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BNI 822: Business Matters 122 - Follow Up - Dr. Misner's 7/24/30
00:22:18
In this week's Business Matters episode we answer your submitted question. This week we discuss following up and Dr. Misner's 7/24/30 method.
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- [00:26]
A
Welcome back to business matters of B Night. Power of one, Tim Roberts. And live and in studio for the first time in a long time, Michael Martin.
- [00:36]
B
I am here.
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A
Yeah, it's crazy.
- [00:38]
B
We have my dentist to thank who's across the street from your office.
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A
So we see each other so much. But Zoom does.
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B
Yeah, I know.
- [00:46]
A
Easy to do.
- [00:47]
B
Zoom makes it easy in the morning.
- [00:48]
A
Yeah. We were talking off air about the Celtics last night, so I'm already in a depressed state of mind watching that. Blew another lead and then blew an.
- [00:57]
B
Achilles like three games in a row. They blew a big lead.
- [01:00]
A
Yeah, they. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see what happens. But if Tatum's out next season, it's going to be an interesting year. See what they do in the office.
- [01:09]
B
They will have to make plans.
- [01:11]
A
My hope honestly is. So there's rumors. Do you follow basketball? Not as much, I don't think. Right.
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B
No, I follow playoff basketball.
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A
Yeah. So there's the big guy out of Milwaukee who's like a superstar who just said he's open to not staying in Milwaukee.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And so now I, I'm almost hoping like they just trade everybody to get him next season. And then Tatum comes back the year after that and there, there's your dynamic, dynamic duo.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So we'll see. But well, anyways, we'll dive into because you do have to go get your teeth cleaned and all that. But we have a topic submitted from Paul in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It says Ivan Miser talks about the 24 season 7:30 for follow up with a new contact. What happens next? We need some way to continue to relationship. Please advise. So yeah, start with the question of do you believe in that 24, 7:30 follow up for when you make a new contact.
- [02:02]
B
Yeah, I think it's a good, it's a good schedule. You know, we've talked in the past very recently about when you're networking. You need to make sure you're doing your first follow up, whether it's a phone call or an email within 24 hours. And hopefully it's you're going to keep it relevant and germane to the discussion that you had and be able to recall those important points. I think that first follow up, if you don't hear anything, I think giving it a week is a great time. But don't get rigid in 24, 7:30 if you have some other time that, that the person agrees to meet you on.
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A
Yeah, I think each one you're trying to get the next meeting you're Trying.
- [02:46]
B
To get the next meeting. Recently I was out car shopping and I had one salesperson out of all the people that I talked to, one salesperson followed up in a very similar fashion. And his questions were along the lines of did you find a car yet? Are you still looking? Hey, you were interested in this. But I have one that's like that. And he was following up once a week and ultimately I didn't get a car from them. But I tell you what I did, I sent him a thank you note for being the only person who followed up like that. And I'm like I remember him, you know. So I think following up is going to keep you fresh in their mind. There comes a certain point where if the relationship is one sided and you've gone for a certain amount of time, whether you've done two 30 day cycles, if there's nothing coming up or four or whatever it may be, there's a certain point where you need to focus.
- [03:45]
A
Your energies elsewhere that I would definitely agree with. It's funny, the car industry, I just saw another, we've talked about this in the past where usually if I go to buy a car I go dressed down.
- [03:57]
B
Yes.
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A
Like sweatpants, warm up pants like pull, you know, three quarter zip thing, hat. And I was watching, there's a guy that I've seen just on social media stuff, he's like a sales manager at Mercedes somewhere, it's not anywhere local and he was talking about that actually on one of his things he's like usually the ones who are the most serious about buying will come in, dress the down and see who judges them, who doesn't, who they end up working with and not it's the same as fall but it is like so many of them when I go I get like ignored. It'll always be like one person.
- [04:29]
B
Yeah.
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A
And then when I come back to pick up the car and so this happened when I bought my last car. So I was sweatpants or whatever, warmer pants, one like old timer guy comes and finally talks to me and I'm like hey, do you have this car still? Because I was looking for a specific used car. He's like looked at me and he's like yeah. I was like can, can you go get it? Can we go test drive it? And I don't think he even thought I was serious.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And then, but bought it that day and then when I came to back to pick it up I was coming back from a BNI meeting. So I'm in a suit and all of a sudden everybody's like, hey, what's going on? And I'm like, yeah, picking up my car and it was kind of. You could see like the light bulbs. And so it's the same thing with the follow up. Like so many will meet and. But just missing dropping that simple.
