You need more leads, and there's no time for marketing. So every conversation has to count. You meet someone sharp on LinkedIn. You book a coffee call. Ten minutes in, one of you is pitching. By minute twenty, you're both pitching, and you both leave with the same bad taste and the same thought: networking is a waste of time.

The call wasn't the problem. The order was.

I talked this through with Sam Reeve on the People Strategy Forum (July 2024). Listen to the full conversation: Selling Your Value Proposition on the People Strategy Forum

Why B2B networking feels like a waste

On the show, one of the hosts described something I see everywhere. A month of work on business development. Weeks of meetings, all day long. Busy, and still not reaching the goal, because too many of those calls were tactical and with the wrong audience.

Here's what happens in most of those calls. Two people meet for the first time and start selling to each other right away. Nobody is listening, because both are waiting for their turn to pitch. The whole thing goes stale. Then people say they hate networking and stop doing it.

Run that on your own calendar. Every one of those calls is an hour that produced no introduction, no lead and no deal, and the target doesn't wait.

🐬 A pitch in the first conversation is the needy move. It asks for something before you've given anything. And the other person feels it.

Sell through people, not to them

Sam and I are in a networking group together on WhatsApp. I installed one simple rule there: don't sell to each other, sell through each other.

"Don't sell to me, sell through me."

That one rule changes the whole conversation. Now I don't see you as a possible client. I see you as a possible ally. And my questions change with it:

• What's your superpower?
• Who is your ideal client?
• What's on your plate right now, what are you trying to solve?

And then I listen, and I take notes. I always write down two things when I meet someone: their superpower and what they're trying to solve. Because maybe tomorrow someone else tells me something that fits the puzzle, and I can say: you two have to talk.

That's control of the conversation, without a single pitch. You're asking the questions, you're adding the value, and you're the one people remember.

Three introductions before lunch

I turned this into a habit. I have six daily habits, and one of them is to make three introductions before lunch.

I don't walk into a room thinking about what I can sell. I walk in trying to understand who they are, what their journey is, what they need to get done. Over the next week, I help them get there. A couple of months later, they remember who helped.

And if there's an opportunity to work together then, they're interested. "But only if I have created enough value up front."

🐯 Picture the inbox a few months into that habit. The messages don't start with a stranger's pitch. They start with an introduction to someone you should meet.

The one-pager that makes you easy to introduce

The other side of this: when you ask people their superpower and their ideal client, many of them confuse you. They're all over the board, and you can't introduce someone you can't describe.

So I tell everyone I meet: create a one-pager.

• Left side: your ideal client, who you're here to serve.
• Middle: what you can do for them.
• Right side: who your ideal partner is.

Now the people you meet can become your allies, because they know exactly who to send. And maybe they're your ideal partner themselves.

I'm a one-pager guy. I have one for everything people usually ask me. "I never present anything, but I get asked questions." When someone asks who my ideal client is, or whether I've worked with a company their size in their industry, the page is ready the moment they ask. A conversation, not a presentation.

Start with your buyer, not your pitch

At the end of the show, the question was the one thing to remember. My answer: do your buyer's journey. Who is your buyer? What is on their hearts and minds right now? How can you be of service now, and what else do they need?

Put in half an hour. Learn one thing about your buyer. The same rule works for allies: learn what they need before you say a word about what you do.

Start this week

Four steps. If you only do one today, do the first.

1. Build your one-pager. Ideal client, what you do for them, ideal partner. One page.
2. On your next coffee call, pitch nothing. Ask for their superpower, their ideal client, and what they're trying to solve.
3. Write down the answers. Two lines per person, somewhere you'll find them again.
4. Make three introductions before lunch. Tomorrow. Then again the day after.

🌴 Picture a month from now: fewer calls, better ones, and introductions coming back your way without a single cold pitch. That's Sprintlife: control in sales, plus the time freedom it buys you.

Listen to the full conversation with Sam Reeve: Selling Your Value Proposition on the People Strategy Forum

You don't have to build this alone. Grab the free tools and join the founders working on the same thing in the Sprint Club: https://www.strategysprints.com

Ready to accelerate now? Book a Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/strategysprint/discovery-call

Happy hunting.
Simon & The Sprinters 🐬⚡️🐆