Coffee Date Frame in a Post

Travis Sago

Jul '23 (edited) • Opening Convos & Coffee Dates

Most of the challenges I see on being nervous and tongue tied on a coffee date come from the stance we take going in.

If we go in as a "service provider" trying to convince our date to "hire us."

We'll be nervous.

If we go in as a "consultant" trying to "should" all over what they're doing.

Not only will we be nervous...They will be nervous!

In both stances NOBODY has much fun.

What I suggest Ronin do...

Is take the stance of a DETACHED investor.

Not trying to convince anybody of anything...

We're not going to "shame" or "should" folks.

I am an investor.

I am detached - on my good days!

If I only invest in 3 bedroom 2 bath homes with an acre of land within walking distance to a lake.

I’m not going to try and consult with homeowners on the 1001 ways they could improve the value of their homes.

It’s not what I do because I AM an investor.

If they have a 3 bed 2 bath with an acre on the lake.

I will have a convo about why they are selling…

When do they want to move.

How much equity do they have.

If they are under water, what options they may have.

Is getting full price or getting a fast sale more important to them?

I don’t need the home improvement checklist.

👉Ronin stuff is very similar.

I don’t help with FB ads, Twitter organic, Threads, making their content better, improving their operations, finding a USP or any of those things.

I am very specific on who, what, when, where and how I want to invest.

(This is why I keep asking Ronin to figure out their specific reasons to invest before ANY contact is made.)

I start a coffee date with the assumption that my coffee date partners ARE already successful and doing many things right.

I don’t try and point out what they are doing WRONG!

Or where they "suck."

That builds zero rapport.

Triggers shame buttons.

Causes me to be nervous.

And makes coffee dates NO FUCKING FUN for them or me.

👉I find out what they are trying to accomplish and what is important to them.

(People LOVE to talk about that. Almost nobody asks, let alone CARES...and it's fun whether we go on a first date or not!)

👉I usually research this beforehand. (This is my big "secret.")

30 minutes of research is usually enough they are blown away by what I know about them and their goals.

It’s usually out there for all the world to see on their social, website, books, YT, etc…

I don't do ANYTHING jenius, I'm not a jenius level researcher.

I just DO SOME due diligence like any INVESTOR would do.

After some small chit-chat where I usually reveal some dumb or boring ass shit in my life to make them feel comfortable..."It was the 4th of July, but my wife and I didn't do a darn thing, but hang out in the pool and talk. Good news is I didn't blow off any of my fingers. Did you do anything more exciting than me? I don't make it hard!"

I open.

BECAUSE I am an investor and have done some research...

It may sound like…

“So, please correct me if I have this totally wrong, but it seems you’re super focused on helping new folks get started in land investing. You’re different because you don’t start people out mailing 1000s of letters like everyone else. You’ve figured out how they can get their feet wet and see if land investing is for them before investing thousands of dollars in stamps and a risky big piece of property?”

And then after their head explodes…

They respond.

I then go deeper into their response.

“What is important about that to you?”

I am finding out more about them as a person not so much to build rapport but to figure out if I want to invest with them and what goal we should have in common.

Then I will move to how they are accomplishing their goal now…

For my personal investing preference…

Around the programs they have and how they are filling them NOW.

What open capacity do they have and what the open capacity is costs them in TIMER. (Time, Identity, Money, Energy, Reputation.)

I am also focused on buyers and buyer flow…and ask direct questions about that.

I don't pretty foot around with it.

If I am looking for a 3 bedroom 2 bath home.

I ask them, "How many bedrooms? How many bathrooms?"

Not hard, right?

How many new land investors are going into program x every month?

How many graduate to program Y?

How many have gone thru program x in the past?

How many are in program Y currently?

👉How many more could you handle?

Oh, 100 more?

At $10,000 each?

That’s $1,000,000 in open capacity?

How are you trying to fill that now?

How else?

(Almost 50% of the time or more…they are not doing ANYTHING at ALL with their buyer's list of X who haven’t bought Y.)

I see.

You are doing amazing.

There are literally 101 things successful biz peeps can do to make their biz even more successful, but who has the time?

Plus, you likely want to help more new land investors than figure out marketing stuff.

👉 What happens after someone buys Y? Do you offer them Z? What does that look like?

(Get them to go into detail.)

You’ll usually get…a limited attempt or a reason why they haven’t approached the buyer's list.

(Encourage details.)