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B
And even before you get to the point of the follow up, I think when you're networking, you know, you're not just networking at formal events.
- [05:18]
A
Right.
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B
You're constantly networking. Right. As long as you're out among people, you're networking. Right. You're showing your brand. So that proverbial saying, don't judge a book by its cover, you know, because you may not get a chance to network if you misjudge somebody incorrectly.
- [05:33]
A
Yeah. Actually it's funny to you. That's the whole perception is reality. I have a person I work closely with, one of our professional services that we work with. I was talking to somebody who's really successful, really, really successful and is telling me how they would never do business with that person because of their perception of them in public.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And it's just kind of like I don't have the same because I've known this person forever. But then we went to an event and I looked at him and I went, I see it now. I see exactly what he was talking about.
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B
It's like once you see it, you can't.
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A
Yeah, I was like, I get it. I mean that I have a relationship with him at this point, so it doesn't change anything for me. But I was like, yeah, man, what a missed opportunity. Again. It was like a big event. And yeah, the person just like, you know, when they show up and they just look like they don't care, like how they dress and everything. And it was like, man, what a. Yeah. And I think his business is at the point where maybe he doesn't, I guess, but still I was just like.
- [06:27]
B
Yeah, he might have apathy in his life about what he's doing or, you know, the business he's running. But I, But I do think it's important. Like we always talk about in networking, you have to have a plan. So that plan, you know, if we haven't discussed it, that plan doesn't just entail what you plan on doing at the networking function or eventually it is what you're going to do after because it's a cycle, so you have to be ready to do the follow up. And I know we've stressed the immediate follow up, but I think a 24, 7:30 is a good way of doing it. But I also think that may change based on what you actually spoke about. If you are in a great conversational networking dialogue, like you and me, we're always talking and we have a great dialogue.
- [07:16]
A
Right, right.
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B
If you're having that, you know, you don't have to necessarily, if you call or follow up within 24 hours, you don't hear anything. You don't necessarily have to wait seven days. You know, you, you might go in like, you might try emailing first and then the next day or two days later just pick up the phone and call and say hey, you know, like, like let's get together, whatever, it was great, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I think that is kind of predicated on how it goes. But, but as a model, I think 24730 is pretty good at least because it gives you some groundwork to like if you're. I always say it's important to do things on a schedule.
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A
Yeah, you stay routine.
- [07:59]
B
Yeah, I was never good at that early on in my career. And then I was old school and I basically put everything in an Outlook calendar because I had all these notepads and I just had notepads after notepads after notepads and, and I was starting to miss things. So when I needed to make a follow up, I would literally plug in a 15 minute slot or a 5 minute slot or 10 minutes just to pick up the phone and dial this person, you know, or if I had a page full of contacts and numbers that I acquired over the course of a few days, I would set a time to just say this is my time to just start from the top of that piece of paper and go all the way.
- [08:36]
A
I used to do that. Like I used to book out time for like follow up. I wouldn't be like a specific one, but it would be like, this is your follow up phone call time. And then I would pull out the list.
- [08:44]
B
But yeah, but I think you can make specific ones. Like, like again, if something, if you're really in sync with somebody at a networking event and there's good feeling all around and you're both going, you're both engaged and you're saying, yeah, let's follow up and do this, I think that's a specific one that you actually do. But it just keeps you kind of into a system and maybe at some point you get out of it, you know, in terms of having to document everything religiously as it were, and because you'll just be doing these things on.
- [09:15]
A
Autopilot, I think there's new cr. There's so many programs out there now too that you track also it auto populates and pops up like, sure, time to call, you know, Mike. I guess I. So I got to be open. I've not heard Ivan's podcast on this specifically. So the next question just becomes, I guess, all right, you did 24, you did 7 to 30. You. Is it move a long time or is there something else you would do after that to try to re. Engage?
- [09:45]
B
Yeah, well, I, I think you can give it some time for cooling off. And if, if this person is involved in networking events, you'll likely be in a position to see them in person again.
- [09:56]
A
Right.
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B
At some point. And you also have to make a decision. Is it worth your time to continue chasing somebody who is completely unresponsive?
- [10:09]
A
Correct.
