go, That’s funny. I just, I just worked with a guy who was, you know, a bronze medalist in archery, and I see that you’re an archery, I’ll connect the two of you. So I’ll send a message out and say, Brian, you know, me, Al.

Brian Traichel 29:24
Al is also an avid guitarist, and I thought the two of you should connect on LinkedIn. So it’s great, because I have all this recollection of all the clients I’ve worked with, in the very end, you know, honors, and awards and small things about them, that most people don’t know. And they’re not really private things are just things that people have never listed on their profile. So I connect a lot of people, and I create a great network.

Brian Traichel 29:47
nd a lot of times we become, you know, very friendly with similar interests and things like that. So I like to connecting in the networking, and just the interesting facts about people like oh, I don’t want to say that. And that’s another myth. I should go back to your This question yeah, there’s like, I don’t want to boast.

Brian Traichel 30:02
I don’t want to brag you’re not. Right. So I tell people, this is probably the one place where you want to stand on your soapbox and tell everybody everything that you’ve done that you feel is of merits or interesting. So don’t hold back because that one, you know, that one factor may be why you got the job or the contract.

Al McBride 30:24
Right, right. You know,

Brian Traichel 30:25
I’ve done landmark education, I probably can attribute at least five contracts, just to the fact that myself and the person I was speaking with both went to landmark education. Okay. Right, because it was on their profile. So it was that extra thing that I was able to call them and say, Hey, I saw your profile.

Brian Traichel 30:43
Notice you went to landmark persons of great change in my life. So that’s amazing work. Would you like about it most? Then like, Okay, so what do you do, Brian? I do. Okay, great. You’re hired. And it was literally didn’t even have to go through the formal process because I had the secret handshake.

Al McBride 30:57
Okay,

Brian Traichel 30:58
bright owl. I noticed you were in the Air Force. Yes. Yeah. myself. I was stationed in Las Vegas. Yeah, me too. Okay, great. And it’s like, whatever, I noticed, you went to this college, and you were part of this fraternity? Yeah, me too. Great.

Brian Traichel 31:10
And so now we’re using that those personal connections with people first, and then the business comes afterwards. And sometimes they don’t even ask for the presentation. They say, you seem like a solid enough guy, you have enough credentials. How much

Al McBride 31:24
is it? It’s kind of interesting, because it, you remind me it’s almost more old school. You know, it’s kind of how business used to be done, where, you know, people would go to lunch and talk about family and sports movie or whatever they want to talk about. And then like, the last five minutes of the conversation might actually be the business that needs doing. Whereas I don’t really get a feeling of the last 20 years. In a lot of spheres that kind of flipped. People are all all about the business now. Whereas what you’re talking about is almost say harking back to Days of

Brian Traichel 32:00
the Dale Carnegie, right goes back to the end, if you look at Dale Carnegie training, all it hasn’t gone away. It’s still very popular philosophies. And it’s really about relationships. That’s all we

Al McBride 32:09
have at the end of the day. It’s funny because I’m laughing here because I completely forgot about this when I was an art dealer in a previous life. And I remember when I went for a job in a gallery, and the gallery owner spent the entire interview, I was getting ready at all my knowledge about art and artist and the market and how to sell all this kind of stuff. And waiting for these kind of really intense questions. I think 90% of the hour long interview was about scuba diving.

Brian Traichel 32:40
Right? So it’s exactly what you’re talking about.

Al McBride 32:43
You know why I like you? Because there’s scuba diver as I asked him years later, weeks and years later, you know what, why did you really focus on the scuba diving? He said, Well, because you know, scuba diving is an amazing experience for me. And I knew you understood that experience.

Al McBride 32:59
But the other thing is you’re in, you’re in potentially dangerous situation. And I knew that you were like, because you never dive alone. You’re always have to be buddied up. So you’re used to working in this sort of more dangerous situation post proximity. So I knew just by that, that you’d be highly, you’d be that bit more reliable. Wow. Okay. So I said people do infere, these things don’t take from these connections, there are

Brian Traichel 33:26
a, it’s amazing how people will get right to the initial building of the trust based on those common interests. Because there is there is definitely a correlation to those activities with character traits. For the most part, we can’t be 100% accurate, but we can make a very good guesstimate that there’s going to be a fit or a way to work with that person.

