July 15, 2025 • 24 mins
The Trading Post podcast unlocks the secret formula to transforming business cards into profitable relationships using a simple, measurable strategy that works at any networking event.
• Approach networking events with the "40 card challenge" - emptying your left pocket of business cards while filling your right pocket with prospects
• Most people fail at networking because they collect cards but never follow up properly
• Calculating your true ROI helps determine which events are worth your time investment
• Simple equation: (deal value) ÷ (hours invested including prep/event/follow-up) = your hourly ROI
• Memorable elevator pitches like "We'll put the seat down" for plumbers create instant connections
• Use a permanent marker to note conversation topics on the back of collected cards
• Follow up within 24-48 hours with personalized emails referencing specific conversations
• Digital alternatives like LinkedIn connections and NFC cards are changing networking dynamics
• The key to networking success is viewing it as an investment with measurable returns
Email your networking success stories to be featured in a future episode.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies and share my exciting
journey of using a podcast tomarket my business instead of
relying on SEO.
I'm your host, trader Stu.
Welcome to the Trading Postpodcast.
(00:24):
I'm your host, trader Stu.
So networking, return oninvestment, of course, roi from
business cards to closed deals.
Today's episode.
I want to talk about what I usedto do back in the day and
should probably do today too,but I just don't, is that back
(00:47):
then my closing percentage wasone out of 40 and that was the
ADT basically standard where I'dwork for the alarm systems
company and it was a smallbusiness department.
So we had to make 40 calls thatwould translate into four,
maybe appointments.
That would translate into onesale on average, right.
(01:08):
So I got the idea.
I was like, well, heck, if myclosing rate is one out of 40 on
the phones, then I'm going touse that when I go to networking
events and we'll get into that.
And what I did with the 40business cards in one pocket to
accumulate 40 cards in the otherpocket Real quick, thanking the
sponsors of the MichiganRenaissance Festival and Metro
(01:32):
Trading Association, as well asNetworking with Kids and let's
get into it.
So you have to show up with agoal at networking.
Some people say I don't networkanymore.
It doesn't work.
It's a good old boys program orwhatever, and either you're in
or you're out, and if you're notin there every day then it's
(01:52):
useless.
That's what I hear all the time, because it's kind of half true
.
You got to like show your facemore than once.
You can't just go there collectsome business cards and expect
to get rich right.
So you got to commit and it'sactually.
It gets easier after the secondor third time when you go to
(02:13):
the same group because you seesome familiar faces and then you
can pretty much just walk upnon-awkwardly and start in
conversations and then thosepeople that are familiar are
kind of like your grounding postright.
So when you go out and younetwork and you come back, you
you talk a little bit more andthen you kind of get your energy
(02:34):
back and then go back out again, because it can be an
exhausting game.
If you're a bit of an introvert,I say I'm an introvert.
My wife disagrees, says I'm anextrovert, but I think maybe I'm
a hybrid.
It might be a blend.
I might be an extrovert withpeople I know and then introvert
when I don't really, you know.
It kind of takes my energy awaywhen I'm around people I don't
(02:56):
know as opposed to people I doknow.
I think there's a lot ofvariability in that.
Anyway, so what you do, you gotto go in with a purpose.
So I stacked 40 cards in myright pocket because or what did
I do?
Right pocket, no, left pocket,was my business cards, because I
always shook hands with myright hand and then I would
stash their business card in myright pocket.
(03:18):
And the goal was was to leavewith an empty left pocket of my
business cards and a fat pocketon the right with their business
cards to follow up with.
And that's another thing thatpeople don't do.
That I've I've heard about isthey have all these business
cards and they paint their goldand then they never do nothing
with them.
They just sit in their draweror they sit in their business
(03:40):
card collection booklet, filething, and I don't know, maybe
they miracled themselves into adeal or I don't know what the
problem is, but they don't getaround to it.
They'd rather make cold calls.
I wouldn't.
I'd rather get those businesscards and do a follow-up email,
even if you don't want to make aphone call, it's a simple email
(04:00):
.
Hey is right way.
Talking with you yesterday,last night or last friday
whenever the mixer was and youknow whatever.
Right, so you got to do that,otherwise, yep, you are wasting
your time.
So the other thing is that I'vealso noticed nowadays I guess
nowadays has been years you alsohave to put the variability in
(04:23):
there of 10 good conversationsmight be better than 40 quick
hits, right.
So I'm not saying if you don'tleave with your 40 cards gone
that you're a failure.
You might have been a greatsuccess.
Maybe you only got rid of threeor four, right, but you had
solid conversations.
(04:43):
You only got rid of three orfour, right, but you had solid
conversations.
The problem is that it's tooeasy to linger along the side
walls and approach anxiety.
Or if it's kind of a dinnermixer or hors d'oeuvres, you
have the excuse to maybe grab abeer or wine or whatever like
that and go, sit down and startsnacking on hors d'oeuvres and
(05:05):
hide out but say make yourselffeel good that you were there
because you like.
Well, I was at the mixer but Ididn't get any deals, but you
didn't.