👉 It’s super important we don’t trigger shame and start “shoulding” all over them…

“So you’ve got 10,000 buyers of Y and 100 open spots on Z…you largely haven’t marketed to your buyer's list because you don’t have a phone sales team, you don’t want to do the calls and you’d rather poke your own eye’s out than try to manage a sales team which would only take you away from helping folks succeed at land investing?”

Pause.

They usually agree and feel like someone finally gets them! And they will often give more details.

Then AFTER that, I say…

👉👉👉“Well, I’ve got an idea. We’ve got to get more folks in your Z program. The land investor community needs the help only you can give them.

What if I hired, trained and managed a virtual salesperson, paid a copywriter to drive leads from your buyer's list to the salesperson? I fund and pay for every last dime of expenses. All you need to do is service your clients and pay me a percentage after the funds are in your bank account. I know there are details we’d need to work out, but would you be GENERALLY open to that?”

If they are open…

And they almost always are IF I make that offer…and often I DON’T…

Then we go into details…

(Depending on my and their energy level and chemistry, I may say, "Okay. I'm not a microwave thinker. If you put a roast in my crock pot, it will get done, but I need some cooking time:-) Would it be okay with you if I put this roast in my crock pot and then we could meet again next week and I'll dish out what I've got cookin' up and we can decide if we want to move forward or not?")

I start out with we will just run a TEST first.

Then I discuss our shared goals, how I want to approach this as a partnership, and how the percentage would work.

"I believe ultimately we need to fill the 100 spots if possible. Every spot we don't fill is someone who is going to possibly spend tens of thousands of dollars they don't need to. We will run the test first and get data to avoid guessing.

I want to approach this as a partnership. We want to fill these spots and also build a new income stream for you as large as we can. The worst thing I could do to you is ask for a percentage that's too small because it doesn't incentivize me to grow the income stream. I'm sure you'd much rather have 50% of a million than 80% of $100,000. With that said, the 2nd worst thing I could do to you is take a piece too big because that doesn't leave incentive for you to grow the income stream."

(LONG PAUSE!)

Often they will propose going halves.

OR they will talk about their COGS (cost of goods sold)...

Sometimes...

If they propose HALF and I don't need half to make my numbers work...

I LOWER my percentage.

"I appreciate that. Because of your reputation, your list size and your offer I can make this work for less. Let's do it where you get 60% and my end will be 40.)

***The percentages will change depending on the deal. The important thing is to NOT get hyper focused on any one NUMBER and to keep the BIG PICTURE in mind for BOTH sides. If they are a SAAS and have 20,000 new customers a month and a 950,000-person buyers list...you may not need anywhere near 50% to make the numbers work.

After we agree to the percentages...

I share how I am not looking for a "boss" and how I work.

"I work independently. I must have access to your _________CRM/autoresponder. Is that going to be something that stops us?"

"I will protect you and your company's image. It's understandable if you want to review the copy in our test phase and ensure it's aligned with your image. If you need to keep looking at every piece of copy before we send it forever...I understand, but it won't be a fit for me. Do you see any issues here?"

Great.

"Are there any other partners or someone else who will have issues with the points we discussed?"

Alright.

"So no ex-wives? Partners or anybody who will want to have us say things a certain way or not like the cut of my jib?"

Okay. (Here comes the "close.")

👉👉👉"Well, I've done everything possible to talk you out of it! :-) It's Friday, why don't we sleep on it over the weekend? If I don't hear that you've changed your mind by Tuesday, I will go ahead and write up a little agreement and then after you okay it....I can shoot over the next steps which would be getting together for an offer call and setting up dates for our test. Does that work for you?"

Remember...

At any time...

You can say, "I don't think I can help you."

or...

"Let me chew on this and get back to you."

or...

"Let me run this by my partners and see if they've got an idea." (And post in Ronin with as many details as you can!)

👉👉👉With a wee bit of practice + Your investor stance = Fun Coffee Dates and lotsa deals

Anything new is often uncomfortable at first.

But remind yourself often, we are the ones WRITING THE CHECKS and being the CHOOSER!

I hope this helps…

The convo would be similar but different if a Ronin wants to invest in an Audience Multiplier Campaign or other hand they can bring one card to for a royal flush.

Rooting For Ya,

Travis

PS I aim to put this post in a doc where we can refer back to it. The doc will be way more useful if you post your questions and/or comments below, purty please! 😁

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