Mo asks Kevin Clem: What is your personal definition of business development? Simply put, making connections and solving problems. It’s always about how you can solve a problem, whether or not there is a direct transaction involved. When you solve someone’s problem, either directly or through your network, they will probably come to you first to solve a similar problem in the future. Kevin is always listening for an issue that his organization may be able to help with, but he’s also looking for third party connections and resources that may help as well. There is always some aspect of a prospect’s experience that you can use as a hook to follow up. One of the best pieces of advice that Kevin received was to either make an introduction, bring an insight, or give an invitation to something else. Don’t assume that a conversation that doesn’t result in a closed deal is a loss. Business development is about playing the game, and if you can help a person solve their problem, they will probably come to you in the future. A successful meeting is when you add value, and a really successful meeting is when you book another meeting.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/kevinclem [email protected] hbrconsulting.com

Mo asks Kevin Clem: When was the moment you realized growth is great and you wanted to focus on business development? Kevin has been doing business development for 20 years, but he didn’t always call it that. Kevin realized that he had a knack for business development after a repeat client said to him that they keep coming back to work with him, but they never felt sold. Eventually, the CEO offered to make that a formal role. Sales became a natural progression of Kevin’s career. Business development is an extension of helping clients solve their problems, and making connections with people allowed Kevin to transition into a more client-focused role. Finding ways to form the connection with a client is crucial. Connections are how relationships grow, and when relationships grow, revenue follows. Some of the connection effort is organic, but there is a lot of research involved. Kevin will always look for a point of connection that goes beyond the business transactional relationship. There is a goldmine of information on LinkedIn that you can bring up when it makes sense. The foundation of all good relationships is connection where you have alignment with someone or can build on their relationship with other people. Peppering in the details as your talking about what they are working on is the key to not coming in too strongly. It’s not about manipulating, it’s about organically connecting on some shared experience. Business development is like interviewing. It shouldn’t feel weird that you are doing a little homework on the other person. Thoughtful follow up questions on the other person’s written content is great.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/kevinclem [email protected] hbrconsulting.com

Sandy Lutton talks about business development and what she learned landing world-class speakers and executives as clients. Find out why you should be treating prospects as clients right from the get-go, the top four business development strategies she uses every single day, and why taking the fear out of the initial meeting can open the doors to building great relationships.   Mo asks Sandy Lutton: When was the moment that you realized that you wanted to focus on business development? At the beginning of Sandy’s career she started off in a job at a call center doing customer service and she learned that sales were an integral part of success. She realized that she loved solving people’s problems and enjoyed building relationships. This led to diving into the world of sales within the telecom industry and eventually software and consulting. The opportunity to engage deeply with a client and understand what their business needs and goals were only made the work more attractive. A prospect is not just a prospect, they are in the client process, and Sandy acts accordingly. The prospect stage is about building trust and adding value in a way they need at that point in the relationship. Sandy has a passion for helping storytellers get their story out into the world. Sandy is working with a prospect right now by helping get him in touch with writers that can get his story down on paper. Treating a prospect like a client and providing the value they need at the stage they are in is how you build the relationship from the ground up. Start with strategy and making introductions while communicating that process early on and getting their buy in on the process. As a sole proprietor, it’s important to know at what point they need you specifically and when you can be the most valuable to them.   Mo asks Sandy Lutton: What is your personal definition of business development? We think of business development as a necessary evil way too often, but it’s simply human interaction. Think of business development as an opportunity to get to know someone, understand what they need from you, and how you can bring value to them. Sandy is a firm believer in having a reason to pick up the phone and call a prospect. You need to understand what value you can bring to the other person and then deliver on that. Sandy created an informal CFO network for prospects she was working on building relationships with. This kind of value group is a great resource for the prospects and naturally leads to the prospects wanting to do business for you. If you have value to add, that gives you license to reach out. Put yourself in the potential client’s shoes. The people they take the time to connect with are the ones that are bringing their uniqueness and value to the relationship. It can be as simple as a book recommendation. Once you start to invest in a relationship, it’s much easier to find ways to add value. Sandy and Mo list a ton of different ways you can help a prospect and add value to their life. Everybody makes the assumption that technical expertise is all the same (even if it’s not), but they always pay attention to the people that care.   Mo asks Sandy Lutton: Tell us your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System. Sandy’s favorite science is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Model because it opened her eyes to understanding how her pitch was communicated to other people. The Protemoi List is another strategy that stands out. Knowing who the most important people are in regards to your business and your success, and building a process around it, is a key element to success. Relationships are paramount, and the Protemoi List puts them front and center. Before the Protemoi List, relationships were unstructured. When you have someone on your list, it becomes intentional and mutually beneficial. Sandy’s list used to be longer, but over time she narrowed it down as she learned her limitations and the precise value you can bring to the relationship. How many people can you proactively reach out to in a month in a helpful way that you don’t get paid for. Ten is a great place to start. Give To Get is another favorite strategy. For Sandy, she lays out the overall plan and the steps where the client can engage her to take the next steps. A great Give To Get instills trust in the vision and endears the prospect into working solely with you. The last step that Sandy appreciates is the idea of a value group. By building a network of CFOs and building those relationships over time, she has created a group of raving fans that turn into valuable business.   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 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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast

Mo asks Sandy Lutton: Tell us your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System. Sandy’s favorite science is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Model because it opened her eyes to understanding how her pitch was communicated to other people. The Protemoi List is another strategy that stands out. Knowing who the most important people are in regards to your business and your success, and building a process around it, is a key element to success. Relationships are paramount, and the Protemoi List puts them front and center. Before the Protemoi List, relationships were unstructured. When you have someone on your list, it becomes intentional and mutually beneficial. Sandy’s list used to be longer, but over time she narrowed it down as she learned her limitations and the precise value you can bring to the relationship. How many people can you proactively reach out to in a month in a helpful way that you don’t get paid for. Ten is a great place to start. Give To Get is another favorite strategy. For Sandy, she lays out the overall plan and the steps where the client can engage her to take the next steps. A great Give To Get instills trust in the vision and endears the prospect into working solely with you. The last step that Sandy appreciates is the idea of a value group. By building a network of CFOs and building those relationships over time, she has created a group of raving fans that turn into valuable business.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast

Mo asks Sandy Lutton: What is your personal definition of business development? We think of business development as a necessary evil way too often, but it’s simply human interaction. Think of business development as an opportunity to get to know someone, understand what they need from you, and how you can bring value to them. Sandy is a firm believer in having a reason to pick up the phone and call a prospect. You need to understand what value you can bring to the other person and then deliver on that. Sandy created an informal CFO network for prospects she was working on building relationships with. This kind of value group is a great resource for the prospects and naturally leads to the prospects wanting to do business for you. If you have value to add, that gives you license to reach out. Put yourself in the potential client’s shoes. The people they take the time to connect with are the ones that are bringing their uniqueness and value to the relationship. It can be as simple as a book recommendation. Once you start to invest in a relationship, it’s much easier to find ways to add value. Sandy and Mo list a ton of different ways you can help a prospect and add value to their life. Everybody makes the assumption that technical expertise is all the same (even if it’s not), but they always pay attention to the people that care.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast

Mo asks Sandy Lutton: When was the moment that you realized that you wanted to focus on business development? At the beginning of Sandy’s career she started off in a job at a call center doing customer service and she learned that sales were an integral part of success. She realized that she loved solving people’s problems and enjoyed building relationships. This led to diving into the world of sales within the telecom industry and eventually software and consulting. The opportunity to engage deeply with a client and understand what their business needs and goals were only made the work more attractive. A prospect is not just a prospect, they are in the client process, and Sandy acts accordingly. The prospect stage is about building trust and adding value in a way they need at that point in the relationship. Sandy has a passion for helping storytellers get their story out into the world. Sandy is working with a prospect right now by helping get him in touch with writers that can get his story down on paper. Treating a prospect like a client and providing the value they need at the stage they are in is how you build the relationship from the ground up. Start with strategy and making introductions while communicating that process early on and getting their buy in on the process. As a sole proprietor, it’s important to know at what point they need you specifically and when you can be the most valuable to them.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Her Journey Told Podcast

Warren Shiver shares his years of experience developing client relationships and landing new business and reveals why it all comes down to trust. Learn about the concrete, step-by-step process that establishes trust, how to use the Protemoi list to create a pipeline of opportunities for the future, and the most important business development lessons to learn when you’re just getting started.   Mo asks Warren Shiver: At what point in your career did you realize that business development was something you should focus on? Warren started his career off in the typical management/consulting track almost exclusively focused on product delivery. Warren’s wife worked for PeopleSoft at the time, and he was able to go on a few president’s club trips with her. Seeing top performing business development professionals treated so well opened his eyes. No engineers get treated to trips to tropical destinations for delivering a project on time. Warren was in business school at the time and interviewed for all the top technical positions, but they all wanted to see more sales experience. Warren started to focus more on sales and got the opportunity to build a small team working with companies to improve sales performance. That role forced Warren to focus on business development and kicked off his relationship with Mo. As a deep technical expert, the first yes you need to hear is from your internal partners to get introduced to clients. You need to make yourself as relevant and as easily understood as possible to build trust internally before you can get in front of clients. Trust is foundational. Your niche solution may not be overall material to the account manager so it represents a significant risk. To build trust you need to prove your success. Do you have a track record of prior success in a similar situation? The best client-facing team of executives brings a broad selection of skill sets to a project, even if it means going outside the firm, in order to build the trust and relationship with the client. The most important element of success is having a process. It takes a steady and disciplined approach to be successful, whether you are selling internally, externally, or a combination of both.   Mo asks Warren Shiver: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is simply about building trust between people. People buy from people, and that still holds true in the age of Zoom. Mo’s wife recently started a non-profit focused on equine therapy. and within two months of the launch they were getting incredible amounts donated to the program. This was because Becky had been building relationships with people in the area for 30 years. People are looking for indicators that you do what you’re going to say you’re going to do. Trust is built over the course of your career, and as you help other people be successful, you build your network and your brand, and that helps to sustain your success. Your first interaction with someone matters. How can you come prepared for your first conversation with someone with questions and fluency? Whatever the next step is, follow up and follow through with a high rate of precision and speed. You can differentiate yourself just by having professional, thorough, and timely follow up. Most people aren’t reliable. Reliability starts with being organized. Being able to connect the dots for someone across a number of different relationships is very valuable. Warren uses his Outlook calendar to stay on top of what he needs to get done alongside Hubspot. He also has a Protemoi list of key relationships and opportunities that he keeps front and center along with his calendar, to keep things on track.   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.   Mo asks Warren Shiver: Tell me of a business development story that you are really proud of. Warren left his day job and started his own consultancy in 2010. He created his Protemoi list and started working through it to get things started. Warren met Paul Duval, the senior vice-president of sales at Central Garden, a billion dollar provider of lawn and grass products. That very first relationship developed into a three-month sales cycle and a seven-figure engagement that kicked off Warren’s consultancy. The client gave Warren some feedback after the fact when Warren asked him why they went with his company, and he responded that Warren asked three questions and then shut up and listened as Paul talked for 45 minutes. Warren was also able to bring in a couple other key people to show they could build trust as a team and collaboratively build the scope together. Listening and learning early on and then building the solution together were the two key things that landed the business. It’s way more powerful to learn their priorities using their own words. When someone shares their personal perspective, it’s highly correlated to liking you more. Early on in the conversation with Paul, it became apparent that he knew what he was doing. He had a vision for what he wanted done, and a pitch from Warren’s point of view wouldn’t have landed right. Listening first helped Warren stand out from the other consultants bidding for the business. Even experienced professionals like Mo can fall into the trap of wanting to speak about themselves first. Warren’s client was in the process of a complete business transformation, so it was important as a new firm to show that it wasn’t just Warren working on it. There is a lot of power in co-creation and the complementary skill sets of the additional people played a big role in the success of the project. A key takeaway is to ask for feedback whether you win or lose the business. It helps keep you grounded and helps you understand what your approach might be missing.   Mo asks Warren Shiver: If you could record a video about business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Warren’s advice comes in three parts, the first one is: find opportunities around business development as early as possible, get experience, and fail. You can be a Hall of Fame level baseball player by hitting 3 out of ten pitches. Sales teams typically win about half the time but even that can be improved on. The second message would be to find a mentor to learn from early on. Warren found a couple of mentors at the beginning of his career, but that was around five years into his decision to focus on business development. Doing that earlier would have accelerated the process. The third message is having patience. Expertise takes time. Harvard Business Review did some research and found that the average age of a successful entrepreneur is 42. Business development is a learnable skill and those three messages are the essence of deliberate practice. To get involved with more opportunities you have to show interest. To find mentors and engage them, you should reach out within your firm. The senior leaders in your organization are looking for people to differentiate themselves and who are wanting to grow. If you are the senior leader, go out and find someone to mentor. Find a way to expand or grow your skill set in the role that you’re currently in. Warren had the opportunity to be entrepreneurial within his role which gave him a great level of experience that he could apply when he ventured out on his own. Incremental gains in your business development skills, no matter where you practice, will pay off.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bdhabits.com thebrevetgroup.com The Seven Steps for Sales Transformation Why Older Entrepreneurs Have the Edge - knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/age-of-successful-entrepreneurs