Brian Traichel 33:46
So in case in point, I did a research study probably three weeks of not three weeks, that’s three years ago, not the right way. There’s a there’s a mortgage brokers, they there’s a magazine called the Scotsman’s guide. Right. And and yeah, so that’s the best, the best of the best that will top one percenters in the country. So I went on, and I looked up all the top 100 of the best of the best on their LinkedIn profile.

Brian Traichel 34:14
And I look to see what what was in common with all of those top producers, right. And at the time, LinkedIn before Microsoft bought them, they you were able to put in your personal interests. So right they don’t have that anymore, but I figured a way around that it’s a different conversation, but you can still put them in.

Brian Traichel 34:31
So I looked at all of those 100 and what I found in common was they all were into motocross, paragliding, bungee jumping with across you know, the BMX bikes and so literally all the top producers in the mortgage business were adrenaline junkies, right. So now I built the record so now so now when it when a company came to me and said, Brian, I want to start over routing campaign, and I want to get some really hungry top notch mortgage brokers or loan officers, can you help me build a list?

Brian Traichel 35:07
So they said, What are you going to do is I’m going to find all the loan officers in California that do bungee jumping, parachuting in. All right. And then that’s how I filtered my list. Because based on experience, you would know that those people are probably going to be high producers. Yeah. So there’s a lot of a lot of little ways you can use data and information to cross pollinate your searches and reverse engineer,

Al McBride 35:33
just taking a step back for a moment just in how you got to where you are. You mentioned you worked with Brian Tracy. Back in the day, he had a huge amount of sales training in that regard. Did that shape some of your perspectives and in what you’re bringing into how you handle LinkedIn and how you’re how you differentiate?

Brian Traichel 35:51
So link LinkedIn I had discovered prior to Brian Tracy, but but but the tie into going back to our conversation, but what kind of results can I expect, right? So I’ve been a fan of Brian for years. And when I did my sales calls, I always had his audio programs playing in between calls driving around, and I was in California, so I was on the freeway a lot. And so I’ve listened to Brian’s entire catalogue over the years.

Brian Traichel 36:18
And I was running, I was in the car with a friend of mine. And he goes in one day, I just looked at him. I said, you know, Brian lives in California, he’s right up the street. He goes, Yeah, that’s I knew that. I said, Yeah, go, you know, one of these days. I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna work for him. Like it was what? Because what do you mean, you just just like that?

Brian Traichel 36:34
Go? Well, I don’t know. I’m just setting the goal. I said, I think when he says, I’m just going to work for Brian Tracy. He’s like, okay. So I went on LinkedIn, saw Brian had an account, sent him a message said, Brian, thank you for the mentorship even though it was from afar. I appreciate all your wisdom in my sales career. I would love to connect. sent it out next day. Brian Tracy accepted your connection requests.

Brian Traichel 36:56
Cool. Right? I thought that was good. Then I got a message back from someone in his staff. Hey, we saw your message. We know you’re here local in San Diego. Brian, really appreciate it. He wanted to invite you to the office, we’re having a luncheon. And we’d love to have you as a guest. I was like, Okay. And then they said, you know, when around the table. So Brian, welcome.

Brian Traichel 37:18
You know, great, thanks for being really appreciate being here. So tell me what you do? Well, I’m a title insurance. Rep. I work with real estate agents and loan officers. And, you know, I covered this territory, I probably have 3000 plus agents that I work with, and you know, over my book of business, and they go great, you know, we actually have a product that we’re rolling out that we think would be great for that industry. Would you be interested in beta testing that for us? Absolutely.

Al McBride 37:44
Great. Right. So

Brian Traichel 37:45
I’d be an affiliate, right? They’re like, yeah, you’ll be an affiliate and we’d help you with. So I said, Okay, so I started that process with the product and was sharing the news with everybody. And then they just said, after a month, they said, Why don’t you come on in and become our, you know, the Business Development Director, and then you can start to expand into other areas. So I did that for three years.

