In this Edition of Relationship Marketing Weekly, I had the pleasure of interviewing International Best Selling Author and Network Marketing professional, Jordan Adler. Jordan explains how he has a 100% success rate getting appointments. Jordan will also discuss how at a very young age, reading books by sales legends Joe Girard, Tom Hopkins and Harvey Mackay influenced his life on the importance of developing a strong network and the power of a handwritten note. Jordan will give you his proven step by step relationship marketing strategy.
Kody Bateman: Hey, everybody! This is Kody Bateman. Welcome to out or Relationship Marketing Weekly Show. It’s 1:00 straight up here in sunny Salt Lake City, Utah, really excited for our show today and the guest that we have today. If you’re just tuning in just say hi to us. People are already tuning in from all over the world. We have people tuning in from Canada, all over the United States, Singapore. Looks like we’ve got a couple of other places as well. So, just say hi to us as you’re coming in and we’re going to go ahead and get started. We have an action-packed show available for you today. We’re very, very excited for this guest.
This guy today, he is– he is the epitome of a Master Relationship Marketer. I mean he’s probably one of the best of the best as far as implementing a relationship marketing tools into his business. We have the one and only Mr. Jordan Adler, he is the bestselling author of Beach Money. And, he’s also coming out with the sequel of the Beach Money called Better Than Beach Money. We’ll talk about that a little bit later today. He is a master network marketer and he is in the top income earners of all network marketing people through– throughout the entire industries, featured all over the world as a network marketing expert trainer. And, he’s just the master marketer, a master at sales. Please welcome Mr. Jordan Adler. Welcome to the show, Jordan.
Jordan Adler: Thanks, Kody. How are you doing? Nice to see you.
Kody Bateman: Yeah, it’s great to see you. Looks like you’re in your place down there in Las Vegas and…
Jordan Adler: I’m in Las Vegas today.
Kody Bateman: …excited– excited to have you with us. We want to jump right in, Jordan. We got so much to cover here. We got to do it pretty quickly. First of all, for those listening in, a lot of people know who you are and exactly what you do but we have a lot of guests who may not know who you are. So, can you just tell us– just tell us what you do, just you’re a network marketer and you’re an author and you’re a trainer. But, just kind of give everybody an overview of what you do.
Jordan Adler: Yeah, I’ve been– I’ve been an active network marketer since about 1981 but started having a successive professional in the ‘90s. and, I’ve been a full-time network marketer now for about, I don’t know, I’ve– maybe 17, 18 years, maybe in that range, it might even be more than that. I haven’t actually calculated it. But, I wrote a book back in 2008 that became a best seller and actually in the process of writing my second book. So, I’m an author and a network marketer. That’s what I do for a living, that’s my career.
Kody Bateman: So, I know that network marketers don’t like to refer to themselves as salespeople but the reality is they’re salespeople, is that right? [Laughter]
Jordan Adler: Sure. I mean we– we ask questions to uncover people’s needs and then we show them how, whatever it is that we offer can help fulfill their needs, whatever that is whether it’s to take advantage of a product or a service or possibly an income opportunity. So, that’s just what we do. So it’s really about– it’s the same regardless of whatever sales profession you choose.
Kody Bateman: Exactly. So, so I make sure that everybody listening in kind of understands, now you definitely are in the sales and presentation business. And, everybody wants to know, you know, how successful people regardless of what industry you’re in, you know, how successful people become successful. What are the things you talk a lot about, Jordan is growing up, you had auth– I call them “Author Mentors” they are authors you read books– you had author mentors that taught you to value of having a strong network. I think people need to hear that story because that’s kind of where your philosophy came from. Can you share that with us?
Jordan Adler: Sure. You know, I am– I read a book, probably in the ‘90s I’m guessing called, Swim With The Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive by Harvey Mackay. And I remember– the one thing I remember from that book is he talked about the value of a network. And he said, “If you want to predict the future of someone’s income, look at the size of their Rolodex.” And so, I went out and bought a Rolodex and started going places where people had business cards and I collected business cards and put them in the Rolodex and do my very best to stay in touch with them and look for ways that I could add value to their lives. And, I did that for years.
So, in fact, I– I meant to have a stack of business cards here because everywhere– every– all the places that I have– I live I a couple of different places and I got stacks of business cards because what I do is I go places where people have business cards and I asked them for their business card. That was one of the books with Swim With The Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive. Another one was Joe Girard’s book, How To Sell Anything To Anyone. It was in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the top car salesman in the world. And, he talked about you know, networking and getting people’s business cards and handwriting nice-to-meet-you notes and those kinds of things. And I remember he had a huge impact on my career as did Tom Hopkins’ How To Master The Art of Selling.