- [10:10]
B
So the importance of, and this is the trap that I think people get into is like they send an email and it's kind of like cleared, okay, I did it, I sent an email. But you don't know if your email's going into a spam folder. You don't know if it got accidentally deleted. So you need. You're buried amongst a hundred others, buried amongst 100 emails. So that's the thing about a phone call that I think, you know, actually works better because you're going to get to a voicemail. Then you know, the person may not listen to their voicemails, that's fine. But you have to try different modes of communication. But at some point you have to decide if your time and energy is best spent in other places. But I don't think that's necessarily after the first 30 because I've been in positions where someone's contacted me and for whatever reason I actually wanted to talk to them. I knew they contacted me and I didn't get around to do it.
- [11:01]
A
Yeah.
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B
And six or seven months later. I just had one recently where somebody reached out to me last September and I just got back to them last week and it wasn't like when I felt bad and I apologize. So, you know, I'm really bad. I said I had every intention of calling you. We had ended up having a great conversation. We're going to do a follow up week after next before I go down to Myrtle for golf. But you know, it was just something where it escaped me. And then, you know, after a few days of telling myself, yeah, you got to calm, you got to calm. I just stopped remembering that. And then I didn't.
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A
Right.
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B
And then I was going through old emails and I'm like, oh, No, I never got back to them. So I did. So, you know, but you don't know those reasons. And I think, you know, you, you don't necessarily have to give up. Somebody could forget that you're trying to network with. It does happen. So don't just do, you know, 24, 7, 30, and cut bait.
- [11:59]
A
Right.
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B
You know, give it a few more times, try a few more different ways. And then at some point say, well, I've left them all the messages I can, they're not getting back to me. And there you go. Which is probably what he thought, the person I'm talking about. And you know, but then I remember down the road and reconnected, so, you know, it could come back around. I think you have to. And, but again, if you're local networking and local business, you're probably going to see that person out. So don't be afraid to walk up if the time is right and say, hey, you know, I, you know, I feel like we had a great connection last time. Is this something you want to move forward on or is there anything else you want to talk about or how can I help you? And if they're like, yeah, you know, if you're not getting the same kind of feeling, they've probably moved on already. It's not personal, it's business. You know, don't, don't feel a sense of rejection. But always leave that. If that's the scenario, leave it with. Let me know if there's any, ever. Anything I can do for you.
- [12:55]
A
Yep.
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B
And just let it go with that.
- [12:57]
A
I used to also, like in your case, especially with networking events, even if it's not local and maybe it's big, I would email them like, hey, are you going to be at this event? Like as a touch point, you know, like, hey, looking forward to going to this event. Well, I see you there types of things just to see it. And you can get a read off that too. You know, I mean, a little bit based on their response, but then it's not, you know, there's always that line of you don't want to seem desperate or chasing either. Right. So it's like, you don't want to be like, like chasing him down.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I would try to get a read on should I approach them at that event or not.
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B
Yeah, yeah. And let's face it, everybody listening has been at networking things where you've seen somebody across the room and your first thing out of your mind is, oh, no.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And if they start making their way your way, you're like, oh, no, I really don't want to talk to that person. And I get it sometimes that's just the reality of it. So, you know, if you are that person that other people are doing it to, you might need to rethink how you're going about doing your networking.
- [13:54]
A
Right. I would, I would. I mean, I'm not. BNI has its own thing, so. But I would be recommending investing in a good CRM platform that will help you kind of track what communications you did. Because otherwise it's very easy to lose sight too. And if you got that rhythm, it can auto populate and remind you, put in your notes. It keeps. Like we talked about the last time, like when you're networking, you'd write notes down on a little notepad and stuff. It can keep it all in one place and then just, you know. Yeah, you got to walk that line. You don't want to let the relationship go, but you don't want to be chasing and so desperate that you force it to go.
- [14:29]
B
Yeah.
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A
Out of that misperception.
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B
And I, I think another, another danger into networking and following up properly is it's not about whoever gets the most cards wins. So CRM platforms are built on collecting vast amounts of cards and data, putting them in there for you to manage. But you have to be real. In your analysis of. Among all those cards you collected, were any of those networking opportunities actually good?
- [15:06]
A
Right.
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B
Because if you're just handing out cards and you're just collecting cards and putting them in a CRM system and then tickling and following up and it sends you a little metcalf, you're not really maximizing what networking is supposed to be. You're now also just using technology, putting things in and entering and making notes. But they're not necessarily going to be fruitful in any way because chances are that other person, if you just swap cards real quick, they're the same mindset as you. They have very little intention of doing anything with you.
- [15:39]
A
I used to, I would never offer my card unless somebody asks.
