How to Navigate the Path Between Relationships and Revenue with Lady Jen Duplessis

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You can’t run a business on relationships without revenue. At the same time you can’t try to sell everybody you meet. Where’s the middle ground? In this episode, I discuss how to navigate that path between relationships and revenue with my guest, Lady Jen Du Plessis.

Lady Jen is known as The Business Scaling Architect and The Sovereign Leadership Mentor, boasting 40 years in finance and over $400 million in revenue generated. She is a celebrated numerous Barnes & Noble and Amazon #1 International Best-Selling author, 3X Podcast Host, and TV talk show host who delivers real transformation, not just fast profits – so her clients achieve both business success and personal fulfillment.

We dive into topics including:

Jen’s relationships to revenue origin story.

The problems with most “one-to-one” networking meetings and how to avoid them.
How to stop trying to sell and start trying to build relationships instead.
How to know when it’s the right time to sell your services.
An example role play of an effective relationship-building first time one-on-one.
How to successfully grow your business without being “pushy”.
The five questions that you need to ask in every first-time one-on-one meeting.
How to prepare for productive and meaningful one-one-one meetings.
How to know when to start building a relationship after your first meeting and how to do it.
How to qualify people that might become part of your business’ inner circle of referral partners.
Why you should aim for 56 people in your inner circle of referral partners and how often to connect with each of them.
The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to successfully navigate the path from relationships to revenue.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

Jen’s Pathway from Relationships to Revenue Origin Story

Jen coaches on from hustle to “harmoney” We we’re all in this hustle and we really want to be in harmony. We want to be in “harmoney”. We still want to generate income. Jen was doing everything that everyone told her to do.

She was told things like you have to go to networking events, you have to follow through, you have to write thank you cards, you have to answer your phone that, you know, five seconds after it rings, you have to do all these things that put us into hustle as business owners, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Jen was in that, and she would go to one-to-ones, she would meet people and say, let’s do a one-to-one. Does that sound like anybody here? Does that sound like you’re listening? You’re having all these one-to-ones and Jen calls them One and dones. They aren’t too productive are they?

The Wrong Way to Approach One-on-One Networking Meetings

Jen didn’t want have a one-and-dones. She wanted to have meaningful one-to-ones. They’re interviews and they’re not one-and-done. What ends up happening is she found herself doing hundreds of one-to-ones that way. Because she thought that was the name of the game. She thought “I’m just gonna meet with people and they’re gonna start giving me referrals and everything’s gonna be great”.

Notsomuch.

Jen found that she was wasting her time. If that sounds like you, then you know there’s got to be a better way to go about networking. Jen was determined to find a better way. Before that she was white knuckling her way to meetings hoping to get new business. You may be doing that too where you’re just hoping they like you and will become your client or refer you clients.

A Turning Point in Productive One-on-One Networking Meetings

Jen was thinking things like “I can’t wait for this meeting. I can’t wait to pitch them. I can’t wait to tell them about me.” In most cases, with that approach you show up, you throw up and you hope up. You hope that you’re going to get business. She was doing that and the people she met were doing it to her. It was just a big pitch fest, and Jen finds that all the time.

That’s where it first started. Jen would walk into meetings, and she would pitch and tell them all about her products and services. In most cases they were waiting, they knew the ask to buy something was coming. And then Jen would leave and give herself a virtual high five and say, “That was great. They were fun. I know we’re going to work together” …and absolutely nothing would happen.

An Interview Process for One-on-One Networking Meetings

In hindsight Jen’s sees it was just a waste of time. She started developing a new interview process. That included developing the right questions to ask and finding ways not get bored meeting with them again and again. Jen created five questions that she’s going to share with everybody today. That approach and those questions allowed her to generate $400 million in revenue by focusing on 22 relationships.

So now when someone makes an appointment with her, Jen says, let’s set intention: This is not a pitch fest. This is not for us to pitch to one another. It’s for us to learn how we can help each other. Jen calls it explore, expand, expose, explode. Let’s explore each other’s businesses. Let’s expose each other out in the marketplace. Let’s expand our opportunities and let’s explode our business together to get mutually positive results.

That started a string of new relationships.

We didn’t have time to list all the 22 types of relationships that Jen focused on, but she will say that 12 of them were her apostles. They would do anything for her, and she would do anything for them.

A Whole New World of One-to-Ones

The first thing you need to do to have a productive meeting is set an intention. Make sure that you’re going into each one-to-one saying look, here’s the deal. If Jen was speaking to you and you did a one-to-one, and all she did was talk about what she does and ask you if you want buy it, do you want to get involved in her mastermind, do you want to get involved in her program, then she has a 50/50 shot at selling. She’s rather know how many people you know that are interested in her offerings or that talk to her clients because you may not even be talking to her clients when you have that one-to-one.

But you may have a network that talks to her clients. Jen wants the network. She doesn’t necessarily want you as a client if you’re doing a one-to-one. So when you’re doing a one-to-one, don’t pitch to the other person. But when you let them raise their hand and say “I love what you’re teaching, how do I get involved?” that’s time to tell them more about your services.

And that’s just the beginning of the story!

Listen to or watch the episode for the rest of the story and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

An Award-winning International Speaker. Lady Jen Du Plessis, Dame Commander, has delivered speeches at venues such as Nasdaq and the National Press Club, as well as in cities including Paris, London, and places throughout Mexico, Canada, and Australia. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Good Morning America, Fox 5-DC TV, SiriusXM and Voice America Radio.

A dynamic leader renowned for transforming over 8,000 powerhouse businesses into companies who acknowledge they are ready to scale to an entirely different level, when they activate the non-traditional principles with her specialized knowledge through a series of moves, which allows them to achieve ‘harmoney’, freedom, and peace to live beyond daily intervention in their business.

Click here to learn more about Lady Jen Du Plessis!

Click here to connect with Lady Jen Du Plessis on LinkedIn!