A morning talking Networking with the Buford Business Alliance and Michael A Forman
- mforman521
- Feb 19
- 17 min read
You know, everybody knows of the sales cycle, right from the janitor to the CEO. Everybody has to know the sales cycle. Can you, so you, your, your employer or if you're a solopreneur, just you, you have to learn your product. You learn, learn your product so well that you can talk about it at any pace.
But what don't they teach you? They don't teach you to network, to network properly because you can go to a networking event or meet with somebody one-on-one. And what happens? You have a great meeting, you have a great contact, but nothing ever really comes out of it. It's not because of what you sell.
Yeah. It's the way that you sell it. And the way that you follow up. And I feel that the follow up is a hundred percent more important than actually meeting the person. So that's what I'm going to, can you speak a little bit, teach you a little bit louder? Only 'cause we have people here. I don't know. A little bit louder.
Yes. There you go. Okay. You got it. Why does everyone network? What's the main purpose? To keep business together, right? You have, you wanna sell a product to what? To make money, whether you're salary or, or commission. It doesn't make a difference, but that is your ultimate goal, and that is to make money. And I am here to tell you that without networking, you won't make it.
Alright? So first thing is you have to, whenever you're, you're meeting up with somebody, whether you're meeting with. Just a, an individual person or a networking event. I'm going to use a networking event really as my base, because that's where your main, where your main, you go out and you network to communicate your, what you're selling and what you're selling is what, who you are.
So now you, you have their, their problem right in front of you. And it's your job to find out what the solution is. Is that the end of it? No. Okay. You have a problem. I have your solution. I figured out your solution and, okay, wham bam. Thank you ma'am. We're done wrong. Here is the solution. Here is where your customer is going.
That's where you want to go. You want to be able to meet them where they're going, because otherwise, you know they're done with you. They don't need you anymore, and that's not true. Right? So I'm going to give you this screen. Take every opportunity to meet new people. Focus on how you can help go alone strictly for extroverts.
I'll get to that in a minute. Don't forget your business cards and the follow up. This is what I'm going to teach you today, right? So these are the main points, and when I say extrovert versus introvert does not that much of a difference. Believe it or not, there's not that much of a difference, and I'll go into that.
So I want you to think, think about this line. Yes. People love to buy, but they hate to be sold to. Right? How many times have you walked into a car dealership and the guy said, Hey man, I'm Alex. Oh, this, this model, this model's great. It's got this point, this point, this point. It's got this, got great lines and tells you all about it and everything.
And you're standing here going, I just came to look man. Just, just leave me alone. Or walk up to somebody or yet walked up to by a salesman and say, Hey, I'm Malcolm. If you need me, I'm right over there. And you look at it at your own pace. And if you have a question which 99% of the time you do, you're gonna ask him.
Right? So that's, that's a different in a sales technique. Now here, smile. Okay, smile. Okay. That's the first thing that everybody looks at, right? If you're going to smile, right. Celia, our, our queen of nonprofits, right? What does she always do when she walks into her room? Smiles. It's the most important thing.
If you walk in with a frown, nobody's gonna want to talk to you, right? So you have to look the person in the eye. Nobody likes to talk to somebody as they're talking to somebody and looking like this, right? You don't want to do that. You also want to make them feel like they're the most important person in the room.
Now when you're talking to somebody, you'll see somebody walking behind them that you really want to talk to.
What do you do? You finish your conversation with that person, you remain with eye contact. Now you know instinctively where that other person's walking and who they're talking to, but you finish your conversation. You have eye contact because that is the most important thing and they are the most important person in the room.
Okay? That's your eye contact. I have a, a story from New York versus Georgia. I come from New York. If you can't tell my accent see, I don't think I have an accent. I think you all have an accent. Alright, so it's different. But there's, there's a distinct difference between a New York person and a Georgia person.
And I don't have the time to go into that. So I'm not and be polite. Be polite. You have to treat the janitor as well as the CEO. I have another story for that, right? Where I actually walked into a building and I met the janitor. Long story short, I was sitting down with the CEO of the company and I said, how you doing?
And he said, oh, hey Jeff. And I turned around and it was the janitor. I said, oh, you know him? 'cause that's my brother-in-law. Wow. So if I didn't, I listen, I made nights. I spoke to him, I said, how you doing? Can I help you with anything? Anything like that? And then I walked up to the CEO's office. If I didn't do that, what would the CEO would've thought of me, right?
Alright, so, and here to respect the CEO, like the janitor. Okay? Now, confidence. When you're talking to somebody, square your body up with them. Don't say, Hey, how you doing? Because, what does that mean? You're looking over here, right? You're not looking over here. You have to speak with the person. Speak with the person directly.
