How the brain is wired is an emerging science. What we learned in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s no longer applies. Research has shown that the brain has a hub and spoke model and is very elastic and flexible. This is the way that the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument views the brain and explains how we communicate. The four hubs of how the brain operates act in opposing pairs. Analytical/Blue thinking is all about logic, running the number, and making sure everything makes sense. The opposite hub is Relational/Red. That’s where you think about others and the people on your team and is more emotive. The other pair is Experimental/Yellow and Practical/Green. When we think experimentally, we think in big visions and very intuitively. Practical thinking is about coming up with the details of getting something done. When you put the stats together, 95% of people have more than one strong preference. The vast majority of people have two, three, or all four ways of thinking. Avoid the trap of communicating in the way you would purchase something because you aren’t going to connect with them as well as you could if you can flex into their way of communicating. Listen for the clues and identify what the other side prioritizes, then adapt your communication to that.     Mentioned in this Episode: Karim Nehdi on Whole Brain Business Development – What You Need To Succeed - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-relationships-real-revenue-video-edition/id1504330338?i=1000528586505

Mo Bunnell breaks down the perfect buy-in process and how you can create a magnetic and enjoyable buying process that clients love. Learn about the key components of a successful buy-in process, the four big “yeses” you need to get to make closing deals easier, how to use curiosity as a purchasing accelerator, and how to make it 34 times more likely your prospect will say yes.   Closing Deals by Understanding the Major Steps of the Perfect Buy-in Process There is an optimal order for how we like to buy. Step one is listening and learning. Break the ice, then quickly flip the conversation to the other person. As a buyer, you want to feel heard, and like the person on the other side of the table, understand the unique needs in your situation. You want to avoid beginning by talking about yourself because that triggers the fight-or-flight response most people have when being sold to. Step two is create curiosity. Find a way to be helpful that creates curiosity around going deeper. Step three is build everything together. People buy into what they help create. Talk about the basic steps of what it would be like were they to hire you to solve their problem. By engaging them in the process of solving their problem, you get the advantage of incremental buy-in. If you create a proposal without the prospect's feedback, the only feedback they can give you is negative. Step four is gain approval and get the final yes to the project. You want to avoid selling and skipping straight to yourself and your presentation. If you can construct a buying experience that starts with the other side, you will have far more success.   Why Listening and Learning is Key for Closing Deals There is a triple-win when asking good questions. A person’s pleasure center in the brain lights up when people offer self-disclosing information. You learn your prospect’s priorities in their words. This would be impossible if you didn’t begin by listening to them talk. Sharing self-disclosed information is highly correlated to likeability. Asking great questions gives the other person more opportunity to talk. Great questions could look like: “If you could wave a magic wand and change your organization, what kinds of changes would happen?,” ”If one of your metrics could meaningfully move, which would it be?,” or ”If you could have a broken process fixed, what would the outcome look like?” Well-designed questions give the other person the opportunity to share something that only they know. With the bulk of your conversations, your prospect or client should be doing most of the talking.   Closing Deals is Easier When Creating Curiosity Through the Perfect Buy-in Process Curiosity is an intrinsic motivator. You should try to create curiosity for your services as soon as you can in a conversation. People are highly motivated to experience curiosity and it’s one of the key elements of a great buy-in process. Consider your favorite serialized show. It probably ends each episode with an irresistible cliffhanger. This is a great metaphor for what you can do within and between meetings. At the end of your next meeting, talk about the impacts of the next step and how you can’t wait to go over the results. If you move too quickly, you squash curiosity. You want things unresolved to give people something to look forward to in the next meeting. Think about what you can leave unresolved at the end of your next meeting.   Why You Need the Four Key Incremental “Yeses” for Closing Deals Building a project with the prospect taps into the Ikea Effect; we buy into what we help create. Making incremental decisions and blending your ideas with a potential client allows you to arrive at the best solution to their problem. There are four incremental yeses you need to obtain to secure a project. The first is clarifying the outcome of the project and giving the prospect the opportunity to modify the goals. The second is getting agreement on the process timeline.. The third is the team. At what level does the client want to interact with your team? The fourth is all about the numbers. Understanding this element is the only way the prospect can finally understand the value of the outcome. Depending on the project, you can get those answered all in one meeting or conversation. Even in a really formal situation involving RFPs, there is usually opportunity to engage with the prospect. If you can make some of the building-things-together decisions simple, people will engage. We all want to add value, so give your prospect a way to engage with the work.   Speeding Up the Perfect Buy-in Process and Closing Deals Like a Champ The fastest way to get to the next step is to ask for it. A face-to-face ask is 34x more likely to get a yes than a request over email. The key point is being able to see each other, whether that’s in person or on Zoom. Make the ask in person and in a manner with which everybody wins. When things go wrong, or you hear an objection, you have to be flexible, act with grace, then ask a follow up question to pin down the issue. Keep asking questions until you are certain of the underlying issue. Once you know that with true specificity, that’s when you can address the issue. There are four major objections that people present: not seeing the return on investment, not believing the process is safe, not trusting the team, and failing to understand the strategic value at that moment. Almost everything will boil down to one of those four. Ask for next steps in person, if possible, and make sure you dig into any objections before jumping into a resolution. You’re in control of the process and how fast things go. You can create a buy-in process that is enjoyable and magnetic.     Mentioned in this Episode: teachthought.com/critical-thinking/the-cognitive-bias-codex-a-visual-of-180-cognitive-biases/ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361411/ The Snowball System by Mo Bunnell - amazon.com/Snowball-System-Business-Clients-Raving/dp/1610399609 wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/11-091.pdf hbr.org/2017/04/a-face-to-face-request-is-34-times-more-successful-than-an-email

The fastest way to get to the next step is to ask for it. A face-to-face ask is 34x more likely to get a yes than a request over email. The key point is being able to see each other, whether that’s in person or on Zoom. Make the ask in person and in a manner with which everybody wins. When things go wrong, or you hear an objection, you have to be flexible, act with grace, then ask a follow up question to pin down the issue. Keep asking questions until you are certain of the underlying issue. Once you know that with true specificity, that’s when you can address the issue. There are four major objections that people present: not seeing the return on investment, not believing the process is safe, not trusting the team, and failing to understand the strategic value at that moment. Almost everything will boil down to one of those four. Ask for next steps in person, if possible, and make sure you dig into any objections before jumping into a resolution. You’re in control of the process and how fast things go. You can create a buy-in process that is enjoyable and magnetic.     Mentioned in this Episode: hbr.org/2017/04/a-face-to-face-request-is-34-times-more-successful-than-an-email

Building a project with the prospect taps into the Ikea Effect; we buy into what we help create. Making incremental decisions and blending your ideas with a potential client allows you to arrive at the best solution to their problem. There are four incremental yeses you need to obtain to secure a project. The first is clarifying the outcome of the project and giving the prospect the opportunity to modify the goals. The second is getting agreement on the process timeline.. The third is the team. At what level does the client want to interact with your team? The fourth is all about the numbers. Understanding this element is the only way the prospect can finally understand the value of the outcome. Depending on the project, you can get those answered all in one meeting or conversation. Even in a really formal situation involving RFPs, there is usually opportunity to engage with the prospect. If you can make some of the building-things-together decisions simple, people will engage. We all want to add value, so give your prospect a way to engage with the work.     Mentioned in this Episode: hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/11-091.pdf

Curiosity is an intrinsic motivator. You should try to create curiosity for your services as soon as you can in a conversation. People are highly motivated to experience curiosity and it’s one of the key elements of a great buy-in process. Consider your favorite serialized show. It probably ends each episode with an irresistible cliffhanger. This is a great metaphor for what you can do within and between meetings. At the end of your next meeting, talk about the impacts of the next step and how you can’t wait to go over the results. If you move too quickly, you squash curiosity. You want things unresolved to give people something to look forward to in the next meeting. Think about what you can leave unresolved at the end of your next meeting.     Mentioned in this Episode: wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity

There is a triple-win when asking good questions. A person’s pleasure center in the brain lights up when people offer self-disclosing information. You learn your prospect’s priorities in their words. This would be impossible if you didn’t begin by listening to them talk. Sharing self-disclosed information is highly correlated to likeability. Asking great questions gives the other person more opportunity to talk. Great questions could look like: “If you could wave a magic wand and change your organization, what kinds of changes would happen?,” ”If one of your metrics could meaningfully move, which would it be?,” or ”If you could have a broken process fixed, what would the outcome look like?” Well-designed questions give the other person the opportunity to share something that only they know. With the bulk of your conversations, your prospect or client should be doing most of the talking.     Mentioned in this Episode: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361411/ The Snowball System by Mo Bunnell - amazon.com/Snowball-System-Business-Clients-Raving/dp/1610399609

There is an optimal order for how we like to buy. Step one is listening and learning. Break the ice, then quickly flip the conversation to the other person. As a buyer, you want to feel heard, and like the person on the other side of the table, understand the unique needs in your situation. You want to avoid beginning by talking about yourself because that triggers the fight-or-flight response most people have when being sold to. Step two is create curiosity. Find a way to be helpful that creates curiosity around going deeper. Step three is build everything together. People buy into what they help create. Talk about the basic steps of what it would be like were they to hire you to solve their problem. By engaging them in the process of solving their problem, you get the advantage of incremental buy-in. If you create a proposal without the prospect's feedback, the only feedback they can give you is negative. Step four is gain approval and get the final yes to the project. You want to avoid selling and skipping straight to yourself and your presentation. If you can construct a buying experience that starts with the other side, you will have far more success.     Mentioned in this Episode: teachthought.com/critical-thinking/the-cognitive-bias-codex-a-visual-of-180-cognitive-biases/

Mo explores the key business development mindset shifts that you need to make to become great at business development. Find out why business development skills are both learned and earned, how anyone can become great at business development, and how to stay motivated and driven to keep doing the work of building relationships the right way.   Business Development Mindset Is A Learnable Skill Dr. Kay Anders Ericsson spent over 30 years studying high-end expertise and discovered that every complex skill is both learned and earned. You can look at any expert and you would find decades of deliberate practice that got them to that level. No one is born with all the skills they need to be great at business development. Business development is a learnable skill that anyone can build on. If you take each individual lesson and apply them to your life, you will be successful. If someone tries to tell you that business development skills are not learnable or only for natural born conversationalists, they’re wrong. They just haven’t seen the research. If you want to be great at business development, break things down into bite- sized pieces. Break complex tasks down into individual pieces and practice each one as it comes.   Business Development Mindset Rule - You Don't Have To Be An Extrovert To Succeed Adam Grant did a study on salespeople and put them on a spectrum of introversion to extroversion. For most people they land right in the middle and end up being a mix of both introvert and extrovert, and most successful salespeople were exactly the same way. Ambiverts were the most successful at making sales, not extroverts like people assumed was the case. Full-on extroverts might actually have some disadvantages when it comes to making a sale. Their desire to be around people all the time may prevent them from following up effectively or being direct with someone when they need to challenge them. Extreme introverts likely just aren’t putting themselves around other people most of the time, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get energy from interacting with them or can’t be effective salespeople. The magic in sales and business development happens at the middle of the curve, where you can connect with people in the moment and follow up thoughtfully later. Luckily for most people, that’s where they fall. You don’t have to be extroverted to be successful at sales. Great business developers have a wonderful mix of being around people, getting energy from the interactions, asking great questions, and giving great ideas. They can also go back to their quiet surroundings and find ways to follow up thoughtfully.   Becoming Great At Anything By Creating a Business Development Mindset Every expertise, no matter the field, is both learned and earned. You can become great at anything if you break it down into little pieces and practice each piece. You may not become world-class or be able to play in the NBA, but you can certainly become very good at that particular skill, and the key is deliberate practice. By breaking down the big skill into smaller micro-skills and deliberately practicing those individually, you build your overall skill set. The second component of deliberate practice is having a mentor guide you along the path towards expertise. When it comes to business development, what kinds of attractive content can you create to get your name out there? What valuable thing do you have to offer the world that you can get out there and expose others to your way of thinking? Once you’ve got a system for generating content and attracting leads, it becomes a matter of turning those connections into one-to-one conversations. This is where the Give to Get comes in. Start solving client problems in a small, bite-sized way, and it can open the door to bigger opportunities. If you think you can’t do what someone else is doing, toss that out of your mind. Narrow what they do down to a specific skill that you can improve on and get to work. Don't worry about how you stack up with others. It doesn't matter. Focus on your own skills, always getting a little bit better all the time.   Having a Business Development Mindset Means Knowing What Motivates a Buyer When you’re being sold to, you almost want to run away. You can tell the salesperson has only their best interests in mind, not yours. We are happy to buy when the reverse is true. When we’re learning and we feel like the other person is helping us discover the option that’s right for us, the experience is wonderful. When we buy something, we’re important. We are being catered to and we’re learning in the process. It’s like having a birthday experience where you feel like the people you’re interacting with really care. If you don’t like selling, you need to reframe your perspective. Instead of selling, think that you’re someone that creates wonderful buying experiences that make people feel good. Flush the idea of selling and focus on the idea of creating a wonderful buying experience. That one mindset shift will change everything. You are 100% in control of the buying experience. You’re helping people succeed, remember that. The more you do that, the more you will win and the more that people will talk about how great you are to their colleagues.   Start Crafting Your Business Development Mindset By Understanding Your Why Business development can be hard. You’ve got to figure out a reason to persevere and keep adding value to your relationships, even when it feels like you’re not making much progress. To discover your why, ask yourself the Five Whys? Go deeper into the core reasons you do what you do until you discover the truth. Start with the question: “Why is getting great at Business Development important to me?” When you’ve got your answer, add a why to the beginning and ask why that thing is important. Your fifth answer is where the rubber meets the road, and you discover what’s really driving you. Once you have it, write it down and put it somewhere that will remind you daily why you put in the work. Avoid staying too superficial with your motivation and realize that your why might change over time, so it’s a good practice to repeat the exercise every few years or when you feel like you’re not as motivated as you used to be.     Mentioned in this Episode: freakonomics.com/podcast/peak faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Grant_PsychScience2013.pdf bdhabits.com The Snowball System by Mo Bunnell - amazon.com/Snowball-System-Business-Clients-Raving/dp/1610399609

