Unlocking Growth: Targeted Networking Strategies for New Escapees

Brett Trainor (00:03.886)
Welcome back to the Corporate Escapee Podcast. I'm your host Brett Trainer. And today I'm going to do a deep dive on a topic that I think is absolutely critical to any escapees business. And no, it's not sales. Yes, that's an important aspect. This one we're talking about networking. I think it's a underappreciated in a core technique for building your business.

Because unlike traditional businesses where you may need a lot of customers, you need a marketing plan, you need to reach a lot of folks within escapees, whether you're a fractional or you're going to productize your service or even do some agency type work, you only need two, three, four, five customers. Maybe you've got 10 people just so you have some folks in the pipeline as you go. So it's going to be a super targeted approach. And this is probably one of the top.

two or three questions I get from would be escapees is how do I network? Who do I talk to? What do I say? How do I get value and provide value back into your network? Because that's one of the critical things. Because I think a lot of folks, especially if you're still in corporate, think about networking as, hey, looking for that next job. Or maybe you're looking for some advice on a project that you had, but I think the majority of us looked at LinkedIn.

and networking as you know, connecting with that next job. If you're in sales, obviously you're using it for prospecting and learning more about potential clients. But for the most part, you probably didn't have a ton of experience in this. So I want to share a four part framework that I created specifically to help you and myself. I still use it every time I'm going to do a networking or an outreach type of campaign. It's campaign being a relative term.

either I'm introducing a new product or service or I'm looking for new folks, I will go through this four step process to make sure I've got everything locked and loaded. Second outreach strategy outside of network, which I just want to touch on briefly is finding referral partners. Between referral partners and networking should be the core of your business development activities because...

Brett Trainor (02:21.646)
There's no reason why you can't build your business off of these networks unless you're going in a completely new direction doing something completely different. That's not really what we're working on at the escaping. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if you're looking to kind of monetize your experience, then odds are you've got some folks in your network that are going to be able to help you. But as far as referral partners go, don't.

make sure you don't look past this because they can be super powerful. And once I moved on from the solo consulting and into more fractional leadership, even though it really wasn't called fractional leadership a couple of years ago, that's how I got my first two clients. It was from referrals. And usually when people think of referrals, it's somebody complimentary. So if you're in marketing, you got somebody that's working maybe on sales or sales training or

finance, CFO, it could be customer success. Really, anybody that's working with your ideal customer, providing a different service or skill set, makes them a good candidate for a potential referral partner, especially, again, selling into the same type of companies, whether it's a service -based business, manufacturing, SaaS, it doesn't matter as long as, like I said, you're targeting the same group. I think it is important to have kind of a shared values that you see the world.

kind of the same way because then they're comfortable referring you in and vice versa. You may have opportunities you can refer your referral partner into as well. The one other thing that I would point out on this is don't be afraid to network with folks that you think have similar backgrounds, right? So you may know, let's use marketing as an example again, chief, fractional chief marketing officer is what you're targeting. You may know two or three other folks in that space.

It's more than okay to connect with them. Worst case, you can brainstorm, share best practices, but you may also find opportunities that you may be a slightly better fit for than your partner. That's how I honestly got my first couple of gigs, as I mentioned, was somebody else that was in the Fractional Chief Revenue Officer space. His focus was much more on sales training and training small.

Brett Trainor (04:42.126)
sales teams and the development and how to get the most out of those groups. And I was more tactical and strategic with, you know, overall revenue operations. So we didn't exactly play in the exact same space or our strengths weren't in the same spot. Plus when he came across a prospect, he did not have any capacity. So he was already full. So instead of turning that person away, you know, connecting him with me, I worked out a rev share, not even a rev share deal was a referral fee.

20 % of the first year of revenue for you know helping me land that first customer It was kind of a win -win. He didn't have the capacity We'd picked up a nice new revenue stream and I was able to land my my first fractional client so Don't fall asleep on that channel and maybe all like said I'll do a deeper dive and how to approach that on a different episode But today I want to talk about networking and that four -part framework. So

I'm going to try to illustrate this much if you're listening via podcast. Should be able to visualize or take some notes and figure it out. If not, you can always email me or connect with me. I do have these frameworks in my starter kits and in some of my tools. So connect with me on LinkedIn, message me. I'm happy to send them to you as well. So, all right. So the framework is called T -I -O -A. It's not going to roll off the tongue, but the four parts are the target.

the intro, the offer, and the ask. And usually when I'm looking at this, there's two potential folks in your network that you're looking towards, right? You can think of this as being somebody, a former colleague, maybe it's a current colleague, yet hasn't left the company, but knows, can keep it on the download that you're looking for, you know, new, you're going out on your own, starting a new venture.

could be former clients as well as industry contacts all make good potential referral partner. So, all right, let's get into it. So the part one is the target. And this is really where you identify who to connect with. This is, like I said, should be super targeted. You should go through and prioritize your network. And there's two distinct groups that you're looking for. First one is people who can introduce you to your ideal customers.