Shoulder square, okay? Friendly facial expression, hands in, plain sight. Listen, if you're talking like this or if you talk with your hands in your pocket, you're lost, right? I'm Jewish. I married an Italian girl, and she talks with her hands. Right? If you, if you realize that every time you speak with somebody, your hands are moving, you're trying to accentuate what you're, you're saying with your hands.
Don't stop that. I don't mean like, Hey, crazy Eddie. That from commercial from a long time ago. Okay, so just, you know, you gotta talk with your hands. That's really easy. Now this is simple middle steeple. I love saying this. There's a roof Max commercial, and the guy's out there, he's talking like this. And you should always talk about use roof Maxs and everything.
This is called a middle steeple. This is lower steeple. This is a higher steeple. This is a middle steeple. First thing you think about when you do mill steeple, don't do it. Don't do it. Keep your hands free, right? Because all of this is part of your body language. Your body language will absolutely help you in your sales process.
Now, enunciate. This is gonna be a little bit of a problem with somebody from a different country or something else. You have to learn how to enunciate. If you don't enunciate, you're lost. Because they'll sit there yessing you to death and what's gonna happen? They're gonna walk away and go, I don't. Right.
Okay. So that's key. So now listen and pause. When you are talking with somebody, speaking with anybody, and you're listening to them, turn your cell phone off, put it away. Somebody walking past, don't bother with them. Look at them in the eye and listen to what they say when they finish. Pause. That pause is probably the most important thing you'll ever do.
Because it will, when you return the conversation, you're going to repeat something that he said. Okay. So that, what does that tell the person? It tells the person he was listening to me. Oh my goodness. And you're responding kind, right? It's a very, very important piece. Alright. What should you do? Alright.
Let's say you're walking into a networking event. This is for extroverts, not introverts. I keep saying that, but bless you. She sees other truth. She's a perfect to me. Okay. So when you walk up to a table, there are plenty of things you have to do when you go to a networking event, right? You usually have a piece of paper.
You pick it up and you see where the tables are. You see all the networking. You go out and you find a table that you want to walk up to. Usually four or five people. You walk up to them, what do you do? You don't speak at all, don't talk. You walk up and you listen. You listen for the conversation. Is this a conversation that I want to be a part of?
Oh, it's, it's not, they're talking about their mother's baking and I really, I, I came here the network. I don't wanna talk about that. Lemme go to a different table, politely bow out. You haven't said anything yet. That's fine. Go to the next table. Let's say you walk up to the table and it is a conversation you want to be a part of.
Wait for the conversation to come around to you or a break, and then you say something with intelligence that might be a problem. Remember, you are the expert of your field. You are the expert, so what you say should mean be very important, okay? But all you're trying to do is get the attention. Of those of, of at least two people.
And okay, you've got the attention of the two people, you turn the conversation over to them. And I use something called for FORM, family, occupation, recreation, and a message. So after you speak to one person, have them. Ask 'em about their family, their mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter. I usually try to get them on a youth sports level.
Why? I was a baseball coach for 16 years. I was an umpire for three years. Alright, so I could talk with anybody about any youth sport because I, I coach football, I coach basketball, believe it or not, basketball. Right? But. But I got them to speak. And what do people love to do? Talk about themselves. They talk about their family, right?
So once you get them do it, then all of a sudden you kind of turn the conversation to what they do and they, they, you talk about it and say, you know something, I like you. I like what you do and how you do it. How can I make you more successful? How can I be a good referral source for you? And if I did my job correctly, they'll turn around and say, Mike, I'm gonna tell you to do yet and you're trying to make me more successful.
Yes, you're going in with what's called a servant's heart. You're going in looking to give not to receive, and you get much more, you get much further ahead with something like this. Okay? That form. But I'll go into that afterwards. Okay. Family, occupation, recreation, and message. It's, we could spend a whole half an hour just on that.
Just kind of remember that. And when you're walking up to a table, get them to say it. Okay. What do you have in common with the person? Because you want to talk about something that you're having in common with them. Is it your occupation? Is it, do you go skiing, boating, you, sport something? Anything.
Anything to get them on the same level as you. Alright? The first thing you do is ask a question. Because when you're answering a question, listen, every time you meet somebody or go into a networking event, there's a wall between you and the person know you, like you, trust you. They'll do business with you.
If they know you well, they'll, everybody will know you. How about like you? Well, that kind of narrows the field down a little bit because everybody's not gonna like you, but trust. Nobody is going to do business with you unless they trust you. Now, when you're speaking with somebody and about their family, about their recreation, about anything like this, what's happening, that wall between the two of you is going down and that trust level is going up.
