6 - Networking is a Sales Opportunity

Michael Whitehouse: 00:00:03

Hello and welcome once again to the guy

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who knows the guy podcast.

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I'm Michael Whitehouse, the guy

who knows the guy, your host and

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guide on this networking journey.

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We continue to count down to JV

Connect, which the first one will

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be December 12th and 13th, 2020.

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Free information at jv connect.

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com.

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And by information I mean, you

should read the page and then

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you should register because this

is going to be an amazing event.

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Today I want to talk to you about,

uh, some great advice that I learned

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once and didn't understand due

to a bit of a language barrier.

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We both spoke English, but we

spoke it in different ways.

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And this advi this advice...

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Came from a man named Donnie Boveen.

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Now Donnie is the founder of

the Success Champions Network.

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And I'm reminded of it because there

was a live event near my area recently

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as I'm recording this, and I finally

got to meet Donnie in person for the

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first time, and, uh, saw just such

an incredible community that he's

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built, the Success Champions Network.

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And the advice that I'd heard and

didn't make sense to me, began to make

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sense once I understood more of the

context and where he was coming from.

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So Donnie's background

is he's a sales guy.

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He did sales, he did sales training.

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He was all about sales.

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And he got into networking because

he saw more and more networking

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groups popping up and he didn't

like how they operated and thought

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a lot of them were a waste of time.

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And thought a lot of them were people

who didn't know how to sell and didn't

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know how to close to try to not have

to sell, which, you know, I resonate

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with because I learned to network

because I don't like cold calling and

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networking was the better way to do it.

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But, he, with his sales background, that's

sort of some of the language he used.

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And, what he said, was something

along the lines of, Every networking

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event is a sales opportunity.

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And I heard this, and I went, Whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there, buddy.

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Networking's not a sales opportunity,

because to my mind, To my mind, the

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people who do the worst networking

are the ones who come in to take.

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You know, they're the gunslingers coming

in being like, Hey, I got something to

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buy and I'm going to sell it to you.

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This is not, I would later

learn, what he meant.

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So, I came from the perspective

of, I don't want to be too salesy.

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I would rather err on the side of

building relationships and not selling

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than erring on the side of selling

and not building relationships.

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So, that, that's how I did it.

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Now, when I was publishing the

magazine, uh, Mystic Neighbors and

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Niantic Neighbors, I did a lot of

selling through networking events,

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but I started with the networking.

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In my book, I talk about how, you know,

you can certainly pivot a networking

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conversation to a sales conversation, but

you need to be very careful in how you

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do it, and you need to be very clear to

be like, Okay, now I don't want to pitch

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you, would it be okay if we transition

this conversation and get consent?

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But I have come to realize that what

Donnie said was actually quite accurate.

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And the first clue should have

been, he makes more money than I do.

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So, uh, if somebody is doing

something you're doing and making

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more money than you, then maybe you

should listen because they might be.

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doing it right.

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And so the first lesson is if someone says

something and they're doing well, and they

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seem to be good, honest, ethical people,

and it sounds like the thing they're

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saying doesn't agree with your philosophy

and your, your dogma, perhaps first ask,

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do I misunderstand what they're saying?

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Are they actually saying something

different than I think they're saying?

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Because we use words differently.

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So when I heard him saying it's a

sales event, I'm thinking Ned Ryerson.

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Being all, you know, from Groundhog

Day, saying, Hey, tell me about your

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insurance, and what do you need, and how

can I help you, and uh, You know, you

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look a little bit overweight, I got some

diet pills might be able to help you.

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That kind of thing.

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That's not what he meant, at all.

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He was instead talking about,

my favorite of the seven habits,

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Begin with the end in mind.

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If you're going to a networking

event, You're going there to sell.

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Not to pitch, Not to be obnoxious, but

the end result, the end goal, Of going

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to this event, should be making a sale!

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That's kind of the ultimate culmination

of all your business connection

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activities with non clients, right?

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And even with clients, you want to

satisfy them enough that they're

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going to refer people to you.

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So what he was teaching was begin

with the end in mind and the end

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is somebody's gonna give you money.

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Not necessarily somebody in that room,

but somebody is going to give you money.

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So you're not there to have fun.

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fun.

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You're not there to make friends.

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You're not there to hear

interesting stories.

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All those things can happen,

but you're there to make a sale.

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That is the ultimate goal.

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Now, to be clear, this does not

mean you're going to walk up

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to people and try to sell them.

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Cause that's not how you make a sale,

but you're going in with that thought

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in mind, with that intention in mind.

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And that's what he meant that I now

understand, didn't understand before.

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Now very much understand that

you want to have that intention

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that you're going to make a sale.

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Now, here's the thing too.

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If you have something of value, if you

have something that is worth more than

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you're charging for it, which anything

you're selling should be worth more

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than you're charging for it to the

person buying, that's why they buy.

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then you are doing them no service

by not presenting it to them.

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In fact, when I was at this

event, I was talking to someone

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about a JBConnect sponsorship.

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And I was thinking about their business

model, and what one client is worth to

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them, and what the sponsorship costs.

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And I thought, huh, if they could

get one client from the sponsorship,

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That one client would be a 3x return.

