This episode was recorded prior to the Coronavirus epidemic, however, the ideas and methodologies still work in the virtual environment.
In this episode, Steve Fretzin discusses in his training class:
Key Takeaways:
"We want to invest our time wisely with the right people. You want to set up some activity to continue to drive your new strategic partners to see if they’re a player and can go on your team." — Steve Fretzin
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
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Twitter: @stevefretzin
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Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
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Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
Steve Fretzin 0:00
For the more inexperienced networkers or for the people that that may not have a deep network, you may say, Well, what do I have to offer? You know, they may have plenty of people to offer me, but what can I offer them? I don't have a new client for David today. So the answer is I've got a list of things that you could do for somebody that I believe count as helping as being thoughtful is something that will help move the relationship for.
Narrator 0:27
Your listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode your hosts, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here's your host, Steve Fretzin.
Steve Fretzin 0:50
Welcome to be that lawyer, everyone, appreciate your coming. Today, we've got an interesting spin on today's podcast, we're actually going to do a live recording of a class, I've got a bunch of people that I work with around the country, mainly here in Chicago that are sitting on the call. And essentially, we're going to go through a training session, you won't be able to see the visuals, but I'm going to try to explain everything through so that you get a good feeling for what I'm teaching every day, the kinds of work that I'm doing with attorneys. These are the ambitious, interested open minded attorneys that hire me that work with me, obviously, the ones that know it all, you know, they don't hire me, because they know everything already. Or at least that's what they say. And also, you know, we just we just want to try to keep getting better. And sharper is business development and marketing aren't things that are taught in law school. So with that, I'm going to jump into our main topic today, which is sort of next level networking, essentially, you know, the focus is, alright, you've been to an event, you've met some people, things seem to be going along pretty well. And now it's about how do we take it from there. Okay. So essentially, we're going to go through a number of objectives on this call today and in this class, and one of the first things we're going to do is we're gonna talk a little bit about how to really be efficient in a one on one meeting, one of the things that I hear on a regular basis is I, I met with somebody and it was a total waste of time, okay, you guys can all under you know, have have had that happen. I've actually had much worse things happen. I've gone into networking meetings that went so far off the rails and ended up being a two hour pitch on Amway. And now I'm in a multi tier marketing campaign that that they want to get me to sell for them. And then I've got to go find people to sell for me and the beat goes on. I've sat down with Avon, ladies, and that has gone off the rails. So we really want to focus on how to qualify people. And then we want to talk about how do we run those meetings so that we have protected time. Okay, the next thing is we want to qualify and test out the people that were looking to move forward. Part of what we're trying to accomplish is developing a strategic partner Dream Team. And the idea that, you know, we're looking to develop strategic partners, people that can regularly routinely refer us. And so we want to talk about how to do that and qualify people. We're going to talk a little bit about how to get an introduction from a new potential strategic partner, it's one thing to to have a nice meeting, it's another to actually walk away with some value like a referral, or in this case, a quality introduction, which is better than a referral. All right? And how do we develop that strategic partner Dream Team, the idea that you've got 710 15 referral sources that are regularly and routinely referring you now for the real estate folks, you guys know, this is your bread and butter. This is the agents that you're dealing with every day. For others, like, you know, Robert, and Scott, and some of the other people on the call, you know, might be CPAs, it might be other attorneys, it might be consultants, you know, in benefits and people in other fields. Okay, whatever the case, we're looking for homeruns. And also just a reminder, if you haven't muted if you can mute out that way, we'll have a clean call. And if you have a question, just unmute and ask me the question. Good stuff. And then lastly, we're going to cover how to network with friends, family, past referral sources and past an existing clients. This is probably the least understood and attempted part of business development in the sense that most people are just terrified of how do I approach a friend or how do I even think about asking a client who's given me you know, hundreds of 1000s of dollars of business for more, or for a referral, and it's