Mo asks Warren Shiver: If you could record a video about business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Warren’s advice comes in three parts, the first one is: find opportunities around business development as early as possible, get experience, and fail. You can be a Hall of Fame level baseball player by hitting 3 out of ten pitches. Sales teams typically win about half the time but even that can be improved on. The second message would be to find a mentor to learn from early on. Warren found a couple of mentors at the beginning of his career, but that was around five years into his decision to focus on business development. Doing that earlier would have accelerated the process. The third message is having patience. Expertise takes time. Harvard Business Review did some research and found that the average age of a successful entrepreneur is 42. Business development is a learnable skill and those three messages are the essence of deliberate practice. To get involved with more opportunities you have to show interest. To find mentors and engage them, you should reach out within your firm. The senior leaders in your organization are looking for people to differentiate themselves and who are wanting to grow. If you are the senior leader, go out and find someone to mentor. Find a way to expand or grow your skill set in the role that you’re currently in. Warren had the opportunity to be entrepreneurial within his role which gave him a great level of experience that he could apply when he ventured out on his own. Incremental gains in your business development skills, no matter where you practice, will pay off.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thebrevetgroup.com Why Older Entrepreneurs Have the Edge - knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/age-of-successful-entrepreneurs

Mo asks Warren Shiver: Tell me of a business development story that you are really proud of. Warren left his day job and started his own consultancy in 2010. He created his Protemoi list and started working through it to get things started. Warren met Paul Duval, the senior vice-president of sales at Central Garden, a billion dollar provider of lawn and grass products. That very first relationship developed into a three-month sales cycle and a seven-figure engagement that kicked off Warren’s consultancy. The client gave Warren some feedback after the fact when Warren asked him why they went with his company, and he responded that Warren asked three questions and then shut up and listened as Paul talked for 45 minutes. Warren was also able to bring in a couple other key people to show they could build trust as a team and collaboratively build the scope together. Listening and learning early on and then building the solution together were the two key things that landed the business. It’s way more powerful to learn their priorities using their own words. When someone shares their personal perspective, it’s highly correlated to liking you more. Early on in the conversation with Paul, it became apparent that he knew what he was doing. He had a vision for what he wanted done, and a pitch from Warren’s point of view wouldn’t have landed right. Listening first helped Warren stand out from the other consultants bidding for the business. Even experienced professionals like Mo can fall into the trap of wanting to speak about themselves first. Warren’s client was in the process of a complete business transformation, so it was important as a new firm to show that it wasn’t just Warren working on it. There is a lot of power in co-creation and the complementary skill sets of the additional people played a big role in the success of the project. A key takeaway is to ask for feedback whether you win or lose the business. It helps keep you grounded and helps you understand what your approach might be missing.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thebrevetgroup.com The Seven Steps for Sales Transformation

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 thebrevetgroup.com

Mo asks Warren Shiver: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is simply about building trust between people. People buy from people, and that still holds true in the age of Zoom. Mo’s wife recently started a non-profit focused on equine therapy. and within two months of the launch they were getting incredible amounts donated to the program. This was because Becky had been building relationships with people in the area for 30 years. People are looking for indicators that you do what you’re going to say you’re going to do. Trust is built over the course of your career, and as you help other people be successful, you build your network and your brand, and that helps to sustain your success. Your first interaction with someone matters. How can you come prepared for your first conversation with someone with questions and fluency? Whatever the next step is, follow up and follow through with a high rate of precision and speed. You can differentiate yourself just by having professional, thorough, and timely follow up. Most people aren’t reliable. Reliability starts with being organized. Being able to connect the dots for someone across a number of different relationships is very valuable. Warren uses his Outlook calendar to stay on top of what he needs to get done alongside Hubspot. He also has a Protemoi list of key relationships and opportunities that he keeps front and center along with his calendar, to keep things on track.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thebrevetgroup.com