Business development can be hard. You’ve got to figure out a reason to persevere and keep adding value to your relationships, even when it feels like you’re not making much progress. To discover your why, ask yourself the Five Whys? Go deeper into the core reasons you do what you do until you discover the truth. Start with the question: “Why is getting great at Business Development important to me?” When you’ve got your answer, add a why to the beginning and ask why that thing is important. Your fifth answer is where the rubber meets the road, and you discover what’s really driving you. Once you have it, write it down and put it somewhere that will remind you daily why you put in the work. Avoid staying too superficial with your motivation and realize that your why might change over time, so it’s a good practice to repeat the exercise every few years or when you feel like you’re not as motivated as you used to be.     Mentioned in this Episode: The Snowball System by Mo Bunnell - amazon.com/Snowball-System-Business-Clients-Raving/dp/1610399609

When you’re being sold to, you almost want to run away. You can tell the salesperson has only their best interests in mind, not yours. We are happy to buy when the reverse is true. When we’re learning and we feel like the other person is helping us discover the option that’s right for us, the experience is wonderful. When we buy something, we’re important. We are being catered to and we’re learning in the process. It’s like having a birthday experience where you feel like the people you’re interacting with really care. If you don’t like selling, you need to reframe your perspective. Instead of selling, think that you’re someone that creates wonderful buying experiences that make people feel good. Flush the idea of selling and focus on the idea of creating a wonderful buying experience. That one mindset shift will change everything. You are 100% in control of the buying experience. You’re helping people succeed, remember that. The more you do that, the more you will win and the more that people will talk about how great you are to their colleagues.     Mentioned in this Episode: The Snowball System by Mo Bunnell - amazon.com/Snowball-System-Business-Clients-Raving/dp/1610399609

Every expertise, no matter the field, is both learned and earned. You can become great at anything if you break it down into little pieces and practice each piece. You may not become world-class or be able to play in the NBA, but you can certainly become very good at that particular skill, and the key is deliberate practice. By breaking down the big skill into smaller micro-skills and deliberately practicing those individually, you build your overall skill set. The second component of deliberate practice is having a mentor guide you along the path towards expertise. When it comes to business development, what kinds of attractive content can you create to get your name out there? What valuable thing do you have to offer the world that you can get out there and expose others to your way of thinking? Once you’ve got a system for generating content and attracting leads, it becomes a matter of turning those connections into one-to-one conversations. This is where the Give to Get comes in. Start solving client problems in a small, bite-sized way, and it can open the door to bigger opportunities. If you think you can’t do what someone else is doing, toss that out of your mind. Narrow what they do down to a specific skill that you can improve on and get to work. Don't worry about how you stack up with others. It doesn't matter. Focus on your own skills, always getting a little bit better all the time.     Mentioned in this Episode: bdhabits.com

Adam Grant did a study on salespeople and put them on a spectrum of introversion to extroversion. For most people they land right in the middle and end up being a mix of both introvert and extrovert, and most successful salespeople were exactly the same way. Ambiverts were the most successful at making sales, not extroverts like people assumed was the case. Full-on extroverts might actually have some disadvantages when it comes to making a sale. Their desire to be around people all the time may prevent them from following up effectively or being direct with someone when they need to challenge them. Extreme introverts likely just aren’t putting themselves around other people most of the time, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get energy from interacting with them or can’t be effective salespeople. The magic in sales and business development happens at the middle of the curve, where you can connect with people in the moment and follow up thoughtfully later. Luckily for most people, that’s where they fall. You don’t have to be extroverted to be successful at sales. Great business developers have a wonderful mix of being around people, getting energy from the interactions, asking great questions, and giving great ideas. They can also go back to their quiet surroundings and find ways to follow up thoughtfully.     Mentioned in this Episode: faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Grant_PsychScience2013.pdf

Dr. K. Anders Ericsson spent over 30 years studying high-end expertise and discovered that every complex skill is both learned and earned. You can look at any expert and you would find decades of deliberate practice that got them to that level. No one is born with all the skills they need to be great at business development. Business development is a learnable skill that anyone can build on. If you take each individual lesson and apply them to your life, you will be successful. If someone tries to tell you that business development skills are not learnable or only for natural born conversationalists, they’re wrong. They just haven’t seen the research. If you want to be great at business development, break things down into bite- sized pieces. Break complex tasks down into individual pieces and practice each one as it comes.     Mentioned in this Episode: freakonomics.com/podcast/peak

Mo asks Marty Fagan: If you could record a video about growth or Business Development, and send it back to your younger self, what would you say? First thing is to be authentic. If you truly are authentic, people can pick up on that. And if you're not authentic, they can pick up on that as well. If you’re talking to someone and you don’t think your solution is a good fit, don’t sell it to them. Closing the sale no matter what may work in the short-term, but it’s a terrible strategy in the long-term. The second thing is to have a passion for the solution you are offering to your customers. People pick up on your passion, which contributes to that feeling of authenticity. Having passion and authenticity establishes trust, and that trust needs to be in place to have a conversation result in a closed deal. If you’ve developed a deep expertise, it’s okay to be excited about it and convey that energy to people.   Mo asks Sandy Lutton: If you could record a message around growth and business development and send it to your younger self, what would it say? Early in her career, Sandy was intimidated by business development and felt that she had to win them over while being perfect, but it doesn’t have to be an intimidating process. Business development is simply about building relationships. Sandy would want to help her younger self take the fear out of the process. It can be fun and engaging, and you will learn a lot along the way. Practice for perfection, but play for progress. You start to see how brilliant your team is when you plan ahead, and even if you don’t win the business, you improve for the next one. When you’re in a meeting, look for the little wins and what the next step along the way is. Make sure you tackle all the issues and break things down into small steps. Moving anything forward during a meeting is a win, so keep that in mind. Instead of trying to wow the prospect, just give them what they are looking for.   Mo asks Andrew Robertson: If you could wave a magic wand and record a video around business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? There is very little in business that is as satisfying as business and relationship development. Landing a client and then getting them big wins is fulfilling and it’s a wonderful thing to be good at. Define victory as a series of steps, instead of an end result. This makes the journey rewarding and not just about the destination. If you can take the first step, which is the hardest, everything else gets easier. Start with the end goal in mind, and then break it down into the fundamental steps you need to make each day to achieve that goal, then celebrate when you take those steps. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it makes it much more likely. You can’t control whether a client will say yes, but you can control whether or not you ask them in the first place.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast [email protected]

Mo asks Bill Ruprecht: If you could record a video around business development for your younger self, what would it say? You learn a lot more from failure than you do from success. Early on in Bill’s career, he had developed a relationship with an art collector, but after the collector passed away the business went to other people because Bill didn’t consider what would happen after that point or lay the foundation to make sure the family would work with him. It’s important to not rely on a single individual for your relationship with an organization. You need to create a team of advocates to work with a team of counterparts within the organization. Remove your ego from the equation and focus on building a team to team relationship. We tend to focus on our expertise and believe that’s how decisions get made, but that’s not the way it works. What should drive those decisions is that your company has a collection of skills to help clients solve their problems.   Mo asks Mike Duffy: If you could record a message to your younger self about how they should think about business development, what would it be? Mike’s message would be to essentially to cold call for a couple months right at the beginning to get used to hearing no. He would also tell himself to feed his brain. Read books and consume information that keeps you moving. Treat your profession like a profession. If you treat your profession the same way that a doctor does and invest in continuing education every year to be a better leader and sales person, you will be successful. Mike invests in programs that he’s heard about on podcasts and consumes books referenced in other books that have made an impact on him. You have to invest in yourself if you want to get better. Mike also builds relationships with people that are learning themselves and is curious enough to find out more about them. He’s always thinking about how he can add value to a conversation or relationship, and thinking about the questions that allow him to dig deeper. When you ask questions, you learn. When you learn, you connect dots, and when you do that, everyone gets better and the effect can snowball. Asking the right questions is instrumental to Mike’s ability to grow.   Mo asks Debby Moorman: If you could record a business development tip and send it to your younger self, what would it be? The bottomline is the idea of sales can be scary because we usually think of our worst sales experience and extrapolate that to everything. Debby’s advice to her younger self would be to take a breath, and realize that it’s all about meeting people and getting to know them, then helping them solve their problems. Changing the label from “sales” to “helping people and solving their needs” is a powerful mindset shift. People usually don’t realize that they are selling everyday, they just don’t label it that way. If you substitute “solve problems” for “sales”, you’re probably doing it all the time. Debby tells the story of an earlier experience where her job was traditional sales, literally going door to door, and how by simply asking questions and identifying the needs of the company, she turned a no into one of the biggest sales of the hotel she was working for. Everybody already sells, they just don’t call it that. When you substitute solving problems, you realize that you’re already great at what you do, and if you plug in a process like the Snowball System, you can keep getting better at it.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: You get to magically record a video and send it back to your younger self with some advice. What do you say? Jonathan spent most of his youth thinking about what he wanted to do instead of who he wanted to be. He would tell his younger self to focus on the ‘who’ before the ‘what’ first. If you never fail, it's likely you're not going big enough. Hope is built in the community. Volunteering gives you a sense of the community and how you can bring the virtues of kindness and love into the world. Following your passion is incomplete. You need to search for the intersection between what you’re passionate about and where your skills, ability, and talent lie. Jonathan tells the story of Doris, and how he grew up in a poor neighborhood in North Carolina and how his life completely changed after his mom qualified to buy a Habitat house in Optimist Park. Doris is the first person to grow up in a Habitat for Humanity house and to serve on the board as well. The story perfectly encapsulates the mission and purpose of Habitat for Humanity and how giving people a platform and foundation for a stable, healthy life can impact their community and society as a whole.   Mo asks Brent Atkins: If you could record a video on business development and send it to your younger self, what would you say? In the early days of Brent’s business development career, he did things very differently. The first thing he would say is to listen. Brent hears more things now during the course of a conversation with active listening, which is the opposite from how his younger self operated. There is an impulse when you’re young and fresh to tell everyone what you know, but listening and asking questions are how you really learn how to sell. Every product or service has multiple ways you can position it to win. If you listen, you can be much more effective in that effort. Brent is a student of business development even now. The first 21 days of a relationship are extremely important to solidify a bond. Reaching out to continue the conversation and creating that bond allows you to come back months or years later and pick up that conversation in the same way you would with an old friend. The final tip would be to build your brand. People are taught sales skills and usually want to apply them the exact way they are taught. Take what you’re doing and make it yours. Whatever sales skills you are working on, you need to make them authentically yours for them to be effective. The great business development rainmakers never stop learning. Brent is always looking to improve and work on his skills, especially in leverage tools like MIT’s and the Protemoi list.   Mo asks Monty Hamilton: If you could record a video and send it back to your former self, something around business development or growth mindset, what would it say? Monty would tell himself to not settle. Looking back, he can see that he didn’t always have the abundance mindset he needed to grow past barriers. He would also say to take more risks and that it’s okay to fail. The third thing would be to enjoy the journey more and be less fixated on the end destination. The pandemic has made celebrating the journey more difficult, but also more precious at the same time. You have to be more intentional in creating those moments.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford [email protected] Brent Atkins on LinkedIn #MinuteWithMonty on YouTube linkedin.com/in/montyhamilton

Mo asks Katrina Johnson: If you could tape a message to your younger self about business development, what would it say? It would simply be one thing: Learn to walk the dog. When someone walks a dog, we assume that the person is in control, but that’s not always the case. Our brains work in a similar way. The dogwalker is the prefrontal cortex, and the dog is the limbic system that responds and detects threats. The big question is who is in control? The truth is that the dog is in control most of the time. Everytime we stick to known associates instead of unknown prospects, or when we expect every email to get a response, the dog is in control. The sooner you can learn to walk the dog, the sooner you get to do the work you care about on your own terms. Even with the best tools and strategies at our disposal, most of the time we are only half as effective as we could be because we are being dragged around by our limbic system. It’s not an issue of ego, as much as it is the part of your brain that has evolved to perceive threats. Threats aren’t always tigers, they can also be getting rejected, feeling embarrassed, or losing status. The first job is to get out of your own way so the tools and strategies can do the work. Katrina focuses on awareness first about her emotions and experiences. A quick, simple label can be very effective in reducing the limbic system’s response. Reframing it and considering other reasons something may or may not have happened makes it less emotional. Give your emotions context, label them, and reframe them. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. This is a foundational skill in business development.   Mo asks Cyril Peupion: If you could record a video around business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Cyril describes a restaurant in Paris that is the best in the world in delivering a ribeye and has a queue lined up every single day no matter the weather conditions. Cyril would tell himself to become the master of one trade and become extraordinary at one thing. Follow your heart and become the expert in that area. Habits are what build expertise and world-class skills. There is a lot of joy in embracing the boring excellence that makes you great. Cyril does one thing and does it very well. He’s more than happy to refer work that’s not in his wheelhouse to other experts he knows can take care of it. If you can find something that you are passionate about, that the market will pay a premium rate for, and you are good at, you have found something worth pursuing. Cyril would also recommend never stopping learning. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” -Gandhi Block time to read every day. Set aside time every quarter to attend new training. Surround yourself with great mentors and a supportive community.   Mo asks Mark Harris: If you could record a message around business development for your younger self, what would it say? The first thing Mark would say is that business development is a marathon, not a sprint. The second thing is that the role is a learned skill. People are not born great sales, it’s something you can learn and master. The third thing is to help others when you can. You’ll be happier helping others with their success than you will ever be with your own success. When people first get into sales they often sprint towards their first sale, but when they do that they forget about the long-term marathon of relationship building. When you build relationships on that level, the tiny sprints toward each sale become easier over time. Sales didn’t come naturally to Mark, but when he realized that he was getting better each day that became a big motivation and opened the door to becoming excellent at it. Helping others when you can helps you be happier, which cycles back to building trust and reinforces the first three lessons.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] wslb.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/mark-harris-9ba1b53