Brian Traichel 38:06
Yeah. And I called my friend of course, and said, you’re never gonna believe he’s like, you’re working with Brian Tracy. I go, I sure am. So, it was a great experience. And but because of that, imagine being immersed in someone who’s speaking, you know, five to seven days a week at different venues, I went to all those venues, and got to sit through all the seminars with multi speaker lines, hang out with all of these people. And so for three years, I literally was in a seminar for three years straight of just information. So I learned things I never thought I’d even know about about green screen, green screen production, email, marketing funnels, I mean, you name it, right? It just goes down the line. I’m like, so I’m a jack of all trades, right?

Al McBride 38:47
Okay. Okay. Excellent stuff, although I’d imagine your knowledge of LinkedIn is, is superior than theirs, it’s by this stage as to be.

Brian Traichel 38:58
It’s just the approach. I think the approach is like, again, LinkedIn has so many levels and the surface it’s this if you dig deeper, and you dig know what’s beyond that, and what’s beyond that, so the old tried and true, onion, you know, analogy, right? You keep killing on LinkedIn.

Brian Traichel 39:12
And you really, if you want to play to who you are, and if you know who you’re looking to connect with, and who you are and what you like, you can marry those two. You know, those two interests and get really quality opportunities with people and be real in the conversations. They really appreciate it. She’s I didn’t expect a phone call. I never thought about it that way.

Brian Traichel 39:33
Or, you know, you’re right. You’re right. And the Law of Reciprocity is always at play, right? So if you’re putting things out, you may get it not from that person, but from someone three levels in their connections because they remembered what you did and they remember how you helped them.

Brian Traichel 39:49
So I think people as you’re going to try and for the sale like you know, I mean to make 10 calls today I need to get one sale in the door. It doesn’t work that way. Unless you Have something built on otherwise it’s a commodity. Right? Well, what’s the price?

Al McBride 40:04
Right? And that’s a lovely way to put it, you’re removing a large amount of that commodity aspect of those sales interactions or sales conversations. Okay,

Brian Traichel 40:15
right. And people get hung up on competition, what’s my competitors are doing? And you know, I mean, if you type in LinkedIn expert, which, you know, I don’t even know who’s qualifying, everyone is an expert that other people say you’re an expert, I don’t say I’m an expert, I’m student, right.

Brian Traichel 40:28
But there’s 120,000 people on LinkedIn that are also in the same spaces and in quote, unquote, provide what I do. And I don’t I don’t worry about that, like, well, Hey, I got my friends, or, Hey, I got this email about, here’s your competitor, I go, I’m not worried about it. And why?

Brian Traichel 40:43
Because there’s what 20 billion people on LinkedIn, right. And I and I can only work with how many, right? So if you know your numbers, LinkedIn is going to be a lot easier to manage, if you really know what your bandwidth is. But if you don’t have an idea, you will find yourself overwhelmed. And when people get overwhelmed, they quit that habit, or they quit that, that procedure because like, it’s just too much.

Brian Traichel 41:08
It’s you have to know your numbers and your the way that you work every day, and what you’re comfortable with. You may not like to post guess what you don’t have to, you may not like to do happy birthdays, don’t do them. But there will be one thing that you will like and you just do a lot of that one thing.

Al McBride 41:25
Okay. Just to find one or two things. Okay. Okay. Very good. In your experience, either with sales or more specifically on LinkedIn, you know, was there was there one koco pr one, sort of, I don’t know, if you want to call it a failure that was particularly instructive about what not to do, or which way to go or anything like that.

Brian Traichel 41:48
I think managing expectations is always a big one, again, is the big one, right? Because I’ve had multiple in LinkedIn isn’t just for anybody. I’ve had artists, musicians, yoga teachers, anyone can use LinkedIn for a service or product. However, some of the people that go in there are looking for that instant result.

Brian Traichel 42:07
Because their their thought is, if I am paying you to help me with this, then I need a return. Right? And then I always ask them, when you were born and your birth certificate, did it, did you turn over the back and say, here’s my guarantee in life?

Brian Traichel 42:22
Right? So I have I don’t know if you can put a guarantee on anything working unless you’re willing to do the work. And I can’t put a guarantee on when it’ll happen. But I know it will. Some people get a sale the first week, some people get it six months, three years. It’s all depends on how big is it? What’s the sales cycle?

