Something happened to me a few months ago that was entirely unexpected. A happy accident. And a PERFECT illustration of so many of the ways of talking to people that I’m trying to teach you.

Why I’m telling you

The MAIN point I’m trying to get across when I talk about networking, is that it’s NOT about schmoozing: it’s about having lovely conversations with people you like. Basically, it’s doing what you already do with your friends – just with some other people.

It’s why I want to reframe networking, by calling it MIFing, or Making Interesting Friends (sometimes I even amend this to Making Industry Friends).

It’s why I love to surprise (and delight!) my clients when I tell them that they’re already good at networking – they just need to realise that and use it to their advantage.

It’s why my tagline is “Networking that’s actually FUN“. Because, believe it or not, networking can actually be FUN. Fun for YOU. For real.

The story I want to tell you illustrates all of this – and I’ve put in links to other blogs that expand on each tip I mention:

A little context

Kendrick Shope is a business coach, who makes awesome videos with advice about how to do sales in an ick-free way. Long before I ever had any services to sell, I watched her youtube blogs religiously. Why? Because she’s charming, engaging, and has excellent, spot-on advice in an area I’d been struggling with: Authentic Selling. i.e. not being all car salesman, PLEASE BUY MY STUFF-desperate – but, instead, finding the people you KNOW you can help, and allowing them to discover what you can offer them.

There was a point, during August last year, when on Kendrick’s emails, the link to her blog hadn’t come through for a few weeks in a row. As I’m the kind of zealously helpful, feedback-loving, advice-giving person who takes the time to email hippy teabag companies about whether their packaging relates to their environmental message (twice)(I’m not kidding, two different companies)*, I thought I’d let her know.

What I wrote, and why it got amazing results

I sent Kendrick an email where I did a few different things, which I’ll break down. I want to show you it, because every single bit was written from a 100% genuine place (rather than a schmoozy one). It just so happens, that all of them are also great networking tricks. (You can see the actual email below).

1. I began with a (genuine and specific) compliment and some social credibility:

I told her that, after working with business coach Jenny Shih (a friend of hers), I had just begun to write my first ever sales copy, and had found Kendrick’s latest video blog a great help in this process. 

3. Then I added more value by pointing out the email error that had been happening, in a clear and constructive way, making a suggestion for how else she could link to the blog.

4. I ended on a positive note by thanking her again, before signing off.

If you want to read the email, click on the pic of it, here →

In all honesty, I thought at best, I’d get a thank you email. Instead, she sent me a lovely, deeply grateful email, that ended with this:

As a thank you for taking the time to reach out, I’m happy to read through your copy once you have it written and offer sales language suggestions, if you like (no pressure and no charge). Simply to say thanks.

Whilst I was enormously grateful, my expectations were, again, low: she’s a busy, popular lady with a lot of high-end clients. I assumed it meant that I’d get an email with a couple of sentences of written feedback.

The huge surprise

What in fact happened knocked me for six: she spent an entire hour on the phone with me, going through every single line of my copy. This is the sort of thing her clients pay her vast sums of money for. But I was getting it for free.

Also, it was AMAZING. Kendrick truly has a gift. It felt like she climbed inside my brain and unlocked all these doors I hadn’t been able to get through. It completely shifted my mindset around writing sales copy (something that had previously felt for me like the worst type of school-era physics coursework).

It doesn’t quite end there

To say thank you, I sent her a nice card and, because she sings a line at the beginning of each KTV episode – and we’d discussed her singing in the call – a prop sparkly microphone. Again, I did this not because I thought it would be an excellent networking move, but just because I was SO grateful, I wanted to make her happy by sending her actual post (as well as the thank you email I sent), and who doesn’t love getting a little package? (even one that only cost $4.25 to buy, wrap and send?).

For postal-related reasons too boring to go into, she didn’t get the package until last month. Guess what turned up on KTV a week later, along with a name check for old Yes Yes (Yes) Marsha?

Given that I’ve watched this show every single week without fail for almost a year, this was a VERY exciting moment.

And what I love most is that everything I did was done because I felt moved to and it felt good to.

Two lessons from this 

1. If you add value to someone – without expectation of reward – there’s a very good chance it’ll come back to you. Sometimes in a much more substantial way than you gave.

2. Once you start applying the methods I suggest for networking – mostly things that you are already doing with people you know – then they will become second-nature. And you’ll start getting free stuff all the time, even when you’re least expecting it.

A note for you if you HATE writing Sales copy – or feel as stumped as I did pre-Kendrick:

Kendrick has just put some FREE Sales training up online. If you want a little of the magic I got to experience, check it out HERE: yym.ca/salessch

Your Turn

Have you ever done someone a favour without thinking – only to get something in repayment that was well beyond your expectations? Or have you ever felt moved to give above and beyond in gratitude to someone?

Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks,
You rule,
xx (Yes Yes) Marsha

PS want to know my best-ever client secret – and get even more advice, tips, plus stories that I won’t put on the internet? Come and join the Yes Yes Family – it’s free! Just pop your details in below:

PPS Want to grab that FREE Sales training from Kendrick Shope? GO HERE.

Footnote:
Full disclosure: at the end of last year (after I sent the mic and card off, but before she got it), Kendrick got in touch saying she’d love me to apply to be one of only 10 women she coached in 2014. And I was both so impressed by what she’d done for me already (for FREE!), and so convinced that we had all the right chemistry, that I made the big decision to go for it. Two months in and I’m SO glad I did. As I said, she has a gift. Any big things that happen here at Yes Yes Marsha Towers over the next few months you can credit to her coaching.

*For interested fans of either tea brands or the planet, it was Stash and Yogi Tea. Each gave me a brush-off response. And no coupons.

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