Mo asks Linda Klein: If you could record a video around business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Business development is about passion. Life is about passion. Don’t lose your passion for getting involved. Helping others is the most satisfying thing you can do. In so many ways it’s easier to make a dollar than it is to make a difference, but you can do both at the same time. Take the time to get good at what you do first, and then you’ll have something valuable to sell. If you’re going to say no, say it with kindness. “People will forget what you said and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou Treat people right. People you interact with today may be future clients and you should treat them with respect and kindness. If you’re passionate about what you do, it will come through in your authenticity. Some of your best experiences will come from wasting time. If you rigidly plan, you might say no to something that is an incredible opportunity.   Mo asks Henning Streubel: If you could record a video around relationship development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Henning would send three points back. The first is that you have to care about the people. You can only develop relationships when you care about the other person and their issues. When you are engaging with them, it’s not about just showcasing your expertise and what you know. It’s about listening to them and what they want. If you come with a cookie-cutter approach, you won’t establish trust. Understanding what the other person needs and bringing a customized approach is the key to trust. This kind of work is a team sport. Think about how you can compliment your own skills and strengths with your team so you can offer a holistic value to your clients. The basis for all those lessons is that you aren’t born with these skills and consistently learning them over time is okay. It is vital to respect the individual clients and companies that you work with. Not everything goes to plan. For Henning, he overcomes setbacks very quickly by looking forward rather than backwards. Feel the pain and then move on. Everybody needs to find their own way of processing pain, leverage the learning, and move forward again. It doesn’t help us as a society or as leaders to dwell on setbacks for too long. For Henning, that means going for a run or a bike ride. For others, that could be having a conversation with someone they trust.   Mo asks Brian Caffarelli: If you could record a video around business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? If you think selling is hard, buying is harder. Brian would want to tell his younger self that if he was more in tune and empathetic to the struggles of the buyer, sales wouldn’t be as hard. When you feel stuck with sales, realize that the buyer is even more stuck. To create a great buying experience, deconstruct as many of the little decisions that need to be made before the purchase decision. Get a sense of where you are in the process and the personal motivations of the other person for the stage they are at. As the guide, it’s your job to help the buyer understand what the next step is and move them forward when they are ready. Look into the past and see if your organization or you personally did something similar before. You might find challenges that were overcome and lessons that can be applied right now. In the early stages of the buying journey, the buyer doesn’t necessarily realize the enormity or the complexity of the problem they are trying to solve. When trying to create demand, it’s problem knowledge and not product knowledge that moves the needle. Empathy is the keyword. Buyers are trying to make a really hard decision and the better you understand the buying challenges the more likely you are to being able to solve their problem.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/lindakleinlaw linkedin.com/in/henning-streubel-phd on.bcg.com/henning - Use the envelope icon on this page to get in touch with Henning directly [email protected] linkedin.com/in/briancaffarelli

Mo asks Andrew Cogar: Tell us a business development story that you are particularly proud of. There was one project that stands out for Andrew, where he and the founder of his firm, Jim Strickland, had the chance to not only create an awesome property but also restore and support the local ecology as well. During the meeting, Jim and the client discovered they shared a mutual friendship and instead of talking about the project they started geeking out on chicken coops. That kind of interest was exactly what the client was looking for, a firm that was completely authentic to themselves. Andrew set the table for that approach that allowed Jim to be Jim to the fullest. It’s all about being true to yourself, listening, and then connecting. The way that you win work is to actually start doing the work. The right thing to do is to start adding value. When you do those things, you aren’t competing anymore. This gets the client excited about the person who is facilitating their vision. It takes them from a leap of faith to “When can we start?”   Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: Tell me of a business development story that you are deeply proud of. When Bonneau started the business, he made sure that he was selling for a reason. Even when they weren’t making any money, he made sure that every sale gave back to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Hospital and it’s become the most rewarding business activity he’s ever done. Having clients is not about a single transaction. Bonneau wants to grow with his clients and for the company to have a footprint beyond real estate. By pairing sales with a noble endeavor, he makes the mission of the organization more than just profit. Visiting the hospital in addition to donating money is part of the company culture. When things get hard, the charitable aspect of the business helps but he has a deep desire to win that keeps him going. Overcoming his natural weaknesses and leveraging his strengths also allows him to stay motivated.   Mo asks John Tigh: Tell me of a business development that you are particularly proud of. During John’s time working as a consultant while working for a top-10 pharmaceutical company. He had a chance to meet another top-10 pharmaceutical company and help them implement a new technology. John had a productive initial meeting but hadn’t really heard from them for two years. Eventually, John was contacted to pick up the project after another consulting company dropped the ball. Disaster struck and the leader that was meant to guide the project left the company. John put his hand up to help them move the project forward as long as they were willing to trust the team to get things done. Over time, the team grew and John ran that project from the outside for three years and grew the business to the tune of multiple millions of dollars. All of that came from one initial meeting and building trust by offering some expertise and help with no strings attached. He was the one who wrote the strategy that transformed the business as well as the leader and operations person who helped make that happen. John’s biggest achievement during that time was in overcoming his own inner critic. By learning about and practicing meditation each day, he learned how to get out of his own way. Having a moment at the start of each day to throw off the doubts and the worries and focus on doing what he can do has changed the rest of John’s life. One of the biggest blessings of a high performing team that has your back and believes in you is that they can help you manage your own inner critic.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com historicalconcepts.com Visions of Home bonneauansley.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/johntigh clevercognitive.com

Mo asks Jane Allen: Tell us a business development story that you are really proud of. Jane tells the story from the early 2000’s during a time when the people they were serving in corporate America were being overwhelmed by the explosion of data. One fateful dinner and “what if” scenario later, Jane started collaborating with a firm to solve real world problems with a solution that was unheard of at the time. As an entrepreneur, Jane didn’t take time to reflect on the success since she was so focused on the execution. Looking back now, finding a partner that was willing to take a risk and then deliver something that enabled her clients to practice law in a completely different way is something she’s very proud of. In terms of her career, Jane is most proud of the incredible people she worked with and learned from, as well as being willing to take the chance on herself and her vision for her business. Reach for your goals and take the chance. Rejection is a part of life, but you will never achieve anything if you don’t try.   Mo asks Read Davis: Tell me about a business development story that you are really proud of. Read formerly worked for one of the largest brokerage firms in the world, and when he first came to work with McGriff they were often David going up against Goliath. Read recalls several different stories where the relationships they built helped their clients take care of their people. Each experience gave Read additional skills and confidence to take into the next. One, in particular, stands out where Read was handling a casino in Las Vegas. As the real estate guy on the team, Read was meeting with banks and people on the team to help them through the financial crisis. They broke the paradigm by bringing people in from all over to show the client what they could do. The best part of the sales story is that four years later the casino was sold to Blackstone and the client referred Read and his team as the broker of choice to the new buyer. It’s all about the connectivity of the relationships and adding value while playing the long game. The team was what made the difference. By listening intently to what the prospect needed, that got the team motivated to deliver. They recognized that the deal was a major opportunity for the firm and they rose to the challenge.   Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is a business development story that you are particularly proud of? Katrina’s story occurred five years ago when she went on a trip to meet a candidate for a President role at a textile manufacturer. Katrina knew she was skeptical, but didn’t realize how skeptical. After the candidate was hired, Katrina ended up working with her for the first six months and through her unique knowledge of how that particular organization functioned was able to help considerably. Her relationship with this one skeptical person led to additional relationships and business. To win her over Katrina did three things. She didn’t make it about her and take the skepticism personally, she got curious about why she was skeptical and what it could teach her, and she waited for holes to open for her to go deeper. It’s easy to take offense from skepticism, but Katrina had to learn early on as a physician that you have to earn respect. You can’t look at things from a scientific perspective when you’re stuck in your own head. Being curious about the root of the person’s skepticism makes it objective and less about you. Being candid with the client and honest about her perspectives was key to building trust and winning the skeptic over. Divorce yourself from the outcome and focus on doing the right thing. Quieting the anxious and emotional part of us can lead to more creativity and effectiveness. Focusing on process instead of outcomes is how you can control that.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co [email protected] linkedin.com/in/readdavis [email protected] [email protected]

Mo asks Sandy Lutton: What is a business development story that you are really proud of? One moment in particular stands out from Sandy’s career in regards to business development. Part of her role at the Speaker’s Bureau was to secure talent, and Sandy was working on securing a famous world leader. The twist in the story was that the first in-person meeting with the CEO didn’t go well which made landing this client much harder than they expected. They spent too much time talking about who they represent. The big influencer in the decision was the Chief of Staff, and by uncovering their goals it changed the dynamic of the relationship. In listening to them and finding out what they needed, Sandy was able to put the right team in place to support them. Understanding what they ultimately wanted to achieve was critical in the decision-making Just like the Snowball System teaches, keeping them involved in the process was crucial, and in the end they won the business without giving everything away for free. Many people fold too quickly when it comes to high pressure proposals. Challenge yourself when you feel like you have to go in at your lowest price in order to win the business, because it might not be true. Sandy is most proud of the fact that they landed the client by identifying the right team and making it clear that going to the lowest price wasn’t the right move. Resist the urge to discount your service by negotiating too soon.   Mo asks Chris Graham: What growth story are you most personally proud of? Making the pivot from law to private equity is the thing that Chris is the most proud of. The pivot was hard and took a long time but it has allowed him to make more impact than ever before. One of the examples that Chris talks about is a company where Chris implemented his methodology of growth and after 19 months they grew from $2.3 million to $4.9 million in profit. Rather than just generate more sales, Chris helped them become more process efficient. Chris grew up in a trailer park back in the 70’s where there was still a sense of community. That experience is why Chris is so dedicated to the mission of rehabilitating those kinds of communities now. It was a long process of learning and growing before Chris was able to connect all the dots. Being raised in a poor community, Chris wasn’t exposed to the idea of entrepreneurship and the impact you can have at that level until after he began his career in law. Chris is insatiably curious, which is a trait that has propelled him throughout his career. That curiosity is what allowed Chris to make the jump from each level to the next. After working with families that owned businesses for 17 years, Chris could see things that they couldn’t. This was a big motivation for buying the first business. Chris realized that, over the period of growing the law firm from eight lawyers to 22 lawyers over 24 months, he got himself into a position where he couldn’t use his strengths. Instead of floundering, Chris made the hard decision to cut back to what was working before, which allowed him to eventually make the transition to bigger and better things.   Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is one moment around business development that you are really proud of? The current climate has been challenging, and there is one client in particular that she’s working with right now that she’s proud of. She had the opportunity to reconnect with someone she worked with 15 years ago that recently moved into a more senior role. She reached out to them, but with the way things are right now, she couldn’t meet them in person and have a face-to-face conversation with them. What Debby was able to do was have a conversation with this person and simply learn about their new role. She started to hear things that indicated the company was going through a number of changes and was able to offer herself as a resource to be more successful in their new job. This led to more conversations and helping them with relevant research, and eventually getting connected with the CHRO. This relationship from Debby’s past has developed into a conversation about how they can all work together. By cultivating a relationship with this person, Debby has opened the door to working with the organization in a deeper scope that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, simply by being helpful. For Debby, the commercial transaction is not a focus when connecting with someone. She brings a curiosity to the table that helps her uncover genuine ways that she can help and by following through, she adds value, builds trust, and creates a real relationship. Be helpful and honest, and the solution will happen.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast linkedin.com/company/crowncapitalinvestments linkedin.com/in/christophertgraham25 [email protected] crown-inv.com Crown Capital Investments on YouTube - youtube.com/channel/UCLstgUIyDH9bRFTHH0vWAbg [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Linda Klein: Tell us a business development story that you are particularly proud of. Many years ago Linda did a favor for an accountant without sending him a bill. Five years later, the accountant called mainly to thank her and ask if she could help a friend of his. The new client was entering a mature market with lots of competition, but after Linda helped him start and grow his business, within nine months his company was the largest client for Linda’s firm. Linda was able to make a difference in two people’s lives. For the client, she helped him start a business that changed him and his family’s lives, and for the accountant, she impacted him deeply enough for it to come back to her five years later. Linda has developed a business development program by volunteering. Linda doesn’t have a lot of free time, but for her, volunteering and being helpful is fun and enjoyable so the business development benefits come naturally. If you’re curious and read the news about your clients, you will find opportunities to reach out and be helpful. Being involved in your community gives you scale in meeting new people. Find what you like and get involved in that community. There are an infinite number of opportunities to get involved and meet like-minded people.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: Tell us a development or growth story that you're really particularly proud of. Jonathan tells the story of a complex corporate partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Hilty, and how they’ve worked together closely after building a relationship over the years. Each year, the two organizations began to work more closely together and started developing new innovative approaches to achieving their mutual goals. There's not only funding, but it's making both parties better. They are achieving their goals as well inside a full strategic partnership which is much more exciting than just a transactional donor relationship. Jonathan’s role was in building trust with the head of the foundation. Without that relationship, the partnership probably wouldn’t exist. It also taught Jonathan a lot about building trust and being direct.   Mo asks Henning Streubel: Tell us a business development story that you are particularly proud of. Henning’s story begins with a rough start where a client CEO read an unflattering internal email about himself that he was never meant to see. Henning went to apologize in person and ended up having a great conversation that turned into an offer to have a second lunch in the future. During the second conversation the client began to open up about the challenges he had been experiencing, and Henning realized that he had gained this CEOs trust. Henning engaged some of his colleagues to help with the challenges the CEO was facing and this created the basis for a larger transformative project with the company. Today, Henning and the CEO are good friends. Henning is most proud about being able to overcome his discomfort with the initial situation and doing the right thing. Growth and comfort can’t coexist. The skills needed to develop a relationship aren’t innate. You can start right away to develop your skills, and it is possible to add value to someone else’s career even when they have more years of experience than you. Henning is always thinking about how to take his professional relationships into a more personal realm because that’s where he can deliver the most value. The challenge is in connecting with people with different personalities and experiences and then helping his team do the same thing.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/lindakleinlaw habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford linkedin.com/in/henning-streubel-phd on.bcg.com/henning - Use the envelope icon on this page to get in touch with Henning directly

