The best salesman I ever knew was a master of network deposits. He was an insurance salesman by the name of Dan Nowels. Every six months or so he would invite me to lunch. When I showed up he was never alone. He always had someone that provided some type of business service, such as a bookkeeper, CPA, banker, or lawyer. For the first fifteen minutes, he would go about introducing me and stroking my ego, telling this new person how great I was. What he was doing was making network deposits into my account. After this wonderful introduction, I felt somewhat indebted to him for saying so many nice things about me. When the meeting was over, the weight of his network deposits created a desire in me to somehow repay his kindness.
I often brought up the subject of my insurance coverage and frequently increased my policy limits or added another type of coverage without him even asking me for more of my business. Furthermore, feeling a bit smug, I frequently replaced an incumbent team member with the services of the guest he brought to lunch, thereby creating another network deposit back to my insurance guy for providing me with the introduction.
One Saturday I had a gardening question and called several garden shops for advice. One shop spent over twenty minutes providing me with free technical information and even swapping pictures via cell phone to help me understand and take the proper steps to resolve my issues. They never once asked me to buy a product from them. Even though they are over twenty miles away and there are a dozen similar shops much closer, I would never think about getting my gardening supplies from any other garden shop.
The concept of network deposits is simply making network deposits in another’s network account in the form of introductions, connections, advice or even simple flattery, with no direct expectation of any reciprocal action on the other party’s part. The sheer weight of a series of one-way network deposits creates a desire in the receiving person to pay the network deposit back or forward.
How can you use the concept of network deposits to improve your sales?
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