just, it's, it's terrifying for some people. For those of you who've been in my program a while you know, that it's not and we've come up with certain language and ways of approaching things, so it doesn't come across salesy or desperate or, or or anything aggressive, right, it's all about the language and the tonality and how you sort of, you know, bring it up. Alright, so let's start off with what's the value of setting an agenda with a new contact? All right, again, you know, I can go back to a story you guys may or may not have heard me tell about a Thanksgiving dinner. And if you can imagine if you want to close your eyes, you can If you can imagine a Thanksgiving dinner with your whole family, and instead of the table being set, it's just a bare wood table and your whole family is sitting around this bare wood table. There's nothing on it. It's it's I mentioned, it's bare, okay, there's nothing on it. So then mom comes out with this beautiful 20 pound turkey and just dumped it on the table splash, right. And then on top of that, the gravy and the stuffing and the sweet potato, and it's just a huge pile of hot mess sitting on the table. And she stepped back and says, enjoy. And that's it. And everybody's looking at each other like mom has lost her mind. Okay, this is this is weird. Now, of course, in my family, I'd be elbowing out my brother for the drumstick. But that's, that's in my family, we were taught to battle over over certain foods. Anyway, the point of that is, that's the networking meeting that you might be walking into. If you do not set an agenda or a game plan? Wouldn't you rather have Thanksgiving with the beautiful linen tablecloth, with the China with everything laid out perfectly? The answer is, of course, that's Thanksgiving, and you know, at least you have a chance of getting what you want. Now as it's passed around. Alright, so let's talk a little bit about what that means to you. It allows you to set a meeting that you can control it in a friendly way. And if you're controlling it, you can get out of it what you want. And by the way, it also positively impacts the person you're sitting down with, because you're going to go through a meeting that's actually going to be positive for both people. So I don't want you to think you're controlling this and and how dare you and how you know, who do you think you are? That's not the case, this is something that's permission based, it's something that you're going to control in a friendly way. And you're going to set up steps that the person will agree to because it benefits both parties. I also want to make something clear. This is specifically for someone you're meeting for the first time this is for someone you met at a networking event for 10 minutes, decided that they were qualified enough to have coffee, and you're sitting down in a coffee shop in your office in a hotel lobby, whatever it is. But this is stranger danger, you have to remember that as I go through this, this is not for a friend, this is not for a client, it's only for strangers. Okay. And you know, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet, I guess is the saying, Okay, so we're going to set up in a friendly way. And we're going to set a time limit, we're going to make sure that we both have equal time as far as how we talk, meaning I have been in meetings, where we have an hour for a meeting, that's all the time I have, I'm trying to smash it in between two other meetings, I got to be out of there in an hour, the person goes off because of passion. And because they're so excited about what they do, or they just not realizing how time flies when they talk that 55 minutes has gone by. And they don't know a thing about me that I haven't said a word. Right? It's just gone. It's just been all about them, which is great. I'm learning a lot. But I'm not able to get the equal time where we can learn about each other, which is going to make the meeting more efficient. Right, I don't want to have to meet again to share now what I do with this individual. Okay, so we want to also agree that testing each other out may be a good possible outcome. The idea that at the end of the meeting, we're not offering everything to each other, we're also not offering nothing if there's a good fit, and we feel like we can help each other. Let's try to test the waters. And let's have some small little commitment that we can make to one another as a way to try each other out. Now that is in everybody's best interest, because they're looking for something and you're looking for something by the way, that's sort of the reason you're meaning they're not meeting for their health. And they're hopefully not meeting just to sell you something you've qualified that you're meeting, because there's something that you guys believe you can help each other with. Okay, so how do we stay effective in this one on one meeting, it's going to be through setting up a game plan, I would recommend you use the term game plan versus agenda, it brings the formality down a little bit. And by the way, if any of what I'm saying now sounds uncomfortable, or sounds too formulaic, we can certainly soften it. And we can certainly adjust it for your personality or for what your comfort level is. However, I will warn you, the lawyers that have done that, in many cases have lost the effectiveness of the agenda of what I'm trying to accomplish help you accomplish in these meetings. And