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: Tell me a business development story that you're particularly proud of. Andrew tells the story of a client in London that BBDO had been working with for 20 years and how they lost most of that client’s work after delivering a terrible piece starring John Cleese. Instead of bailing on the client completely, Andrew and the team decided to stick with the unglamorous work that remained and deliver excellent results for the client, knowing that eventually, the rival company that won their former work would stumble. By sticking with the client, they had the opportunity three years later to offer a new brand campaign, which was informed by the fact that they were still involved in the business and understood their needs. Andrew signed Jamie Oliver, who wasn’t quite famous yet, after scouring London on Easter weekend physically to find him, and landed the business again. Andrew learned three key lessons from the experience: be gracious on the way out, treat a rejection as a “not for now,” not a never, and the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Even when you get fired, those relationships are still valuable and worth keeping alive. We show our true selves much more in defeat than in easy victories. How you behave during the bad times says much more about your character than when things are good. People are human, and it’s always hard to fire someone you’ve built a relationship with. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, and keep adding value to the relationship after the fact. How you behave afterward will be remembered. Even if you don’t win a project, that’s an opportunity to ask for feedback and give the prospect the opportunity to stay in touch. One loss is not the end, it’s the beginning of the next potential project.   Mo asks Kim Davenport: What is one moment around business development that you are really proud of? Kim’s most proud moment was the first real significant opportunity she brought into her firm – the friend, who’s a vice president at an energy company, who she had a conversation with and who realized Kim and the firm she’s part of could help her business. Kim is proud of what she did, of having the courage to go outside of her comfort zone a little bit to bring business into a conversation among friends. This was her first success story, and it happened before Kim was a partner at her firm. That’s one of the moments that made her realize that BD isn’t about going around knocking on doors trying to sell something, but it’s about helping people, about leveraging and building relationships… and, yes, it’s fun! Even though she’s process-driven, Kim recommends not to overthink things too much. Her advice is to just be a little courageous, and give it a try. Just ask the first question, make it natural. Don’t worry about what comes after that, just take the first step and see where it takes you.   Mo asks Bill Ruprecht: What is a story of business development that you are particularly proud of? A business like Sotheby’s is a transaction business so Bill had been involved in thousands of transactions over the course of his career but one tale in particular stood out to him. Bill traveled down to Florida to help an older lawyer sell $20 million in vintage cars and that began a 9-month process of negotiating. After months of back and forth, they finally signed the deal, and the auction itself was widely successful. In extended negotiations, as the professional, you know what it will take to make the deal successful. It’s common for the other party to not fully know what they want and the key is to just keep the conversations going. When the other party doesn’t know what they want, negotiating becomes a marathon or experimenting and exploring until they land on what was missing from the conversation.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/kim-davenport-7732751 [email protected]

Mo asks Bill Ruprecht: What is your favorite science, step, or strategy from the GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? Bill began working with Mo because he believed a more disciplined approach to building relationships was critical to the continued growth of his organization. When you have 90 offices over 40 countries is an enormous task. Bill recalls a meeting with a number of executives at Sotheby's along with Mo where it became very clear how some people struggled with the process of articulating value, even those who had been in the business for 30 years. Every business believes they are unique so they often believe a system of business development couldn’t possibly apply to them. But once they realize that almost everybody runs into the same problems and barriers, they see the value of a disciplined approach to relationships. The default assumption that most people make is that business development is not a learnable skill. That some people are just born with it and that assumption prevents them from seeing the possibilities. Bill is a born introvert and a learned extrovert. Giving speeches and connecting with people didn’t come naturally to him. Being a salesman is something to be proud of because it means you’re being an advocate for whatever you’re walking into the room and trying to do.   Mo asks Cyril Peupion: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? The overall mindset of the Snowball Training is what stands out for Cyril. Going from selling to serving and being proud of the value that you are bringing to your clients is pivotal. Cyril also appreciates the concept of nurturing raving fans and uses the strategy to make sure he’s always working on the most important relationships associated with his business. There is a strong link between performance and joy. People value what they help to create. Cyril noticed that the clients that contribute to the work in more of a partnership style relationship usually value the work more. Without the mindset shift of going from selling to helping, you will never achieve your true potential in your career. “The secret of living is giving.” -Winston Churchill When you understand the giving mindset, it will change the way you look at business and life. When planning your ideal work for business development, relationship building with your raving fans and developing yourself and your team, are the things that will have the most significant long-term impact. How much time each day do you need to protect to get those done each day? The rule is that you can move this meeting time with yourself around, but you can’t delete it. Business development is often composed of a lot of little tasks. Cyril uses the Outlook Task tool to categorize emails and tasks he needs to address during the time he’s set aside each day to focus on business development. Your calendar should be filled with Meetings With Yourself and you should respect them as much as you do meetings with other people. You say no all the time. When you say yes to something, you are saying no to everything else, whether you are conscious of that or not. When someone asks you to do something, pause and run through the “Hell Ya/No” framework.   Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is your favorite business development strategy from the Snowball System or GrowBIG training? Instead of a favorite, Katrina wants to emphasize one strategy that often goes unrecognized for how important it is, which is targeting. Targeting is critical to business development and as a student of minimalism, Katrina is always thinking about trade-offs. Minimalists understand trade-offs as an inherent part of life, but instead of thinking about what needs to be sacrificed, it’s more about what to double down on. The subconscious emotional layer is what makes targeting tricky. We are evolutionarily primed to avoid loss and are naturally averse to subtraction. We only have so much time in our life. We can’t just take on more, we have to target and figure out what are the things to go big on and what to let go of. Mo had a similar experience with the training GrowBIG. Every time he refined his method and message and who he wanted to serve by letting go of certain markets, it was a terrifying change but resulted in incredible growth over time. Working with a small niche can be scary, but it often leads to greater success as your effort is more refined and focused within your skillsett. When Katrina is doing her job well, she’s often not operating at the forefront. In an ideal world, her clients are getting better and she eventually works herself out of a job. When someone comes to Katrina with a referral that isn’t within her core focus, she always sets up a call with the person and leverages her own referral network to help that person. She always circles back to the person that refers them to let them know they’ve been taken care of.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com wslb.com [email protected]

Mo asks Angela Meyer: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Angela’s favorite strategy is the Give to Get. Giving somebody value or knowledge they didn’t have before is a great way to start off a relationship. If you continue to show interest in someone personally, and not just professionally, and provide them value that can help them grow their career, they are going to care about you. You have to break someone out of the rut of working with someone else if it’s not you. Building trust and deepening the relationship in the beginning is crucial to starting things out. Angela has seen a number of her former colleagues help clients and prospects by summarizing the science on particular issues like climate change, sustainability, and environmental compliance. There is a big difference between forwarding an article to a client and talking the person through the content. The hardest thing is asking for the business, which is why you should simply ask for the next step. No is just another answer. You have to be able to explain more and give more so that eventually the answer is going to be yes. You can’t assume your client is going to read and consume the content you send them. You have to ask them for the opportunity to explain how it’s helpful and why you sent it to them.   Mo asks Henning Streubel: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Henning’s favorite idea is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. It’s vital to understand how you, your team, and your prospects think. Henning is an analytical thinker, and understanding this gives him greater insight into how he can communicate with another person who can compliment that with their own thought preferences. Henning took his team through the HBDI process to get a good idea of how his team thinks and where there might be any gaps. This allows the team to cover all the quadrants. Externally, Henning has a few questions that he asks to get an idea of how a person thinks. Within 30 minutes he usually has an idea on the other person’s thinking style and can start tailoring his communication to cover the aspects that are most important to them. When it comes to an analytical thinker, Henning would lay out the numbers and the facts. For a procedural thinker, he would lay out the next steps in the process of working together to give them execution certainty and confidence in Henning’s ability to get the job done. For an empathic thinker, he would focus on the tools and skills that the client team can learn by working with them and the change management that will help people be successful. For a strategic thinker, Henning starts with the purpose of the work. He creates a future perspective and vision around how the work will change the company with a transformative impact. The work is done between the first meeting and the last meeting. This is why building it together is so important. Bringing your client into the development of the solution and building their thoughts and concerns into it makes it far more sustainable.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? Jonathan’s first favorite is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. He uses it all the time in talking with potential partners and tailoring the conversation to how they process information and think. Wrapping your data into a story is a great way to hit on more of the four ways people think, but also make your data more memorable at the same time. Jonathan’s second favorite is simply discipline with the Protomoi List. Every month, Jonathan and his team review his list and look at how they are adding value to those relationships. The takeaway was the discipline and rigor of being very intentional about your most important relationships. Jonathan makes sure that there is time booked into his calendar to make connections, either physical or digital, with the most important relationships in his life. Sending a note to someone has more weight to it when they know you’re busy.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com MeyerVorst.com Angela Meyer, PhD, PE on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/henning-streubel-phd on.bcg.com/henning - Use the envelope icon on this page to get in touch with Henning directly habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks John Tigh: What is your favorite science, step, or strategy from the GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? John has been involved in the Snowball System for a long time and the Gravitas Model is a strategy that he uses every single day. It’s the perfect framework for taking any conversation where you want to go. It has an incredible level of flexibility and imparts a character to your conversation that people can’t help but enjoy. It also gives you the ability to keep the conversation going. When you ask great questions, you get a triple win. With the way the Gravitas Model is designed, they light up the pleasure center of the other person’s mind when they are sharing their personal perspective, you learn their priorities in their words, and the questions highly correlate to likability. The more they talk and the less you talk, the more the other person will like you. John’s perfect buyer is in the C-Suite or someone dealing with content creation. During a conversation with his perfect buyer, John would talk about what they have in common, the challenges they experienced in the past, and their current role and their current projects. Typically, the goal for each meeting is to secure the next meeting. By addressing the base level mechanical questions, John can take a conversation up to higher level vision-based goals. He often asks people how calm the seas are and what they think the future holds, with a hook at the end about any questions that John didn’t ask but should have. John is always looking for an opportunity to offer value in some way or to make a connection or introduction for the other person in an effort to secure the next meeting. The framework is simply built around looking for ways to make the other person look good. Once you get the Gravitas Model in your bones, it really does help every kind of conversation, whether that’s spoken or written.   Mo asks Linda Klein: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Linda never wants to be unprepared in her work, and the same is true in meeting with a client, which is why Dynamic Meeting Prep is Linda’s favorite strategy. A potential client’s business always has important area-specific language that they use that you should know. It’s amazing how much companies have on their website and what you can learn by doing some research. Those insights are invaluable during a meeting, and preparing for a meeting pays dividends when you land the business because then you have a huge head start. Everybody prepares for delivery meetings but rarely do people prepare for the initial meeting. You can’t prepare for the first meeting at a dinner before the meeting day. Research is crucial. Make preparation a priority and get the team strategy outlined ahead of time. Your team needs to show the client that they are seamless, working together and solving the client’s problems. Figure out what your goal for the meeting is, what the frame for the meeting is and how to kick it off, what the big questions that might be asked, natural next steps, and potential cliffhangers you can use to get the next meeting. Being direct can be a challenge but being authentic about the fact that you want to simply be helpful is the best approach. Be ready to discuss what the client wants to discuss. The more prepared you are in advance, the easier it will be to switch gears and the more comfortable you will be.   Mo asks Andrew Robertson: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Writing down the seven relationships that are the most important to growing the business was a technique that changed the way Andrew thought about business development. Andrew has a lot of great relationships with CEOs in various other businesses, but a lot of them didn’t start out at the top. Those relationships were nurtured over time with people that moved up in their organizations or moved around in their industry. Think about how you got into your position and where people are right now that you can connect with. When asked to list our most important relationships, we tend to think of our best current relationships by default, but that’s the wrong approach. We should think about the relationships that will have the most impact on our business first. The number seven forces you to make choices and really identify those relationships that will move the needle. Your list should contain people you have a relationship with, people you don’t know but would like to have a relationship with, and the people you need to have a relationship with who won’t necessarily send you business directly but can help you find it elsewhere. You only have a limited amount of time, so you need to be clear on your priorities, not just around what you do but who the most important people are. Create a shortlist and give yourself a short timeframe to connect and advance the relationship with those people. If someone is not going to make an impact, it’s better to figure that out in three months rather than three years. Be thoughtful. Sit on the other side of the desk and empathize with the person you’re trying to build a relationship with.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/johntigh clevercognitive.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/lindakleinlaw [email protected]