Once you get the trust level up, then it kind of opens you up to doing business. Alright? Just different things when you walk into an office. Right. You have a one-on-one meeting, walk into an office, take care. Very quick note. Give about 30 seconds to figure out what you can talk about. Does he have a picture of his son, daughter, grandson, whatever, youth sports or with my go-to.
How about a, a musical note, a picture of music something of art. Something on the wall, something will tell you what this person is all about, talk about it. Even if you don't know. I know nothing about music. Nothing. I'm telling you I, I know less than nothing, but if I see something on the wall, I see a musical instrument or a picture or something else, I'll ask him about it.
Because they love to talk about themselves. Anybody else with a cell phone like that? Please silence it. Okay, so sports, music, art, you know, it's really everything that you, that you want to do. There is the mantra. Always remember the mantra with networking. If they know you, if they like you, if they trust you, they're going to do business with you.
And always remember, without the trust, you don't have a sale. All right, so now I'm getting to that point. Extroverts and introverts, when I first said you walked into a networking event, which if you're an introvert, will scare the hell outta you. But if you're an extrovert, you walk into the event and you look at this massive amount of people and you immediately start to go to work.
If you're an introvert, what do you do? You go to a wall, get a drink, and you become a wallflower, right? Let's not, let's not let that happen. So I want you to go with somebody. I know I said go alone, but that's for an extrovert. If you're an introvert, if go with somebody, somebody that knows you, knows what you do very well.
And as you're walking up to that table and that conversation comes around and it is a conversation that you want to be a part of. Either you kick him or nudge him or something and say, oh, you know something? Michael knows a lot about that subject. Michael, why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
It's kind of like an introduction and all of a sudden the introvert is less, right? So if you do that enough times, when I say enough times, not the first time, because the first time you go out network, if you're new to networking and you go out and you try this, you're gonna suck. No toys about it. Okay.
The second time, you're gonna suck that much less. The third time, even less by the fourth time, maybe the fifth time. If you're an introvert and you have your wingman, I call a wingman. I was in the air force, so a wing man. Then you probably won't need that wingman much more, right? You're kind of like flying on your own, and like I said, I could, you know.
But for another 30 minutes. Alright, now the follow up is what I feel is the most important. When you follow up, when you get back to that, your office or your house, whatever you follow up that evening with a thank you. Say, Hey, you know, thank you very much for your time. I hope you, I hope you enjoyed yourself.
Hope do visit with you, Michael. Right? Send it all the very next morning. Here's the clincher.
You send a thank you note, a handwritten thank you note, handwritten in the age of technology. Oh, no handwritten. Thank you. Note this goes. So far, you have no idea. I usually say, listen, I was in the mortgage industry and I used to go to a networking event. I used to come home with a shoebox filled with business cards.
Oh my God, look how good I did when I did Horrible, right? I went to the school of hard knocks. I did everything wrong before I did them correctly. So you take that, that thank you card. You're right. Almost the same thing. Right. Hey Freda, this is Michael. I met you on such and such day at such an event. We spoke about X, Y, Z.
I'm hoping to do business with you soon, Michael. So I've sent that one email. I sent the thank you card. I wait three days. I sent an email. Hey Freda, this is Michael. I met you on such date, such an event. We spoke about X, Y, Z. I see that. Before I do every, anytime I touch a point of touch for them, that's what I put in.
Why? 'cause it keeps me top of mind. And just so you know about a sales cycle, it takes eight to 15 touches eight times before they will respond to you. So you're taking care of a lot of this to begin with. Okay? So. Connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, whatever, whatever platform you use, right? Reach out and connect with that person.
Soft connect. Now what I do is I connect with the person and they're in a roofing company actually, and I sent them an article between metal roofs and asphalt. I said, look, I came across this article. I thought you might find it interesting. Keep giving them that about three or four times. You have to bring value to the relationship before you can ask for a, a, a cup of coffee.
Bring value. Otherwise, they don't wanna know. I have, I have 10,000 contacts, right? So if I just say, okay, hey, great, I wanna meet you. I listen. When I was at a networking event, I had a guy come walking up to me. With a handful of business cards. He said, here, here, here, here, here. My business card. I want to contact you.
I don't want everybody I'll get in touch with you afterwards and I'll see you afterwards. Zip. And all of us were there with a business card saying, what the hell just happened? Every one of us threw it away. So if you don't want to go through the cost of printing or the embarrassment, don't do that.
Alright, so now. What are the steps? Do you have a system and consistency? That is the most important part. You have everybody here have A-C-R-M-I hope, because every time that you meet somebody, you wanna take all of their contact information, put it to your CRM, and thus begins your, your time in connecting with them.
