The Power of Leverage Dear John, The is the second email in our week-long series on Revenue Growth in 2020. I spend a great deal of time with lawyers. When I started my consulting company in 2008, lawyers gravitated to me because of the way I teach people to develop business. I ask my clients to use a relationship-based business growth strategy. They deliver value first and then "make the ask" afterward. Most lawyers think this means networking and making an introduction before asking someone to engage you. While that's one scenario, it is not the most productive scenario for business development. There's no leverage in one-on-one networking. Meeting with people individually for a meal (or even coffee) is fine under three circumstances: 1). They present a high-value opportunity. They are a massive potential evangelist (they can refer you lots of work) or they control a significant budget and need your product/services. 2). They control a form of media that can put you in front of hundreds of ideal clients 3). It is politically impossible to avoid. Your spouse is making you take the meeting. A good client has asked you to take the meeting. Other than those three conditions, you cannot afford to invest your time in one-on-one networking. What should you do instead? Invest your time researching and developing leverage sales and marketing opportunities. These are chances for you to deliver value to groups of people and surface interest in who you are and what you do. Here are the highest value leverage opportunities to develop relationships: Speaking Engagements Strategic Alliance Partnerships Publishing YouTube, Podcasting, Delivering Content on LinkedIn As you develop your 2020 sales and marketing plan, you must include as many of these lead generation activities as possible. Entrepreneurs and professionals eschew these opportunities (to their detriment) because they require work. It is more difficult to research an audience, outline a speech, pitch the event planner and follow up over and over, then it is to ask someone to go to lunch. But the reward is far greater. The ability to build the "holy trinity" with hundreds of people at once occurs only though leverage. The holy trinity (of sales) is: Visibility Credibility Differentiation That's your goal. Get them to know you. Get them to like (or at least be interested in) you. Get them to view you as a one-of-a-kind expert. How can you use the leverage opportunities I presented to get in front of thousands of people in 2020? Here are some video tutorials I developed to help you. Watch them. Speaking to Groups for Business Development: https://youtu.be/_1qyNgMeEUw Strategic Alliance Partnerships: https://youtu.be/-6OAdqWgiL0 Publishing: https://youtu.be/KZPuLfLZeUo YouTube and LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://youtu.be/9wE0Lfbu1Zc Make no mistake, the key to exponential growth is leverage. This is how you get started. Call me if you have questions or if you want help. 888.444.5150 See you tomorrow. Warm regards, Dave |