you don't want to do that. Well, the other thing I can tell you is that the attorneys that have just trusted me that I'm not giving you something that's ineffective or something that hasn't been proven out, they always come back to me and they say and I think David you you you can speak to this. I mean, you try this out in the person's eyes lit up and everything went over swimmingly, and it was no issue at all. They liked the fact that you were professional, they liked the idea that you were organized. They felt like you were a successful networker because you're really setting the table for a successful meeting versus just letting it happen the way it's going to happen willy nilly. Okay, so we're gonna establish permission based we're gonna establish the time, the purpose, the expectations of splitting up the talk time, and what the outcome should be. That's what we're doing here. Okay, by doing this, what we're going to do is we're going to start building in, again, some agreement, some mutual agreement from you and the other party of the way this meeting should be run. So it isn't going to go off the rails. And by the way, if it does go off the rails, you now have an agreed to agenda that can allow you to bring it back to the real world. So I'm going to run through this, I don't necessarily need someone to roleplay with me, I'll just kind of go through and I'll play both parts. I am an actor. So we've been talking for 10 minutes, we're talking about something of mutual interest, mutual benefit, talking about kids, we're talking about business, we're talking about whatever the great weather in Chicago, whatever we're talking about. And eventually, I'm going to say, and I'll just use David, for this, David, you don't have to roleplay with me, I'll just I'm just going to use you as an example. So I'm sitting down with David, we talk for 10 minutes. And then I would say, you know, David, we could probably talk about how cool it is, you know, with horses and piggies and living in Woodstock, Illinois, and all that. But I know how valuable Your time is, and quite frankly, mine as well. And I know we really want to be efficient with our time while we're together. So I thought it'd be alright, just just set a little bit of a game plan for our, our networking meeting today. Is that all right? He would respond, yes, that would be great. The fact that I'm saying to make the best use of our time as a natural way to get approval, if he says no, I don't want to make good use of our time I want to jump around in the coffee shop, well, then I know I'm dealing with a lunatic, and I should probably get out of there. Alright, so he agrees, I say, you know, we have an hour for our meeting, we've got about 15 minutes left. And what I was hoping to do is just get to know more about each other and see if there's a fit or a synergy, you know, as a lawyer and me as an accountant. You know, we could probably refer each other as things come across our desk, but I think we got to get to know each other better. He says that sounds great. I said, David, if you wouldn't mind, you know, maybe taking 15 minutes to share more about your law practice, the kind of, you know, things you do, how you help people, and most importantly, who you're looking to meet, who are good connections for you the types of, you know, business owners and people that you want to meet. Okay. And then I'll take 15 minutes and do the same if that's okay. And I feel like that way we can really get to know each other in a short amount of time. All right. And listen, at the end of the meeting, if we feel like there's a synergy that there might be a fit where we could possibly refer each other, let's not promise the world and let's let's not do you know nothing about it, let's, let's maybe try to give each other some small, little nuggets or some some, some referral or some some type of way to kind of test the waters a bit, just a baby step forward, if that's okay with you, and that, would that be alright with you? Just to kind of try things out? And David would say yes. And the reason that he would say yes, is again, he's a networker looking to get a referral, and I'm looking for referrals. So we're in this together. And that's going to be a big part of why this is going to work. Okay, now, I'm gonna see if this works. It may may or may not. But I'm going to break away from my PowerPoint for a moment. And I'm going to pull up something I prepared for today. And we're going to see how this goes over. Okay, so you guys know the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, right? This is cheesy, I know. But that's if you can see that's Rocky. That's our cockapoo. And that's Tootsie. And we've had Tootsie about five months. That's our long here. I forget the name of the type of cat. But she's, they're both they're just hilarious. Now they're looking at me for a reason. And that reason is, they think I'm going to give them some food, okay, and they're desperate for food. And the food is right over here. Now the problem is, is that in order for them to get to the food, they've got to jump over or find a way over a pit of fire, a pit of spikes, a pit of snakes in a pit of scorpions, just like, you know, I'm sort of combining the Last Crusade of Indiana Jones and my cute animals. Okay. When you're networking, it's very much the same thing. When you meet with someone, not only are you trying to and this could go for this