Consistency. That doesn't mean email them wait a week. Email them. Wait another week, email, wait two weeks, email. That's it. That's not being consistent. By being consistent, you're emailing them. Two or three days later, you email 'em again. All you're doing is waiting for a response. Positive or negative, doesn't matter.
That thank you card and the way that I, the whole, my whole secret sauce I call it, of following up. Increases the percentage rate of return of 2%. That's right. 2% of a corporate email gets answered by my system. By the thank you card and everything else, it raises it up. 75%. 75% of you getting a response. Look, the response, a response might be, look, stop emailing me.
I don't want your services. That's fine, because. You got a response? Alright, so now, okay here, expand your network. Alright? Expand your network. Go on to LinkedIn and if you want to go after commercial realtors or roofers or somebody else like that, you're gonna find them on LinkedIn and just connect with them.
It's really not that difficult. Instagram. Listen, all of you have a cell phone. Every one of you do a 32nd, 45 Second real. Hey, how you doing? This is Mike. I'm the networking king. Hey, whatever. Right? So real, but it's getting your name and your face out there. YouTube, there's a survey done. Where is your advertising dollars going?
What do you think? What, what do you think was the number one place where you should advertise on Facebook? Between YouTube, Instagram, Facebook X, all those TikTok everywhere, right? YouTube. YouTube came out as number one. YouTube was the number one play. So if you don't have a YouTube channel, create one.
It takes about 30 seconds, right? What do you think the second one down was? Pretty far too. But the second one down Facebook. Now, I never put much behind Facebook because I always thought it was for friends, for family, for things like that. No, if you're gonna advertise or sell something, Facebook is the place to go.
And then afterwards, if you want a network like this, go to meetup.com or, or some of these other sites look for a networking meeting because. Listen, this is the only way you're gonna get business by networking, by networking properly. You have to really think about it. Networking used to be pre pandemic.
Networking was very transactional. Hey, I have one budget. You have $3. Let me have it. Bye. Post pandemic. It's not, it's relational. That box of 200 cards that I used to carry around. No. Whenever I go to a networking event, I come back with 15 cards, maybe 20 because I won't be able to follow up properly if I bring back more than that.
Okay. So, okay. Practice, practice, practice. The three most important words in networking, you're not gonna get any better unless you practice. Now when you have your 32nd elevator speech, which I absolutely don't agree with, right? Whenever I coach anybody, I say, okay, let's work on your 32nd. Great, we got it.
Alright, now let's break it down to 10 seconds. They what? You're crazy. 10 seconds? Yeah. Okay. We got down 10 seconds. Okay, good. Now throw the whole thing out because all I did was get you to focus on what you have to say or sell.
Now, obviously keep in touch and that's through Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever your platform you want to. And if you remember anything, please remember the handwritten notes. I in my briefcase, I have 50 thank you notes just for such an occasion. And I got to be, I got to such a point where I had, I had nothing printed.
I had a printed simple little thank you card. It's, it's not even a foldover, it's a quick thank you. Right, right on the back, right. I do it with such a, a point that I, I make sure I do it. Alright, so AI is a buzzword. Use AI as a tool. Don't have it replace what you have to say. You write articles. I am an author.
I wrote two books. One on networking, one on podcasting. I have a podcast that goes, I have over 125 published. You have, I have digital courses. These are all ways that you can get in front of your client. Create, use your mind. Create, whether it's ai, whether it's articles, a podcast, whether it's digital courses, whatever.
Okay, so now these are the things I told you to worry about, to think about, right? But finally, if the conversation you're having isn't producing results, it's not bad luck. It's a communication problem. It's not what you sell, it's how you're selling it and how you're presenting yourself. Okay? Patterns can change.
Okay, this Q code tells me how I did, right? So if you want, you can do that. I, I rushed through this because I usually have 45 minutes to an hour, but I, within time I wanted to make sure I got everything in. Any questions? I have one. Yes. What about those that come to networking events like this?
They get all the business cards or all the names and their email addresses of everybody that attends, and then they send out a massive email. Hey, good to have seen you if I didn't meet you. You know, but they, they spam everybody. Great. Great question, right? First of all, all of your emails should be personalized, right?
They should go on individuals. Then you have to follow along with your follow up. Right. If your follow up was your initial email the next morning, what do you do? Coffee. Coffee. No thank you. Card? Me coffee. You thank you Card. Okay. You have to send a thank you card and you begin that follow up process as long as it's somebody that you truly want to connect with.
Michael is a business networking expert specializing in enhancing professionals' networking and communication skills to drive profitability. As a leading authority in this field, he is highly sought after for his dynamic presentations and workshops. His extensive experience has consistently led to significant improvements in corporate profitability by empowering individuals and organizations to connect more effectively and efficiently.
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