Brett Trainor (07:04.366)
Think about who has access to your target audience. And the second is maybe you've got some folks in your network already that are your ideal customers. Direct connections can actually sometimes be the fastest route to know your first customer. So those are the two. Again, I think people get hung up on what does the messaging look like. It's a lot of time people will just say, hey, here's my services and my features. Do you want to buy it?

Or can you connect me with anybody that would want to buy this? And I'm going to tell you why that's not a great idea. So the target is those two, go through your network, prioritize who can potentially make those introductions. And also if you're still in corporate, that can keep it quiet. You probably don't want to broadcast to your current employer that you're starting to build your new venture and you don't want that word to get out. Now, if you're out of corporate,

then you can be much more vocal and, like I said, vocal bold and let your entire network know that you're starting a new venture. But for now, let's assume we want to keep this quiet. You're starting to build this on the side and you've identified, let's call it five to 10 folks that fit that criteria. So you got one, the target's complete. Two, we're going to do the intro. This is where you set the tone for the connection.

First one is communicate that you're starting a new venture. Tell people that you're going solo, you're leveraging, you know, your 20 years of expertise, you're super excited about it. Just because it's going to open the conversation, say, oh, wow, you're starting something new, that's fantastic. And then part two of the intro is you're seeking advice, not feedback. And I've mentioned this a few times on the podcast that this is maybe a change or a little bit of semantics, but...

typically you ask people for advice, it's forward thinking or forward looking and more proactive. So I'd love your advice on this new venture, right? You can share what you're doing, who you're targeting, your ideal customers, where feedback is often, you know, again, depending on situation is looking backwards. So I can get advice and people want to hear from you, right? Say, Hey, I really love your advice on this.

Brett Trainor (09:26.478)
Think about your two targets right somebody that may have access to these ideal customers and your ideal customers So if you're doing this with your ideal customers, you don't go say hey, would you want to buy this if I had it? It's more of a hey, I'd really like your advice. I'm targeting businesses similar to yours You know, here's the problems that I'm going after Does this make sense? Do you have any advice for me? What else you know are top of my because what you're gonna find?

if that message resonates with that business, they're gonna ask you how they can buy it. So you're selling without selling because at the end of the day really what you want out of these network connections, I mean ideally you want the sale, but you also want feedback, right? Because you're gonna hear from folks that directly to what's resonating with them, what's not resonating with them. And the other piece and the key with the intro into a network connection,

that may know folks is you have to be super clear on who you're looking for, the type of target. So as you've heard the term riches in the niches, it's critical within the networking. Because if you tell people, and again, I was guilty of this with 23rd of experience, I can do just about everything or anything if they've got a problem, your network will never remember that. You've got to be super specific.

So let's transition into what the offer is, right? So you've got the target, you've got the intro, introducing your new venture, you're seeking advice, and the offer is, this is, you gotta be clear about who you're targeting. The more specific, the better. So when I initially started targeting my business side of this, I was looking for B2B businesses that were stuck or not growing, but realized that...

That's a lot of people and it really wasn't clear. So I nailed it down into, hey, I'm looking for B2B service businesses, two to five million in revenue that the revenue is either flat or declining and the owner's not sure how to get the business un -stalled. So right there, if I'm talking to somebody that may know folks, they're going to think through and identify quickly who may fit into that target, right?

Brett Trainor (11:43.214)
Part two of that is state the problem that your service or solution is going to solve. And for me, as I mentioned, it's flat or declining revenue and they don't know why it's stuck. This is a big problem with a lot of business. If they're not growing, maybe expenses are, could be anything. If you're in HR, right, they're churning or they're making bad hires or they can't find the right hires. Be super.

on the problem that you're solving. And if you've listened to me for any amount of time, you know this is the core to my approach with this is you focus on the problem you're solving and build offers around that. That's where the value comes from. And again, that's a good transition to the value because really there's only, I call it three clear values that you can provide to small businesses. And that's either you're going to save them time, you're going to save them money, you're going to make them money, or you're going to reduce the risk.

There's probably a fourth one in experience, but most of the small businesses aren't focused on that aspect. So it's really about time and money. So as you're talking about, hey, solving the problem with me, it was clear, right? Your revenue is stuck. I can help you start growing the business. It could be three or four levers that you're not pulling accordingly. But again, think to your specific business. What are you going to do if you can't solve them time, money or...

make money or save money, it's going to be a really hard sell because that's what's going to resonate with these business owners. So let me summarize. I kind of went over a little bit of a rant there, but so for the offer, it said be super specific for the target audience who you're going after the problem that you're solving. And then the value prop that, Hey, again, I'm going to get these businesses unstuck. If they're two to 5 million, I think I can help them double their revenue.

may not be that bold with the prediction until I get in here the business but I'm confident that I can help them grow their business if these are the factors. So that's the offer and then the last one is the ask that is you know make a simple and direct request if it's into a network that may have access to your ideal customers ask them if they know two people who would be interested in what you're offering. If they know more fantastic but it's just easier in

Brett Trainor (14:05.134)
I think it's a better ask to say, hey, do you know two people? Because if you go and say, hey, if you know anyone, please refer them. But if you say, do you know two people for whatever reason, it's the psychology of this. If anybody's out there that's studied this, please do let me know why this works. But asking for two tends to lead to better results. And the same thing if you're talking to your ideal customer and they're not biting on.

what you're adding to offer, just say, hey, do you know anybody else, anybody else in your peer group, any other business owners that you work with that this is a challenge for them? I would love to have a conversation, which leads me to the last part of the ask, which is what your offer is. And it's just not, hey, I just want to talk to them, right? You got to offer, again, it's coming back to adding value to the entire process. You're going to offer a free, you know, no obligation strategy session.

could be 20 minutes, could be 30 minutes, it could be an hour, depends on what your price point is, it makes sense. And you can tell them, hey, this isn't a sales pitch. If you introduce me to somebody, I just want to learn. This is a new venture. The more feedback and advice I get, the better position I'm going to be. And if you take this approach, I guarantee you, you're going to find people, well, what about me? I think I might be a good candidate. Perfect. Then you can move into how you could potentially help them. But again, going back,

to that free strategy session, it's a great sales tool. And I'll share with you when I was just getting started on TikTok, I shouldn't say just getting started TikTok, when I had that influx of people and connections that were, that my message was resonating on TikTok, I didn't know what to do with them, right? I didn't have a formal program or community. I didn't have any of that stuff built.

So what I was offering was a free 20 minute mini strategy session that basically says, hey, if you're in corporate, you hate it, you want to get out, you don't know how to get unstuck or how to get started, schedule a free 20 minute session. And like I said, all I was asking was five minutes to ask questions. Most of the time I didn't have to because I would get my questions asked as they were asking their questions. It was in one way. I said, hey, here, I'm going to give you

Brett Trainor (16:26.062)
Ask as many questions as you want. I asked you to keep it to 20 minutes because there's a lot of people that are interested. And I think I ended up with over 300 of those strategy sessions. Now I'm not recommending to take and do 300 strategy sessions, but I received a ton of feedback, a lot of great information. And I would say on probably 50 % of the calls at the end, they're probably like, all right, what are you selling?

You're going to pitch me something now that I've asked the questions I said at this point, I'm not. I've got plenty of free tools. Yeah. I highly encourage you to start with those. In that case, it was the podcast, uh, eventually became the community start there. I'm like, I do have some paid programs, but, um, I'd rather have you, you know, start with, you know, some of the stuff that I'm providing for free. If you see the value there, then we can talk about, you know, how we can work together. So.

Super effective. I know this doesn't seem very detailed, but the less salesy you are the better off. So, so let's summarize. So the four parts again are the target, right? This is, you know, could be either somebody that can introduce you to your ideal client or somebody that is your ideal client. The intro, again, you're talking about your new venture. You're seeking advice, not feedback. Three is the offer, you know, specific target who you're going after. The problem you're solving for those specific.

accounts or clients and your value prop and then they ask right it's again referrals to people if you want to ask for more and be bold go for it but I think you know do you know two folks that you could connect me with that may be of interest perfect thank you and then the strategy session so in return you're going to give these folks a free strategy session you can create other lead magnets those types of things but again from an escapee perspective and most of us are doing services the

The 20 minute strategy session seems to work really well. You get a dialogue, you can connect with them, you understand if they would be a good fit working wise, right? Because that's part of it. Early on, beggars can't be choosers, but over time, it just makes sense. Did you connect? Do you understand what their problem is? Did they see the value of what you're talking about? It just makes the rest of the process so much easier if you get this right.

Brett Trainor (18:46.158)
And like I said, you can still do this while you're in corporate. You know, they ask maybe, hey, the new venture, I'm just looking to give back. I'm going to, you know, mentor a few business owners in this specific area. Hell, even if you're a CRM specialist and they just implemented HubSpot or something, you know, you could give them some free strategy guidance on how to approach, set it up, et cetera. So you can do this while you're in corporate in that.

have any conflicts of interest or if you're out of corporate then this should be you know 80 % of your time as you're looking to find those those clients as you're building this out. So alright so I hope this was helpful again I try to create the visual for you as you go through this but like I said I do have a number of tools this being one of the frameworks that if you are curious again probably the easiest way.

email bt at brettrainer .com or connect with me on LinkedIn message me just ask me for the networking framework and I will send you the PDF of it so alright as always thank you so much for listening if you found value in this please do tell your friends or other potential corporate escapees that are out there the more people we can help the more people we can keep out of corporate so

Thanks again for listening. Have a great rest of your day.