You talked to one person andthey might.
It'd have even been a sale foryou.
Like, for me.
I can't work with people thatare real estate or that do
insurance sales, which at thesemixers you're going to find a
lot of.
So but that's just me, you know, I just can't work with them
(05:29):
because of Metro TradingAssociation.
You just can't trade or barterfor that kind of work, anyway.
So don't forget that.
You don't want to cut yourconversation short just because
you're running out of time andyou got too many business cards
left, unless they're timewasters, in which case, you know
(05:49):
, try and get out of there,because if there's somebody that
you can't work with, thenyou're going to have the caveat
or the argument that says well,it's not always about who you're
working with, it's about whothey know.
Okay, yeah, but what they'resaying is that they might refer
(06:10):
you to somebody that they knowthat needs your services.
I think that is a far shot.
I think that unless you got onreally well with them or they
really believe in your productand they just can't buy, they,
they're just a non-buyer thenthey're like oh, you know what?
I can't use this, but I knowsomebody who can.
(06:32):
Yep, I think that might come upearlier in the conversation
than what people are believing,because very rarely do I get
that on kind of like a cold call.
And by a cold call I mean hi,I'm Stu, and blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.
This is what I do, and whetherthat's on the phone door,
(06:53):
knocking on the streets or at aafter hours wind down chamber
mixer, it's a cold call, right,you're talking to somebody.
They don't know you and youdon't know them.
So very rarely have I ever Idon't know if I've ever gotten
like I can't use this, but Iknow somebody who can and then
that deal turns into a close.
(07:14):
Depending on what's going onhow many people are there, I
might just, like you know, kindof saunter away or dismiss
myself from the conversation.
Okay, I want to also talk aboutthe psychology behind handing
(07:34):
out the cards and the symbolismof the empty pocket at the end
of the event.
So you've got to have the clearset goal, like I was saying,
instead of lingering out on theside of the walls.
You've got to say to yourselfit's almost like when it's too
easy to hang by the bar and putout the vibe.
You're like oh crap, you knowwhat?
I've still got all thesebusiness cards in my pocket.
I came here with the goal toget rid of them and I'd like to
(07:57):
upgrade and get differentbusiness cards anyway.
So I might as well hand themout or whatever.
Insert a reason here to get ridof business cards for me.
I gotta have a reason.
I can't just want I have astack of a thousand business
cards in my desk drawer.
I can't just be like, oh, Ibetter get rid of these 40.
No, it's like why, why don't Iget rid of 40.
?
Oh, I want to change somethingon the back side of my card or
like that.
So I want an excuse to gothrough them, you know whatever.
(08:20):
The other cool thing is you haveto measure your ROI, as in the
title, return on investment, onthe time invested.
So if you're making 40 calls atthe office, right, so oh, let's
see, I'm trying to figure out.
Remember, 40 calls would takeme A couple hours, I would say
(08:42):
maybe three hours, to go throughthem, depending on how many no
answers, how many longconversations.
But it would take almost half aday to go through 40.
And I don't know.
Yeah, it just depends.
So you also got to figure outyour ROI and the time invested
for the event you're going to.
So is it a quick hit, like achamber thing that you're
(09:07):
already a member of and you'rejust going to show up after work
for 30 minutes or an hour andthen leave?
Or is it an event that you'vegot to set up yourself?
Or is it something you've gotto prepare for, like, is it a
what do you call those things?
Like they always have at theshowcase places, like a trade
show, where you got to set upyour flyers, your brochures, set
(09:31):
up your table before the event.
You know your back drops, yourtablecloths, your display.
Then you have the breakdown.
Well, now you're looking at anall day thing, or maybe a day
and a half, right.
So you got to figure that outtoo.
And the reason why you want todo the whole keep track of
things is to see what you'repaying yourself per hour.
(09:51):
And then also don't forgetfollow up time, right?
So you're going to go to theseevents, you're going to follow
up after the event, the next dayor that night or whatever, and
send out your emails or phonecalls.
So that also plays into it too,and I know it's like kind of
like exhausting to think aboutall this time you got to keep
(10:12):
track of.
But you don't got to be exact.
You've got to be right on ifyou, if you handed out 10
business cards and you know yougot 10 hours into it.
Now you know that it took you10 hours to hand out 10 business
cards.
You closed one deal or whateverand then that took you 10 hours
to close the deal.
You know we'll get into thatagain a little bit later.
(10:33):
The other thing you've got tokeep track of is that you're
keeping track of how manyconnections that you make.
So I know for me, I was at amixer the other day and it was
the uh, miss Southeast Michiganchamber mixer and I met this one
guy there a couple of timesbefore other events and he was
like dude, let's go shootingsometime.
Man, like you got you, do youlike shooting guns?
(10:54):
I was like, yeah, dude, he'slike perfect, I teach, I'm an
instructor for you know guns Ifyou want.
You know you can get your CPLthrough me and uh, or not, it
would just go hit the range, butyou know, so I could have
potentially made a friend there.
You just don't know what you'regoing to do.
