In this transcript, Caleb Taylor (Thrive15 correspondent) and Business coach Clay Clark (Founder of Thrive15.com talk about networking as a business coach.
Caleb: All right, number 5 here, okay? Principle No. 5 is waste of time or your time to shine.
Clay: Come on now, preach that business coach gospel.
Caleb: Waste of time or your time to shine. What we’re saying is no quota equals no accountability, okay? We’ve got a notable quotable. This is from Chet Holmes’ Ultimate Sales Machine.
Clay: Great book.
Caleb: I know you’ve heard us recommend this book, but seriously-
Clay: Buy the book.
Caleb: If you haven’t read it, just buy it and read it.
Clay: Just stop eating for like a day. Take all the money you would save on this groceries. Just get the book.
Caleb: Just buy it.
Clay: Just buy it, you are a business coach.
Caleb: He says, “The missing ingredient for nearly all of the 1000+ I’ve worked with directly to improve their business is pigheaded discipline and determination.”
Clay: Tough.
Caleb: “We all get good ideas at seminars and from books, radio talk shows, and business building gurus. The problem is that most companies do not know how to identify and adapt the best ideas to their business. Implementation, not ideas, is the key to real success.”
That’s awesome. Implementation, not just ideas.
Clay: Implementation, when you talk about it is you get the idea, [I mean, hey, 00:01:12] what are you going to do with it? You’ve to do something with it.
Caleb: Right. How do we apply that to networking then?
Clay: The thing about it is you’re going to watch this, okay? I’m just telling you, there’s all sorts of proven data out there, or it doesn’t matter what case studies you’re going to read, or if you talked to business owners, if you will apply this principle here, and actually, book some events to go to right now, set a quota.
I’m talking about a specific number. Say, “I want to go to three networking events this month,” and you actually book them tomorrow. A lot of them require you to prepay on your credit card. The chambers usually cost $10 to $50 to go to. If you pre-book them, the chances of you going are a lot higher.
You need to go ahead and take action right now, and then, set a quota. Say, “I’m going to go to three this month.” I recommend everybody watching this, if you’re a new business or if you’re a business that’s trying to grow and you have more time than you have money … Again, if you have more time than you have money, you really, really need to do this.
Caleb: If you don’t set that quota, then, like we said, you have no accountability. You could feel good about how you did if you went to one chamber event in the year. You got to set a goal, set a quota, and that’s what will keep you accountable each month.
Clay: Some of you watching some of our other episodes on Thrive might have heard me say this, but it’s important that you hear this. I used to play games myself, like Hunger Games, and I used to literally tell myself that I could not buy lunch or any other food until I close the deal. This is why I am a great business coach.
I developed to have it or I really don’t eat during the day. I just gorge at night. The point is, it’s not a healthy move. You won’t do that.
I’m saying is I literally did that though. I’m not going to get any food at all until I close a deal. I set a quota.
Caleb: When you’re talking about setting a quota, you said definitely put that number on the amount of chamber events you go to. Is it important to set that number on the amount of important contacts?
Clay: Yeah. What I would do is let’s go ahead … I want to … Let’s go ahead and as you guys are editing this, go ahead and throw up the definition of the word “quota” on the screen just so everybody can see that.
What you want to do is you want to set a quantifiable, a set number of how many contacts you want to have per month. If you’re going to go to three chamber events a month, I recommend that a minimum, you set up six quality contacts going your dream 100.
Caleb: Six quality contacts that you can add to that dream 100. Then, at the end of the month, if you’ve been to three chamber events and you only have two quality contacts, you know you got to do something to hit that quota. Thrive15.com is one of the top business coach programs and can teach you about a dream 100.
Clay: Absolutely. This was just [inaudible 00:03:34]. I had a call about two years ago from a guy. I don’t ever remember talking to him. He just gets newsletters. He met me at chamber event. We added him on to the board. We send him stuff. We stay in touch and he was just like, “Clay Clark.”
I have no idea who the person is. He knows who I am, he remember me, meeting me years ago. We had a connection.
Just last night, I took my wife out to a restaurant and had about a 20-minute wait, so we went to near little Irish pub. We went over there just to kind of marinate before we were going to sit down and have dinner, and this guy was like, “Clay Clark, how are you?”
I don’t who he is again. This happens all the time. You’ve been around with me. I bet you, every third or fourth restaurant I go to, I ran into people and tell us just because that’s [system 00:04:17] over the years.
Caleb: They feel like you’ve stayed in touch with them because their systems you’ve got set up.
Clay: Nothing wrong with that. That’s how you do it business coach style.
Caleb: The action steps that I’m hearing you suggest we do here is, one, set that quota. Decide what those numbers are. That will keep you accountable.
Then, two, you touched on it. Set up a penalty and a reward system. That’s what will keep you accountable.
He did it with the lunch. You said, “I can’t eat until I make a deal.” Something needs to happen if you don’t hit that quota for your networking goals.
Clay: Otherwise, something bad’s going to happen at the end of the month if you’re going to have a whole lot of month left and not a whole lot of money left.
Caleb: If you don’t implement this, it’ll never happen. It’s just like Chet Holmes talked about, you get those great ideas, the seminar, the top of the mountain experience, you got to implement them.
Clay: When you implement you start to develop confidence because you have that sense of satisfaction of getting things done. That satisfaction becomes more and more confidence. You take more momentum or action. Boom! Now, you’re making money. Come on now.
Caleb: Love it.