meeting we're talking about with a stranger, this could go for a meeting with a client, this could go for meeting with a friend, you need to get through a bunch of challenges. Okay, in order to get where you want to go? What are those challenges? Well, those challenge might be getting a meeting with somebody, it might be how you set up the meeting, so that they know they're walking into something where referrals might be discussed, it might be the fact that that while you're sitting with them, you forget to bring up that you know, you want to talk about referrals, it might be that they give you a referral, but they don't make a quality introduction ends up being a wild goose chase, or they don't follow through. So every step of the way, there's a reason why things could fall apart. And this meeting is too important, potentially, for things to fall apart. So what I'm suggesting is that if we use a process, or steps that allow us to do the best we can to get across these pits, to the treats for Rocky and Tootsie to get across all these pits to get to the treats. You're going to have a better chance of getting a quality introduction or to develop a strategic partner that's going to be meaningful. If you wing it, then you're on your own. It's like going to another example be going to Vegas. Your high level card counter playing blackjack, you know, you can win 80% of the time, okay, you're going to do much better than me. You know, 40% I rarely win at blackjack. And even though I think I know how to play, you know, I just go in there, I throw my 100 bucks down and 15 minutes later it's gone. And I'm wondering what happened? What happened? Am I 100 bucks? Okay. So back to the PowerPoint again, what we're going to do is we're going to establish these steps, control the meeting in a friendly way. All right now at the end of the call. So David has spent 15 minutes talking about himself, I have spent 15 minutes talking about myself, here's what I would say Next, I would say, David, in hearing what you do, and the types of business owners and people that you work with. Now, keep in mind, everybody is a side note, I'm not going to give him you know, my $50 million business owner friend, because I just I'm meeting David, for the first time again, stranger danger. But could I give him a small like a friend of mine that needs an estate plan? Could I give him a friend of mine that needs a real estate closing did I give him a strategic partner, he's looking to meet CPAs, or he's looking to meet bankers? Yeah, that's a much better starter giver point than me giving him my largest client or trying to give him 20 clients. That's not how we play in the sandbox with someone new. That could be how we play in the sandbox with someone that we've been working with for a long time. However, one of the most challenging parts of this is trying to help him come up with a name. So what I would do is I'd start off by giving, and then I would ask if he has any thoughts on me. So it sounds like this again, David, in hearing about your business, I think I have a really good connection for you. It's a friend of mine that just had twins, and he's got a decent amount of money. And I don't think he's ever really thought about an estate plan, but it's probably the most meaningful thing he needs to do right now to protect his family and his twins. So I think I'd like to share that with you. And have you talked with with my friend Bob, out of curiosity, and hearing more about what I do as a CPA, and I'm playing the role of a CPA, any thoughts about about maybe some small way that or contact that you think might be meaningful to me? And then David would say, you know, Steve, I'm sure there is I'd have to give it some thought. Is that sound like a traditional answer, I'll let you know. That's not what we want. Because once David goes back to his office, the chances that he's going to sit and roll this through, and work it out are pretty slim. And now I've got to chase after him with emails and calls to figure it out. So I would say, you know, David, we have about 10, or 15 minutes left on our hour. And if it's okay with you, I may have some suggestions about people that might be interesting that you might know, for example, as a CPA, I'm regularly looking for business owners, people that you may have worked with that have estate plans with you that own small businesses, because they typically, you know, aren't getting serviced properly, they're paying too much. They just might not be happy 100% with their current CPA, a lot, I hear a lot of people with challenges around that. Is there someone that you can think of a business owner, small business owner that you know, that you think might fall into that category? Now, David is either gonna say yes, and come up with a name. Or he's gonna say, well, Steve, I off the top of my head, I can't think of someone like that. Then I would move to sort of stage two, instead of just saying, well, I will think about and get back to me, I'm gonna move to stage two, I'm gonna say, Well, okay, let's, let's table that for a moment. Another thing that I do is I get a lot of referrals from wealth managers, people that that interact with the clients and the money, and they don't, and the client will complain to them, they don't have a good CPA, and then I can I can be the person they introduced. As someone who works in estate planning, you must know at least a few wealth managers. Is