Mo asks Warren Shiver: At what point in your career did you realize that business development was something you should focus on? Warren started his career off in the typical management/consulting track almost exclusively focused on product delivery. Warren’s wife worked for PeopleSoft at the time, and he was able to go on a few president’s club trips with her. Seeing top performing business development professionals treated so well opened his eyes. No engineers get treated to trips to tropical destinations for delivering a project on time. Warren was in business school at the time and interviewed for all the top technical positions, but they all wanted to see more sales experience. Warren started to focus more on sales and got the opportunity to build a small team working with companies to improve sales performance. That role forced Warren to focus on business development and kicked off his relationship with Mo. As a deep technical expert, the first yes you need to hear is from your internal partners to get introduced to clients. You need to make yourself as relevant and as easily understood as possible to build trust internally before you can get in front of clients. Trust is foundational. Your niche solution may not be overall material to the account manager so it represents a significant risk. To build trust you need to prove your success. Do you have a track record of prior success in a similar situation? The best client-facing team of executives brings a broad selection of skill sets to a project, even if it means going outside the firm, in order to build the trust and relationship with the client. The most important element of success is having a process. It takes a steady and disciplined approach to be successful, whether you are selling internally, externally, or a combination of both.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thebrevetgroup.com

Bill Ruprecht pulls from his decades-long career in sales and business development and shares the work-defining stories and lessons he learned along the way. Learn how Bill discovered the keys to building relationships around the dinner table with his parents, why building relationships isn’t solely reserved for people with the natural gift of conversation but is a trainable skill that anyone can figure out, and why being in sales is something you should be proud of.   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 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 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 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.   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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com