I haven't took him up on it yetCause I got a toddler.
And you know I'm doing otherthings with the kids and if I
(11:17):
was back in the day before kidsand I was single, I would
probably already been to therange a few times with a guy.
But right now I'm setting up aplay structure, for example, and
every moment of my spare timeI'm setting up this play
structure for the kids.
That says it takes 20 hours toset up for two people, so that
means it's 40 hours for me.
Now I like the kind of stuff.
(11:38):
It's kind of like a fun project.
I'm going to start with nothingand end with the play structure
that will last the rest of mychildren's lives.
So, or children's child's life,my kid's child life that's a
weird thing to say, but whatever, until they're teenagers but
yeah, you know, you never knowso and then also calculate how
(12:01):
many follow-up meetings or callsare resulted and did you close
any deals and what's their value.
So sometimes you might do agiveaway at the event, or you're
going to make $10,000 or $1,000or $500 or $200.
You just don't know.
So it depends on whateveryou're selling, I guess.
So you make maybe a chart, anExcel spreadsheet.
(12:22):
Your card's handed out.
Let's say it's 40.
Then you got your 40 cardsreceived.
Hopefully you're reciprocating.
Right, you're getting a cardfor a card.
Now, this can be harder in thedigital day and age.
I myself have one of my digitalcards, the NFC card.
So you're not getting atangible card, but hopefully you
can kind of keep track of thoseas well.
(12:42):
Or I also hand those out too.
Right?
I have them on my phone as a QRcode.
Or I have a wooden you know NFCcard.
You tap it at their phone andit takes them to my podcast, my
LinkedIn, my lineable.
You know Metro trading.
It shows all my sponsors.
Michigan Renaissance Festivalhas the link for them to get
tickets.
It's all on my link tree, right?
Traders do for a link.
(13:05):
And then you got your follow-upconversations.
Maybe you only got 15 out ofthe 40.
You're not going to bat 100 or300 or whatever you want to call
it.
I guess I'm not a sports guy,but follow-up conversations
maybe you got 15 out of the 40.
Not too bad, actually Not badat all.
And then qualified leads maybeyou got five, I don't know,
(13:26):
because most of those people areinsurance or, like I said,
people you can't work with, andthen so a qualified lead out of
40 of five.
That's not so bad, right?
So you got five people to keepin your pipeline and not 40.
You can focus on that and maybeyou closed one deal.
Maybe your revenue generatedout of that is five grand.
(13:48):
So we're just using evennumbers here.
Your uh total hours invested inthat, like I said earlier,
maybe it's 10 hours, we don'tknow.
Uh, you got a couple hoursbefore.
You got a couple hours.
Maybe at the event you got somefollow-up time phone calls,
emails, etc.
So we're gonna round it to 10,just for math.
So your ROI per hour on thatevent is $500.
(14:12):
So, right, five thousand.
And you got the ten, you knowhours invested.
So divided that that's 500500an hour.
So preparation tips on this oneResearch attendees and set
targets, if you can.
(14:33):
A lot of places will set thewho's going to be there.
We call it RSVP list.
I know a lot of chamber eventswill do that.
They'll say whatever fromlandscaping is here and whoever
from the cupcake place is goingto be here, like, all right,
perfect.
So now I can set a goal to goonly go talk to those people,
because I sell sugar and I needto up my sugar volume and the
(14:59):
cupcake person is going to behere.
You know, whatever right, onething you're going to have to do
is prepare a memorable elevatorpitch so important, otherwise
you're going to ramble andbumble and go off on tangents
and people are going to get lostand you're going to see the
curtains close.
So keep it quick, keep itsimple, you know, maybe put in a
(15:21):
little punchline at the end.
There it's funny.
Like one guy I know at achamber event and see this is,
this is a memorable guy.
I don't work with the guy.
I've only heard his pitch twice, maybe three times, and that
was at the chamber coffee mixersand he would say whatever
(15:43):
plumbing company I forgot theirplumbing company and suck, sorry
, dude, but we'll put the seatdown.
And that's his tagline.
Everyone laughs.
Another one was undertaker, orlike a cremation, a crematory,
and she said we'll have youleaving hot or smoking hot.
Something about smoking hot andashes and cremation.
(16:04):
You'll be smoking hot on yourlast day on earth, or something
like that.
Hilarious, everyone laughs.
No one can believe she said itbecause she's like 70 years old,
so it makes it even funnier.
This is like older, smalllittle, like frail lady and
talking about smoking, hotbodies that are, you know about
death Anyway, and focus on yourgenuine conversations, not just
(16:30):
card exchanges.
Don't go in there.
That's kind of annoying too.
I've seen that.
I was at a mixer once.
It was an alignable event andthis guy shows up late and he's
got a lot of business cards andwe're all done with our business
card exchange by this point intime.
We're doing this like circleconversation thing.
(16:51):
Here's what you are, what youdo, what you need, what you like
to see, what you, what your askis.
And this, this cat shows up andjust walks around the room and
hands out his business cards andkind of steals the show for a
few minutes.