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Just one.

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A single sale.

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Would be a 3x return off

the cost of a sponsorship.

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That's kind of a no brainer on

a sponsorship that guarantees

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50 opt ins, 50 leads.

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He could probably, and so I shared

with him, I said, You know, just

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so you know, I have a sponsorship

available for JV Connect.

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It costs this much, and um, You know,

you're gonna get to get up for 3 minutes

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and share what you're doing, and And

then they're going to be encouraged

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to answer the form and I guarantee

you're going to get 50 opt ins.

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If you don't, I'll promote it

out to my audience until you do.

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Uh, and he's like, oh,

that sounds pretty good.

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And I said, yeah, you know,

what, what's your, what's your

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program pricing structure?

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And he shared it.

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And his lowest cost program is three

times as much as the sponsorship costs.

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I said, you could probably get one

sale out of 50 leads, don't you think?

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And he's like, yeah, I certainly hope so.

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And I said, oh, okay.

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And he's like, yeah,

definitely reach out to me.

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That's something I want to do.

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That was a sales conversation right there.

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The value proposition was so abundantly

clear, if I hadn't told him about this

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and he'd found out about it later, he

probably would have said, Hey, jerk

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face, why didn't you tell me about that?

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That's something I really

wanted to know about.

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That was a really valuable thing

and you didn't share it with me?

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Why not, punk?

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You know, you're kind of a

jerk, not sharing that with me.

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So, it, it starts from, the thing

you're selling has to be valuable.

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Not just valuable to you because

you get paid, but valuable to the

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person who's going to pay you for it.

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And then, if that's the case, if you

identify someone at the event who needs...

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what you are offering, then by all means,

you should engage in that conversation.

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Now, in this particular case, this is

someone I knew from some time ago, so

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we didn't need quite as much warm up.

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Uh, we hadn't talked in a while,

but, you know, he knew who I was, I

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knew who he was, we knew, you know,

we know each other's integrity and,

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and ethical standing and whatnot.

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Uh, but, you know, even for someone

you, you meet for the first time,

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they share they have a need.

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You can gently say something like,

I don't know if this would be of

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interest to you, but if it would,

I've got X, Y, Z, I'd be happy to

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share more with you later if you like.

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And they'll either say yes or no.

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Now, again, you don't want to be

aggressive, you don't want to be

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in their face, but you always want

to be thinking, what do I have that

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is of value that somebody might pay

for because this isn't a charity?

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We're in business to make money.

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Money is not a bad thing.

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Money is what makes the world go round.

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Money is a substitute for value.

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Money is simply a placeholder

for the good we do and without

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it we can't keep doing it.

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Ask me how I know.

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Alright, straight out of

college, I opened Phoenix Games.

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It was a game store.

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It was wildly successful,

except for not making money.

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It built this incredible community,

and it supported the people in it, and

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people loved it, and it was so great that

people actually were willing to work for

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free to keep it running for 18 years.

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That, that we kept that going.

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So, you know, incredible success,

except it never made money.

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But here's the thing, without being able

to make money, that put a strain on it.

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That, that was a challenge,

and ultimately, it didn't make

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enough to keep the doors open.

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It had enough volunteers

to keep it running.

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But it didn't make enough money

to keep the doors open and it

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collapsed and the community was

lost because we didn't make money.

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Money is what makes things work.

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Money is what buys food for the poor.

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Money is what lets us have electricity

so that we can record these awesome

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podcasts and get them to you.

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It all runs on money.

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Money is not evil.

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Money is not bad.

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Money is not wrong.

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Money is what lets us do the good

things we want to do in the world.

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Some people use money for evil.

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Some people do bad things for money.

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Right?

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These are certainly the case.

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But if you're a good person, an ethical

person, and you get money, you're going

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to do good and ethical things with it.

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So if you are a good and ethical

person, you should have no shame about

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getting money for the good work you do.

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And if you're doing good work, then

You will want to make sure that you are

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sharing that work with others So that

they can give you money for it So you can

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help them and then help more people and

then use that money to do more good work

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And that's how it works So when Donnie

Bovine says every networking event and

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every conversation and every contact is

a sales Opportunity what he's saying is

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it's a chance to share the good things

you're doing Possibly for money with the

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people you can help And so I encourage

you as you're JVConnect, don't think of

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it as you're trying to pitch someone.

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But think of it as who can I serve here?

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Who can I serve by serving

their audience, their community?

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And ultimately, how will this lead

to someone giving me money for doing

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the thing I do and sharing my genius?

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So that is my lesson this week.

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And of course.

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To do this, you have to be at JV

Connect, which means go to jv connect.

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com.

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That's where you can get your

registration and, uh, join

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us on December 12th and 13th.

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And by the way, if you want to know

more about Success Champions, go

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to Success Champions Networking.

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That's successchampionsnetworking.

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com, and you can learn all about them.

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It's a great organization.

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They have chapters all over the

country, and they have some national

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chapters as well, if you are more of a

non geographically specific business.

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Um, but great organization, definitely

recommend you check that out.

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I'm Michael Whitehouse,

the guy who knows the guy.

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Thank you so much for listening, and I

will see you in December at JV Connect.