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

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com

Bonneau Ansley, the #1 real estate agent in the South, shares how he discovered how to take his passion for people and selling, and leverage it into a ridiculously successful real estate company on track to do over $3 billion in sales this year. Learn about some of the nitty gritty business development tactics that Bonneau uses to create a network that helps him develop business 24/7, why Bonneau reinvents himself every year, and how that practice helped him grow his business from $100 million in sales to over $3 billion is seven short years.   Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: Tell me of the moment in your life when you realized that business development was something you wanted to focus on. Bonneau knew he was going to be a sales guy at the early age of 16 when he was in highschool. He felt that school wasn’t really his thing, but people and classmates were. He started selling t-shirts and hats, which continued into college with his own clothing company, and he realized that selling was something that he clicked with. It was in college where he was first exposed to real estate after taking a class that he became completely hooked on the subject. After college, selling real estate became the natural evolution for Bonneau. Bonneau has done every facet of real estate including development and sales, with plenty of success and failure along the way. Cycles are common in real estate, and Bonneau has had to reinvent himself more than once. Bonneau recalls the story of when he and his wife had lost everything to a house fire in 2004. The fire forced him to give himself a fresh start. As devastating something like a fire can be, it’s a catalyst for change in life. Bonneau tries to reinvent himself every year. He works in a very competitive environment so his mindset is always centered around thinking big, doubling his business big. To double your business, you have to create habits that you didn’t do before, and implement those. In Bonneau’s seventh year in business, they are on track to sell over $3 billion in sales this year. It doesn’t have to take your house burning down or your business to fail with the banking collapse. It’s simply about having a mindset where you always look at what you need to do to do better every single year.   Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: What is your personal definition of business development? Bonneau interacts with people for roughly ten hours a day, from his barber to his valet, and each interaction is an exercise in business development. Each person is a part of Bonneau’s sales team with a small incentive to spread the word about him. From a business development standpoint, to continue to be the #1 realtor in the South, he needs to be everywhere, and each person he interacts with is a chance to amplify his brand. To be successful, you will have to stretch your comfort zone. Creating some new habits, even if you’re not a natural at them, is how you do it. If you’re in sales, the more people that know what you sell and that you’re good at it, the more product you’re going to sell, no matter what it is. Bonneau has created a network and a platform that allows him to do business development 24 hours a day whether he is present for the individual conversation or not. Bonneau is really good at sales, and he’s put himself into a position to succeed by only focusing on that one thing. For the other tasks that don’t come natural to him, he’s built a team to help him continue focusing on business development and sales. Everybody is great at something. The key is to figure out what that one thing is and how to monetize that. When Bonneau was in school he struggled, but when he discovered sales he found something he could excel at and figured out a way to thrive.   Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG training or Snowball System? Bonneau has been a real estate agent for 20 years, but when Mo interviewed Bonneau in order to get his house sold, it changed the way he operated. They had a conversation about the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument and went over the different ways that people communicate, and that conversation transformed how Bonneau presents to his clients. Now he makes sure to cover all four quadrants no matter who he’s talking to to make sure he connects with them. The HBDI model has been integrated into Bonneau’s team. He took many of the principles that he learned from the GrowBIG training and the Snowball System and used them as the foundation for building his massive team of agents and executives. The HBDI test has helped Bonneau grow his business to over 300 real estate agents that work under his brand. In the first year of business, Bonneau’s team did over $100 million in sales and, seven years later, they are on track to do over $3 billion in sales.   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 Bonneau Ansley: If you could record a message to your younger self around business development, what would it say? In school, Bonneau would have told himself to not worry too much about failing Geology and Mrs. Jones is not going to be there to critique you for the rest of your life. In college, it would have been to try more things while avoiding some bad influences. After college, he would have told himself to go somewhere new. It wasn’t until he left his hometown that he really learned the skills he needed to succeed on his own. One key lesson that Bonneau would share is to not be afraid of reinventing yourself. Even with scary situations, there is opportunity to learn. They are all part of your path to discovering what you want to do for the long haul. Don’t wait so long to start your business. It’s okay to buck the trend and start something sooner than you think you should. You’re more ready than you realize. Mo tells the story of how Bonneau called him up and told that they were going to spend the night at a homeless shelter and plan out what they were going to achieve the next year. To climb, Bonneau cuts. To make a greater impact, Bonneau doesn’t hesitate to say no to something that isn’t at the level of what he’s trying to achieve. Bonneau does a lot of investing and one of the most important ways he figures out who to work with is by identifying the founders that are passionate for what they are working on beyond the potential profit.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: If you could record a message to your younger self around business development, what would it say? In school, Bonneau would have told himself to not worry too much about failing Geology and Mrs. Jones is not going to be there to critique you for the rest of your life. In college, it would have been to try more things while avoiding some bad influences. After college, he would have told himself to go somewhere new. It wasn’t until he left his hometown that he really learned the skills he needed to succeed on his own. One key lesson that Bonneau would share is to not be afraid of reinventing yourself. Even with scary situations, there is opportunity to learn. They are all part of your path to discovering what you want to do for the long haul. Don’t wait so long to start your business. It’s okay to buck the trend and start something sooner than you think you should. You’re more ready than you realize. Mo tells the story of how Bonneau called him up and told that they were going to spend the night at a homeless shelter and plan out what they were going to achieve the next year. To climb, Bonneau cuts. To make a greater impact, Bonneau doesn’t hesitate to say no to something that isn’t at the level of what he’s trying to achieve. Bonneau does a lot of investing and one of the most important ways he figures out who to work with is by identifying the founders that are passionate for what they are working on beyond the potential profit.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG training or Snowball System? Bonneau has been a real estate agent for 20 years, but when Mo interviewed Bonneau in order to get his house sold, it changed the way he operated. They had a conversation about the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument and went over the different ways that people communicate, and that conversation transformed how Bonneau presents to his clients. Now he makes sure to cover all four quadrants no matter who he’s talking to to make sure he connects with them. The HBDI model has been integrated into Bonneau’s team. He took many of the principles that he learned from the GrowBIG training and the Snowball System and used them as the foundation for building his massive team of agents and executives. The HBDI test has helped Bonneau grow his business to over 300 real estate agents that work under his brand. In the first year of business, Bonneau’s team did over $100 million in sales and, seven years later, they are on track to do over $3 billion in sales.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: What is your personal definition of business development? Bonneau interacts with people for roughly ten hours a day, from his barber to his valet, and each interaction is an exercise in business development. Each person is a part of Bonneau’s sales team with a small incentive to spread the word about him. From a business development standpoint, to continue to be the #1 realtor in the South, he needs to be everywhere, and each person he interacts with is a chance to amplify his brand. To be successful, you will have to stretch your comfort zone. Creating some new habits, even if you’re not a natural at them, is how you do it. If you’re in sales, the more people that know what you sell and that you’re good at it, the more product you’re going to sell, no matter what it is. Bonneau has created a network and a platform that allows him to do business development 24 hours a day whether he is present for the individual conversation or not. Bonneau is really good at sales, and he’s put himself into a position to succeed by only focusing on that one thing. For the other tasks that don’t come natural to him, he’s built a team to help him continue focusing on business development and sales. Everybody is great at something. The key is to figure out what that one thing is and how to monetize that. When Bonneau was in school he struggled, but when he discovered sales he found something he could excel at and figured out a way to thrive.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: Tell me of the moment in your life when you realized that business development was something you wanted to focus on. Bonneau knew he was going to be a sales guy at the early age of 16 when he was in highschool. He felt that school wasn’t really his thing, but people and classmates were. He started selling t-shirts and hats, which continued into college with his own clothing company, and he realized that selling was something that he clicked with. It was in college where he was first exposed to real estate after taking a class that he became completely hooked on the subject. After college, selling real estate became the natural evolution for Bonneau. Bonneau has done every facet of real estate including development and sales, with plenty of success and failure along the way. Cycles are common in real estate, and Bonneau has had to reinvent himself more than once. Bonneau recalls the story of when he and his wife had lost everything to a house fire in 2004. The fire forced him to give himself a fresh start. As devastating something like a fire can be, it’s a catalyst for change in life. Bonneau tries to reinvent himself every year. He works in a very competitive environment so his mindset is always centered around thinking big, doubling his business big. To double your business, you have to create habits that you didn’t do before, and implement those. In Bonneau’s seventh year in business, they are on track to sell over $3 billion in sales this year. It doesn’t have to take your house burning down or your business to fail with the banking collapse. It’s simply about having a mindset where you always look at what you need to do to do better every single year.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Debby Moorman shares why business development became her career passion and why everybody is better at business development than they think. Find out why the sales label holds so many people back from growing their skills, how being helpful is the foundation for business development, and the aha moment that helped Debby become more effective than ever at building relationships with prospects and clients.   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 Debby Moorman: What is your personal development 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 Debby Moorman: What is your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG or the Snowball System? Debby’s favorite science is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. The science behind what type of thinker we are is incredibly valuable. Most people have been through at least one kind of similar training, but they usually can’t put it into use. With HBDI, that’s not the case. The brilliant a-ha moment for Debby was realizing that you must assume that you have all four thinking types in the room when you’re meeting with someone new, and you must tailor your conversation to appeal to all four types. The best part is that the system is easy to remember and put into practical use. HBDI basically says that there are four ways to think based on the physiological structure of the brain. Some people are analytical and some are relational, some are experimental and some are more practical. Components of your presentations and discussions should always touch on all four parts. Debby’s second favorite principle is the idea of building it together. Spending time together to think through the various options, you aren’t selling them something, you are helping them understand what they need and helping them get that solution. Building it together starts with the preliminary market research and understanding what’s happening in their market, and then coming up with a few options for a possible solution. It can take multiple conversations and feedback to figure out the right option for them, but the goal is to match the right solution to the prospect’s particular problem. The prospect is probably facing a near infinite number of choices in the beginning. This is the perfect opportunity for you to narrow things down and save the prospect a huge amount of time. During a conversation, Debby is trying to uncover which option would be the best fit, or whether a completely different option may be a better path. There is almost always something new learned during the conversation that changes things, but the goal is to always narrow solutions down and getting clarity on the best next step.   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.   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 [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

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 [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

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] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG or the Snowball System? Debby’s favorite science is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. The science behind what type of thinker we are is incredibly valuable. Most people have been through at least one kind of similar training, but they usually can’t put it into use. With HBDI, that’s not the case. The brilliant a-ha moment for Debby was realizing that you must assume that you have all four thinking types in the room when you’re meeting with someone new, and you must tailor your conversation to appeal to all four types. The best part is that the system is easy to remember and put into practical use. HBDI basically says that there are four ways to think based on the physiological structure of the brain. Some people are analytical and some are relational, some are experimental and some are more practical. Components of your presentations and discussions should always touch on all four parts. Debby’s second favorite principle is the idea of building it together. Spending time together to think through the various options, you aren’t selling them something, you are helping them understand what they need and helping them get that solution. Building it together starts with the preliminary market research and understanding what’s happening in their market, and then coming up with a few options for a possible solution. It can take multiple conversations and feedback to figure out the right option for them, but the goal is to match the right solution to the prospect’s particular problem. The prospect is probably facing a near infinite number of choices in the beginning. This is the perfect opportunity for you to narrow things down and save the prospect a huge amount of time. During a conversation, Debby is trying to uncover which option would be the best fit, or whether a completely different option may be a better path. There is almost always something new learned during the conversation that changes things, but the goal is to always narrow solutions down and getting clarity on the best next step.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Jeff Berardi shares how the business development skills he developed during his career became the foundation for his consulting practice’s success after launching right at the beginning of the pandemic. Discover the mindset shift that takes someone from struggling with business development to becoming the rainmaker of their organization, why you need to understand sales if you want to succeed at marketing, and the counterintuitive way to showcase your expertise and land paying clients that most consultants get completely backward.   Mo asks Jeff Berardi: Tell us the story of the time where you realized that business development was great. Jeff first realized the importance of business development in the marketing class at business school. The first question his professor asked was “Who here is interested in pursuing a career in marketing? And who here is interested in pursuing a career in sales?” The majority of the class had their hands up for the first part and not the second part, and that was the first lesson of the class. If you’re thinking about marketing and you don’t have a clear understanding and appreciation for sales you have a fundamental disconnect. Marketing is meant to drive sales. Where a lot of organizations fail is turning the one-to-many marketing experience into one-to-one sales conversations. Nobody hires someone after they give a speech, they have to talk with them about how they can solve their problems. When Jeff took over as CMO, he introduced the organization’s first business development group. A lot of the difficulty an organization faces is when marketing and sales are not in alignment and are treated as completely separate activities. Jeff didn’t just publish unique content. He created events around the content and a follow-up process for turning it into actionable conversations. The key is to work backwards from the goal of the campaign. For Jeff, that meant showcasing their expertise to companies that they wanted to work with in Europe. He started off with a survey to understand what is happening with potential clients. Once the research was conducted, they discovered that some issues were local and some were more widespread, but no matter the scope the research became the basis for the report that could be leveraged in a number of different ways. This sort of deep dive research into a client’s problems and needs can be as broad or as narrow as you need it to be.   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 Jeff Berardi: What is your favorite GrowBIG or Snowball System principle? Build everything together is Jeff’s all-time favorite principle. When you work with something in conjunction with your prospect they are going to like you, and the work, more. Jeff uses the example of bake-at-home cake mixes and how one small change that increased the engagement of the consumer in the process led to an increase in sales. Everybody wants to add value in life, and when you send somebody a project that’s done they have no way to participate. Even a small step or contribution can increase the sense of ownership on a project. Include your client in the planning process and ditch the inclination to have a perfect fully baked proposal. You can’t give too much to the client, but giving them small steps that get them engaged on the big picture helps them understand the value you are bringing to the table. Work together to nail down the scope of the project and get their stamp on what’s going to be done. You convey your authority in the details. Not asking for the client’s thoughts and perspective can actually be the weaker position compared to asking for input.   Mo asks Jeff Berardi: Tell us about a business development story that you are particularly proud of. Jeff has had a long and successful career, but his proudest business development story happened at the very beginning of the pandemic when he launched his own consulting practice. Jeff had the training and the experience leading up to that moment, and the launch of his consulting practice simply became reaching out to his contacts and helping them figure things out. Those initial relationships and just being valuable eventually turned into client work. Even when Jeff became busy with client work he made sure to stick to the business development habits that built those relationships. Having the Snowball System to rely on was a big asset. The habits of business development combined with being helpful became the basis for Jeff’s consulting success. When you experience the result of the process, you get more motivation to keep it going. Finding the time to continue business development activities once you become successful is challenging but vital to continued growth. For Jeff, he made sure to put names and tasks in his calendar about following up. These became visual reminders that he couldn’t ignore and kept him on track. To-dos can always be kicked down the road, blocking off time is hard to ignore.   Mo asks Jeff Berardi: If you could record a video and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Jeff would tell himself to ask more questions and to be more intentional on directing the conversation to the ways he could help the other party. Asking questions and getting the client engaged is much more beneficial than just telling people what you do. A lot of consultants make the mistake of just wanting to showcase their expertise, but the counterintuitive part is that by getting the other person to talk about what’s happening on their end they view you as having that expertise. There are three big benefits of asking questions: they light up the pleasure center of the person being asked, you learn their perspectives in their specific words, and it highly correlates to likeability. Asking questions releases the pressure you have when you assume you know what the client needs and then telling them how you can help without really understanding the situation. The end goal of your questions is to understand their needs and how you can address them. The essence of the questions is to build trust and also to help the client understand what they need because often they haven’t defined the problem precisely on their own. If you uncover their needs over the course of the conversation in an authentic and meaningful way that shows you understand their issues and you have the skill set to help them, it feels less like you aren’t trying to sell them something and more like you are trying to simply help them.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio

Mo asks Jeff Berardi: If you could record a video and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Jeff would tell himself to ask more questions and to be more intentional on directing the conversation to the ways he could help the other party. Asking questions and getting the client engaged is much more beneficial than just telling people what you do. A lot of consultants make the mistake of just wanting to showcase their expertise, but the counterintuitive part is that by getting the other person to talk about what’s happening on their end they view you as having that expertise. There are three big benefits of asking questions: they light up the pleasure center of the person being asked, you learn their perspectives in their specific words, and it highly correlates to likeability. Asking questions releases the pressure you have when you assume you know what the client needs and then telling them how you can help without really understanding the situation. The end goal of your questions is to understand their needs and how you can address them. The essence of the questions is to build trust and also to help the client understand what they need because often they haven’t defined the problem precisely on their own. If you uncover their needs over the course of the conversation in an authentic and meaningful way that shows you understand their issues and you have the skill set to help them, it feels less like you aren’t trying to sell them something and more like you are trying to simply help them.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio

Mo asks Jeff Berardi: Tell us about a business development story that you are particularly proud of. Jeff has had a long and successful career, but his proudest business development story happened at the very beginning of the pandemic when he launched his own consulting practice. Jeff had the training and the experience leading up to that moment, and the launch of his consulting practice simply became reaching out to his contacts and helping them figure things out. Those initial relationships and just being valuable eventually turned into client work. Even when Jeff became busy with client work he made sure to stick to the business development habits that built those relationships. Having the Snowball System to rely on was a big asset. The habits of business development combined with being helpful became the basis for Jeff’s consulting success. When you experience the result of the process, you get more motivation to keep it going. Finding the time to continue business development activities once you become successful is challenging but vital to continued growth. For Jeff, he made sure to put names and tasks in his calendar about following up. These became visual reminders that he couldn’t ignore and kept him on track. To-dos can always be kicked down the road, blocking off time is hard to ignore.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio

Mo asks Jeff Berardi: What is your favorite GrowBIG or Snowball System principle? Build everything together is Jeff’s all-time favorite principle. When you work with something in conjunction with your prospect they are going to like you, and the work, more. Jeff uses the example of bake-at-home cake mixes and how one small change that increased the engagement of the consumer in the process led to an increase in sales. Everybody wants to add value in life, and when you send somebody a project that’s done they have no way to participate. Even a small step or contribution can increase the sense of ownership on a project. Include your client in the planning process and ditch the inclination to have a perfect fully baked proposal. You can’t give too much to the client, but giving them small steps that get them engaged on the big picture helps them understand the value you are bringing to the table. Work together to nail down the scope of the project and get their stamp on what’s going to be done. You convey your authority in the details. Not asking for the client’s thoughts and perspective can actually be the weaker position compared to asking for input.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio

Mo asks Jeff Berardi: Tell us the story of the time where you realized that business development was great. Jeff first realized the importance of business development in the marketing class at business school. The first question his professor asked was “Who here is interested in pursuing a career in marketing? And who here is interested in pursuing a career in sales?” The majority of the class had their hands up for the first part and not the second part, and that was the first lesson of the class. If you’re thinking about marketing and you don’t have a clear understanding and appreciation for sales you have a fundamental disconnect. Marketing is meant to drive sales. Where a lot of organizations fail is turning the one-to-many marketing experience into one-to-one sales conversations. Nobody hires someone after they give a speech, they have to talk with them about how they can solve their problems. When Jeff took over as CMO, he introduced the organization’s first business development group. A lot of the difficulty an organization faces is when marketing and sales are not in alignment and are treated as completely separate activities. Jeff didn’t just publish unique content. He created events around the content and a follow-up process for turning it into actionable conversations. The key is to work backwards from the goal of the campaign. For Jeff, that meant showcasing their expertise to companies that they wanted to work with in Europe. He started off with a survey to understand what is happening with potential clients. Once the research was conducted, they discovered that some issues were local and some were more widespread, but no matter the scope the research became the basis for the report that could be leveraged in a number of different ways. This sort of deep dive research into a client’s problems and needs can be as broad or as narrow as you need it to be.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio 