Mo asks James Barclay: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? For James, the number one strategy is the Protemoi List. These are the people in your circle that are your partners, prospects, and the key people that could be your raving fans. Having a focused relationship list is an unbeatable edge. When you invest in a relationship, people will move with you. James has had people buy from his company multiple times over multiple jobs. Your Protemoi List is a list of five to ten people that have outsized returns on the amount of time and energy you invest in the relationship. The first strategy is to simply be useful to them. Offer to take them to events with you that you believe would be helpful to them. Find content and then pass it on to people you think would find it useful. Celebrate them at every opportunity. Accelerate them and give them a platform where you highlight them and what they are doing. A personal newsletter can be incredibly powerful. You don’t need thousands of people on your list for it to be worth it. Build something that is extremely accessible to them, extremely useful to them, and don’t waste their time. It can take some time to build momentum, but you have to start somewhere. If you can write something useful for one person you can build it over time and create something really valuable. Consistency matters. Find a cadence that works for you and your schedule and stick with it.   Mo asks Kevin Clem: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? Kevin discovered the Snowball System from the podcast after being referred to it by the CEO of HBR Consulting. The Most Important Things is one of the key principles that Kevin has embraced. He and his team have made the idea of the top three things as a guiding framework for how they operate. Raving fans and assessing the level of the relationship with each client is another big strategy. There is power in language. Just by entering the GrowBIG world and embracing the terminology, Kevin and his team have changed the way they think about business development and growth. Take a page out of your creative marketing playbook and come out with a theme for your internal program to get your team to buy in. Kevin’s team has tried a number of different incentives to get the team excited. They found that recognition and reward among high achievers is a good base to start with, combined with accountability. Create and celebrate short-term wins to spotlight things that are going well and to build momentum. Celebrating the small wins is an important piece of creating progress. Doing what you can do today is what leads to the championship.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Dennis loved so much of the GrowBIG Training, but the one that stands out the most is the idea of the Most Important Thing. When working with clients, Dennis uses an MIT one-sheet to communicate all the work streams that they can work on during the engagement as well as including some potentially new approaches they can take advantage of. They are using that very effectively to land new clients because it allows them to understand the exact value WTW brings to the table. This approach creates strategic conversations and helps build the trust that client’s have in Dennis and his team’s ability to think around corners. Structurally, the slide includes important dates for upcoming content or events, the essential work streams for the client, and disruptive ideas. Pre-MIT, the client updates were boring and uninspiring. Refining it down to the Most Important Things and communicating them in a single place that’s easy to understand has made it very valuable.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/jamesbarclay1 [email protected] passle.net linkedin.com/in/kevinclem [email protected] hbrconsulting.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz [email protected] Nathan Barry on ConvertKit, Automation and Engaging Your Audience – What You Need To Succeed (season 2 episode 43) How to Use ConvertKit to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Nathan Barry (season 2 episode 44) How to Use ConvertKit to Deepen Relationships, with Nathan Barry (season 2 episode 45) How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Nathan Barry (season 2 episode 46) The Top 3 Things You Need to Implement from Nathan Barry, Founder of ConvertKit (season 2 episode 47)

Mo asks Maria Kelly: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG training or Snowball System? One of the most useful things Maria learned from the GrowBIG training was the seven pricing principles. Living in Switzerland, she grew up in a culture that didn’t talk about money and she learned early on in her career that if she didn’t talk about money, she didn’t get the money. Many business owners and professionals struggle with asking for what they are worth. When clients push back on the fees, those people don’t know how to respond because they don’t know how to articulate their value and justify their price. There are seven common heuristic programs that people use when thinking about money. One of the most common is that your price is directly linked to the quality of your service. In other words, expensive equals good, and cheap equals bad. If you’re upfront with the value you are bringing to the table and anchoring to that, no one is going to second guess what you charge. With the idea of anchoring on value, you can talk about the result and the magnitude of the value of it and use that as a frame for whatever your fees are. Introduce early on what value you are bringing to the relationship, and your fees will seem small in comparison. Most people expect to pay for a service, but when it comes to ourselves we often make assumptions about what other people will think about our own services to others. If someone is hiring you, they want the best. You have to lean into and be confident with your fees. At the point you talk about the fees, if you have built up enough value and trust with the person, you will be more confident in your delivery. It’s not about sticking with the number no matter what, it’s about working together to find a solution and a price that fits all parties. Even if you can’t find an alternative, do your best to part on good terms. If you can talk about the money with the same excitement and tone that you discuss the team, the scope of the project, and the details, you will feel consistent and confident and get better results.   Mo asks Monty Hamilton: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? The blueprint of Monty’s business is think big, start small, scale up. Rural Sourcing started out as a 10 person organization and has since scaled up to 1,000 employees, with the future goal of 3,000 employees and 30 centers all over America. It’s a growth mindset that can be applied across a 10,000 person organization, but it can also be applied to your personal life. Great intentions can be sabotaged if you try to do too much, too fast. Recognize that, as an individual, you will never be able to do it all. You have personal limitations and must be able to recognize those limitations to unlock your business’ potential. You’re not going to be perfect on day 1 or day 10,001. The goal is continuous improvement. With that mindset, you can do better, you can get bigger, you can do more. Being willing to reinvest is critical to knowing where you can add value and where someone else can add the value that’s missing. To scale up to the next level, you need to understand your strengths and your weaknesses, and to know that you need to ask your peers, colleagues, bosses, and people you can trust to give their honest opinion. People are usually happy to give you feedback, and when you find someone willing to give it to you because they want you to be successful, you may have found a great mentor.   Mo asks Warren Shiver: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from the Snowball System or GrowBIG training? Warren has been working with Mo during the early days of the GrowBIG training and has been a big fan of the Protemoi list and the step-by-step opportunity process. The first part of the opportunity process is listening and learning. Being able to repeat it back to the prospect and proving that they’ve been heard is how you earn the right to go to the next step. Weekly, monthly, or quarterly sales targets influence behaviors that always align with the listen-and-learn process. The opportunity process doesn’t require more time, but it does require an emphasis on patience, understanding, and a collaborative approach. Many companies are still struggling with the more rigid, linear mindset of selling. Clients don’t want to hear your language or why your company is awesome. You should approach the sales cycle with a fresh-eyes mindset and assume the position of someone just getting started solution-wise. Earned Dogmatism is a proven mental heuristic that states the more we believe we have an expertise in some area, the more close-minded we become. The Protemoi list is a mental framework that can pay off at any time. Think about the relationships that might be important to you tomorrow, and the frequency of staying in touch that keeps those relationships alive. The first step of the Protemoi list is to write it down. Warren uses a spreadsheet to keep track of his list, and one of his weekly MIT’s is to always check in with the people on his list. It’s okay for people to drop off. Depending on the situation, Warren reaches out weekly or monthly to stay in touch in any way he can that adds value. Warren looks for interesting articles that he can send people or whatever way he can connect with someone on the list that makes sense. The Protemoi list also scales to a team or organizational level. You should be having all your people working to build trust and the relationship along the way.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bdhabits.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn #MinuteWithMonty on YouTube linkedin.com/in/montyhamilton thebrevetgroup.com

Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is your personal definition of business development? If you have a craft that you know and love and want to grow, you are naturally going to step into business development so you might as well do it right. For Cannon, business development is about connecting people and ideas. He thinks of it as purposeful engagement that connects those two things. Connecting people with ideas often becomes deeply personal. During the pandemic, Cannon noticed a number of clients struggling with aging parents so they put a lot of effort into coming up with and connecting clients with ideas to help manage the issue. Taxes and the rapidly changing legislative landscape has been another area where Cannon and his team have been working with clients to stay ahead of the curve. The foundation is always being helpful rather than looking directly for business. It’s not about the revenue, it’s about enriching lives. Sometimes the solution falls outside of the firm’s specialty and that’s okay as long as the end result is helping a person out. You have to think of your relationships as a portfolio with investements in people all the time. Being proactive and helpful will eventually pay off. Not everything will connect. You have to look for additional opportunities to be helpful and keep reaching out. Think about business development as solving problems through connecting people and ideas together. If you are doing a good job, you will naturally get your share of the business. Proactive engagement is vital for service businesses.   Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is identifying high-value relationships, investing in them, and finding ways to bring value to those relationships. It’s about matching what you have to offer with the needs of your market and customizing it for each person. Figuring what the client needs is fundamentally about asking the right questions and listening closely to the answer. The key in any conversation is that if you’re talking more about yourself than you are about them it’s not been a successful conversation. Debby’s personal philosophy is if she can help the other person solve their problem, either with something she can offer or by pointing them in the direction of someone else who can help, then the day will come when she does have something that she can offer them. For an hour-long meeting, Debby prepares for at least double that time to make sure she deeply understands the person and the company she is meeting with. The more she can become a student of their business, the more she can make that initial conversation helpful. She will write out a handful of open-ended questions to get them talking and sharing about the challenges in their business. One of the biggest gaps in a good conversation that leads nowhere is that there needs to be a next step. The questions and preparation get the conversation going, but coming up with two or three paths that could lead to a give-to-get or a second conversation is the goal. The goal of the first meeting is to get the second meeting. You need a reason to get back together again. A good rule of thumb for a meeting is that the other person should be talking ⅔ of the time. One of the skills that Debby has had to work on over the years is the power of silence. We have a natural inclination to fill the space, but it’s okay to wait. It takes practice to learn these skills but it’s more than worth the effort.   Mo asks Brian Caffarelli: What is your personal definition of business development? Brian likes to think of business development as the art and science of guiding the buyer through their journey to an informed and confident decision. Just because you know the science, that doesn’t mean you’ll be great at business development. It’s equal parts the art of empathy and flexibility, and science of habits and communication. Mountain climbing guides are great metaphors for business development. Really good salespeople are helping people reach their own personal summit and get what they need to experience from the mountain. The defining characteristic of a guide is the ability to inspire trust. Trust comes before the sale. You need to be able to see ahead of corners for your buyers, and to challenge their thinking where appropriate. The challenge for the guide is in focusing on what the buyer needs over their own needs. Work on the skills and behaviors that inspire trust in you and live your life with integrity so you are worthy of that trust. Study why people buy, because that is going to be your biggest point of leverage for creating a great buying experience.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] cornercap.com [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn [email protected] linkedin.com/in/briancaffarelli

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development at its best is win/win/win. Your business wins, the client wins, and thirdly, the client is winning so much that they become your best business development ambassador. Raving fans turn into your own personal sales force. Focusing on the win for the client secures the win for the business. If your client wins enough, they become predisposed to become a raving fan, but you still have to ask for it. Do something for them that gets them something of value and gets you even more. Don’t assume it will happen automatically. First, recognize that the person you are working with is a person and not just a job title. They have interests and frustrations, and when you understand that there is something you can engage with together. Dinner is a great opportunity to connect with someone outside of the confines and constraints of the work. You can also find a time to accompany them on another aspect of their work and learn more about what they do and what they care about in a way that’s not structured like a meeting. The best conversations you can have with a client are the ones where you do 20% of the talking. Figure out questions to act as a stimulus and get them talking. There is value and benefit for people in just having the opportunity to talk.   Mo asks Mark Harris: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development means something different to everybody. For Mark, it’s all about helping people understand what their needs are (teaching) and then once you find that out it’s helping them find the solution they need. Mark focuses on one phrase when going into the first meeting with someone, specifically being “humbly curious”. He’s simply looking to understand what motivates someone and where they are coming from, and what’s going to help them. Nobody wants to be sold, but everybody likes to buy, especially from people they like. Focusing on the sale is a short-term strategy. Sometimes the right thing is to not sell something. If things aren’t a good fit now but might be later, being upfront and telling the prospect the truth is how you can build trust and empathy and secure a valuable long-term relationship. Ask as many questions as you can. When you can train your mind to ask questions and be humbly curious, the world is your oyster and you can bring value to that organization at all times.   Mo asks Linda Klein: What is your personal definition of business development? Adding value to a client’s business by solving the problem. Service professionals often only look at a client’s issue through the lens of their own expertise, but that’s not the way to grow a business. Asking for the sale before solving the problem (or diagnosing the problem) isn’t going to work. Linda looks for ways to solve client problems that keep them from growing their own business. Sometimes that means referring the client to someone else when the issue is outside her area of expertise. Linda starts solving the problem before a transaction has occurred. We can sense when someone is trying to sell us before any value has really been added to the relationship and it usually makes us want to run away. Go into the first meeting simply to get to know somebody instead of trying to close the sale. When you help someone achieve their goals, you feel great and you increase the odds of them turning into a paying client. When following up, think about who you could connect the person with and what the person said in the initial meeting that you continue the conversation with. If you have taken your time to get to know the industry your prospect is in, you will know where the pain points are and have opportunities to help. The number one thing you can do to be proactive in building relationships is writing down your top five to ten people that are important to your career and using that to make sure you're constantly being helpful.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] [email protected] linkedin.com/in/mark-harris-9ba1b53 [email protected] linkedin.com/in/lindakleinlaw