I don't know if he ever gotbusiness from anybody there, but
I definitely never called himfor Metro Trading Association
because that was soinconsiderate.
(17:11):
So be considerate.
People are on judgment highalert zone, right, so just be
aware of that.
Also, one thing I used to do iscarry a little a permanent
marker in my pocket and thentake notes on the back of the
cards for personalized follow-up.
So what you're going to do issay you talk to somebody and
(17:33):
you're like oh man, they have my, my dog, this, my cat, that, or
hey, can you believe that?
I don't know, tigers won, won.
Whatever topic came up, sowhatever we would talk about.
And then when we were done partways, real quick I jot down
what we talked about in like abullet point or whatever.
(17:56):
Just a key word Tigers, games,or the guy I was into, whatever
right, or the girls talkingabout their kids or dance or
whatever.
So jot that down the next daywhen you follow up or whatever.
When you do follow up, put downhey, it was great talking with
you last night, or whatever.
Go, tigers, I don't know, youknow.
(18:18):
And then all of a sudden youdevelop rapport and now they're
like wow, that guy talked to alot of people last night.
He remembered me, he rememberedwhat we talked about.
That was cool.
Like all of a sudden you're notjust in the deleted files.
I would put that maybe in thesubject line, if you can like a
little tagline, and whatever youwant to do.
But like some people havegotten thank you cards like
(18:47):
written thank you cards.
Never been that extreme before.
That's a lot of time and uh, Iappreciate that.
I don't know if I've ever done asale with somebody who's done
that, though, other than likethe car guy.
The car dealership I bought aforty thousand dollar vehicle
from wrote me a handwritten note.
I guess the deal's already done, but I'm not gonna be like, hey
, you should talk to Jason overat so-and-so dealership.
You know, I don't know it's notme, but anyway, because I don't
(19:10):
think he sold me anything, Iwent in there.
All he did was facilitate atransaction for me.
That's all car dealers ever arefor me is just do the paperwork
, dude, I already know what I'mgoing to pay.
I already know what I want.
I don't need to test drive it,but you know you're not going to
.
I've never been sold on a car,I guess.
But either way, that's just me.
(19:38):
So, following up, I said thatthe deals on a Friday, you know,
show up on a Monday, or likefollow up on a Monday, or.
I always keep saying the nextday.
That's because you definitelywant to follow up within 24 to
48 hours.
Don't forget.
They're talking to people too.
They're also business ownersand if they're in retail or high
volume, they might not rememberyou, unless you were super
(19:58):
memorable and you guys had agreat conversation.
But always follow up within acouple of days.
And that way your go Tigersthing or whatever is you know
more memorable Reference yourconversation to stand out and
offer value in your follow up.
So if you can follow up with aintroduction to somebody or a
resource or maybe even someinsight, like hey man, I was
(20:22):
thinking about what you saidabout this and I know somebody
who does that, here's theirnumber.
I already let them know youwere calling or whatever, right?
So if you can enter value firstfor somebody, you're more
likely to get a deal, a sale, orthat's obvious.
People buy from people theyknow like and trust.
(20:44):
That's like the golden rule,whatever.
So just keep that in mind.
And then you have to learn andevolve your approach.
So the satisfaction of emptyingyour card pocket and filling it
out with the prospects, thatworked.
And then you've got to figureout well, okay, can we repeat
that?
And what can it be improved?
Not every card is a qualifiedlead and how to pre-qualify
(21:07):
faster.
So, like I said earlier, yougot to make sure that whoever
you're going to talk to might bea buyer.
So if you're selling sugar,talk to cupcakes, not to the I
don't know the bitter, thebitter person.
So then you got the digitalbusiness cards.
You got your LinkedInconnections.
Don't know the bitter, thebitter person.
So then you got the digitalbusiness cards.
You got your LinkedInconnections.
Don't forget, and CRM trackingthat's been popular with me
(21:29):
lately is a LinkedIn connections.
So I won't keep wanting todelete this thing.
I've never gotten a deal on it,but I guess I think for the
podcast it's working.
I don't know, because I alwaysupload on both.
I always connect both linkedinand alignable when I upload a
file, so I don't know which oneis where I'm getting my traffic
from for all my downloads.
(21:51):
But whatever, I keep doing it.
I even do next door appsometimes, so, but I'll be on a
cold call or a guy will coldcall me and I'll say what's your
LinkedIn.
So there's that.
And then the next time you wantto maybe go to an event, try the
40 card challenge, see whathappens, and then even maybe,
(22:13):
let me know, bring 40 cards andhand them all out and collect
forwarding tracker results Maybe.
Another thing to do too is ifyou email me them, I'll keep you
as anonymous, if you'd like,and I'll talk about the best
ones that come in or the mostmemorable in a future episode,
(22:36):
and maybe it'd be a nice tip forsomebody.
Maybe you got a better idea,maybe you do something different
.
I don't know if it's a betteridea, it you got a better idea.
Maybe you do somethingdifferent.
I don't know if it's a betteridea, it's just a different idea
.
