An offer you can't refuse
Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 7:57AM 
One of the things that we at Vosica pride ourselves on is bringing value to the table - and who doesn't want to work with a company that does that? So when we seek out clients, strategic partners, and colleagues we do exactly that. We bring value to the table.
During November of last year I met Jeremey Epstein (the marketing strategist for Daniel Pink's new best seller The Adventures of Johnny Bunko). After finding out what his forte was I had a few ideas in my head that I wanted to run by him.
So about a week ago I reached out to him after my initial contact with him last year in December, and at his request I followed up midway through this month. He was impressed with my 'presentation' and blogged about it. Below is our conversation (via email) as posted on his blog.
How To Get A Meeting with Anybody…
I live and die by the network.
I will pretty much talk to or meet with anyone for 20-30 minutes. (Not everyone will meet with me, but that’s another story.)
A few months ago, I met Rasul Shair at a presentation I gave.
We chatted, connected on FB/LinkedIn, etc.
Last week, he reached out to me for a coffee meet-up.
I proposed 30 minutes on a date that worked for me.
He countered: I was looking to set aside an hour to meet.
To which I responded: I'll be very blunt...so pardon my direct approach. Generally, I say I will meet with anyone for 30 mins. I'm open to an hour discussion, but since you are asking for it, I'd like to have some idea of an agenda, the objective. Fair enough?
Then, he delivered the Grand Slam of networking pitches.
No worries about being blunt/the direct approach (I actually prefer it). I have absolutely no problems with that. I can only know how you operate if you tell me. Completely fair!
Reason #1.
My main reason for wanting to meet has to do with your work with Dan Pink. I know another author which I though that you may want to become familiar with his work. I was connecting the dots in my head and thinking that there may be something there of interest to you. We did an interview with him for the blog and we made a really good connection (we are also linked on his blog). I was thinking that there may be some opportunities for you two to work with each other and I could help possibly broker that connection.
Reason #2
I wanted to meet to get a more in depth feel for your work. Find out what kind of projects you are seeking out. See if I could be of assistance and bring something to the table for you from the work I am doing - which I would like to discuss with you as well.
Reason #3.
Simply to start building a rapport with you. I like to align myself with people who are movers and shakers (it helps me up my game - smile). One of my personal approaches to life is if you want to be a millionaire you need to hang out with millionaires. So I seek to build relationships with folks that I feel are serious in their work and constantly looking to grow and move forward in their lives and businesses.
We may be able to do actually to all of this in 30 minutes (not sure). I just wanted to allot an hour - just in case. So we may only need 40 or 45 minutes. Again I just wanted to have enough time for good discussion.
Let me know what you think (being blunt is fine - smile) and if this works for you or not.
What I think is that is that Rasul knows how to sell, baby!
Lesson: if you are asking someone for their time (for a job, for a sale, etc.), outline the WIIFM (aka the “What’s In It For Me”) in a way that, as the Godfather would say, “is an offer they cannot refuse.”
I’m pumped for my meeting with Rasul now.
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