I recently attended the 2017 Payments Conference put on by the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA). This is a gathering of all of the stakeholders in the payments biz and generally is a great big meet and greet for those of us who have spent decades in payments. One of the highlights of this year’s conference was a short conversation I had with Pete Yetrakis.
Pete is retired (in fact, his name badge identified his company affiliation as a marina in Northern California …) but, was back to meet old friends. As we chatted, Pete reminded me of the 1991 NACHA conference and the bottle of champagne.
Oh yes, I remembered! That year was my first Payments Conference and a company I founded, Goldleaf, was making its inaugural appearance. In future years, Goldleaf would be a primary vendor with our logo plastered everywhere, but in 1991, we were a mule running in the Kentucky Derby. We were surrounded by big booths with amazing graphics and fancy furniture. Then there was the Goldleaf booth, with a single 6 foot folding table, with a plain drape on it and a cheaply made vinyl banner. We were wide-eyed rookie software developers who knew nobody and had no appointments.
We quickly learned that having a reason for someone to stop in our booths is a smart idea, and since the conference was in San Francisco, we availed ourselves of some Ghiradelli chocolates with a bright gold foil wrapper. The gold matched up nicely to our gold logo and we started getting some people to stop and engage. But, we were still learning the ropes and figuring out who were the movers and shakers in the industry. Listening and learning paid off in valuable ways in the years following this inaugural conference. For example, we struck up some good conversations with different representatives from the Federal Reserve Bank and learned about the valuable role that the Fed was providing to small community institutions in processing ACH transactions. As those small institutions were our target market, we subsequently started visiting with the local Fed office when we traveled and started training them on how FIs should process inbound and outbound ACH files.
By the penultimate day of the conference, we had figured out that there were about 3-dozen regional payment associations who held great influence over the FIs in their geographic area. While these associations would not endorse a product, they were providing education and advising their member institutions about products including ACH processing software. And they were the ones who decided who would exhibit and speak at their conferences, so they were extremely important people to get to know.
As we continued to ask questions and learn, we discovered that there were four association CEOs who were considered the top tier of the association executives. Not because their associations were the biggest, although some were amongst the largest, these four had influence with NACHA and commanded respect amongst their peers. And they were super busy, with lots of people who wanted to meet with them, chat with them, and there never seemed to be a good way to connect with any of them. We were too new, with no track record, nothing to suggest the breadth of influence that Goldleaf would eventually command in the industry (there is nothing in a caterpillar that suggests the butterfly …).
That night, there was no conference activity or dinner. I gathered my small contingent and headed down to the piers to find some seafood. As we were eating our meal and chatting about the conference, in walked the four BMOC association executives and they sat down a few tables away. None of them recognized us, why would they? I was thinking about going up and introducing myself, but was struggling to find the appropriate time. When we got up to leave made the most sense, but that didn’t really seem all that memorable. Plus to leave any real impression, I would need to chat with them for a couple of minutes and I didn’t feel that interrupting them in the middle of their meal would be appropriate.
Right before we got up to leave, I noticed that the four executives had a bottle of wine, but it was nearly out. I called our waiter over and asked him to bring me a wine list. I was searching for the same wine they already had when I saw it. Dom Pérignon, a very nice champagne. It was $250 for a bottle (remember, this was 1991, that would be like buying a $475 bottle of wine today …). I told the waiter to bring that bottle to the table where the four executives were seated.
We lingered to see what would happen. It was just like in the movies, where the waiter brings the bottle, they are asking where this came from and the waiter turns and points to you. You could tell they really had no idea who we were, but said thanks and accepted the bottle.
15 minutes later, we got up and as we were walking out I went up and introduced myself to these four executives. I briefly talked about Goldleaf and what we were attempting to do for community FIs and then said that I would not interrupt their dinner any further, I just wanted to say hello.
They were effusive in their thanks for the bottle of champagne and I said something like, “We have learned about the high quality of service your organizations provide for your members and we share that sentiment so I wanted you to have a high quality of champagne in recognition of all you have accomplished.” I thought I was the Great Gatsby.
The next day was just a half-day to wrap up the conference and the exhibit hall was already shut down. We were there to attend some classes and learn more about the ACH industry. During that morning, I ran into each of those four executives over the course of attending classes and again, they were going on and on about the champagne. Better, I was in a class and introduced myself to the person sitting next to me, who turned out to be another association executive. When they learned who I was, they said, “Oh, you’re the guy who sent the champagne.” It was already going viral.
Over the years, we enjoyed a great working relationship with those four associations and many others. Our visibility as a company rose fast, for many reasons, but not the least of which was our efforts to find out who the movers and shakers of the ACH industry were (ie: regional associations and the Federal Reserve) and consistently provide services and resources to those organizations without regard for what we would get in return. Invariably, what we did get was way more valuable for us than anything we might have formally tried to structure from a reseller standpoint.
Say you are starting out in a new industry and have an opportunity to attend a big conference or industry meeting. Do some homework on who are the movers and shakers (a lot easier today thanks to Google …) and see if you can make a memorable impression. Find something that you can provide to a potential contact, something that would add value to them or to their business. It’s very much like trying to attract a mentor, you have to be mentor-able.
Same thinking applies here – don’t go up and say, “Here’s who I am and here’s how you can help me.” You provide value first and let a relationship develop. Be in it for the long haul, you might need several opportunities to impress before landing a big relationship. But, don’t be afraid to invest in a nice bottle of Dom Perignon if the situation warrants …