Will Hardison

A room full of salesmen and nobody is buying

A dear friend of mind smacked me upside the head yesterday….in a good way. We started to discuss a “power circle” as most people call them, I  prefer to call it a ground of friends who happen to pass business to each other. I proceeded to invite my friend to be apart of my “power circle” explaining that “It’ll be great, I’ve got 15 people who I trust and can invite to this group. We’ll go around the room and say who we are, what we do, and who we are looking for. And then, people can go out looking for referrals for everyone, and they’ll come back and pass the leads to others. We can also do presentations each week where one person gets to talk about their business in front of the group for 10-15 minutes”And that’s where he stopped me with “It sounds like another attempt at a networking group that will ultimately fail” I looked back at him and questioned “Fail?” His reply, “Yeah, most of these groups fail because no one ever gains any trust because everyone sells to each other and no one is buying. I don’t want to attend another networking group where the goal is to pitch someone’s company. Business is built on trust and relationships, not on sales pitches. I want to be educated. Teach or show me the opportunity costs of me not having a well organized website. Discuss how the latest Health Care bill will affect small businesses. Don’t sell me on why you are the best (insert occupation here) in the tri-state area because I’m not buying from that guy.”

Man, did this hit me hard. He’s a genius because he is completely right. Take a look at the next networking event that you attend, take a step back. Look at what’s going on, everyone is scurrying around trying to make their next sale. Heck, I went to a networking event this evening and I have a stack of business cards piled up next to me from 10 Tom, Dick, and Harry’s who want to follow up, e-mail, call, and book an appointment just so they can tell ME how awesome THEIR business is so that I’LL buy from THEM.

I’ll be doing things differently from now on, and I’m excited to see the changes.