Years ago I heard advice from Success Champions Network founder Donnie Boivin. He taught that every networking event is a sales opportunity. For some time, I did not like this because I did not understand it. I heard it to encourage pitching at networking events, but that’s not what it means at all. One absolutely should not pitch, but one should always remember that the goal of all this meeting and greeting and relationship building is to ultimately find a sale, whether today, tomorrow, or next year.

In this episode, I discuss more how to thread the needle between being too salesy while networking and being too social.

Success Champions Network - https://www.successchampionsnetworking.com

Mentioned in this episode:

JV Connect, December 12-13, 2023

Join us for JV Connect, the dedicated networking event December 12th and 13th, 2023 https://www.jv-connect.com

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.