Henry Pellerin interview - sales training expert

Henry Pellerin is the co-author of the Strategic Selling Process and President of VantaEDGE(TM), inc. a company that specializes in developing custom sales training programs for companies and is also in the process of releasing a new program that provides training on demand and just in time training. Henry also offers a free report entitled: The Red Flag Report, which details the top 12 mistakes that lose sales.

I'm pleased to bring you Henry Pellerin...

Josh: How do you define Business Networking and why do you feel it's important?

Henry Pellerin: Business Networking is one of the first steps to building relationships.

Unfortunately most people I see at business networking functions, and even online, are trying to skip over the first few steps of relationship building and go directly into trying to sell their product or service.

So if we can agree that Business Networking is one of the first steps to building relationships, I would more specifically define it as meeting people to determine if there is a fit, common interest, or something that makes sense to go to the next step of the relationship building process.

What is interesting is you pretty much approach prospects the same way. Meaning, we don't just go up to a random person and ask for an order... right?

We first build some rapport, establish trust, then move onto uncovering needs, etc. before we even ask for an order.

The other aspect I will mention about Business Networking is at the end it is not who you know, it is who knows you.

Here is a great tip, when you leave a networking function ask yourself these two questions:

1. Did I establish some quality (quantity is not the key) contacts?

2. If they were asked who they met at the function,

a. would they remember me?
b. would they have reason to say something positive about me?

If you can answer yes (honestly) to those questions, that should give you an indication you are on the right track.

Josh: Can you share a few ideas that someone could put into practice that would help them to improve their business networking skills?

Henry Pellerin: I think first and foremost is to have the right attitude before attending. Having the right attitude is NOT:

1. Focusing on how many business cards you can collect.

2. How many "elevator" pitches you can give - fyi - most Business Networking functions are not held in an elevator.

3. You get the point.

The right attitude is planning to focus on how many quality conversations you can have? And focusing on the people you meet and not the person wearing your shoes. If you have the right attitude you will attract people, which is a lot more fun (and easier) than trying to chase people away.

If you follow these simple rules, people will ask you what you do and want to learn more about your business.

I guess it all boils down to focusing in on helping others. There is an old Zig Ziglar Quote, "if you help enough other people in life, you will be rewarded in return". That might not be the exact quote, but it was something like that.

This is so true, I just like to leave off the last part, about being rewarded or getting what you want in return - that whole reciprocity concept. The reason I like to leave that last part off is so many people have that as an expectation and get upset if they help someone out and that person does not do anything for them. Which is not the point of the concept, too many people are trying to keep score. So I really think it is best to focus on the front part, focusing on how many people you can help.

Josh: How important has networking been in your own professional life. Can you share a few examples where it has made a difference?

Henry Pellerin: Business networking is the life blood of my company. To this point 100% of our business has been through word of mouth. I read a statistic last week that 84% of all sales began through word of mouth. So Business Networking is essential.

Also, before starting my own company, the majority of my sales came from strategic alliances. I have two specific examples I would be happy to share. The first is with traditional Business Networking. The second is an example with social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). I wanted to include this one because it took me a little while to grasp the concept and see the value.

Two years ago I donated my time to provide some free sales training for the members of our local Chamber of Commerce. I conducted these programs with a friend of mine once a month for an entire year. We did not charge for these programs, we did not have a goal that these would be lead generation programs, and we did not offer any products or services for sale during these programs. They were 100% focused on the members and jammed packed with valuable content.

Some might say that is really volunteering and not really a business networking function. I really disagree, something does not have to be labeled "a Networking Function" to be a networking function. In fact, for those that are looking to start networking I would recommend avoiding the status quo and look outside the box. There are lot of other places to network and quite frankly, they are typically a lot more productive and effective.

In any event, during this time (and still to this day) we would have sales managers call to thank us and then ask if we could customize a program for their teams, other organizations heard about the value we were providing and asked if they could hire us.

Besides creating a lot of business opportunity for me, it also really added to the credibility of my company, which has allowed us to do some pretty unique things. For example, we have had panels with purchasing managers from several large corporations and since these companies respect us and find us credible it makes it really easy to get people to participate.

In fact now people actually contact us. And honestly, we did not expect any of that because we were focused on putting together high quality programs for sales people and business owners.

When I was first invited to participate in social networking four years ago I avoided it, in fact truth be told I have only been networking online for about four months. Actually Josh, that is how we met, through a mutual friend that I met in a social media environment. That is a great example, but there is another I want to share.

When I first opened a Facebook account I made a connection with this person and noticed he had a membership site. Since I was planning to start a membership site I checked his out. He really has a great membership site. So I sent him an email to compliment him on his site and told him I was just beginning the process.

He replied back and said thanks for complimenting his site (and actually taking the time to really look at it in detail) and offered to help out or share his trials and tribulations with me. So we then talked on the phone. Well, long story short, that person was John Morgan, President and CEO of the internetfuse.com.

Since then we have become good friends. I am really excited for him because John and his wife Brooke are expecting their first child in October. In addition to having a great new friend, John offered to be my first affiliate. But, this did not all start out with any expectations, I did not contact John to try to be sneaking and "pretend" to care about him (I really was interested, and I really do like his site, etc.) and I did not beg him to be an affiliate, he offered.

The point being is this relationship began with me focusing on him and having a legitimate interest in him and his business.

Josh, I know we are nearing the end of this interview, but I did want to thank you for taking the time to put together such a great resource for everyone to learn from - great job and I am sure people visiting this site will change Business Networking as we know it today!


-Join the Conversation: Care to share your thoughts? Did you find anything particularly helpful or insightful? Let your voice be heard in the comments section below... Happy Networking, Josh Hinds :-)

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