there one that you think I would get along well with or that you think would be, you know, worth me meeting? At that point? David says, Yes, in fact, I've got a really good one I just met recently, who I think would be ideal for you, Steve. And I would say, What's his name? Oh, his name is his, you know, Robert Jones. Okay. So Robert Jones, great. And tell me about him. And then I would say in David, what do you think is the best way to get introduced to him? And that's moving into a QA. So David might say, well just call him up and mentioned my name. That's a referral. That's a warm, cold call. We don't want that. So I'm going to move that to a quality introduction. I would say, David, look, if you wouldn't mind talking to Robert, maybe call them up on the phone and say, Hey, you met an accountant that you think might be a good person for him to meet. If he's open to it, you know, great. Then do an email introduction. If he says, Look, I don't have any interest in meeting a CPA and new CPA, and I have are well, well, then then again, that's probably not a good fit for me anyway. So would you be willing to do that? And David says, yes. Okay. I want to make sure I move it to a next step. So I would say okay, so is that something you think you could do next week? And David says, Yes, I say, if I don't hear from you by Friday of next week, what's the best way for me to follow up with you, David? And Dave would say, Oh, just shoot me an email if you don't hear from me, but I'll I'll probably get to him on Monday or Tuesday. And then I'll do that email introduction no later than Wednesday. So not only is David committed to getting, he's come up with a name that works for me. But he's also committed to making a quality introduction, he's committed to a timeframe to get it done. And I have a confirmation that I can email him if I don't hear from him, because if he gets busy, I don't want to pester him. But now he's given me permission and the best way to pester him, so it doesn't come across negatively. Okay, so that's really what's going on with how we're controlling this. And now Tootsie and rocky have gotten over to the treats, and they feel really good about it, and they're all happy. Okay. So now that we've covered sort of the steps for running that meeting, and again, those steps, transition over to how you would meet with a client, how you would meet with a friend how you would meet, maybe not the agenda part. But the other steps of bringing up the idea of an introduction, giving first, you know, helping them come up with a name or two, moving into a quality introduction, those are all steps that are universal, for introductions with anyone that you're meeting with. Okay, so let's talk about how we, we move things forward from there. So again, we've got the strategic partner qualified. Now, here, it says t land, which is an acronym I used to use, I've changed it to talent, I haven't changed it on this PowerPoint, I think I need to, but talent stands for T is trust. A is as authority. l is like, and his network, and T is top player. And what I'm suggesting with those words, are that to qualify a strategic partner. So again, it's it's me as the CPA and David as the lawyer, that I'm qualifying that he's trustworthy, right, that he's an authority in law, that He is someone I care about. And like, that he is has a network where he can refer and play, you know, mutual benefit here. And then also that he is a top player, meaning it's better to network with someone who runs the law firm, or that is a player in the law firm than someone who sits behind a desk and just cranks out work and doesn't really get out there and meet people, right? Because they may not know many people. Okay? So once we have that, okay, we're going to give the intro First, we're going to coach him to a name I mentioned, I call it the three doors rule where I'm going through multiple doors, to try to obtain a name and then move it to a quality introduction. I can also ask his advice. What's the best way? So I'm kind of recapping what I just went over here. Okay. But at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is we're trying to get results with the time that we're investing in how we're going to move things forward. Okay. Now, a common question that I hear is alright, Steve, this sounds great networking, I'm getting in front of somebody, we're gonna figure out context for each other. For the more inexperienced networkers or for the people that that may not have a deep network, you may say, Well, what do I have to offer? You know, they may have plenty of people to offer me, but what can I offer them? I don't have a new client for David today. So the answer is I've got a list of things that you could do for somebody that I believe count as helping as being thoughtful as something that will help move the relationship forward. So obviously, if David has a client of his who, who could use my services directly direct, you know, referral, that's the best thing that can happen. The next best thing is that strategic partner, the idea that he's referring me to that wealth manager, and that could be a great thing, that wealth manager may feed me three, four or five clients a year, well, that might be more than a one and done with David. So that that's something of value. I do count personal referrals. And again, I'm not keeping score, per se, but I am suggesting that if you can give someone a personal