Mo asks Mike Duffy: What is your personal definition of business development? Simply put, business development is helping others, connecting dots, and developing healthy and long lasting relationships. When you understand who your client is, whoever that happens to be in the moment, and add value for them, that's how you get stuff done. Where is the value chain and how are you adding value? It doesn’t end with the person you are talking to right now. Servant leadership is the foundation for Mike’s relationship philosophy. He’s always asking himself internally about how he can be helpful to not only his client, but also his client’s clients. When you ask the right questions, you get some interesting answers. Questions allow you to understand what motivates and drives someone, what concerns them, and what brings them joy. When you’re in a dot-connecting mode, all of that info helps you know who to link up. Helping people when there is no chance of commercial gain is your moment of truth. Connecting dots for people is how you leave a legacy. It’s worth the fight. Choose your attitude every day and build your resilience over time so you can keep pushing forward. If your definition of business development is helping people, getting a no every once in a while is not an issue.   Mo asks Bill Ruprecht: What story did your parents tell you that shaped how you thought about business development? Bill’s mother was always extremely bright and driven, but she wasn’t terribly happy in her life. His father had the knack of being able to find commonality with almost anyone. It was at the dinner table where Bill was constantly challenged with questions on how he would deal with a variety of hypothetical situations. When Bill started in the antique business he was working with Persian rug dealers and in the process he learned what was relevant to them and how to build rapport, despite the considerable difference in their culture. Bill understood that those conversations with his parents around the dinner table were like batting practice, and those skills served him well in his work later on in life. When you do something for a long time, you give yourself the opportunity to get lucky. If you position yourself in the right way and do the work, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful, but it does mean you can get lucky. There wasn’t one single pivot moment where Bill got lucky and his career took off. It was a gradual process of taking on more risks and responsibilities over time and pushing past the fear to take the leap each time.   Mo asks Cyril Peupion: What is your personal definition of business development? Cyril’s definition has evolved over the years. What began as selling became serving. Cyril is very clear on who he helps and how he can do it, as well as the people that he’s not right for. Cyril’s passion for what he does is derived from clarity on who can help. When it comes to first meetings, the goal is not to sell his services but to simply find out if they are a good match and to find the right solution for the prospect, even if that means referring them to someone else. It’s vital to surround yourself with the right people and have an environment of accountability while keeping a mentality of continuous learning. Masterminds and accountability partners are crucial for your personal and business growth. Find people who are playing at the same level as you and with the same giving mindset. People typically allow their day to be filled up but all the little things that inevitably come up. One of the first exercises Cyril has leadership teams walk through is creating their ideal week, and then creating a calendar by working backward from the most important things you can do with your time.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn wslb.com

Mo asks Jane Allen: What is your personal definition of business development? Jane’s definition is simply proactive problem solving. If you are trying to sell something, it should be something they need and may not know they need it. It’s about showing them a problem they have as well as the solution. People don’t like to be sold to, but they do like to buy. If you’re struggling with being proactive, realize that it’s not the job of the prospect to call you or respond to your email. It’s your job to get the meeting. One of the best kinds of meetings is when someone says that they are not going to work with you, then at least you’re not going to waste your time. Don’t waste their time. Even if you think you have all the answers, you don’t. The goal of the first meeting is to ask thought provoking questions and to determine whether you have a solution to their problem. If you can’t resolve everything in one meeting, the goal is to secure the next. The prospect should understand the importance of the next meeting and you should give them enough of a cliffhanger that they anticipate it.   Mo asks Jeff Berardi: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is creating a pipeline of future growth opportunities. You won’t know when they come to fruition or how, but it’s a steady process of cultivating and building relationships. There is never enough when it comes to business development because you never know when the well is going to go dry. By having a large pipeline, you have the ability to choose who you work with rather than having to take whatever comes your way. The lack of control is a major source of stress for people. Business development activities give you back the control over who you work with and how. You may be busy, but you must set aside time for business development opportunities or you might end up resentful of how much you are working. By having more opportunities than you need, you can say no to stuff you don’t want and the more you’re going to get paid. You also regain control on who you work with and which big ideas you get to work on. The commonality in cases where people are struggling with business development and people who thrive is fear. For those who are already successful, it’s a fear of losing what they’ve achieved. For those who are struggling, it’s a fear that they can’t be successful or that business development is beyond them. When you change the mindset from a fear of not being capable, to being afraid of too much success, you open the door of opportunity. The rainmakers have learned the tools they need to succeed and they have confidence in the process. Knowing that business development is a learnable skill is what flips someone from fear to confidence.   Mo asks Henning Streubel: What is your personal definition of business development? Henning prefers the term relationship development, which he considers the foundation of every successful service provider. Henning learned early in his career not to take things personally. If someone doesn’t respond to him, he assumes they must be busy and it’s not about the other person not liking him. Many experts hesitate to reach out when they don’t get a response right away. It’s important to understand what matters to people and to offer them something they are interested in. Understand how their mind works on the professional side and send them information that would appeal to that, but don’t be afraid to also reach out on the personal side. The biggest barrier to relationship success is us. Henning has a process for understanding where his relationships are in three categories: professional, personal, and friendship. He is always trying to think about how to develop a relationship to take it to the next level. Simply writing down the top five to ten relationships that are most important for your future self is a powerful tool. Knowing where you want a relationship to go helps you understand how you can be the most helpful. One of Henning’s mentors told him early in his career to keep doing the right thing and success will come. Investing in the right relationships will eventually have a commercial benefit. You don’t need to have all the answers if you can refer a prospect to someone else who can help. Role model the behavior for your team if you want that behavior to permeate. Make the time to show that you put the mindset into practice and celebrate the effort that people are putting into the work. Celebrating the little things where you went above and beyond what a normal professional relationship would be. That creates momentum and the right spirit to invest in relationships.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com ec.co [email protected] [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio linkedin.com/in/henning-streubel-phd on.bcg.com/henning - Use the envelope icon on this page to get in touch with Henning directly

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What's your personal definition of growth? Ultimately, it's all about impact, but in order to make an impact you need fuel. Creating complex partnerships is very aligned with good development practices, which is valuable for Jonathan because growth at Habitat for Humanity means having conversations around fundraising. When he made the mindset switch to solving someone’s problem, raising money became much easier and simpler. It's not about pressuring, or trying to get somebody to do something they don't want to do. It's about really trying to understand what people are trying to accomplish or the impact they want to have, and then looking for a fit and where there is one, finding ways you can help them have that impact in a really joyful way. Before a big meeting, you have to do the research. Jonathan will have a brief on the person’s biographical information, passion, and overall strategic goals so that he can create alignment in the potential partnership. Creating win/wins is the goal and when you can do that, growth becomes easy. Negotiation is usually won or lost based on preparation and framing, not on the actual tactics of the conversation. After the research, the first step of the meeting is creating a point of connection and establishing the relationship. The goal of the first meeting is to come away with clear next steps, not to close the deal.   Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is your personal definition of business development? Katrina likes helping people. For her, business development is about cultivating opportunities to help people. Business development doesn’t always have a great reinforcement mechanism, but having a process established makes it much more consistent. Creating a habit around communication that makes it simpler, more meaningful, and consistent is what has helped Katrina stay the course. Using the tools and communication methods that your client uses is crucial. Katrina tries to make her communications quick and useful when touching base with someone and on whatever platform works for them. Lots of little touches can be extremely powerful relationship builders. Katrina carves out time on Mondays to reach out to people, but she also has notes on her calendar and a Protemoi list that help her keep track of communications. Just having a list of names of the most important people to you can be enough to encourage you to take action.   Mo asks Tyler Sweatt: What is your personal definition of business development? Simply put, it’s all about value creation. The entire spectrum of taking a prospect from completely cold to raving fan is the process of growth. Content creation is part of the effort, similar to an at-scale give-to-get. When someone hits the pipeline, Tyler focuses on qualifying them immediately and moving quickly on closing the deal. For marketing and lead generation, you need to figure out the three most important metrics you need to cover and orient on those. That will make everything else easier. Referrals are a big indicator of both effectiveness and product-market fit. Try to avoid measuring too many metrics at the same time. You need to think about business development from the customer’s buying process and how you can remove as much friction from their buying process as possible. Make it as easy to buy from you as possible. Focus on a positive buying experience and make it easy for the customer. Being customer-centered will be extremely valuable in everything you work on.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford [email protected] linkedin.com/in/tylersweatt secondfront.com

Mo asks Henning Streubel: When was the moment that growth and business development was something you wanted to focus on? Henning is intrinsically motivated to help people, but it’s less about business development and sales. Whenever he meets someone, he has a tendency to ask deep questions. Early in his career working for a utility client in Germany, he realized that the client’s company had many more problems than he initially thought which he discovered by simply having a deep conversation. Because of those conversations, the client was able to take Henning’s thoughts and ideas back to her boss and make positive changes. For Henning, relationship development starts with insights, which allows you to create an impact and trust. Many highly analytical people have difficulty talking about anything outside of the project. Henning recommends understanding that everyone is a human being which means they share a common foundation. Being genuine about being curious is key. Don’t just use small talk as a way to open a conversation. Follow up on the topics and go deeper. This shows your interest in them as a human being. Establishing a personal relationship makes connecting with them easier outside the context of the work. It creates an entry point that lets you have the impact you want to have. When you open up on your experience, you become more vulnerable and that creates a better foundation for trust. This was something that Henning had to learn and practice. Having a few stories in your back pocket can make it easier.   Mo asks Linda Klein: When was the moment that you realized that growth was great? Linda separates the ideas of business development and building a relationship. In the beginning of Linda’s career as a lawyer, she spent a lot of time learning about her client’s business and that relationship building always paid off. It’s not about developing the business, it’s about developing the relationship. Linda tells the story of how her grandfather started a grocery business in the early days of the Great Depression, how understanding and getting to know the people in the community became a crucial reason for their success, how that also inspired Linda and how she built her career. When meeting new people, Linda is always looking for the things outside the day-to-day business relationship that are important to them. There is always a place where you can connect. It’s important to be hireable and to share your expertise, but it’s more important to be human first. Start with something relatable instead of leading with your area of expertise and what services you can offer. The number one correlation to likeability is commonality. Always look for the common areas you can connect on. Every conversation and interaction you have will be different, but the person you’re speaking with will always give you clues. By offering details and asking for details, you’re going to find areas of commonality. It’s extremely important for diverse members of your team to feel like they can find areas to connect.   Mo asks Mark Harris: Tell me a story of when you realized that you needed to focus on business development. Mark takes us back to the summer of 1994 when he took on a job selling books door-to-door, a path that some of the most successful rainmakers have followed. It started off as a way to make more money than working at the local McDonald’s but it became a skill that Mark learned he could get better at. All skills are both learned and earned. Mark was initially not good at sales at all and after 12 hours of hearing no, he decided to flip his approach and try to make a connection with the person first. He also learned that he needed to create little wins throughout the day to manage his energy and motivation. The steps to a purchase are the same no matter what you’re selling. Connect with the person first and find out if you can solve their needs. Mark also learned how to deal with his emotions at that time, and when he figured out how to do that he became a lot more relatable and fun to be around. That whole first summer was all about being more relatable to people immediately after meeting them. After a couple sales, Mark figured out what he was really providing people with, and it wasn’t a book. When he took the focus off the money and made it about helping the other person, the sale became much easier. By breaking the process into each individual piece, Mark created a series of small wins that were under his control. Even a rejection can be a learning experience. When you put yourself outside your comfort zone, you become more capable emotionally of handling the experience and more likely to overcome the next hurdle, and every hurdle you jump builds your confidence. Think about what you can do every single day to get you closer to your ultimate win. You don’t know when your next sale is going to happen, but if you can focus on what you can control it will happen.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/henning-streubel-phd on.bcg.com/henning - Use the envelope icon on this page to get in touch with Henning directly [email protected] linkedin.com/in/lindakleinlaw [email protected] linkedin.com/in/mark-harris-9ba1b53

Mo asks Scott Winter: When was the moment that you realized that business development was great? Scott started his career off in sales with LexisNexis and that developed into a role in consulting. Eventually he made the switch to a product management position with Interaction where he focused on CRM and client relationships. Interaction is the world’s largest CRM system for law firms and by coming up in that environment, Scott learned a lot about the technical aspects of the software which helped him better serve his clients. Scott had the typical mindset about sales in college that most people have, but he reframed his perspective after getting some actual experience in sales positions. The one key moment when Scott realized that business development was a powerful tool for growth was after having a simple conversation with someone on a plan. Just listening carefully and remembering what he learned blew that person away when they met again many months later. Scott has a knack for having a conversation on any subject and being able to find a point of connection. He also tends to add notes in his phone of a particularly interesting detail (powerlifting, ironman training, etc.) and makes use of his CRM to keep track of everything. Remembering details about someone is an art and a science, but there are tools you can use to make it easier.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: When did you realize that business development is something that would be interesting to you? Dennis’s interest in business development goes all the way back to his high school days in 1987, where he was trying to find people to participate in market studies. It was a tough gig and he had to stretch outside his comfort zone to get things done. Knowing that he had something of value to offer to the people gave him the confidence to ask for something they may not be initially open to. Dennis learned to be interested in the person first and think about the value he could provide, instead of assuming the ‘no’ right away. Dennis has been on all sides of the transaction when it comes to risk during his career, so that gives him some perspective on what potential buyers are looking for. Initial meetings are simply about identifying problems and how you can be helpful. Preparing for the meetings ahead of time is crucial to Dennis’s success. Following up usually involves finding resources or people to connect the prospect with that can help solve the problem in the meantime. Introducing techniques from another industry is a great way to appeal to a potential client’s desire for both safety and innovation. On the human side of things, Dennis realized that he needed to stay in front of clients at the beginning of the pandemic and that turned into a monthly blog post that he sends to clients and colleagues. Being open and vulnerable, and sharing some of the personal elements of his life, have had a tremendous impact.   Mo asks Andrew Cogar: When did you realize that business development was really important? It really clicked when Andrew started thinking about business development not as a means of getting business but as a means for the firm to get the business they need to forge their own path. After one particular project that went exceedingly well, Andrew understood that those kinds of projects could become a habit rather than a lucky break. The GrowBIG System is essentially about doing the right things so that you have control over the kinds of clients you work with. Being proactive gives you so much work that you can pick and choose the projects that you want most. It’s easier to be reactive on the front end because you don’t have to do the introspective work it takes to shape your vision and be proactive on finding the right business. It’s easier in the long term to adopt the right principles to attract the right clientele. Mo and Andrew do a review of their recent experience working together. In terms of business development, Andrew was simply looking to get to know Mo and the family and understand what he was looking for. As an architect, Andrew is hoping to gauge how open someone is to suggestions and that’s an intentional part of the conversation. At the end of the day, who Andrew works for and who he works with, has become more important to him and the firm than what he works on. Do a little research before a client meeting and come with a set of questions and follow-up questions for them. Don’t be afraid to give some ideas away during the meeting. When you give away a little, you get value back in the things you learn. If you go in with a sales pitch, you don’t learn anything. Show up with questions, not qualifications.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Scott Winter on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz [email protected] historicalconcepts.com Visions of Home

