Freedom Building, Part II

By Kristen Quirk, Southeast Bureau Chief          Kristen's Bio

We only do business with those we know, like, and trust.

Sounds reasonable, right? Dale Carnegie thought so. It is one of the tenets of his classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. It also had a huge impact on Ann Preston, founder of the five-year-old Atlanta-based networking group Freedom Builders. (For a more personal account of how I came to know about the organization, see June’s article titled “Freedom Building: Part 1.”)

Ann learned about the principle firsthand. Several years ago, as a financial planner, she joined what she calls “typical” networking groups: She went to chapter meetings once a week, had 30 seconds or a minute to speak about what she did for a living, and told that story to the same people each week. “It felt stagnant to me,” Preston says. “I wasn’t meeting new people and found that the well runs dry quickly in that type of scenario.” In fact, such networking was so ineffective for her that she was fired from her job after being there just six months because she wasn’t bringing in enough new business.

Knowing that networking and relationship building were the best way to obtain new customers, Preston started Freedom Builders. “I kept what I felt were the best elements of traditional networking and took away the stagnant parts,” she adds. For instance, all Freedom Builders members can go to as many meetings held in the Atlanta area each month as they like — more than 30 of them. The meetings, called “boardrooms,” are held in professional boardroom-type settings and are limited to 10 people each. With a specially designed Web-based RSVP system, members can reserve their spot on a first-come, first-served basis. The software knows when someone from a particular industry has signed up, so it won’t allow for any competition in the boardroom. “Our members find it extremely refreshing that they can go as often as possible,” Preston notes. “In fact, our motto is, ‘If you don’t have a client, come to the boardroom and get one.’”

Preston and her partner, Bruce Towers, also knew that 30 seconds or a minute for a presentation didn’t cut it. So, each member has five minutes. But rather than immediately launching into a description of their product, service, or qualifications, Freedom Builders members are encouraged to talk about themselves first — where they’re from, their families, their hobbies, and other points that help others in the boardroom get to know them better. Included in that time is the opportunity for questions that enable others to scan their “mental rolodex” for referrals they may be able to offer. In Freedom Builders lingo, chipmunks are leads or potential clients who can use a product or service, typically on a one-time basis, while antelopes are the big deals — potential strategic alliances or joint ventures that can feed quality contacts on a consistent basis.

That’s what Preston calls selling through, not to, each other. “In traditional networking, people try to sell to others in room, which can be offensive. Rather than get one client, we teach how to get to the people who can open doors to get 100 clients or more,” she adds.

Forming strong relationships is important to Karen Rands, who has been a member for nearly five years and has hosted one of the weekly boardrooms for more than three. Rands, a venture catalyst with Kugarand Holdings in Atlanta, finds that those who are willing to take the time to understand and come to know each other make good strategic partners for her. “It’s important for people to have the same philosophy about becoming friends and having an emotional commitment to helping each other,” she says. “My clients offer different types of services, and Freedom Builders enables me to better serve them because I have more resources and contacts to offer. I have become a trusted source.”

Rands also finds the training that Freedom Builders offers on a weekly basis, to members and non-members alike, very helpful. “That’s one of the things that sets Freedom Builders apart,” she adds. “The organization offers training tools and principles that I knew I would need to be successful. It also brings in nationally known speakers each quarter for events that are free to members.”

Development is important in Freedom Builders, both personally and for the organization. Host Victoria White, a seasoned networker and a salesperson at US LEC in Atlanta, is helping to make Freedom Builders’ business-to-business (B2B) component even stronger. Some boardrooms are focused on business-to-consumer contacts, while others are for just for B2B — something that is unusual in the networking industry.

White offers a weekly B2B-focused meeting often attended by member Don Rigby, owner of Integrated MarCom. In just a few months, Rigby has found that Freedom Builders’ system works for him. “At my first overview, I felt this was an organization that did things right,” Rigby says. “Sixty percent of the business I currently have in the queue is from Freedom Builders.”

Using the principles Preston now teaches to others, she went from fired to the No. 6 financial planner in the world, competing with more than 100,000 others in her industry. She calls it the new way to sell, and she sums it up in one word: don’t. “With this system, people never feel like they’re selling,” she says. “What we’re doing is creating relationships among people who could be major door openers for each other.”

And that’s happening quickly. “Some traditional networking resources actually say it may take one to three years to get results,” Preston adds. “My entire objective in creating Freedom Builders was to craft a format for people to get results with the first boardroom they go to. That’s my goal for all of our members.”

For a free newsletter and 60-minute CD, log on to www.powerfulprospectingtips.com. For more information about Freedom Builders, visit www.freedombuildersinc.com.