Brian Traichel 42:42
What’s the product, all of those factors come into play, but you will get a result. I just don’t know when. And people don’t like not having a guarantee when they’re spending money. Right. Right. How do I know what’s going to work? That’s what they say, How do I know it’s going to work? Right? How do you know it’s not going to work? And how do I know? How do I know you’re actually going to do the work? As I’ve laid out in this business plan? That’s the other factor is the accountability.

Al McBride 43:07
Right? Absolutely. And just on that, I mean, what sort of, cuz again, does every type of person on LinkedIn, is there a certain demographic that you prefer to work with? Where possible, or, you know, I’ve

Brian Traichel 43:19
been quoted many times as being one of the senior one of the most patient people I’ve ever met, right? Because I’ll deal with, you know, the, the non computer savvy, right people. And I’ll deal with the most most savviest computer person, so when it comes to who I like to work with, there really isn’t a category.

Brian Traichel 43:40
You know, I like to work with fun people number one was, you know, people who have a little bit of a personality are okay to, you know, step out of their comfort zone a little bit. So anyone who’s willing to, to be vulnerable on their LinkedIn, and just, you know, just, you know, push the envelope just a little bit, right. And I help people kind of see where that can be, you know, important because people’s Oh, I don’t want to put that out there.

Brian Traichel 44:03
Because that would make me not look professional. Yeah. But that’s what that’s who you are. Right? So. So why are people only getting this, you know, this glimpse, when the reality is that you’re, you’re a world class, scuba diver, but you don’t want anybody to know, right?

Al McBride 44:18
I gotcha. I gotcha. So is there is there one question that I should have asked to, but I didn’t,

Brian Traichel 44:25
you know, there’s so many and always with a limited amount of time, and you can only you can cover so much and I can talk, you know, for six hours on this and that on LinkedIn. And I think the main thing is that, just give it a try. And don’t be afraid and overwhelmed because it is overwhelming. It’s designed that way. Right. There’s a lot of bells and whistles because the more things that are out there, keep your attention longer on LinkedIn, the longer you may purchase something.

Brian Traichel 44:53
So you have to put your blinders on and be really task oriented when you go into there. Otherwise, it will turn into Facebook. You’ll just be scrolling through and reading and liking. It’s like, that’s great. But we have to put a cap on it, right? So make sure you manage your your time because it can if you have a, you know, you like shiny objects, you know, there’s a lot of them on there, right?

Brian Traichel 45:14
So be be super focus and realize it’s not going to get done. And there’s there’s no instant magic wand, it’s going to require work. And when people hear that they go, can I just automate it? Okay, maybe you could, but you could also run the risk of getting your account shut down. Because you’re not allowed to use third party widgets and automation tools and bots people do. But there is a risk, and it’s not worth the risk to me, when I’d rather just have a few calls or conversations per day.

Al McBride 45:44
Absolutely, absolutely. So if people watching or listening, this would like to read more about you. I presume they should just go to your LinkedIn profile. That’s,

Brian Traichel 45:55
that’s well said. That’s exactly what I would say. Call me my every, you know, I’m on LinkedIn, send me requests, say, I was on the podcast, he listened to the podcast and would love to connect, give me a frame as far as you know who you are. And I’ll you know, I’m even happy to do a quick little once over and most the time I will, I’ll read your profile.

Brian Traichel 46:14
And I’ll mention if there’s any improvements you can make, or some things you could do, and just kind of give you a few tips. But it’s a great tool. One question, maybe you might want to ask, or I’ll just prompt prompt questions. But we didn’t cover. People always asked, should I buy the premium version, right?

Brian Traichel 46:30
To go to a free verse premium? In my experience, I’ve done everything with the free version. So the answer to me is you do not need to be spending the money. So if you want to cancel that premium membership, I would go ahead and do that. Because you still get most of the functionality. There’s always one thing you might have to give up. But at the end of the day, it’s not worth the 97 or $59, or $29, you’re spending remember

Al McBride 46:54
you saying this before that, even if you’re in an office setup, where everyone has, it’s usually one of the first things you do is just bring it down to only one person out of like the five or the 10 people actually needing the premium account which

Brian Traichel 47:08
right, yeah, if you looked at the work, yeah, if you look at the org chart, if you have a sales manager, then yes, okay, and it’s in the budget, then have the sales manager have an account. And that sales manager can hand the leads out to the sales agents, right with the sales, sales groups. So ways to get around it. Probably LinkedIn doesn’t want to hear all the hacks I have to get around, not paying for it. But

Al McBride 47:31
yeah, but in fairness to if anyone from LinkedIn happens to be listening to this says, You’re very anti spam, and you’re anti-bot, which is great. And as I said, it’s all about that integrity of, of the genuine human connection of actually reaching and being interested in other people and other people’s business.

