Social Selling: The Art of Persistence & a Little Red Dress

Several years ago a very dear friend of mine gave me a beautiful red dress. I loved this dress, and whenever I wore it I always received tons of compliments. And then one day the dress no longer fit… I had ‘slipped a disk’ in my back and was unable to exercise, let alone walk, for almost a year. During that year I continued my healthy eating habits, but without exercise/movement I still gained weight.

Once the doctor cleared me to begin exercising, once again, I gave it my all. Day in and day out, sweating, spinning, pumping, step, yoga, boot camp, you name it - I was in class determined to get back to my "old self" and I measured my progress against that favorite red dress.

After a year of incessant exercise, I had made some headway, but damn it if the dress wasn’t still too tight, but I refused to accept that. So, I kept exercising – I never stopped. Each year, I would ‘check in’ with the notorious red dress and each year it fit just a litter better. And then the magic happened! I had scheduled an interview with Sameer Somal , CFO of Blue Ocean Global Tech . This interview was extremely important to me and I wanted nothing more than to wear the red dress. So, the morning of the interview I took the dress from my closet, stepped into it, zipped it up and was thrilled to learn that my persistence, patience and hard work really did pay off!

We live in a world of instant gratification, and feel if we implement a new change, results will happen immediately. Not so fast… what I’ve discovered about change and results is persistence.

You need to get up, show up and bring it. Every. Single. Day.


I have coached thousands of wealth management advisors on how to acquire new clients thru social media, in particular LinkedIn. There is a daily best practice that has resulted in hundreds of millions in net new assets simply thru social listening. Spend 5-10 minutes a day to review what is happening within your network; birthdays, work anniversaries and new jobs (money in motion). Then pick up the phone or send a personal message to deepen client relationships and stay in front of prospects. It’s that easy!

“Check out the following video where I walk you through how to listen and react. Be sure to print out the cheat sheet as a quick reference guide should you need to refer back to it.”

The key to social prospecting and selling? Persistence.