099: Shirlene Reeves – Focus on Relationships and Sell Through your Heart

“When attending networking events, do you just go from one person to another, introduce yourself, then pitch your services?

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Or do you get there without any expectations other than getting to know other entrepreneurs and the interesting things they do?

Our guest for today is Shirlene Reeves. Shirlene is a Business Success Coach, Massive Visibility Media™ Trainer, Certified Financial Educator®, International Speaker and Media Show Host. She supports business owners to create properly priced programs that sell easily and make money, and works with her clients to define their target market, create programs based on client requests and then designs an easy-to-follow Million Dollar Business Plan on a budget.

Read Shirlene's Full Bio

In this episode, we talk about focusing on your target market, making relationships a priority, and effective networking tips that are so simple, you’d wonder why you haven’t thought of them.

Our conversation got cut off as I was asking Shirlene where people can find her online, but you can find all of that information below.

Enjoy the episode!

“I Had to Do Sales, or My Business Wouldn’t Survive”

Shirlene had this business that she bootstrapped from zero to multimillions, and she was definitely down the rabbit hole. Her clients were CEOs at Wells-Fargo, CEOs and Vice Presidents at Bank of America – all these really, really big companies – and she thought, “How in the world am I going to sell to these people? I’m not anybody.”

Most of us feel that way in the beginning, right? You’re not anybody and how are they going to respect you and feel strongly that you are the person that can provide the best service for you.

Have you ever felt that way?

So it was really, really difficult. I knew, at the time, that I had to do sales or my business wouldn’t survive. And I found out that building relationships first is what created all the sales for me, and that’s how I increased that specific business to multimillions, and I had 23,000 working under me at that time.

I had to feed those families, so if I didn’t know how to get the sale, I could never feed all those families.

Relationship First, Sales Second

You have to build a relationship first, and let them get to know you, that you do have integrity, you do show up on time – and that is huge, showing up on time – and that you will do what you say you’re going to do. Those are the three things I always honor. That’s how I created my business.

Networking Tips

When attending networking events, Shirlene’s favorite question to ask is, “Tell me about your business.” That’s it. Then the other person launches into three minutes of explanation.

Now if you’re in a networking group, that’s all you have time for, nothing more.

So if that’s all you have time for and all you’ve done is pitch yourself and hand somebody a business card, it’s going to go in the trash.

But if you meet someone and you have a genuine interest in who they are, and your heart is open to listening and not jumping in and barreling in on your own comments and your own reasons for how you can help them, then they will keep your card because you’ve touched their heart.

It makes a big difference.