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Hello and welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable Connections. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Forman, and I'm, and you're listening to the podcast where networking is more than just awkward handshakes and bad coffee. an art and a talent, here's the twist. It's an art and a talent you can actually learn from. Yes. Even if you're a person hiding in the corner at every event, pretending to check emails, networking, isn't just a nice skill to have. a game changer when you get good at it. You wonder why you didn't start sooner. connections, more opportunities, more profits. It's like unlocking the cheat code for life. So whether you're the life of the party or let me stay in the corner, tight, got something for you. So stick around. Let's turn those awkward, small talk moments things. Now, I would like to introduce my guest, name is Eric Eden, Eric has been a Chief Marketing Officer for 20 years and has always worked with growth companies.
He has his own startup called Workers, which is focused on better business networking and is the host of the Remarkable Marketing Podcast. Eric, hi, how are you doing? What's going on?
Doing great. Thanks for having me on the show. Glad to be here.
Great. I'm so glad that I have you because you've got loads of experience in networking, communications, and you really tell it like it is. so let's just start off with what was your journey and how you made it to now.
Yeah, absolutely. So I've had the privilege of getting to work in tech marketing for 25 years. I'm very old, older than google older than the internet, butForman and a big part of that journey has beenForman I've been in the tech market for 25 years. Building a network. So like I was on LinkedIn when it first started way back in, Forman2005.
And I have built up like 10, 000 connections. Plus I have been big in events. I worked for an event software company for 10 years as the head of marketing. And so I've been to events all over the world and, Formanlearn best practices for in person event networking. And FormanI think that I've worked for web based software companies, software as a service for the last, 10 years or so, 10, 15 years or so, and I've really loved it.
And one of the things I'm working on now with my startup is how can we do better business networking? I feel like we deserve. A better next generation, social media experience for business networking. And that's what I'm creating with Workverse. So happy to talk a little bit about that today, because I think it has some foundational things in what does better business networking look like?
That's great. Okay. Formanwith With all that, can you just share Formanwith me and with my audience, what a personal experience, how it affected your career? I'm going to
Yeah, I think that,
lot of really great experiences working for the growth companies.
And also very difficult at times because working in fast paced, high growth environments where, they really push you every day. And so I've worked in some really great organizations.
I've worked with some great people, but I think, what I've realized over the years is People's greatest weakness is always Formantheir greatest strength. And that's a very interesting sociological thing for meForman to realize as I'm meeting new people and networking is getting to really know them and understanding, what people's strengths really are is really where it's at for me.
And I think that the personal experience that I've had from this is that. That, I'm a driver of growth. Like I just drive. And when I was young in my career, I would just right over people because I was so excited about getting to the goal and I steam anything in my way.
And that was but also a negative. So that's what I by biggest thing I've learned is that you have to even with yourself, manage your greatest strength and your greatest weakness together. And so I think I've personally made some progress on that.
And I've also just noticed this dynamic in other people, how they work on their strengths and weaknesses. And it's just really interesting sociological thing to, to observe.
Well, you hit on something big, you hit on, first of all, building a personal relationship far outweighs building a customer base. you're trying to get really involved with the customers with relationships. But think the most important part is that you're listening more. That you have to listen to your perspective relationship or your perspective client and you really have to listen and see what they're saying because you can't sit at a table just think about the next thing that you want to say, listen to what they have to say. That's Formanvery important. You're pausing and then you're responding to what they have to say. Okay. So it means a whole lot more to somebody, you think?
Absolutely. And I think this leads to quality is so much more important than quantity and networking and connections. When I've gone to events and people said, how many business cards did you come back with? I'm like, it's not about the number. It's about the quality of the connection you had within people.
And is that really going to turn into a relationship or just, FormanFree tchotchkes. You got like t shirts and coffee mugs that you'll never use again.
So I just think Formanthat's very interesting Formanis that it's really these days. I think people drive for the quantity of how many thousands of connections or followers you have.
And it's really not about that. It's about engagement. So I think that's a very. Interesting thing for people to look at.