And, he actually talked about the value of the network, “Your network is your most valuable asset.” And so that was heavily anchored in my mind from a pretty young age. And so as I grew in my career and got more and more involved in sales and network marketing, I started to really place attention on the importance of building your network, building your contacts and doing your very best to stay in touch with those people as well as make sure that you look for ways that you can add value to their lives.
Kody Bateman: So, we may have some millennials listening in don’t know what a Rolodex is. You know let’s back in the olden days where everything was on paper and I miss my Rolodex actually. I love having that great, big thing with a ton of business cards in it. So, in 2004, you introduced to a system where you started putting those business cards into an online system. And so your Rolodex kind of turned into a contact manager that’s managed online. And that– tell us a little bit about it. Because that– when you first– was introduced to that system, there’s– the first thing you did I think is a really cool story. Can you share that with us?
Jordan Adler: Yeah, a contact manager is just an electronic Rolodex. And the beauty of it is that it’s ever expandable. I mean it– you can add as many contacts to it as you want. And so– but what I’ve also found is that in today’s high tech world, most electronic Rolodex as your contact managers are not very useable. They really don’t provide a lot of value. People put their contacts into them but they kind of get– they kind of get lost in cyberspace. And so lost in cyberspace, I kind of like that.
Kody Bateman: That’s good.
Jordan Adler: Yeah. So, I was introduced to a system back in 2004 and it allowed you to send cards through the mail from the computer and I had– like I said, I had stacks and stacks of business cards. I have thousands of business cards that I collected over the years. And for quite a few years, I wasn’t doing anything with those cards, they were just stacking up. So when I saw this system, I started putting the contacts into the system. I– taking each business card and literally entering them into the system and while they were in there, I would send them a card in the mail, a physical greeting card from the system in the mail just to reconnect. So I would say something like you know, “I haven’t talked to you in a while. I sure would like to get caught up. Hope you’re doing great. Why don’t you give me a call sometime?” and I put my phone number in there and my picture in the card.
And I sent in my first week, I put 350 people into my contact manager and send out 350 cards. And I started using this the week before New Year’s in 2005–New Year’s 2004 right before 2005, I started using it. And so I sent out a bunch of Holiday cards as well. I missed the Christmas Holiday. I did get a bunch of cards out for the New Year’s Holiday. So I sent out a bunch of cards and lo and behold four days later, my phone was ringing with people that I hadn’t talked to in a long time, they just wanted to reconnect.
Kody Bateman: Well it’s in– it’s interesting how often do people receive a greeting card in the mail? I mean it’s such an unusual thing. And I think a lot of people underestimate the power of that. All of a sudden out of the blue and you sent all these cards out. The receiver of those cards, it’s very unexpected and the greeting card is cool, it’s nice. You say nice things to them on the card and it does initiate a phone call typically. And so, it’s kind of really cool and you kind of spring boarded the new business that you got in to based on nourishing your network like you talk–
Jordan Adler: Yeah. And you say, Kody, people really do under– underestimate the power of it. I mean I walked into my state farm insurance agent’s office and walked in and what I– the first thing I noticed on his bookshelves were the six cards, approximately six cards that I’ve been sending them over the past couple of years. they– he had them displayed up on his shelf. And so, you know every time he walks by those cards, he thinks of me. Same thing, I walked into my publisher’s office and he– I’d sent him a card about five years ago, he had moved two times and the card that I’ve sent him was sitting on his desk. And he’d moved two times. And the reason he had that card on his desk is because it was important to him. It had a picture of his family on the front. And I walked in and he thanked me. I hadn’t been in his office in a long time, he thanked me for the card that I sent him five years ago.
Kody Bateman: And so, so that story you just told, that does not happen on Facebook?
Jordan Adler: No.
Kody Bateman: Do you know what I mean? I mean it’s like– some of the questions I want to ask you is you’re big in– on Facebook too. I mean you reach out to people on Facebook and you post on their walls, you do all that kinds of stuff that people tell you they do in social media, you’re really good at that too. But what’s the difference between that and what you’re talking about, that physical card in the mail?