referral for something that's going to benefit them in their life, I met someone that was with the northwestern, he was sort of like he worked at Northwestern University, and he was in the recruiting and like, you know, I forget the name of it, but it's where the you know, they figure out who's going to who's going to be accepted or not. And he also was like a coach to help people figure out how to get accepted into college. I refer that to a client whose son was struggling with that, and the parents were struggling and he gave them such great advice and get into Northwestern but, but he was able to get into a better school, that's a personal referral had nothing to do with business. But from a standpoint of value. I mean, it couldn't have been more valuable to that parent, and to the kid. Another one is invite your friend to an event. So you're at a golf club, you're at a church, you're at a chamber of commerce, there's a group that you belong to invite that new strategic partner to come with you and introduce them around. Okay, that's a great way to add value. Provide sound advice might be something that you find out about their business that you might be able to help them with or bring in a partner of yours to give some advice. Don't give away the farm and don't give away a deal. But you know, if it's something that you can advise on as a counselor, as a business professional, that can be really helpful. For example, I needed to know about bringing on illegal In turn, and is that a W two? Or is that a 1099? Well, one of my clients who's in labor employment gave me that advice and helped me out, it took 10 minutes, but for me, it was super valuable. Okay. Another one is provide articles of interest, you can introduce them to a more senior partner if you're, you know, a younger attorney, or if you're an attorney that's not in an area that is relevant to that strategic partner and you want to bring a partner that is, but there's, you know, you can invite someone to join a board, you can invite someone to sit on a panel, you can co author an article together, there's lots of things that you can do to add value for someone else that could show Hey, I'm a good networker, even if I can't give you an actual piece of business today. Okay. And again, just building a social relationship is a big part of it. If you can do that, that's also going to be you know, they may not even want anything from you, they just want to know that you're a good person, you're good at what you do, and that they like you, and they're going to feed you business because of that. That's possibility too. So again, I'm asking you to think of yourself as a baseball scout where we're not looking to take someone new, and put them on our starting lineup, but we're looking to kind of test them out. And when you go through a networking meeting, where you're giving and getting, you can really test someone out to see if they can commit and actually follow through on a commitment. Right? It's a little bit like Seinfeld, they, you know, they can take the car company can take the reservation, but can they keep the reservation, or and if you don't watch Seinfeld, shame on you, okay, it's hilarious. Anyway, the point is, is that that's what we're doing is we're testing the waters to figure out if somebody is really a player or not. Okay, so we want to invest our time wisely with the right people, you want to set up some activity to continue to drive your new strategic partners to see if they are a player and can go on your team. And of course, eventually, once you get enough of those, you can spend 80% of your time with your clients and your strategic partners, and do a whole lot less networking, you don't need to go out and meet as many strangers, because you're spending all of your time getting business with people that have already been highly qualified. Alright, last thing I want to do is go through some tips on building that strategic partner Dream Team, and then give you guys some scripting for how to talk with friends, family, etc. So again, you want to focus on the industries where you share a client base. Obviously, if you find some goals, working with a strategic partner, you want to mine it, you may only be able to figure out one or two people within a given field. Now, for the residential real estate, you can have a lot more than that. Because in, you know, with agents, for example, you could have you know, 25, or 50, that's great. But in other areas, like, you know, like, you know, like with Robert, you know, he can only have, you know, a few people in certain fields, you know, that, you know, consultants in in HR consultants in, you know, benefits that he can refer, you know, he can't refer 10 people in benefits, because, you know, he's not coming across that much stuff for them. So again, have a goal of seven to 10 SPS, if you say I only have one or two right now, you know, make a goal to have three or four, by the end of the year, it doesn't have to be seven to 10. But that's the goal eventually. Okay? create a plan for keeping these people engaged. It's not just a one and done. You know, once Robert and I are once David and I have figured out that there's a good fit, he's done something for me, I've done something for him. Then we got to meet again, we got to talk again, we got to maybe we go through each other's LinkedIn and come up with a bunch more names. We're on a roll, let's keep it