Every idea is good, right,something else is always better
Coughlin's Law.
Don't forget, though networkingis an investment, and when you
track your inputs and outcomes,you can improve your strategy,
(22:56):
maximize your ROI and turn everyevent into a real business
opportunity.
Maximize your ROI and turnevery event into a real business
opportunity.
Thanks for tuning into theTrading Post Podcast, where
business networking and ROI meet.
Whatever you do out there, begood or be good at it Till next
time.
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies and share my exciting
journey of using a podcast tomarket my business instead of
relying on SEO.
I'm your host, trader Stu.
Welcome to the Trading Postpodcast.
(00:24):
I'm your host, trader Stu.
So networking, return oninvestment, of course, roi from
business cards to closed deals.
Today's episode.
I want to talk about what I usedto do back in the day and
should probably do today too,but I just don't, is that back
(00:47):
then my closing percentage wasone out of 40 and that was the
ADT basically standard where I'dwork for the alarm systems
company and it was a smallbusiness department.
So we had to make 40 calls thatwould translate into four,
maybe appointments.
That would translate into onesale on average, right.
(01:08):
So I got the idea.
I was like, well, heck, if myclosing rate is one out of 40 on
the phones, then I'm going touse that when I go to networking
events and we'll get into that.
And what I did with the 40business cards in one pocket to
accumulate 40 cards in the otherpocket Real quick, thanking the
sponsors of the MichiganRenaissance Festival and Metro
(01:32):
Trading Association, as well asNetworking with Kids and let's
get into it.
So you have to show up with agoal at networking.
Some people say I don't networkanymore.
It doesn't work.
It's a good old boys program orwhatever, and either you're in
or you're out, and if you're notin there every day then it's
(01:52):
useless.
That's what I hear all the time, because it's kind of half true
.
You got to like show your facemore than once.
You can't just go there collectsome business cards and expect
to get rich right.
So you got to commit and it'sactually.
It gets easier after the secondor third time when you go to
(02:13):
the same group because you seesome familiar faces and then you
can pretty much just walk upnon-awkwardly and start in
conversations and then thosepeople that are familiar are
kind of like your grounding postright.
So when you go out and younetwork and you come back, you
you talk a little bit more andthen you kind of get your energy
(02:34):
back and then go back out again, because it can be an
exhausting game.
If you're a bit of an introvert,I say I'm an introvert.
My wife disagrees, says I'm anextrovert, but I think maybe I'm
a hybrid.
It might be a blend.
I might be an extrovert withpeople I know and then introvert
when I don't really, you know.
It kind of takes my energy awaywhen I'm around people I don't
(02:56):
know as opposed to people I doknow.
I think there's a lot ofvariability in that.
Anyway, so what you do, you gotto go in with a purpose.
So I stacked 40 cards in myright pocket because or what did
I do?
Right pocket, no, left pocket,was my business cards, because I
always shook hands with myright hand and then I would
stash their business card in myright pocket.
(03:18):
And the goal was was to leavewith an empty left pocket of my
business cards and a fat pocketon the right with their business
cards to follow up with.
And that's another thing thatpeople don't do.
That I've I've heard about isthey have all these business
cards and they paint their goldand then they never do nothing
with them.
They just sit in their draweror they sit in their business
(03:40):
card collection booklet, filething, and I don't know, maybe
they miracled themselves into adeal or I don't know what the
problem is, but they don't getaround to it.
They'd rather make cold calls.
I wouldn't.
I'd rather get those businesscards and do a follow-up email,
even if you don't want to make aphone call, it's a simple email
(04:00):
.
Hey is right way.
Talking with you yesterday,last night or last friday
whenever the mixer was and youknow whatever.
Right, so you got to do that,otherwise, yep, you are wasting
your time.
So the other thing is that I'vealso noticed nowadays I guess
nowadays has been years you alsohave to put the variability in
(04:23):
there of 10 good conversationsmight be better than 40 quick
hits, right.
So I'm not saying if you don'tleave with your 40 cards gone
that you're a failure.
You might have been a greatsuccess.
Maybe you only got rid of threeor four, right, but you had
solid conversations.
(04:43):
You only got rid of three orfour, right, but you had solid
conversations.
The problem is that it's tooeasy to linger along the side
walls and approach anxiety.
Or if it's kind of a dinnermixer or hors d'oeuvres, you
have the excuse to maybe grab abeer or wine or whatever like
that and go, sit down and startsnacking on hors d'oeuvres and
(05:05):
hide out but say make yourselffeel good that you were there
because you like.
Well, I was at the mixer but Ididn't get any deals, but you
didn't.
You talked to one person andthey might.
It'd have even been a sale foryou.
Like, for me.
I can't work with people thatare real estate or that do
insurance sales, which at thesemixers you're going to find a
lot of.
So but that's just me, you know, I just can't work with them
(05:29):
because of Metro TradingAssociation.
You just can't trade or barterfor that kind of work, anyway.
So don't forget that.