- [15:42]
B
Yep.
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A
And I would ask for the ones I wanted and put that in one pocket.
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B
Yes.
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A
And the ones that were just handed to me like randomly went into a totally different pocket.
- [15:52]
B
Yeah, we've talked about that before. Usually it goes in the bin on the way out or you, you know, I'd leave them on a table. Yeah. If somebody walks by, checks out the car, great. But yeah, that to me is nobody.
- [16:05]
A
Wants to be prospected too. We talk about that constantly. Yeah, we, I talk about it as like the networking disconnect. And like we've all done it, so let's put that out. But like I asked the question, how many of you went to like an after hours before and hope to get a deal out of it? And everybody's hand goes up. I go, great, how many of you went to one of these and hope somebody sold you something? And nobody's saying yeah, right. There's the disconnect.
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B
Right.
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A
So you have to, you know, and there's, I think a lot of people who go out there are not networking, looking for further development of relationships and those kind of things. They're out prospecting, hunting and deal, deal, deal, deal. And again, ultimately that's the end goal. But you want it if you're just out there trying to get the person you're meeting to buy from you directly every single time. Like yeah. Builds the wrong reputation quick.
- [16:48]
B
And don't get me wrong, prospecting is valuable if done the right way. I think again, the challenge is getting out of the mindset of oh, I collected 100 cards at the function tonight. So yeah, I succeeded. No you didn't.
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A
Right.
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B
You still have all the work to do. Right. Because nothing that was handed to you and a business card that night, if that's your mentality, wasn't anything. You couldn't have just logged onto the Chamber website and got all that information. Information.
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A
Right.
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B
All in one.
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A
Yep.
- [17:19]
B
So you know, you have to really be target. I like your, you know, I'm the same way when I go to a networking thing, I probably only have four or five cards in my pocket tops.
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A
Right.
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B
Because I only want to give them the people that I want to have it or that I establish a good relationship with there on the scene.
- [17:36]
A
Yeah. And usually that's when they'll ask for something. Right. Or you'll say, hey, you know, with the follow up part, like let's, let's connect next week. Great, here's my card. Let's. We'll connect. It's not a just run around and see how many I can pass out and how much. Yeah, that gave is, is antiquated.
- [17:50]
B
So you want that 24, 7, 30 follow up to be as fruitful as the networking you did to set up that follow up.
- [17:58]
A
Right.
- [17:59]
B
So you know, you'll maximize that type of thing and hopefully you only go 24, 7 as opposed to the 30. So you know, if you really do it, I mean I think the ultimate maximal gain in networking is you get the deal done on the spot because the conversation is so awesome.
- [18:20]
A
Right.
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B
Rarely happens. But if you can get the follow up on that 24 on your, on your first follow up to them and then you set a meeting, a time, a call, that to me is the ultimate goal.
- [18:32]
A
Right.
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B
And you're not going to get that by tossing cards or collecting.
- [18:36]
A
You have to have somewhat of a meaningful conversation up front.
- [18:39]
B
Absolutely.
- [18:40]
A
Which we could talk about another time. How do, how do you do that? So, Mike, good to see you in person, as always.
- [18:47]
B
And thanks for the question.
- [18:48]
A
Yeah. As always. Yeah. Leave a comment, Leave us a question. Go to BNI Power of one. Leave a review. You can do that at Apple Podcast, Spotify, however, have a good one.
- [19:05]
C
We rise with the sun Ready for the day with hard work and passion we pave the way Every little task it builds and it grows in this world of business it's the heart that shows dedication Shines in everything we do Together we climb it's me and it's you we all work hard to make our dreams alive with strength of spirit we leave the average behind the power of giving lifts us high and wide that's why we are proud to be a part of BNI from early morning mornings to late at night we hustle and we strive Keep our vision bright through every challenge we stand tall and strong Together as a family we can't go wrong the bonds we're building they take us far in the game of business we're shining like a star we all work hard to make our dreams come true with strength of spirit we all pull through the power of giving lifts us high and wide that's why we are proud to stand side by side Being our support place where connections thrive Uniting our hopes keeping dreams alive Together we network, inspire and share with every referral we show that we care we all work hard to make our dreams align with strength of spirit we're truly on the grind the power of giving lifts us high and wide that's why we are proud to stand side by side so here we are Lifting each other high with dedication and pride we're ready to fly Together we'll grow through every stormy night in this journey of ours we're shining bright.