I used to go to networking events. I was in a mortgage field I used to come home with a shoe box filled with business cards saying, look how great I did. And when you really think about it, I didn't speak to anybody more than two minutes. So the whole idea, what tell everyone now is when you go to a networking event, say it's three hours, four hours, you shouldn't come back with more than 15 or 20 business cards because those business cards are people that you sat down with, you talked with and that you'll follow up with. Because Formanas well as I do, the follow up is more important than actually meeting the person themselves. So you
Absolutely.
have to go through this.
Absolutely.
So with everything, what do you think your, what do you think your personal vision is?
What gets me excited every day to get going and run hard at it is I like to create something and to grow it. I'm a driver of growth and that's what excites me. That's why I've always worked for a private equity and venture capital backed companies is because I wanted to create something that has value for the people at the company.
The investors, the customers of the company, I wanted to create that value. I never really wanted a job that was like, Oh, just, Formanmaintenance mode, you can go in there, you can grow it a little bit and get a paycheck and you can have good life work balance for some people. They that's what they want.
And that's great. But what I wanted is I want to work for high growth companies. I want to work for companies that create a lot of value. Double in size every year and really deliver something that people find helpful in, Formanreducing their costs, doing things more efficiently Formanor driving more revenue.
And that's really what software does. So people are like, how do you get so excited about software? I'm like, it makes people's lives better. And so that's my vision.
Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. Formanyou have, you told me your vision, what are some challenges that you faced and how did you overcome those challenges?
Yeah. So in the different companies that I've worked for, you run into challenges of being able to achieve growth and make it a win for everybody involved. The investors, the people, the company, and the customers, all of those groups. If you don't have good product market fit is one issue. So you have a product that doesn't really solve the issues the right way.
And, the best way to solve that is like to talk to the customers and get their direct input. The second problem I had is that certain products that were almost too niche. So they were focused on one industry and maybe one part of one industry. It's just, it's not necessarily a big enough idea in a lot of cases.
And so that was limiting other businesses were more limited by, geography to not only like a country, but even, Formanlocal areas for different reasons. And so those sorts of limitations on business, there's ways to always solve them, but thinking through how to, walk through those steps of overcoming those obstacles takes a lot of.
A lot of practice and thought and some people just don't work through them and the companies just don't succeed. And that's hard to watch. But when it does happen, it's amazing to watch.
It's really great. It's really great. All right. So if there was one essential tip that you can give somebody to improve their networking or sales skills, what would it be? Yeah.
that is really amazing? And my dad said. FormanEric, he runs a car dealership.
He sells cars. He knows how to build relationships with people. I'm likeForman what do you mean? And he saidForman do you notice how he always takes an interest in you more than telling you about himself? And I thought about it. I was like, wow, that's right. And so I think about this in terms of networking, because a lot of times whether it's at an in person event or whether people call me or email me, I A lot of people will walk up and they'll just start talking about themselves for 10 minutes straight.
And that's just very awkward. Like it's the opposite of my friend who ran the car dealership is that he would say, how are you doing? Tell me, why are you here? What are you hoping to learn at this event? Formanand he would just really take a genuine interest. And everything related to me. And then once he had done that, I was completely willing to talk to him and hear about things that was going on, with him, but people don't necessarily balance that properly.
Like I get emails from people all the time that it's just it's a hundred percent about them. I get phone calls where people just jump in and there's a hundred percent about them and I even see it in person events. It's super awkward.
There's FormanFormanthere's a mantra in networking. If they know you, like you and trust you, they'll do business with you. say this all the time. I say, to know you. Everybody knows you, likes you. That That kind of cuts the numbers down in half. But trust you, that's the kicker. That's what really will have those people purchase from you. If they know you like you and trust you, they will do business with you. So when you go to the networking table at your networking event, that's always in the back of your mind. I use something called form. F. O. R. M. Family occupation, recreation and a message that you both can be on the same level at. So I'm thinking every time when I'm talking to somebody tell me about your family, but your husband, your wife, your sister, your brother, your son, Formanonce once somebody begins to talk about themselves. They love it. They can talk about themselves for hours, but you know what? You're getting them to lower the wall that's between the two of you and they're learning to trust you them questions about their occupation.
What do they do? Or, whatever recreation, do they like to go skiing to like to play baseball, anything like that. Okay. Get them to talk about themselves. And that feeling of trust will far outweigh any other thing. So that's what I've learned with networking so far. Formanso
That's great.
it is. Formanso So tell me, do you have something that something like that when you go to a networking event that you.
Yeah, I Would just say, take a genuine interest in other people. And I always start off very similar to the acronym that you have. If I'm at a conference where people have traveled in, I always start off, where are you from? And then I can take clues from, where they're from, are they into sports teams from that area?
Often you can tell people their interests by, different things that Formanthey're wearing it, they have with them. And you just take a general interest in other people. And it's fascinating that if you get into the conversations, like you were just saying, and you let people talk about themselves for a majority of the conversation, when those people walk away from the conversation, they're like, the other person's wow, that was an amazing conversation because people love to hear themselves talking about themselves.
Whereas if the ratio is flipped. If you went in and talked 80, 90, a hundred percent about just yourself, you'd be like, that was a terrible conversation. That's my formula is Formanlet the other person do the majority of the talking, not to the extreme where it's awkward, but I think you don't want to be like questioning people, just asking question, but having a good natural conversation.
And I think the realForman art form of that is like just taking a genuine interest. People can tell. When you're genuinely interest or when you're just like trying to, Formansay something like if you bring up things like the weather, that's not super helpful.
I always inject humor into everything that I do. when you have somebody who is not funny and they're injecting humor you, they can always tell when you're forcing the humor. They come out cause you're like that really wasn't that funny. So I'm going to walk over this way, so you really have to be careful with what you say and how you do it, but you're right. Let them talk about themselves. And I think the conversation will go in the direction which you would like it to. With FormanFormanwith everything that you've said, what's your favorite marketing tactic?
My favorite marketing tactic is really, if I want people to spend time with me, then there needs to be an offer of value for them. And this is also my biggest pet peeve is when people ask me for my time and they're not really offering me any value because I place a value on my time. And most other people do too.
So if someone comes to me and says, for example, Hey, Eric, we will do A assessment of your website with no obligation on your part. Would you take 20 minutes to hear the result of the analysis that we did? I'd be like, yeah, I'm interested because there's value in that for me. They've made me an offer.
They're going to give me some insights. I may or may not do anything with those insights, but they're made an offer. What I really hate is when people are just like. Hey, can you just give me like 30 minutes of your time? And I'm like, no, like
Oh,
my time is like 400 an hour. So like, why would I just give you 30 minutes so you can sell me something?
No. So I think having a valuable offer for people, it can be content. It can be like a analysis that you give to someone on a complimentary basis. It can be some value that they would get from it specific to the use case of what you're selling. It can be related to what you're doing. You don't have to do things that are unrelated, but walk into it and give other people value and don't require a commitment out of them to get it.
That always works a hundred percent of the times I've done that sort of marketing campaign and program.
okay. So give me one takeaway. That anybody who's listening that they can use today or tomorrow that they're going out. What's one takeaway that they can use right away?
I think the takeaway is be clear about who you want to serve as a customer and find out how you can give them some value before you enter into a formal relationship where they're paying you and if you can figure out something that would be truly valuable to the customer you want. And you can offer that to them.
Your conversion rates on networking and selling will go through the roof.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I always felt that you have to find what their problem is. You have to find, because whenever we go to a networking event, they're selling something, doing something. That is their, the problem. And you're you have to do is offer a solution to the problem, then everything will be And everything will happen almost immediately. So it's a matter of you getting to that point of offering what you can offer. You can have a solution to their problem, whatever it may be at the time. And it would go far. So,
Absolutely.
let me ask you a question. If somebody wants to get ahold of you, would they do it?
They can do it on LinkedIn of course. And they can also check out my company's website, workverse.com they can connect with me there as well. So either of those places is great. And always welcome the opportunity to meet new people and get to know them.
That's great, Eric. Thank you very much. I had a great time, a great conversation, and I think we'll both be doing a lot of networking in the future.
Likewise. Thanks for having me on the show. Appreciate it.
Eric Eden
Eric Eden has been a Chief Marketing Officer for 20 years and has always worked for growth companies. He has his own startup called Workverse which is focused on better business networking and is the host of the Remarkable Marketing Podcast
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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