Jordan Adler: Again, those– those photos get lost in cyberspace. They’re– they are out there but people, I mean they just kind of disappear on the wall after a very short period of time. Whereas, when you send somebody something physical in the mail and you can do it as easy for– as sending it right from your– from your phone, from your Smartphone or from your computer. When you do that, that card, if it’s done effectively which we’ll talk about is something that people will cherish. And for a number of different reasons and so they remember it. Something different. And today’s high tech world, you know, people, they are so immersed in the electronic stuff that when a card comes in the mail, it’s something special. And especially if there’s a gift attached to it.
It’s special and people remember you. They do business– people will do business with you as a salesperson or a network marketer. People will do business with you because they like you, they trust you. but there’s one that everybody always forgets, they have to remember you. You know I didn’t have– for example, Kody, I have never had a need for a security alarm system and I probably had met 25 security alarm system people in my life and I couldn’t tell you the name of one of them. So when somebody finally broke into my home in the mountains, I needed a security alarm system. If the guy had sent me a couple of cards, one guy of the 25, I would have called that person. But now, for the past eight or so years, I– somebody’s been receiving a residual check from the under security alarm system as a result of a search that I did on the Internet.
Kody Bateman: Wow.
Jordan Adler: You know if I had remembered one of them but– so they– people will do business with you because they like you, they trust you and they remember you. and the best way I know to get someone to remember you is send then two or three cards a year just tell them you’re thinking about.
Kody Bateman: OK. So obviously, greeting cards is your primary marketing in sales tool. I mean you use it– you used greeting cards in a lot of unique ways, you have a simple system that you can trigger it right from your Smartphone and you can do a lot of really cool things very easily. You have what you call “Card trigger points” greeting card trigger points that you– that you live by basically. And these are really cool. I hope people will get– you get out your pen and paper and listen to the Jordan’s card trigger points that he uses. Can you show that with us?
Jordan Adler: Yes. So, I’ve been sending cards now for about 13 years. I’ve sent out about 70,000 cards and I look for reasons to send people cards. Most– I would say, nine– somewhere in the range of 99% of all my business’s referral only. And the reason for that is because I’ve got 4,300 people in my contact manager over the past 13 years and I send them cards on a regular basis. Those people received card– at least, all of them received at least a couple of cards a year from me. So when they’re ready, they call me. I don’t need to call them. They call me. one of the things I do is when I take a vacation, I’ll take pictures from my iPhone from the vacation, I’ll just put them on the card and I’ll just say, “Having a great time in Bora Bora!” and I’ll send that to a bunch of people.
Kody Bateman: I’ve received some of those from you. Those are cool!
Jordan Adler: Yeah. I’ll send this to two or 300 people with some pictures from our vacation on a card. That’s one example. Another thing I do is I look for events on Facebook from my friends that they’re celebrating. For example, they got a new puppy or grandma just turned 100 or for example, example, Ricky going away from my friend and got married and so I took pictures from his Facebook wall which he doesn’t have the physical pictures and I just put them on a card and I mailed it to him.
And I do that, I look on a daily basis. I scan Facebook and it’s as easy as saving the picture from Facebook onto your phone and then uploading it onto the card and then literally selecting the contact and getting sent. You can type in any message that you want. Another example, promoting my book. When my first book came out, when my audiobook came out, I created a card with the CD on the front. This was an older card but I sent this card out to let people know that the audiobook was coming out. And then with my new book coming out, Be– Better Than Beach Money, I did a little announcement card with the covers on the front and the back of the book– on the back of the book and a little note inside the book that just tells everybody why I’m– why I’m writing the book and what it’s about and where they can order it on pre-order.
So I used cards in a lot of different ways. One– one more example, this is one that I love, Kody, is I like sending out random cards. So I send probably five of these a week, two to five a week, sometimes more. This is a “Random acts of coffee” and this is just from the card catalog, it’s a little coffee stain. And on the front, it says, “Given enough coffee, I could rule the world” and then inside the card, it just says, “I believe in random acts of coffee.” And then I have a $10.00 Starbucks card there.
Kody Bateman: Great!
Jordan Adler: And I’ll just send this to people that I’ve met randomly. And so somebody that I’ve met and I’ve shaken their hand and I’ve– nice-to-meet-you card, maybe three or four months later, they got this card from me that says. “I believe in random acts of coffee” with a $10.00 Starbucks card. And what does that do? That creates something called the law or reciprocity. And the law of reciprocity means when you– when people do nice things for you, you tend to want to do nice things for them. So I look for reasons to do nice things for people on a daily basis. And then when I’m ready to get an appointment, and I– it’s a slam dunk! It’s 100%. So I get 100% of the appointments that I request because I do stuff like this. So once– when I contact somebody and I– I send them a text message and say, “I want to get together,” they always say yes.