You don't want to cut yourconversation short just because
you're running out of time andyou got too many business cards
left, unless they're timewasters, in which case, you know
(05:49):
, try and get out of there,because if there's somebody that
you can't work with, thenyou're going to have the caveat
or the argument that says well,it's not always about who you're
working with, it's about whothey know.
Okay, yeah, but what they'resaying is that they might refer
(06:10):
you to somebody that they knowthat needs your services.
I think that is a far shot.
I think that unless you got onreally well with them or they
really believe in your productand they just can't buy, they,
they're just a non-buyer thenthey're like oh, you know what?
I can't use this, but I knowsomebody who can.
(06:32):
Yep, I think that might come upearlier in the conversation
than what people are believing,because very rarely do I get
that on kind of like a cold call.
And by a cold call I mean hi,I'm Stu, and blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.
This is what I do, and whetherthat's on the phone door,
(06:53):
knocking on the streets or at aafter hours wind down chamber
mixer, it's a cold call, right,you're talking to somebody.
They don't know you and youdon't know them.
So very rarely have I ever Idon't know if I've ever gotten
like I can't use this, but Iknow somebody who can and then
that deal turns into a close.
(07:14):
Depending on what's going onhow many people are there, I
might just, like you know, kindof saunter away or dismiss
myself from the conversation.
Okay, I want to also talk aboutthe psychology behind handing
(07:34):
out the cards and the symbolismof the empty pocket at the end
of the event.
So you've got to have the clearset goal, like I was saying,
instead of lingering out on theside of the walls.
You've got to say to yourselfit's almost like when it's too
easy to hang by the bar and putout the vibe.
You're like oh crap, you knowwhat?
I've still got all thesebusiness cards in my pocket.
I came here with the goal toget rid of them and I'd like to
(07:57):
upgrade and get differentbusiness cards anyway.
So I might as well hand themout or whatever.
Insert a reason here to get ridof business cards for me.
I gotta have a reason.
I can't just want I have astack of a thousand business
cards in my desk drawer.
I can't just be like, oh, Ibetter get rid of these 40.
No, it's like why, why don't Iget rid of 40.
?
Oh, I want to change somethingon the back side of my card or
like that.
So I want an excuse to gothrough them, you know whatever.
(08:20):
The other cool thing is you haveto measure your ROI, as in the
title, return on investment, onthe time invested.
So if you're making 40 calls atthe office, right, so oh, let's
see, I'm trying to figure out.
Remember, 40 calls would takeme A couple hours, I would say
(08:42):
maybe three hours, to go throughthem, depending on how many no
answers, how many longconversations.
But it would take almost half aday to go through 40.
And I don't know.
Yeah, it just depends.
So you also got to figure outyour ROI and the time invested
for the event you're going to.
So is it a quick hit, like achamber thing that you're
(09:07):
already a member of and you'rejust going to show up after work
for 30 minutes or an hour andthen leave?
Or is it an event that you'vegot to set up yourself?
Or is it something you've gotto prepare for, like, is it a
what do you call those things?
Like they always have at theshowcase places, like a trade
show, where you got to set upyour flyers, your brochures, set
(09:31):
up your table before the event.
You know your back drops, yourtablecloths, your display.
Then you have the breakdown.
Well, now you're looking at anall day thing, or maybe a day
and a half, right.
So you got to figure that outtoo.
And the reason why you want todo the whole keep track of
things is to see what you'repaying yourself per hour.
(09:51):
And then also don't forgetfollow up time, right?
So you're going to go to theseevents, you're going to follow
up after the event, the next dayor that night or whatever, and
send out your emails or phonecalls.
So that also plays into it too,and I know it's like kind of
like exhausting to think aboutall this time you got to keep
(10:12):
track of.
But you don't got to be exact.
You've got to be right on ifyou, if you handed out 10
business cards and you know yougot 10 hours into it.
Now you know that it took you10 hours to hand out 10 business
cards.
You closed one deal or whateverand then that took you 10 hours
to close the deal.
You know we'll get into thatagain a little bit later.
(10:33):
The other thing you've got tokeep track of is that you're
keeping track of how manyconnections that you make.
So I know for me, I was at amixer the other day and it was
the uh, miss Southeast Michiganchamber mixer and I met this one
guy there a couple of timesbefore other events and he was
like dude, let's go shootingsometime.
Man, like you got you, do youlike shooting guns?
(10:54):
I was like, yeah, dude, he'slike perfect, I teach, I'm an
instructor for you know guns Ifyou want.
You know you can get your CPLthrough me and uh, or not, it
would just go hit the range, butyou know, so I could have
potentially made a friend there.
You just don't know what you'regoing to do.
I haven't took him up on it yetCause I got a toddler.
And you know I'm doing otherthings with the kids and if I
(11:17):
was back in the day before kidsand I was single, I would
probably already been to therange a few times with a guy.
But right now I'm setting up aplay structure, for example, and
every moment of my spare timeI'm setting up this play
structure for the kids.
That says it takes 20 hours toset up for two people, so that
means it's 40 hours for me.
Now I like the kind of stuff.