Al McBride 47:51
And as we keep saying how you can serve rather than just sell. That’s kind of the key thing. And so one of the reasons, as I said, Why I reached out to you for the interview today, Brian, so thank you for that, precisely because you have that integrity with your approach. You’re not advocating anything spammy or lacking in integrity. So

Brian Traichel 48:09
yeah, I appreciate that. And again, LinkedIn, if you do have the budget, it’s it is it is, you know, there are some nice features for but if you don’t want it, and it’s a line item, then you don’t have to have it, then go that route too. So but I think that we all have to, you know, be together in this in the integrity of LinkedIn, because it’s getting saturated, it’s causing a lot of spam. And people run the risk of losing a really quality lead, because we’re so used to a non quality message that we’re simply not even paying attention.

Brian Traichel 48:40
So one of the last tip I’ll give is, I always like to have my clients go back at least two years in their messages, right? sort through them, because there’s a lot of engagement there that we miss, we just completely missed it, because it kept getting pushed down.

Brian Traichel 48:57
Right. So take some time, it might take you two or three hours, but it’s well worth it. And in the end, you’ll find someone who you haven’t thought about for a long time. And then you could re engage with them and say, Hey, I was going through some old messages. How are you doing? So just never know. Right? And

Al McBride 49:12
the other one just to mention is you know, if you are getting spammed market as such, don’t just let it go. I remember you saying this to me.

Brian Traichel 49:21
Yeah, you can report the profile to LinkedIn and I’m not going to do that unless it’s really out of control. Like if you’re

Al McBride 49:29
Yeah, you showed me one word, the guy literally sent you nine messages without response. It was bordering on abuse of you know, it was deserves you know, cancel spam, get rid of these people. Because that’s that’s not cool, you

Brian Traichel 49:44
know, one or two I’m okay with but it’s not a drip marketing system. I mean, when you’re you’re taking valuable time away from me to read something that I’m not interested in. Obviously, I haven’t replied to. If that’s the case, you know, if you’re in real if you’re a true salesperson, in my opinion, You pick up the phone and call me and say, Brian, you know, I noticed I’ve sent you about nine messages on LinkedIn, reason I did is I really wanted to get your attention.

Brian Traichel 50:07
But then I realized you might not be on LinkedIn as often as I am. So I thought I’d give you a phone call and see if I could reach you. So either way, it has to go to a phone call. If you think you can, you can bring your business, then you’re playing a numbers game.

Brian Traichel 50:21
Right? Then it becomes numbers and funnels, but you’re not getting repeat or referrals. The phone is really where everything is going to be. So try to go with the mentality of if you don’t like the phone, then we need to figure out another way. Because we want to get people on LinkedIn, to a phone call introduction and have a conversation. Right. But they had to stay on LinkedIn messaging, is I mean, ultimately, it’s gonna have to go to a zoom call or something you can’t just, I would want to know who I’m talking to, if I’m gonna swipe my credit card.

Al McBride 50:55
Absolutely. Never mind. Do you know, any sort of substantial contract dealer, anything like that? I mean, it’s a whole nother level again. Excellent stuff. Well, look, thank you very much for coming on the show. Brian. It’s been fantastic. And if anyone has any LinkedIn issues, they want to improve their LinkedIn strategy, and really get some gains into LinkedIn. I cannot recommend Brian enough. Reach out to him. have a chat. There. Take it from there.

Brian Traichel 51:22
Yeah, I really appreciate it. And looking forward to everybody. I’ll see you on LinkedIn in the meantime.

Al McBride 51:27
Absolutely. Thanks again. Right.

Brian Traichel 51:29
Thanks. I’ll take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai