A brief motivational instructional talk (YouTube) by Chris Wiser advising MSP owners to change how they approach networking events. Main recommendations: present yourself as the IT/cybersecurity expert, look for connectors rather than immediate sales, and funnel contacts into group trainings or webinars to nurture leads and qualify them by problem-fit, budget, and mindset. Ends with a CTA to upcoming webinars.
Are you tired of attending networking events and you leave exhausted from peopling and you're still not getting appointments or leads on your calendar? Okay? So here's what I want you to do. The next networking event that you are at, I want you to show up not with the intention of I have to sign a client from this or I have to book a first time appointment from this. But instead, as an MSP owner, I want you to, number one, walk into the networking event like you are the IT and cybersecurity expert, first and foremost. Okay? Then whenever you're there, I want you to scan the room and think about who in this room do you need to be connected with? Okay? Now maybe they could be a client potentially. Maybe they're, they're friends of someone that knows someone that you need to know. Okay? So this puts you in a place of not looking for who's going to be my next client, who's going to, who can I make a sale from? But instead you're looking for connectors in the room that can get you in the right places with the right faces. Okay? Now it's also really important that we are creating a, a sales pipeline or a marketing pipeline that helps you to nurture the folks that you are meeting in this room. So let's say, for example, you go into your BNI meeting or your chamber of commerce, you know, monthly meeting and you're meeting folks there. But, but where's the most natural place to send them? Well, maybe you've asked them, hey, do you want to hop on a call with me? Or maybe we can get a coffee together? Maybe we can have lunch together. Well, the truth is, is that number one, you can only do so many coffees per week. You can only have so many lunches per week. Okay? And if you're having a lunch every single day, that's five days a week, right? Assuming that you're going to take the weekends for family. So here's what I want us to shift to. I want us to shift from this, this place of I have to meet individually with every single person that I come in contact with and I'm immediately trying to force them into an appointment with me, which puts a lot of pressure on you as the MSP owner, but also puts a lot of pressure on the other person that you're talking to instead. I want you to shift this to how can I have a neutral landing place for my leads, such as a training that you can host, a cybersecurity educational training, a community session on why your Business needs a CSRA or a webinar someplace where you can bring your leads in as a neutral landing space where you can now serve one too many people at one time. Okay. So instead of you trading your time in these one on one conversations, which does put a lot of pressure to push them into a sales conversation with you, I get it. Time is money. So instead you can bring them into this group training, such as a webinar, where you are able to nurture them, educate them, help them make their own informed decisions on if your services and solutions are for them. Okay, because there's three things that we want to look at whenever we are getting leads. The first time appointment, it's do they have the right problem? So can you even help them with the problem that they have with your solution? Do they have the right kind of money? Do they have the budget? Are they a business maturity level in which you can help them and in which you are most apt to serve? And then number three, do they have the right kind of mindset? So do they have the mindset of a, of a growth business? Do they want to grow? Do they care about this stuff? Are they bound by compliance? They see the value in, in your services. Okay. Because we do not want to be twisting anyone's arm to, to sign a contract with us. We want clients who are going to grow into big, beautiful pumpkins and who are going to grow with us for the life of our business. Okay? So take these tips to your next networking event. Take the pressure off of yourself. Create, you know, a space where you are able to nurture them, move them into a pipeline that's profitable and gives you time to, to warm them up. Okay. If you want more training on this, we have upcoming webinars and trainings of our own where we go more in depth on this. So go ahead, click the link in the description and we will see you there. Thank you.