Mo asks Brian Caffarelli: When was the moment that you realized that business development was something you wanted to focus on? Brian’s first job out of college was in selling automobiles as a wholesaler to dealerships. Everything began for Brian with his first sale, and how that came about because of developing a relationship with another human being. Seeing salespeople that were successful and respected helped Brian navigate what it took to grow in a sales career. So much of success is simply about being in the environment and paying attention. If you want to grow your skills, start with the fundamentals of communication and psychology. It’s also important to apply what you learn along the way instead of just taking it in. Consider what you’ve done well and what you could have done better. Translating his business development skills to a virtual environment is something that Brian is working on, as well as working on learning new things and being open to seeing things differently. A recent study revealed the Learned Dogmatism effect and how people tend to become more closed-minded the more expert they become in a specific domain. One of the keys to Brian’s success is striving against that and always being willing to learn.   Mo asks Katrina Johnson: Tell us the moment when you realized that business development was good and worth doing? Katrina’s big aha moment was when she realized that the skill of business development can be learned. She started in academia and fell into consulting almost by accident, and she enjoyed her consulting work but she felt like her hands were tied. As a subcontractor, Katrina wasn’t able to deliver the work in the way that she thought would be the most powerful for her clients. It wasn’t until Katrina met Mo and learned about the GrowBIG system did she realize what was missing from her work. With a background in neural science, Katrina knew that the research and material were pointing her in the right direction, but in some ways digging into the research was also a curse. Katrina sometimes falls into the habit of using research as a way to hide and avoid putting it into practice. This is where her second big realization came into play, and that she had some underlying issue that was preventing her from executing. She decided to start off small and refine the process from a place of action. She began by going to networking events and trying to follow up with people, most of those efforts didn’t pan out though. She landed a few speaking engagements with small groups of people and used that as a basis to create a relationship with people. She embraced deeper relationships rather than looser connections and in doing so stretched herself outside of her comfort zone. She doesn’t set out to get meetings with important decision makers, but that often flows from naturally deepening relationships with people and being helpful. Katrina learned a lot about the value of targeting over the last year. She realized that when she can work with the management of an organization in some combination of assessment and coaching she’s at her best.   Mo asks Cannon Carr: When did you realize that business development was great? There was not one moment, but a story stands out in particular for Cannon. When his father was retiring from the firm he was working at, he told him that he was a great analyst but not a great salesperson, and if he wanted to succeed, he would need to figure that out. When a professional services firm reaches a certain revenue threshold, the same things that got them to that point won’t help grow past it. Simply hiring a rainmaker won’t necessarily solve the problem. You need a broader team working towards business development to tap a broader network to grow a firm. The real mindset shift that unlocks the power of business development is “Are you selling, or are you helping to solve problems?” Take the sales hat off and integrate yourself into your client’s lives. Understand what their problems are, and if you can be alongside them during the inevitable transitions in their life, you can deepen the relationship. It’s about relevancy and solving problems. The sales and referrals will come naturally out of that. Life has transitions that create challenges along the way. Cannon helps his clients with a wealth plan that keeps their legacy and lifestyle intact.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] linkedin.com/in/briancaffarelli [email protected] [email protected] cornercap.com

Mo asks Craig Budner: When did you realize that business development is good? Craig’s brother was a litigator and from an early age had his own firm. This taught Craig the necessity of creating a brand and cultivating referral sources in order to grow the firm. Craig took a slightly different path from his brother in that he joined one of the firms in Texas. It was there that he created the relationships and connections that made him realize the value of being an advisor to someone and not just on legal issues. After creating a relationship with one of the firm’s important executive clients, a partner encouraged Craig to run with what he was doing. During his associate days, Craig learned the value of doing a great job for clients and nurturing relationships. When he understood that clients were actual multiple sources of revenue, and that if he could cultivate relationships with people directly in his path of work delivery, he started to get the first call. He was being trusted by the people in charge of important projects, and that gave him the opportunity to do more fun kinds of work. How do you advise others to think about business development? Demystifying business development is the first step. The characteristics of good parents, friends, and listeners are the characteristics that make a good business developer. It’s not about the money at the end of the line, it’s about growth and learning, and getting better at putting yourself in the shoes of someone else. What do you think about mutually beneficial relationships? You have to be a better listener than a talker to develop deep relationships. If you’re always thinking about what you’re going to say, you’re not going to get enough information out of that relationship to make it mutually beneficial. Think about how you can be helpful to that person. You can leave a positive impression on that person by reflecting back that you have heard them and you’re going to try to advance their issue.   Mo asks Bill Ruprecht: When did you first start thinking about business development as something important that you wanted to do? Bill spent many years in business when there were two kinds of business development. The first was a form of gunslinging more focused on extracting value and the second was centered around building more long term relationships. Inevitably, you come to realize that building relationships and adding relevance to potential customers is the way to go. There are three ways to differentiate a business: be an innovator and make things that no one has seen before, be cheap and provide the lowest cost service, or you can be customer centric and know more about your customers than anyone else in the world. Nobody should own a client. The team should always work together to get the job done well. If you have a lot of history with a client or they demand that a particular person is involved, that should be accepted. The end result of a deal is always a combination of relationship and price. In Bill’s line of work, certain clients tend to push on price but that always makes things tougher. Chasing the margins on a deal down to the point where the service provider doesn’t care about the outcome is always a poor choice. For another client, Bill tells the story of a semi-regular delivery of BLT sandwiches and how they were a barometer of the relationship. They may not have gotten the business because of the sandwiches, but they definitely didn’t hurt.   Mo asks Andrew Robertson: When did you first realize that business development or relationship development was a good thing? The first time Andrew realized business development was fundamentally about discipline was while working as a barman in Maidenhead where he learned how to connect with people and build rapport very quickly. It was there he met an insurance broker that offered him a job. As a student working in the evenings, Andrew learned that if he made 100 phone calls on Monday night he could line up 10 meetings for the rest of the week, which would usually result in 3 sales. He started experimenting with the approach he was taught and learned two important lessons very quickly. The method he was taught was tried and tested, and if he didn’t do the work of making the calls, he didn’t get the results he needed. No one else was going to make those calls if he didn’t do it. He wasn’t in the relationship-building business yet, that came later. Andrew learned the importance of discipline and trusting the process. The idea that people are born with the habits that make them successful is incorrect. Discipline can be learned like any area of expertise. The most important thing is to get a meeting, not to have everything prepared. Don’t get ahead of yourself. If you focus on the delivery first, you’ll never set the meeting in the first place. You need to pick up the phone and offer them something valuable and interesting as quickly as you can. That’s how you earn the time to develop a relationship afterward. Pulling insights from other proposals and using them to intrigue other prospects enough to get a meeting is a good example of an offer that gets people interested. You don’t always have to go straight to the ultimate decision maker. Getting a meeting with a mid-level manager can be a great opportunity too. Every meeting is useful in learning more about the company or the industry.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] K&L Gates Client Conversations Podcast [email protected]

Mo asks Cyril Peupion: When was the moment you realized that growth was great? Cyril started his own business with a partner after completing his MBA so he had an interest in business development right from the beginning. With time, he realized how much he had to learn about sales and relationship building. Impact is a keyword in how Cyril views the world. If he had only one principle piece of advice to give to people, it would be to prioritize your calendar according to impact. Cyril tells the story of a client he was working with and the impact on their life the work had. As great as getting to inbox zero and having an organized and neat work environment, being able to sleep at night and actually turn off her mind was completely life-changing. When you have something as powerful and impactful on people’s lives, business development becomes easy and natural. Cyril considers his business to be in service to his clients. When you change your way of working it changes your life, which is why Cyril doesn’t view his work as business development. Instead, he sees it as bringing his service to the people that need it. When it comes to prioritizing for impact, you have to start with a mind shift. High performers don’t look at when things are due, they look at the impact of the things they need to do first. Think quarterly, plan weekly, and act daily. Thinking quarterly is one of the most effective time frames to think about work while incorporating your long-term vision. Planning each week is an important tempo for progressing your top two or three priorities. A crisis will arrive eventually, but you need to run your tasks through the four-word framework of What Impact Long-Term.   Mo asks Debby Moorman: Tell me the moment when you decided that business development is something that you wanted to focus on. Debby fell into business development almost by accident when she was in college after taking a sales job one summer. The key realization was when she figured out that she liked helping people solve their problems, and that was when she decided to shift her focus to professional sales. Debby went on to a professional sales role out of college where most of the training was technical in focus. It wasn’t until Debby moved into a national leadership role did she realize that business development skills are just as important as technical skills. That was when she became connected with Mo and the GrowBIG system. Now that Debby is consulting, the focus on business development is even more important. As a service provider, the reality is that you are helping your clients solve their problems, and that is the essence of business development. Companies tend to focus on technical training because there is often so much information to learn and such a large need for that information, businesses are incentivized to pay attention to it. An organization that wants to grow has to invest in its people beyond the technical side. Companies often throw structure at an issue in an attempt to solve a problem. Take the word sales out of your mind if you’re just getting started with business development. Retool your brain to frame the conversation as a way of figuring out what the other person needs and how you can help. If you can do that, the conversation becomes less intimidating.   Mo asks Mike Duffy: When was the moment that you decided that business development was important and you needed to get great at it? Mike’s dad started in sales so he had a front row seat on making sales from the very beginning. He started his sales career by  selling ad space in a travel magazine, and once he got out of college, Mike started selling ladies clothes in California. He took a $500,000 territory and in 18 months turned it into $2.5 million. He won salesman of the year at the age of 24 and ended up having a beer with his sales manager which led to a conversation that changed everything for him. Mike took a deep dive into discovering what really makes a good sales program and he became a student of sales for the rest of his career. Mike teaches lawyers business development now under the assumption that he has to sell the idea to his students. The goal is to help them understand that adding value to a relationship or closing a deal is sales by another name. If we want to live the life we want, we have to get great at growth. Start with the people you are going to call and how you can have a conversation that creates curiosity. That allows you to learn about what they need. Business development is about helping people. Business development habits set you apart when it comes to employment as well. It’s hard to ascertain someone’s technical expertise in a 30-minute interview, but it’s obvious when you care, listen intently, and make the conversation about the other person. You always have to be thinking about the long game. Some prospects may not turn into clients for years, so you need to focus on just moving the ball a little bit further each day. Be transparent, have humility, and be honest. Tell people when they are your #1 target and allow them to shape the relationship in a way that’s valuable for them.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com wslb.com [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn Mike Duffy on LinkedIn