going. Okay, and you got to figure out what that person's personality and also with their business, you know, what makes sense. And again, you've got to be a giver, you've got to think about how to help people first. And of course, that will be reciprocated, if it's done intelligently. So always be scouting for new SPS, you know, some people just drop off the face, and you've got to keep keep, you know, you've got to keep that, you know, recruiter doesn't fill up the Cubs or the Sox and then give up, you know, he's constantly out looking for new talent, because eventually someone's going to get her to retire. Alright, last thing I want to talk about is how does our strategy then change when we're talking with someone who isn't new, but someone that you've known for a long time and you want to, you know, get get back in front of them because they have potential business that they could, you know, come your way. So I suggest creating a list of A's, B's and C's, friends and family might be you know, A's, B's, and C's within that group clients as well. Develop a script, which I'm going to go through in a moment, set a goal, which we all have in in planning and in our journaling that we have. And then again, focus on new business referrals, quality introductions, cross marketing, and also could be upselling, depending on who the person is. So let's look at some scripts. Now. I want to preface this by saying just like with the agenda, these scripts can be tweaked, they can be moved, they can be changed based on what your comfort level is in the relationship with the person you're talking to. I have some clients that I can say and I just did this with my client, Phil. He went from 300,000 to 1.3 million in the last two or three years. Okay. When I sit down with him for lunch, I come with a list of 10 or 15 lawyers off of LinkedIn And I walk him through that list and he has zero reservations about trying to figure out how to get me in front of more lawyers that I can help like I helped him. There's other people, I would never do that with. Right, I haven't earned the right for that, or I just know their personality that's going to come across wrong, you need to think about that before you figure out what approach to use. So I'm giving you guys a bunch of options here. Okay. So this is a friend where you've never discussed business before. This is someone you have beers with. This is someone you golf, with tennis, with whatever it might be. And I don't know if you guys can see this, but I was thinking, so you're talking with this friend or you shoot them an email, I was thinking we haven't had the opportunity to discuss our businesses with one another, it might be valuable to learn more about what each other does, as new issues come across our desks, would you be open to a lunch where we can learn more about one another, again, from a business perspective. So again, what I'm not saying here, I'm here to sell you something I'm not saying I need you to give me leads. It's very soft in the language. Similar, a longtime family member, we've never discussed business before. It's Uncle Bob, I'd love the opportunity grab coffee or lunch with you in the next week or two, you know, we see each other every year. However, I don't really know a great deal about what you do. I'd love to learn more about your business and see how I can be a resource for you moving forward. I'd also enjoy sharing a little bit about what I do is you run into people regularly with legal concerns, are you free on and give some dates. So obviously, I'm going through it very quickly, you wouldn't say it exactly like this, however you get the gist, right? This is an opportunity to get in front of someone to ask questions to get in front of someone to not just to to actually learn about their business and have them learn about yours. And that's where good things happen. Moving along a path, a lawyer or past referral source that you believe may have business opportunities for you. So let's say it's a referral source that when cold, you haven't talked to this person in five years, you can set up a lunch and say, you know, in addition to catching up next week, when we meet for lunch, I'd like to share some possible context with you that might be beneficial to your business or practice. I've been really focused lately on helping people who have helped me in the past. And I'd like to pick your brain for ideas on context, that might make sense for me as well. Is that okay with you. So in this scenario, I'm actually suggesting that I'm going to give first I'm going to figure out connections for you. And it would also be lovely, if you could help me, this is, again, a quid pro quo. If you guys don't mind me using that phrase, it's sort of been burned. Anyway, the idea that I'm here to, you know, help each other. And this is the best one, especially if you have a client base. And this could work for clients in real estate, it could be agents. But this is really important, because with this kind of language, you can get in front of clients and actually get them to agree to think about business opportunities for you. So this would be a phone call, or this would be an email, but you'd have to obviously figure out the scripting a little bit a little bit differently for an email. Hey, Fred, before we meet on Friday, I thought it might be helpful to think of some business connections that might be good for one another. As you know, I'm looking to meet you know, business owners like yourself, if you're open to it, let's come up with a few names prior to the meeting. And that way, we can get more value from our time together. So that would be a script for someone that is not only your client, but that absolutely loves you and has actually become a friend. Okay? And there's a number of ways to script this, to make it comfortable for you. And happy to talk through any other opportunities for that type of scripting. Okay. Now, if you're uncomfortable with this, this is an interesting psychological thing. But it's basically admitting that you're uncomfortable asking for introductions from a client. And the philosophy is not not high level psychology, but I call it Okay, not okay. And the thing is, if you if you come across as not okay, most good people will try to make you Okay, that's just what good people do. Your client is a good person, right? So you could say, Hey, you know, Fred, there's something I'd like to ask of you. But it goes outside my comfort zone a little. But it's important to me, I know how well connected you are. And I was hoping that when we meet, you'd be open to discussing some possible connections with me during our lunch next week. Is that something you'd be open to discussing? I'm uncomfortable, you know, lots of people, by the way, you think I'm a terrific lawyer, accountant, lawyer, coach, whatever I am, okay, the chances that that person is going to come to your rescue and be very open to helping you is very, very high. Now, if all you've done is transactional work for someone where they don't even care about you at all, you could die tomorrow, they wouldn't care, then this, this approach isn't going to matter. So again, good work first relationship is there, there an A or B on your list of A's, B's and C's, these kinds of approaches will work. Okay. So again, then you've got to follow that process I gave you of those steps for Tootsie and rocky to get across to those treats. You know, you got to follow all those other steps I shared with you today to make sure that you get get it accomplished. Okay. All right, everybody. So that's really what I wanted to cover. Before we wrap up. Does anybody have any questions about the content with that we covered and need anything? So yeah.
Robert 35:12
Hey, Steve, it's Robert.
Steve Fretzin 35:14
Okay. Hey, Robert,
Robert 35:15
Just this might be a question for another session is the lesson today was really great. My question is more for the new guy who you've just met, who you like who seems qualified. But other than that you really don't know other than an hour. My comfort level of making a cue to somebody? And how do you phrase that if I call up my best friend, Hey, I just met this guy's seems nice. But I can't vouch for his real ability. How do you address?
Steve Fretzin 35:46
Yeah, that's great. That's a great question. So again, you really need to figure out the right appetite or right level for the person that you're going to that you're meeting that's new if it's, you know, stranger danger, right. So you really want to be careful with with making introductions. And I've got some horrific stories of bad introductions that I made. The most famous one being introducing my sister, this is now I'm recording this, I shouldn't record this actually. But I introduced her to a lactation consultant. And it turned out she was a horrible person who we call her now the lactation Nazi, it was the worst introduction I've ever made. Because I didn't know her well enough to know, I didn't even sit down with her an hour, I just met her and immediately, like, made the connection to her and my sister, and it was a disaster. The only good that came out of it was I got the story. Okay. So you really have to consider not only the person you're meeting and what the level of introduction should be, it might be a very subsurface level, maybe need to meet with that person two or three times before you make an introduction. That might be something maybe you need to bring them into a social setting to learn more about them. But definitely learning about their authority in their space, whether they're trustworthy, anything and everything you can do to qualify before you make an introduction is key. And then make a low level introduction as a starter. And Robert, to your point, you may have to prep it and say this isn't someone I've worked with before, but I think you might enjoy them. I think you might like them, you know, but you've got to, you know, keep your radar up or or you know, whatever, but I think I think this person's good. But let me know what you think, or whatever the situation is, but I definitely want you to buffer it. Okay. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining me, be that lawyer confident organized to skilled Rainmaker. I'm gonna sign off. Thank you to all my clients that have been on this call. Obviously, if you need anything, let me know I'm your guy. Call me if you have any questions. You want to plan for a meeting, debrief a meeting that just happened? That's what I'm looking to do with you. That's it. All right, everybody, I'm signing off. Take care.
Narrator 37:48
Thanks for listening to be that lawyer. Life Changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve's website Fretzin.com. For additional information, and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today's episode, check out today's show notes.