Andra Grava has built a business providing insurance services and by coaching other professionals. Based in Dallas, Andra uses LinkedIn as a forum to build his credibility as a thought leader in his field, and to make connections that lead to prospects and clients.
In this edited conversation, Andra talks about how he uses LinkedIn tools to optimize his profile, and using LinkedIn’s network to build his business.
Quick Overview
Guest: Andra Grava
Dallas, Texas
Years in business: 35+
Firm: The DI Center
What’s working now: Using LinkedIn to establish credibility and to connect with prospects
My background
I’ve been working in the insurance industry since 1988, when I first started selling disability and life insurance policies. Over the years, I’ve built up my expertise and founded the DI Center, an independent brokerage and general agency providing services related to disability, life, long-term care, critical illness and other insurance products. We work with producers across the country, training, coaching, and supporting them in growing their businesses.
Optimizing my LinkedIn presence
When it comes to getting clients and prospects, I’ve found that LinkedIn is an invaluable platform. But simply creating a profile isn’t enough—you need to optimize it by leveraging specific best practices. I’ve tested a lot myself and also worked with digital marketing partners to analyze what works best on LinkedIn.
The first area to focus on is your profile itself. You need to carefully craft your job title, utilizing keywords that your ideal prospects are likely searching for. For example, when crafting my own profile, terms like “disability insurance,” “income protection,” “executive benefits,” and related phrases that pertain to your market should be included. Don’t use vague or generic titles—be very targeted with descriptors of your services.
[T]he investment of my time on focused LinkedIn activities pays itself back tenfold through qualified leads and closed deals.
Additionally, fill out the “About” and “Featured” sections extensively. I showcase my expertise by including published articles, details on CE classes I’ve taught, conference speaking experience, and any other third-party content that’s searchable online. This shows I’m a verified expert in these topics.
And it’s equally important that all areas of your profile are complete and accurate. Prospects evaluate credibility through your credentials, so build this out fully—education, work history, skills, awards and more. I even list the specific insurance licenses I hold.
Maximizing LinkedIn tools
To maximize the tools LinkedIn provides, I highly recommend investing in a Sales Navigator subscription. Sales Navigator provides data and insights to help you prioritize the accounts with the biggest opportunities and best chances so you can use your time wisely. It unlocks far more effective searching and connecting capabilities. Instead of just basic filters, you can search prospects by job titles, companies, universities attended, years of experience, location and more.
This allows me to precisely target the decision-makers and influencers within organizations I want to secure as clients. Sales Navigator also provides guidance on acceptable invitation rates, so I know how many people I can invite per week without risking restrictions from LinkedIn.
As I explore a prospective company, I gain invaluable insights on the leadership team, organizational structure, growth trends and challenges they face. This context informs my customized outreach to engage the key players who will influence purchasing decisions the most.
Strategic relationship-building approaches
In terms of relationship-building, creating and using preset yet personalized outreach messages is crucial for engaging prospects while managing a high volume. For example, I always customize connection requests and have varied templates for following up, congratulating on work milestones and staying top of mind.
My dedicated virtual assistant can then help me efficiently reach out to and nurture hundreds of prospects in a scalable way. This drives more conversations and meetings, moving prospects closer to becoming clients.
I advise keeping these conversations on the LinkedIn messaging platform instead of external email whenever possible. By doing this, it positively signals to LinkedIn’s algorithm that genuine engagement is happening, which will increase your visibility and authority score.
Positioning myself as an industry thought leader
As an insurance professional, becoming perceived as an industry thought leader is invaluable for growing your business. I’ve worked hard to position myself as a disability and life insurance expert through consistent posting of relevant content on LinkedIn.
This serves the dual purpose of organically reaching those less familiar with me while simultaneously maximizing LinkedIn’s algorithm to increase my visibility.
As a content provider on the platform, my posts now often get promoted to wider audiences, exponentially expanding my exposure. I share disability insurance statistics, tips for improving income protection, analysis of policy trends, and more to provide value while reinforcing my niche authority.
Leveraging my network for introductions
In addition to broader content distribution, an optimized LinkedIn profile also offers targeted relationship-building through shared connections. I systematically ask my network who they are connected to at prospective companies I have in my pipeline.
I’ve found most people are willing to provide introductions on request. A quick LinkedIn message saying, “I noticed you’re connected with John Smith at ABC Company. Would you be open to introducing us? I have a service offering that could be useful for them,” often yields positive responses and valuable referrals.
This enables warmer outreach that drives higher conversion rates from initial prospecting through deal closing. Instead of cold messages, I’m reaching out to key prospects as an industry peer referenced by a mutual connection.
Key takeaways
The key takeaway I want to drive home is that optimizing your LinkedIn presence and executing an organized outreach strategy is crucial for insurance professionals looking to build relationships and grow their businesses in the modern age.
While LinkedIn can seem overwhelming to leverage effectively, by focusing on profile optimization, social selling tools, thoughtful engagement, content posting, and network referrals, you can yield dramatic results.
I’ve substantially increased my personal LinkedIn effectiveness by disciplining myself to apply these best practices consistently, despite my busy leadership role running an agency. But the investment of my time on focused LinkedIn activities pays itself back tenfold through qualified leads and closed deals.
My LinkedIn pipeline and profile authority continues to expand exponentially thanks to this approach. I firmly believe that insurance agents, financial advisors, RIAs, brokers and other industry professionals could reap similar outcomes by following my playbook.
Implement the profile enhancement, relationship building, content posting and networking guidelines I’ve shared here, and you’ll be on the fast track to enhanced prospect connectivity and sales growth. Feel free to connect with me personally if you have any other questions!