Jonathan Reckford shares his incredible experiences at the helm of Habitat for Humanity and how he’s helping to change the world by creating strategic partnerships with other organizations, and how it all starts with building relationships first. Find out how the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, one of the biggest non-profit organizations in the world, can still make time each month to work on his Protomoi List and why aligning a potential partner’s desire for impact with your goals is a great foundation to build a valuable long-term relationship on.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: When did you realize you wanted to grow something big and make an impact? Jonathan had a lot of great role models growing up, with his grandmother being one of the first women in Congress. She would always ask Jonathan what he was going to do to be useful, a mindset that he eventually adopted and grew into. Jonathan assumed he would follow her footsteps into politics and law, but quickly realized after college that law wasn’t what he wanted to do. He later talked his way into a job at Goldman Sachs, received a grant and moved to South Korea to work for the Seoul Olympic committee, and ended up working with the rowing team as their coach for a few years. That experience allowed him to reorient his perspective and after returning home, Jonathan came back with a mission. He went into business school and spent the next 15 years helping large organizations grow. After that time in the private sector, Jonathan went to India on short-term mission trips. Seeing the challenges and suffering in rural India touched his heart and he realized the power of small interventions in dire situations. Jonathan began focusing on helping churches grow and contributing to the mission of alleviating international poverty, ultimately culminating in working for Habitat for Humanity nearly 17 years ago. You can’t always connect the dots going forward, but when you look back you see how everything got you to where you are now. Jonathan’s experiences in his career lend themselves perfectly to his current role as the leader of Habitat for Humanity. Work on the ‘who’ before the ‘what’. Build your character and skills instead of looking for some grand career plan. No matter what you do in your 20s, consider it continuing your education. As long as you’re learning and aligned, you will eventually find your vocation where you have an impact that lines up with your passion and skills. Habitat for Humanity is thinking big for the future and is focused on making markets work more effectively to create just societies where really everyone can access safe, decent, affordable housing. Really bold leaders are ones that reframe everything. If you have the right mission for the problem you're trying to solve, you'll gain the power you need to get there. If you're focused on gaining power, that's ultimately going to be self-defeating. Start with crafting a story around why what you’re doing is making the world a better place and get clarity on your true purpose.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What's your personal definition of growth? Ultimately, it's all about impact, but in order to make an impact you need fuel. Creating complex partnerships is very aligned with good development practices, which is valuable for Jonathan because growth at Habitat for Humanity means having conversations around fundraising. When he made the mindset switch to solving someone’s problem, raising money became much easier and simpler. It's not about pressuring, or trying to get somebody to do something they don't want to do. It's about really trying to understand what people are trying to accomplish or the impact they want to have, and then looking for a fit and where there is one, finding ways you can help them have that impact in a really joyful way. Before a big meeting, you have to do the research. Jonathan will have a brief on the person’s biographical information, passion, and overall strategic goals so that he can create alignment in the potential partnership. Creating win/wins is the goal and when you can do that, growth becomes easy. Negotiation is usually won or lost based on preparation and framing, not on the actual tactics of the conversation. After the research, the first step of the meeting is creating a point of connection and establishing the relationship. The goal of the first meeting is to come away with clear next steps, not to close the deal.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? Jonathan’s first favorite is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. He uses it all the time in talking with potential partners and tailoring the conversation to how they process information and think. Wrapping your data into a story is a great way to hit on more of the four ways people think, but also make your data more memorable at the same time. Jonathan’s second favorite is simply discipline with the Protomoi List. Every month, Jonathan and his team review his list and look at how they are adding value to those relationships. The takeaway was the discipline and rigor of being very intentional about your most important relationships. Jonathan makes sure that there is time booked into his calendar to make connections, either physical or digital, with the most important relationships in his life. Sending a note to someone has more weight to it when they know you’re busy.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: Tell us a development or growth story that you're really particularly proud of. Jonathan tells the story of a complex corporate partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Hilty, and how they’ve worked together closely after building a relationship over the years. Each year, the two organizations began to work more closely together and started developing new innovative approaches to achieving their mutual goals. There's not only funding, but it's making both parties better. They are achieving their goals as well inside a full strategic partnership which is much more exciting than just a transactional donor relationship. Jonathan’s role was in building trust with the head of the foundation. Without that relationship, the partnership probably wouldn’t exist. It also taught Jonathan a lot about building trust and being direct.   Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: You get to magically record a video and send it back to your younger self with some advice. What do you say? Jonathan spent most of his youth thinking about what he wanted to do instead of who he wanted to be. He would tell his younger self to focus on the ‘who’ before the ‘what’ first. If you never fail, it's likely you're not going big enough. Hope is built in the community. Volunteering gives you a sense of the community and how you can bring the virtues of kindness and love into the world. Following your passion is incomplete. You need to search for the intersection between what you’re passionate about and where your skills, ability, and talent lie. Jonathan tells the story of Doris, and how he grew up in a poor neighborhood in North Carolina and how his life completely changed after his mom qualified to buy a Habitat house in Optimist Park. Doris is the first person to grow up in a Habitat for Humanity house and to serve on the board as well. The story perfectly encapsulates the mission and purpose of Habitat for Humanity and how giving people a platform and foundation for a stable, healthy life can impact their community and society as a whole.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: You get to magically record a video and send it back to your younger self with some advice. What do you say? Jonathan spent most of his youth thinking about what he wanted to do instead of who he wanted to be. He would tell his younger self to focus on the ‘who’ before the ‘what’ first. If you never fail, it's likely you're not going big enough. Hope is built in the community. Volunteering gives you a sense of the community and how you can bring the virtues of kindness and love into the world. Following your passion is incomplete. You need to search for the intersection between what you’re passionate about and where your skills, ability, and talent lie. Jonathan tells the story of Doris, and how he grew up in a poor neighborhood in North Carolina and how his life completely changed after his mom qualified to buy a Habitat house in Optimist Park. Doris is the first person to grow up in a Habitat for Humanity house and to serve on the board as well. The story perfectly encapsulates the mission and purpose of Habitat for Humanity and how giving people a platform and foundation for a stable, healthy life can impact their community and society as a whole.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: Tell us a development or growth story that you're really particularly proud of. Jonathan tells the story of a complex corporate partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Hilty, and how they’ve worked together closely after building a relationship over the years. Each year, the two organizations began to work more closely together and started developing new innovative approaches to achieving their mutual goals. There's not only funding, but it's making both parties better. They are achieving their goals as well inside a full strategic partnership which is much more exciting than just a transactional donor relationship. Jonathan’s role was in building trust with the head of the foundation. Without that relationship, the partnership probably wouldn’t exist. It also taught Jonathan a lot about building trust and being direct.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? Jonathan’s first favorite is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. He uses it all the time in talking with potential partners and tailoring the conversation to how they process information and think. Wrapping your data into a story is a great way to hit on more of the four ways people think, but also make your data more memorable at the same time. Jonathan’s second favorite is simply discipline with the Protomoi List. Every month, Jonathan and his team review his list and look at how they are adding value to those relationships. The takeaway was the discipline and rigor of being very intentional about your most important relationships. Jonathan makes sure that there is time booked into his calendar to make connections, either physical or digital, with the most important relationships in his life. Sending a note to someone has more weight to it when they know you’re busy.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What's your personal definition of growth? Ultimately, it's all about impact, but in order to make an impact you need fuel. Creating complex partnerships is very aligned with good development practices, which is valuable for Jonathan because growth at Habitat for Humanity means having conversations around fundraising. When he made the mindset switch to solving someone’s problem, raising money became much easier and simpler. It's not about pressuring, or trying to get somebody to do something they don't want to do. It's about really trying to understand what people are trying to accomplish or the impact they want to have, and then looking for a fit and where there is one, finding ways you can help them have that impact in a really joyful way. Before a big meeting, you have to do the research. Jonathan will have a brief on the person’s biographical information, passion, and overall strategic goals so that he can create alignment in the potential partnership. Creating win/wins is the goal and when you can do that, growth becomes easy. Negotiation is usually won or lost based on preparation and framing, not on the actual tactics of the conversation. After the research, the first step of the meeting is creating a point of connection and establishing the relationship. The goal of the first meeting is to come away with clear next steps, not to close the deal.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: When did you realize you wanted to grow something big and make an impact? Jonathan had a lot of great role models growing up, with his grandmother being one of the first women in Congress. She would always ask Jonathan what he was going to do to be useful, a mindset that he eventually adopted and grew into. Jonathan assumed he would follow her footsteps into politics and law, but quickly realized after college that law wasn’t what he wanted to do. He later talked his way into a job at Goldman Sachs, received a grant and moved to South Korea to work for the Seoul Olympic committee, and ended up working with the rowing team as their coach for a few years. That experience allowed him to reorient his perspective and after returning home, Jonathan came back with a mission. He went into business school and spent the next 15 years helping large organizations grow. After that time in the private sector, Jonathan went to India on short-term mission trips. Seeing the challenges and suffering in rural India touched his heart and he realized the power of small interventions in dire situations. Jonathan began focusing on helping churches grow and contributing to the mission of alleviating international poverty, ultimately culminating in working for Habitat for Humanity nearly 17 years ago. You can’t always connect the dots going forward, but when you look back you see how everything got you to where you are now. Jonathan’s experiences in his career lend themselves perfectly to his current role as the leader of Habitat for Humanity. Work on the ‘who’ before the ‘what’. Build your character and skills instead of looking for some grand career plan. No matter what you do in your 20s, consider it continuing your education. As long as you’re learning and aligned, you will eventually find your vocation where you have an impact that lines up with your passion and skills. Habitat for Humanity is thinking big for the future and is focused on making markets work more effectively to create just societies where really everyone can access safe, decent, affordable housing. Really bold leaders are ones that reframe everything. If you have the right mission for the problem you're trying to solve, you'll gain the power you need to get there. If you're focused on gaining power, that's ultimately going to be self-defeating. Start with crafting a story around why what you’re doing is making the world a better place and get clarity on your true purpose.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Marty Fagan shares his strategy for entering new markets at TransUnion and why the Three Legged Stool approach to business development is the most effective way to build relationships with complete strangers. Find out why business development is sales plus thought leadership, why valuable relationships, both  in life and in business, begin with authenticity and passion, and why persistence is one of the most powerful success habits you can cultivate in your career.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: Go back in time and tell me of the moment when you realized growth or business development was something you wanted to dive into. In his role at TransUnion, Marty is helping the organization explore new areas of the market that the business has never participated in before, and that’s where business development has been a critical component. As an unknown entity, it requires an entirely different mindset in how you approach new business. If your brand isn’t really well known yet, that can actually be an advantage, as it gives you the opportunity to decide and shape the brand that people will perceive. To break into a market, you need to have the mindset of a marketer and sales executive. You have to bring together the tactical and the strategic to win. When meeting someone for the first time, Marty tries to glean as much information about them as possible ahead of time using resources like LinkedIn to find people with connections to the person he’s going to talk to. Next, he looks at the company’s strategic objectives, vision, and priorities, then moves up to researching the industry as a whole. All this research allows Marty to create really customized questions that are highly relevant to the potential client, all within the context of solving a need for the customer.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is sales but in a different way. You have to think strategically from a thought leadership perspective instead of tactically. Sales and marketing should be integrated, and that’s what happens within the context of business development. This is the approach TransUnion uses to enter new markets. They combine the sales, solutions, and marketing into one coordinated effort. Marty uses the analogy of the three legged stool. Without the legs of a sales process, a solution to offer the market, and the marketing/outreach of having conversations with people that need your solution, the stool falls over and nothing happens. If one of those elements aren’t in place for you, seek out as many subject matter experts on that area as you can to help you develop it. If you don’t have it internally, find it externally. When looking at a new market, Marty starts by looking at the solutions his organization already has and how they can apply to that industry to make a customer more effective. It’s an outside-in approach that is very powerful.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: When you think of GrowBig Training or the Snowball System, what's your favorite science, step, or story? The Give to Get is the easy answer for Marty. By utilizing the Give to Get, Marty’s team establishes a much stronger relationship with their customer and gets them bought in, drastically increasing the odds of landing the business. You’re becoming a partner with your customer through the process by investing in them, and in return they often begin investing in you. A Give to Get is essentially offering something of value to a prospect that you think they need before you are hired. This can take the form of thought leadership, connections, and more. It has three criteria: it adds value for them, it’s relatively worth it, and it’s easy for you to do. The key to a successful Give to Get is that it leads to a next step and the prospect realizing that they can benefit from your expertise. Get to a place where you agree on what success looks like, that mutual agreement is what leads to the next step and eventually the close. With a Give to Get, you're both agreeing to something, and you're working on this in collaboration with each other. You're both investing time and effort into it and that's what ties it all together. Without both sides escalating the commitment level over time, there won’t be a future together. Compared to a blind RFP, the Give to Get approach is almost ten times more effective at landing business.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: I want you to tell me of a business development story that you're particularly proud of. Marty tells the story of an opportunity he had been pursuing for three years where his persistence really paid off. Despite the lack of traction for multiple years, Marty kept persisting and keeping the lines of communication open because he knew that the area the client needed help in was something they could provide and the importance level was very high for them. Having the grit to work through the tough times and the seeming lack of progress has resulted in a great business relationship that Marty is really proud of. A lot of business professionals struggle with the front end persistence, where they get little to no response from someone they are trying to build a relationship with. Seeing that as a challenge, instead of an insurmountable obstacle, helps. Marty never lost the belief that he could actually add value to the client, and that gave him the confidence to keep going. Early stage relationships are less like a tennis match, where you need the other person to respond in order to continue playing, and more like practicing your serve. Keep giving. Persistence shows you are serious about adding value, and that takes time.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: If you could record a video about growth or Business Development, and send it back to your younger self, what would you say? First thing is to be authentic. If you truly are authentic, people can pick up on that. And if you're not authentic, they can pick up on that as well. If you’re talking to someone and you don’t think your solution is a good fit, don’t sell it to them. Closing the sale no matter what may work in the short-term, but it’s a terrible strategy in the long-term. The second thing is to have a passion for the solution you are offering to your customers. People pick up on your passion, which contributes to that feeling of authenticity. Having passion and authenticity establishes trust, and that trust needs to be in place to have a conversation result in a closed deal. If you’ve developed a deep expertise, it’s okay to be excited about it and convey that energy to people.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: If you could record a video about growth or Business Development, and send it back to your younger self, what would you say? First thing is to be authentic. If you truly are authentic, people can pick up on that. And if you're not authentic, they can pick up on that as well. If you’re talking to someone and you don’t think your solution is a good fit, don’t sell it to them. Closing the sale no matter what may work in the short-term, but it’s a terrible strategy in the long-term. The second thing is to have a passion for the solution you are offering to your customers. People pick up on your passion, which contributes to that feeling of authenticity. Having passion and authenticity establishes trust, and that trust needs to be in place to have a conversation result in a closed deal. If you’ve developed a deep expertise, it’s okay to be excited about it and convey that energy to people.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: I want you to tell me of a business development story that you're particularly proud of. Marty tells the story of an opportunity he had been pursuing for three years where his persistence really paid off. Despite the lack of traction for multiple years, Marty kept persisting and keeping the lines of communication open because he knew that the area the client needed help in was something they could provide and the importance level was very high for them. Having the grit to work through the tough times and the seeming lack of progress has resulted in a great business relationship that Marty is really proud of. A lot of business professionals struggle with the front end persistence, where they get little to no response from someone they are trying to build a relationship with. Seeing that as a challenge, instead of an insurmountable obstacle, helps. Marty never lost the belief that he could actually add value to the client, and that gave him the confidence to keep going. Early stage relationships are less like a tennis match, where you need the other person to respond in order to continue playing, and more like practicing your serve. Keep giving. Persistence shows you are serious about adding value, and that takes time.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: When you think of GrowBig Training or the Snowball System, what's your favorite science, step, or story? The Give to Get is the easy answer for Marty. By utilizing the Give to Get, Marty’s team establishes a much stronger relationship with their customer and gets them bought in, drastically increasing the odds of landing the business. You’re becoming a partner with your customer through the process by investing in them, and in return they often begin investing in you. A Give to Get is essentially offering something of value to a prospect that you think they need before you are hired. This can take the form of thought leadership, connections, and more. It has three criteria: it adds value for them, it’s relatively worth it, and it’s easy for you to do. The key to a successful Give to Get is that it leads to a next step and the prospect realizing that they can benefit from your expertise. Get to a place where you agree on what success looks like, that mutual agreement is what leads to the next step and eventually the close. With a Give to Get, you're both agreeing to something, and you're working on this in collaboration with each other. You're both investing time and effort into it and that's what ties it all together. Without both sides escalating the commitment level over time, there won’t be a future together. Compared to a blind RFP, the Give to Get approach is almost ten times more effective at landing business.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan