Intro To Networking
The Big Idea
All of the pet companies in any given town are marketing to the exact same group of buyers: people who are crazy about their pets and have some extra money in their budgets to hire experts instead of going down the DIY path. In light of this, it just makes sense that we are all working together to service our mutual clients.
The problem is that all of these companies are so busy spending their time, money and energy on working their businesses that it’s not uncommon for them to not even know each other except by brand name (even if they are in the same shopping center)!
Our Networking Pro is commissioned to fix all of this.
Why Network With the Pet Companies in Any Given Town?
1) Easier Leads For All & Reduced Marketing Costs
Since we are all selling to the exact same dog lovers who have money to spend on their “babies,” we might as well refer our clients to each other, which reduces ad spend and marketing costs for all of us, especially since word-of-mouth referrals cost less and convert easier.
2) Mutually-Helping One Another Makes All of Us Better
As we all grow our businesses together, we will hopefully be learning from one another and will all get better at helping families with their dogs (which is hopefully the mission for all of us).
3) Sharing Clients Eventually Exposes Who the Riff-Raff’s Are So That Sub-Par Service Providers Get Excluded From the Network Over Time
As we get to know each other, and the feedback comes back around to each of us, we will learn who we should NOT be referring clients to so that we can steer them towards our partners in the network that to whom we should be referring clients.
How Do We Go From A Group of Unconnected Companies to a Thriving Network of Professional Friends Who Partner Together to Help the Dog Families In Our City?
Easy. Layer by layer, here is how we build a network of growing relationships in multiple phases over about a year.
Note: Try as best you can to work these steps below in this order, unless you find them particularly friendly and welcoming, and then in that case, move farther along even faster.
Phase 1 - The Awareness Campaign
Goal 1 - Introduce Us & Give Them Brochures To Pass Out
Action: If you only give them some brochures or hand out or hang a poster, then it’s a win. If you can win them over and help them see why we are better or different, then you get bonus points. But if you want to be a baller, then get a biz card from them, and win over the manager too and write on the back of the biz card who you talked to, who the manager is, and anything else that you learned about them as you asked about their business.
Resources: Brochures, posters, tacks and tape, scissors, biz cards
Note: We want to capture as much of the contact info for each of the players at each Partner’s business (for each main employee that we’ll be dealing with from front office to the decision-makers) so that we can revisit in just a few weeks with updates on how their referrals are going, or to give them some WD swag, etc to stay in front of them.
Bonus: While you are working your territory, be sure to hang posters in the windows or cork boards of the coffee shops, donuts shops, sandwich shops, safe bars (like Huey’s) and all of the places that have that kind of thing hanging up. You normally don't have to ask for these unless someone is just sitting there watching you, and if so, just say, "Hey do you mind if I hang our poster back here?" (They don't care).
However, you’ll need to swing by them all once a month because their managers will take down all posters from time to time (because whatever events they were marketing have typically past but they never come back to take them down) and ours get taken down as a part of that cleaning up effort.
Goal 2 - Meet More of the Team & Give Them the Free Lunch Flier
Action: Circle back around to meet more of the people on the team if you can, especially trying to meet the decision-makers, showing them that you plan on coming around a lot more and offer them free lunch for all new clients they help us get.
Time: About 30 hours
Resources: Free Lunch Flier, Business cards, brochures, posters, tacks and tape
Script: “Hi, it’s (your name) at Wonder Dog again. I wanted to swing by to see if y’all needed any more brochures, give you this new flier we have for the FREE lunch program for each new client that y’all help us bring on…and maybe to meet more people on the team. Does (DM’s name/DI’s name) have a minute to come meet me?
Bonus: Can you set up the free Lunch & Learn on this call while you are there? (The script for it is below.)
Phase 2 - The Recommendation Campaign
Goal 1 - Set Up a Dream 100 FREE Lunch & Learn
Action: We want to pay them in food, like drug reps do, to buy a few minutes with everyone on their team, especially the decision-makers and give them a taste of what’s coming (free catered lunches!)
Time: 20 hours
Resources: Just a phone
Script: “Hi I’m here to see (DM’s name or DI’s name).” When they come out of the lobby, say “Hi, I’m (your name) at Wonder Dog Training & Games here in town. (Worker’s name) suggested that I give you a call. Do you have a second? (Point back from where they came to get out of the lobby if possible). Great. So are you familiar with us at all, Wonder Dog Training? Ok well, we’re the #1 in-home dog trainers in the Mid-South and since we are so intimate with our clients LITERALLY in their homes for a month or two, we get asked all the time who we recommend for various dog services, and since we are both serving the same dog families, we wanted to see if your team would enjoy a FREE Lunch & Learn so that we can meet the team and find out a bit more about each other to see if recommending one another made sense. Is that something you’d be open to? Great, when might be a good time to do that?"
Note: If lunches are all booked up or isn’t a good time, try coffee or donuts or Chick-fil-a, etc, or even 2 of them so get all of the workers on the morning and the night crew.
Note: The Dream 100 is a list of our top 100 dream clients, like Penny Hardaway or the mayor, who’s name we could drop over and over again if we get to train their dog….and which gives us instant credibility with the kind of person who clout to those name drops.
