Automated: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.

Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.

Eric Siu: And today, we are going to talk about how you could get more money out of rich people. Neil, what do you think?

Neil Patel: Have you ever raised money from other rich people?

Eric Siu: Not in the traditional sense.

Neil Patel: What do you mean not in the traditional sense?

Eric Siu: Not like any venture funding or anything like that.

Neil Patel: But you've had people offer money?

Eric Siu: Yes.

Neil Patel: Okay, how did you get money out of them?

Eric Siu: Well, by seeing what drives and seeing what their need, seeing what their challenges are.

Neil Patel: And how did you meet those people?

Eric Siu: Could be through networking, events, typical sales.

Neil Patel: Did you hit them up right away once you got to know them?

Eric Siu: No.

Neil Patel: How long did you wait before you hit them up for money?

Eric Siu: Probably a couple of months into it.

Neil Patel: That's the biggest thing that people get wrong. They believe just because someone has money, that you can just hit them up from day-1 and then go ask them for money. Rich people already have enough money. Yes, do they want to make more? Sure, but if they don't make it, it's not like their life is over. They're already rich. They typically invest in projects that they're passionate about, people that they know, and people that they love.
So, you have to network and get to know these people before you ask for money. The same even goes to venture capitalists. I know that's not the most common way to raise money, right? A lot of people are just hitting up their friends or family, but you can't expect to get money without networking and getting to know people first.
And ideally even, asking them for help. I mean not asking for help, more so giving them help, asking them what they need help on. But building up that relationship, showing your value, showing how you're growing as an entrepreneur, as an individual, they're much more likely to give you money later on.

Eric Siu: Yeah, think about it this way. I mean, everyone has problems. When you go to somebody who's like, "What challenges are you facing right now?" Nobody's going to say, "I'm not facing anything," but what you don't want to say, what I learned is, what issues are you facing because nobody wants to know that they have issues. So, what challenges are you facing or what's keeping you up at night, that's a good way to get a conversation going with these people.
Here's the thing. Neil's talked about in the past that when you're trying to get someone to buy from you, it's multiple touchpoints. It's not just one. You're not going to get them to buy on the first shot, just like you're not going to get to marry someone on the first shot. It takes time, so multiple touchpoints.
This is why when I think about doing this podcast, or the other podcast, or all the content, or speaking at things, or networking, or like events, they're all multiple touchpoints. You never know when people are ready to pull the trigger, but you can be damn sure that when you have multiple touchpoints, when you're top of mind, the first person they're going to think of is you, and that's how ... Well, as long as you're targeting the right people, you're putting content in the right places, the rich people are going to continue to see you over time and they're going to think of you.

Neil Patel: Yeah, and getting money out of people isn't necessarily always for investment. A lot of times, you're trying to get money out of rich people and have them become your client. A lot of these guys own companies or a lot of these women own companies, and if you can convince them to write you a check, you're going to do better.
Eric, you have a client called Nextiva and it was founded by the guys who created iPowerWeb or Endurance International. They made money on the previous company. I think Endurance is a multihundred or multibillion-dollar company, something like that. And the founder you deal with, he's rich.

Eric Siu: Yeah.

Neil Patel: And he's one of your clients.

Eric Siu: Yeah.

Neil Patel: How did you first pitch him and get money out of him?

Eric Siu: I didn't pitch him at all. So, here's what happened. He reached out to me, and this email is actually buried. So, it was he reached out because he listened to the Growth Everywhere podcast and he was throwing that for his conference, and he reached out and he said, "Hey, I would love to have you speak."
So, when I looked into it and I saw on the conference ... Because I was like, "I don't even know this guy. Like I don't know what Nextiva is." I looked at the website and I actually saw that Steve Wozniak was speaking there. I was like, "Oh, this is legit." So then, I was like, "Okay, fine. I'll come speak," and then he took care of everything. Got to meet him in person, and then we developed a relationship, and then he came to me and asked if we could help. I never ever pitched him once.
Here's the thing. When I go these conferences and I talk to people, I never really talk, but they just say, "Oh, we'd love to help you, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh." Never ever. They just naturally bring it up on their own.

Neil Patel: Yes, and this is a unique situation because Eric got hit up by him first. Sometimes, you're going to hit other people up and just try to help them, but the key is he built a relationship before he started pitching. You don't want to pitch people without building a relationship first. Anyone who's successful and has a business that's doing well, they're much more likely to pay someone that they know, or trust, or got to know over time than a random stranger.

Eric Siu: Yeah. So, in the last episode, and actually we've done some other episodes, the one about age-old sales principles that work, I think that was an episode or two episodes ago, I recommend checking that one out because those principles basically apply to this.
At the end of the day, when I think about ... I was actually thinking about this the other day. It's like, man, when you think about playing at higher levels, it just about the relationships that you have. It's not really how good you are and that kind of stuff, but you just keep building these relationships and they compound over time, just like compound interest and great things happen at the end of the day.
Neil, anything else?

Neil Patel: That's it. Thank you guys for listening. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow, and of course, for our daily marketing giveaway, go to singlegrain.com/giveaway.

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