(11:38):
It's kind of like a fun project.
I'm going to start with nothingand end with the play structure
that will last the rest of mychildren's lives.
So, or children's child's life,my kid's child life that's a
weird thing to say, but whatever, until they're teenagers but
yeah, you know, you never knowso and then also calculate how
(12:01):
many follow-up meetings or callsare resulted and did you close
any deals and what's their value.
So sometimes you might do agiveaway at the event, or you're
going to make $10,000 or $1,000or $500 or $200.
You just don't know.
So it depends on whateveryou're selling, I guess.
So you make maybe a chart, anExcel spreadsheet.
(12:22):
Your card's handed out.
Let's say it's 40.
Then you got your 40 cardsreceived.
Hopefully you're reciprocating.
Right, you're getting a cardfor a card.
Now, this can be harder in thedigital day and age.
I myself have one of my digitalcards, the NFC card.
So you're not getting atangible card, but hopefully you
can kind of keep track of thoseas well.
(12:42):
Or I also hand those out too.
Right?
I have them on my phone as a QRcode.
Or I have a wooden you know NFCcard.
You tap it at their phone andit takes them to my podcast, my
LinkedIn, my lineable.
You know Metro trading.
It shows all my sponsors.
Michigan Renaissance Festivalhas the link for them to get
tickets.
It's all on my link tree, right?
Traders do for a link.
(13:05):
And then you got your follow-upconversations.
Maybe you only got 15 out ofthe 40.
You're not going to bat 100 or300 or whatever you want to call
it.
I guess I'm not a sports guy,but follow-up conversations
maybe you got 15 out of the 40.
Not too bad, actually Not badat all.
And then qualified leads maybeyou got five, I don't know,
(13:26):
because most of those people areinsurance or, like I said,
people you can't work with, andthen so a qualified lead out of
40 of five.
That's not so bad, right?
So you got five people to keepin your pipeline and not 40.
You can focus on that and maybeyou closed one deal.
Maybe your revenue generatedout of that is five grand.
(13:48):
So we're just using evennumbers here.
Your uh total hours invested inthat, like I said earlier,
maybe it's 10 hours, we don'tknow.
Uh, you got a couple hoursbefore.
You got a couple hours.
Maybe at the event you got somefollow-up time phone calls,
emails, etc.
So we're gonna round it to 10,just for math.
So your ROI per hour on thatevent is $500.
(14:12):
So, right, five thousand.
And you got the ten, you knowhours invested.
So divided that that's 500500an hour.
So preparation tips on this oneResearch attendees and set
targets, if you can.
(14:33):
A lot of places will set thewho's going to be there.
We call it RSVP list.
I know a lot of chamber eventswill do that.
They'll say whatever fromlandscaping is here and whoever
from the cupcake place is goingto be here, like, all right,
perfect.
So now I can set a goal to goonly go talk to those people,
because I sell sugar and I needto up my sugar volume and the
(14:59):
cupcake person is going to behere.
You know, whatever right, onething you're going to have to do
is prepare a memorable elevatorpitch so important, otherwise
you're going to ramble andbumble and go off on tangents
and people are going to get lostand you're going to see the
curtains close.
So keep it quick, keep itsimple, you know, maybe put in a
(15:21):
little punchline at the end.
There it's funny.
Like one guy I know at achamber event and see this is,
this is a memorable guy.
I don't work with the guy.
I've only heard his pitch twice, maybe three times, and that
was at the chamber coffee mixersand he would say whatever
(15:43):
plumbing company I forgot theirplumbing company and suck, sorry
, dude, but we'll put the seatdown.
And that's his tagline.
Everyone laughs.
Another one was undertaker, orlike a cremation, a crematory,
and she said we'll have youleaving hot or smoking hot.
Something about smoking hot andashes and cremation.
(16:04):
You'll be smoking hot on yourlast day on earth, or something
like that.
Hilarious, everyone laughs.
No one can believe she said itbecause she's like 70 years old,
so it makes it even funnier.
This is like older, smalllittle, like frail lady and
talking about smoking, hotbodies that are, you know about
death Anyway, and focus on yourgenuine conversations, not just
(16:30):
card exchanges.
Don't go in there.
That's kind of annoying too.
I've seen that.
I was at a mixer once.
It was an alignable event andthis guy shows up late and he's
got a lot of business cards andwe're all done with our business
card exchange by this point intime.
We're doing this like circleconversation thing.
(16:51):
Here's what you are, what youdo, what you need, what you like
to see, what you, what your askis.
And this, this cat shows up andjust walks around the room and
hands out his business cards andkind of steals the show for a
few minutes.
I don't know if he ever gotbusiness from anybody there, but
I definitely never called himfor Metro Trading Association
because that was soinconsiderate.
(17:11):
So be considerate.
People are on judgment highalert zone, right, so just be
aware of that.
Also, one thing I used to do iscarry a little a permanent
marker in my pocket and thentake notes on the back of the
cards for personalized follow-up.
So what you're going to do issay you talk to somebody and
(17:33):
you're like oh man, they have my, my dog, this, my cat, that, or
hey, can you believe that?