Goal 2 - Do Lunch & Learns & A Tour of the Place
Action: We want to make it easy for them to have a WOW experience of their own with Wonder Dog so that they have a story to tell.
Time: About 2 hours per lunch & tour (ordered by you, delivered by Uber Eats, a quick intro of us to each team mate as they come get food, plus a tour of the place to learn about them)
Resources: Corp credit card, more brochures to restock, notebook to take notes as they talk about themselves
Script: Sell what makes us special and find out what makes them special, congratulate them on their success and make a light-hearted connection with each person to win them over.
Bonus: Have them join the Memphis Dog Owners group on Facebook and like our other pages.
Phase 3 - The Engagement Campaign
Goal 1 - Give Them the DREAM 100 Half-Priced Training Flier
Action: We want to make it easy for them to have a WOW experience of their own so that they have a story to tell so we walk in with our Dream 100 Clients flier and say...
Time: 30 hours
Resources: Fliers & more brochures to restock
Script: "We will train any of your owners, managers or employees dogs for HALF price! If already trained, then we want to invite them out to the Wonder Dog Games!”
Goal 2 - Ask for a Review & Invite Them to Contribute on FB Dog Group
Action: If they have gotten their dogs trained with us, we want to ask them for a review. If not, we want to invite them to contribute to the FB Dog Owner’s Group.
Time: 30 hours
Resources: Phone, email, more brochures for restocking
Script: "We wanted to ask for a review of our training and/or Games, and to see if you’d like to help be a contributor on the FB Dog Group by posting really fascinating content?"
Bonus: Plant the seeds of mutually putting our brochures in each other’s new client/new puppy bags.
Phase 4 - The Joint Venture Campaign
Goal 1 - Ask If They Would Like to Sponsor Graduation Punch Cards, Games Winners, Our Emails & At The Events
Action 1: We want to see if they would be open to mutually sharing our brochures with each others’ new puppies or new clients or with anyone who might need us, and link to each others’ website for more domain credibility and even more leads.
Time: 30 hours
Resources: Phone, email
Script: “We have a list of almost 10,000 dog owners in Memphis and it grows by about 10% a month based on our huge ad spend. We have a few opportunities to cross-market with a select few of our partners: is this something that you might want to explore? Ok, well, when might we meet to discuss some of the options?"
Goal 2 - Ask to Start Sharing Each Other’s Brochures in New Client/New Puppy Bags
Action 1: We want to see if they would be open to mutually sharing our brochures with each others’ new puppies or new clients or with anyone who might need us, and link to each others’ website for more domain credibility and even more leads.
Time: 30 hours
Resources: Phone, email
Script: “Do you guys give your new clients a bag or folder of paperwork with coupons or brochures in it? I wonder if there is a way to help each other there?”
Goal 3 - Ask If They Want In On Our Coupon Booklet to Cross-Market to All Dog Owners
Action 1: See if they would be open to mutually sharing our brochures with each others’ new puppies or new clients or with anyone who might need us, and link to each others’ website for more domain credibility and even more leads.
Time: 30 hours
Resources: Phone, email
Script: “Let’s grow together! We are putting together a city-wide, coupon booklet, website and referral network, which will have opportunities for you to cross-promote your services to one another's clients - which makes sense since we are all selling to the same demographics roughly. Here is the offer and the cost…”
Bonus: Ask them how else we could partner with them in their ads or promotions or events. Could we put a coupon or brochure for our services in their bags when customers leave?
Phase 5 - The Mastermind Campaign
Goal 1 - Gather Them for a Test Luncheon
Action: We want to gather up the network owners and managers to meet each other in a light-hearted environment to introduce themselves and talk shop about running a small business, meeting both peers and competitors.
Time: 50 hours to ask and set this up
Resources: Phone, email, landing page, a conference room and catering
Script: “We are gathering up a group of business owners who serve the dog families in town and wanted to see if you wanted to meet some of your peers for breakfast at ____________ on __________ from _____ to _____ AM."
Goal 2 - Start a Regular Monthly Meeting
Action: If they want to keep gathering around dogs and learning from small biz experts (law, taxes, marketing, etc), then we create a mastermind group that they need to pay to be a part of to get rid of the tiny players who aren’t looking to really invest in giving to get.
Time: 5 hours a month
Resources: Phone, email, landing page, a conference room and catering
Script: “We are gathering up a mastermind group of dog experts in town and wanted to see if you wanted to meet some of your peers for breakfast at ____________ on __________ at ________ AM.”
That’s it. We gather up the players to see if they want to meet and start to introduce themselves, learn from each other and start to develop friendships with their peers…all led by your favorite dog trainers in town who will eventually win their affection and get all of their leads.
Phase 6 - The Project Campaign
Goal - Do a Small, Client-Only WD Games Event
Action: We want to pull together the Mastermind to help us pull off a small version of our WD Games to test-run a larger, city-wide event as they sponsor prizes and booths so that we cross-market to each other’s
Time: 100 hours
Resources: Phone, email, landing page, a conference room and catering, lots of planning
Script: “Let’s work on a project together! In this case, we are putting together a city-wide Family Dog Dayz Fun Day with shows and games and vendor booths and educational spots, all to give the dog families of the Mid-South something fun to do with their dogs AND to highlight our favorite vendors so that you can get in front of more dog families to grow your business."