I've had the pleasure of knowing Dan Swift for nearly a decade. He appeared on my radar when he made a splash as the director of social selling at LinkedIn, where he launched the Sales Navigator, which became a billion-dollar line of business. He kindly agreed to join my advisory board at Insurance Thought Leadership.
Dan tapped into his inner entrepreneur even more when he left LinkedIn in 2015 and became a divisional vice president at Sprinklr, a social media management platform that later went public and currently carries a $3.6 billion market valuation.
He struck out entirely on his own in early 2018, with a business he recently rebranded as Numentum. He calls it a "buyer experience" consultancy -- he helps salespeople put themselves in the shoes of buyers so they can see how to best fit into that process, and he has a growing roster of major clients.
So, I was sure he'd have some useful advice for agents and brokers -- and he certainly did.
The biggest surprise for me was something that now seems blindingly obvious but that had never occurred to me until Dan mentioned the idea. He suggests that, shortly before meeting a prospect for the first time, an agent or broker email a 60-second personal video. The ostensible goal would be to associate a face with the name of the agent, but think how much a video like that would surprise a prospect and how much that agent would stand out.
Dan also suggests a very short follow-up video after that first meeting, summarizing the key points in a way that could be shared with the prospect's spouse -- while again making an impression.
He goes into detail about his video idea and lays out some other suggestions, too. I think you'll feel his enthusiasm bursting through his words even though you're just reading them, not hearing them on a video call, as I did during the interview.
Cheers,
Paul
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