Kody Bateman: Wow, that’s incredible, very, very powerful stuff. I noted the system that you used also allows you to create groups of people and you do– you do a lot in sending cards to specific groups of people that I think is very intriguing that everybody listening could really learn from. Can you just walk us through a little bit of what you do there?
Jordan Adler: Sure. So when I put a contact into my contact management system, I also usually will put them into a group. So it might be a prospect. It might go into a prospect group. It can go in multiple groups. If I speak at a networking event, maybe there are 25 people there, I’ll get business cards, I’ll go home and put those into my home office and I’ll put those contacts into my contact manager in that group with the name of the networking group. And then I can send all of them a card at the same time. I can send all of them a nice-to-meet-you card.
And then I’ll also send the card that they’re– if they all work out at the same office like if I’m going to speak in an office and let’s say there are 15 people there, I will put them individually into my contact manager and put them in a group with the name of that office on it. But then I’ll also send the card to the office. Usually, I’ll take a group picture on there and I’ll send the card to the office along with a nice wooden crate full of brownies and cookies that they– and popcorn that they can all share within the office.
And yeah, I have to invest a little money in doing that. It’s not a lot but it’s money and I do that. But you know what, it pays, it comes back multiple times because of the relationships that I’m building with all of those people. And the referrals that I get constantly every day, referrals from people that are interested.
Kody Bateman: So, I think when people listen to these stories, a lot of times what I hear from our listeners is they get a little bit intimidated by hearing you say, “I’ve sent 70,000 cards” “I do all of these different types of card sending” and people get this idea that you have spent all of your time sending cards every day. Can you just share this, I mean because when you break it down, it’s really not much how– how much time do you spend a day on this? And on average, how many cards a day?
Jordan Adler: Average, 3 to 10 cards a day. Most of them are from my phone, on the run. Standing in the line at the bank or waiting for a flight or even sitting in a parking lot, before I leave the parking lot. So, I do that in seconds. But last night, I came home and I had three business cards that I collected from this Jet Show that I was at and I had taken some pictures and I sat on my couch and I sent out three cards that probably took me 15 minutes. I sent out three cards and gifts to people that I had met at the Jet Show and I have their business card and took pictures.
So I put those pictures on the cards and send them a nice-to-meet-you card. [Laughter] This is crazy, Kody. My Uber driver, taken me from the convention center back here at the Mandarin Oriental. We were driving and it turns out he’s a realtor and the more we talked, we found out we knew each other.
Kody Bateman: Wow.
Jordan Adler: It was like, I had his business card and I send him– I took a picture with him, a selfie and I sent him a card last night saying, “Great to run into you. Let’s get together for coffee!”
Kody Bateman: Well, I tell you, Jordan, I wish we had more time because you know there’s so much information. We appreciate you sharing all of the little tidbits, the card trigger points, all the things that you shared with us today. Again, I hope you all took good notes because these are great, great things that you can do to create success in your life the way Jordan has. He uses this system called SendOutCards and those who might be interested in that just get back with the person who shared this show with you on Facebook and ask him more about it. Because I tell you, this– this is a great system to use.
At the end of the day, we’re just trying to teach people how to be nice to each other. That’s really what we do and it’s an exciting thing. The world needs it. The worlds need to come together right now and we have a great system to help you do that. You would be interested to know Jordan or maybe you could help me talk a little bit about next week’s show. We’re going to have Dr. Ivan Misner, he is the founder of BNI. He is going to be my guest on the show next week. I know you know Dr. Misner really well and maybe you could just share with everybody why they need to be here next week.
Jordan Adler: You know Dr.Ivan Misner has built the largest private networking organization in the world with somewhere in the range– I don’t– they’ve got hundreds of thousands of members all around the world and they are business networking organization with chapters, many, many chapters and he– he loves just teaching people how to build relationships and how to network. And his philosophy and training is invaluable and so I recommend being on the show. It’s an amazing show.
Kody Bateman: Well, thanks again, Jordan. We appreciate you. Thank you, all of you for tuning in. we will see you next Wednesday, 1:00 Utah time. And everybody have a wonderful day. Take care now.
Jordan Adler: Thanks, Kody. Bye-bye.