I don't know, tigers won, won.
Whatever topic came up, sowhatever we would talk about.
And then when we were done partways, real quick I jot down
what we talked about in like abullet point or whatever.
(17:56):
Just a key word Tigers, games,or the guy I was into, whatever
right, or the girls talkingabout their kids or dance or
whatever.
So jot that down the next daywhen you follow up or whatever.
When you do follow up, put downhey, it was great talking with
you last night, or whatever.
Go, tigers, I don't know, youknow.
(18:18):
And then all of a sudden youdevelop rapport and now they're
like wow, that guy talked to alot of people last night.
He remembered me, he rememberedwhat we talked about.
That was cool.
Like all of a sudden you're notjust in the deleted files.
I would put that maybe in thesubject line, if you can like a
little tagline, and whatever youwant to do.
But like some people havegotten thank you cards like
(18:47):
written thank you cards.
Never been that extreme before.
That's a lot of time and uh, Iappreciate that.
I don't know if I've ever done asale with somebody who's done
that, though, other than likethe car guy.
The car dealership I bought aforty thousand dollar vehicle
from wrote me a handwritten note.
I guess the deal's already done, but I'm not gonna be like, hey
, you should talk to Jason overat so-and-so dealership.
You know, I don't know it's notme, but anyway, because I don't
(19:10):
think he sold me anything, Iwent in there.
All he did was facilitate atransaction for me.
That's all car dealers ever arefor me is just do the paperwork
, dude, I already know what I'mgoing to pay.
I already know what I want.
I don't need to test drive it,but you know you're not going to
.
I've never been sold on a car,I guess.
But either way, that's just me.
(19:38):
So, following up, I said thatthe deals on a Friday, you know,
show up on a Monday, or likefollow up on a Monday, or.
I always keep saying the nextday.
That's because you definitelywant to follow up within 24 to
48 hours.
Don't forget.
They're talking to people too.
They're also business ownersand if they're in retail or high
volume, they might not rememberyou, unless you were super
(19:58):
memorable and you guys had agreat conversation.
But always follow up within acouple of days.
And that way your go Tigersthing or whatever is you know
more memorable Reference yourconversation to stand out and
offer value in your follow up.
So if you can follow up with aintroduction to somebody or a
resource or maybe even someinsight, like hey man, I was
(20:22):
thinking about what you saidabout this and I know somebody
who does that, here's theirnumber.
I already let them know youwere calling or whatever, right?
So if you can enter value firstfor somebody, you're more
likely to get a deal, a sale, orthat's obvious.
People buy from people theyknow like and trust.
(20:44):
That's like the golden rule,whatever.
So just keep that in mind.
And then you have to learn andevolve your approach.
So the satisfaction of emptyingyour card pocket and filling it
out with the prospects, thatworked.
And then you've got to figureout well, okay, can we repeat
that?
And what can it be improved?
Not every card is a qualifiedlead and how to pre-qualify
(21:07):
faster.
So, like I said earlier, yougot to make sure that whoever
you're going to talk to might bea buyer.
So if you're selling sugar,talk to cupcakes, not to the I
don't know the bitter, thebitter person.
So then you got the digitalbusiness cards.
You got your LinkedInconnections.
Don't know the bitter, thebitter person.
So then you got the digitalbusiness cards.
You got your LinkedInconnections.
Don't forget, and CRM trackingthat's been popular with me
(21:29):
lately is a LinkedIn connections.
So I won't keep wanting todelete this thing.
I've never gotten a deal on it,but I guess I think for the
podcast it's working.
I don't know, because I alwaysupload on both.
I always connect both linkedinand alignable when I upload a
file, so I don't know which oneis where I'm getting my traffic
from for all my downloads.
(21:51):
But whatever, I keep doing it.
I even do next door appsometimes, so, but I'll be on a
cold call or a guy will coldcall me and I'll say what's your
LinkedIn.
So there's that.
And then the next time you wantto maybe go to an event, try the
40 card challenge, see whathappens, and then even maybe,
(22:13):
let me know, bring 40 cards andhand them all out and collect
forwarding tracker results Maybe.
Another thing to do too is ifyou email me them, I'll keep you
as anonymous, if you'd like,and I'll talk about the best
ones that come in or the mostmemorable in a future episode,
(22:36):
and maybe it'd be a nice tip forsomebody.
Maybe you got a better idea,maybe you do something different
.
I don't know if it's a betteridea, it you got a better idea.
Maybe you do somethingdifferent.
I don't know if it's a betteridea, it's just a different idea
.
Every idea is good, right,something else is always better
Coughlin's Law.
Don't forget, though networkingis an investment, and when you
track your inputs and outcomes,you can improve your strategy,
(22:56):
maximize your ROI and turn everyevent into a real business
opportunity.
Maximize your ROI and turnevery event into a real business
opportunity.
Thanks for tuning into theTrading Post Podcast, where
business networking and ROI meet.
Whatever you do out there, begood or be good at it Till next
time.
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