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Jay Baer. This is an encore presentation of an episode that aired on July 9, 2021. Market your marketing. Most experts put in the time to create some content, but they would be much better served by taking half that time, creating less content overall, and spending the other half marketing that content. Doing this allows you to spend half the time and generate 10x the results. There are three components to marketing your marketing: the plan, the lead up before the launch, and what you do after the launch. Whatever you are creating, you should spend quite a bit of time upfront developing the outline of the content, who the audience is, and think about the marketing of that content. Start with what your audience needs to know and how you can create something that they would die to have. Jay’s example of creating a report on the top 50 university’s websites is perfect. If you’re the person that has the data, information, or algorithm, it makes you more magnetic to your prospects. Narrow down your audience to specific people. That will help you tailor the content directly to what they care about. The goal of your pre-launch is to break down your big piece of content into smaller, bite-size pieces as you can. Get as many people as you can to help promote them and get the word out for the official launch. The post launch step is the most important. Your big piece of content is not the finishing line, it’s the start. Post launch you should organize an effort with your strategic partners to funnel people into a meeting with you on how the content impacts them. Seize the momentum of your launch to get the meetings where you can actually get hired. Most people only do one or two parts of the three steps of the marketing your marketing process. Put all three into practice and watch your results explode.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com talktriggers.com convinceandconvert.com jaybaer.com The Top 3 Things You Need to Implement from Jay Baer, Customer Experience Expert

Mo asks Marissa King: How can we hack our own habits to build the most robust networks? This is an encore presentation of an episode that aired on May 20, 2021. Our networks are often our most valuable asset but very few people are intentional about them. You don’t need to invest a lot of time into relationships to grow them, you just need to invest what time you have wisely. Pick one day a week and choose a 15-minute window to commit to reaching out to three people who can help meet whatever needs you have. A good place to start is the Give, Thank, or Ask framework. Send them an article or podcast you think they’d like, thank them for something they did, or ask them for something. People want to help you. The key is to keep the ask small and specific so it’s easy to answer. If someone doesn’t respond or says no, that’s okay too. It’s about putting yourself out there and creating the habit more than the outcome. Studies have shown that people overestimate how many people will say no to them by orders of magnitude. If fear is getting in the way, realize that you are more afraid than necessary. If you are struggling with the idea of connecting with other people, know that you are better than you think and people are more likely to say yes than you think.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com socialchemistry.com assessyournetwork.com linkedin.com/in/marissadking How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Marissa King

James Clear, author of the best-selling book Atomic Habits, shares the importance of creating a system of habits that makes reaching your goals simple. Mo applies the principles of Atomic Habits directly to the world of business development and shows you how starting small can create huge results in your business. This is an encore presentation of an episode that aired on June 11, 2020. James Clear recounts the story of the high school baseball bat incident, how he realized that something had gone horribly wrong and how he found himself fighting for his life. People are building habits all the time, but when your life is completely changed by a traumatic injury, you have to start as small as possible in order to rebuild them. Scaling down to what James could manage was how he was able to regain a sense of control over the life that he’d lost. You don’t have control over the random events that come your way, but you do have control over how you respond to those things and that usually comes down to your habits. Most people start with one foot in expertise and become great at what they do but once they reach the next level of success, they find themselves in a completely different world. This can often lead to them feeling defeated since they aren’t as skilled in the new area. Goals are helpful for setting a direction or a filter but they come with a lot of drawbacks. Your goal is your desired outcome, but your system is the collection of daily habits that you follow. If there is ever a gap between your system and your goal, your daily habits will always win. Whatever results you have right now are by definition the byproduct of the system you’ve been running. It’s common in business for people to focus on the position or outcome, like doubling revenue or leads, but it’s more important to look at the system that’s running and the trajectory that business systems are driving towards. We want our results to change, but it’s not the results that need to change, it’s the habits that precede the result that need to change. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves. Goals are useful as check-ins, but more time should be invested into the system of habits that lead to the outcome you want. The Snowball system’s structure of lead and lag measures is very similar. Everybody is running systems whether they realize it or not. The questions you need to ask yourself are “How do I design a good system?” and “Which habits should I build?” This is where BIG goals come in to send you in the right direction. There are three main things that impact your outcomes in life. The first is luck, the second is your choices/strategy, and the third is your system of habits and behaviour. When you master the last two, you increase the surface area for good luck to come your way. People will often conflate the outcome they want to achieve with the person that they want to be. James believes you should shift the focus to the identity you desire instead of the goal because the real reason habits matter is that they can shape your sense of self. True behavior change is really identity change. Another way of reshaping your identity is to reframe your goal into a question. Instead of trying to close more deals, ask yourself what a successful sales person would do and then use that to select the action that moves you in the right direction. Questions are superior to advice because advice is contextual and situations change. Life is dynamic and advice will not always fit the circumstances. Identity-based questions guide you based on the situation. There are four fundamental things that increase the odds of getting a habit to stick. The first is to make your good habits obvious and easy to see. The second is to make them attractive and appealing. The third is to make them easy and convenient. The fourth is to make your habits satisfying and associated with a positive emotion. If you want to break a bad habit, just invert those four. When it comes to business development, we should look for one-time actions we can take that will help the cause every day from that point on to help mitigate the roller coaster that businesses tend to ride most of the time. A lot of business development is done through a screen. Is there an app or a tool that you can use to make business development more obvious and prime yourself and your environment for that use? James talks about the idea of the Temptation Bundle, where you combine a task that you know you should do with a task that you want to do in order to encourage the more important action. Don’t let one piece of silence prevent you from following up. A failure should not be desired but it should be planned for. When following up, there will also be people who ignore your efforts, but by writing down your next follow-up in your calendar, you will be many times more likely to keep following up. Life has a series of seasons and your habits should be different depending on the season of life you’re in. The same idea can be applied to your career. When you reach a new level it will probably require new habits in order to succeed. As your career progresses, typically, your responsibility increases. When your responsibility increases your ability to say no to things and to prioritize also needs to increase. Saying no to something is only saying no to one thing, but saying yes to something means saying no to everything else. Everything comes with a trade-off. If you’re going through a change of season in your career or your life, it may be the perfect time to reread Atomic Habits. The process of building habits is essentially rebuilding and getting started over and over as your life changes. In business development, the goal is not to be the absolute best in the world, it’s just to be a little bit better than your competition. Business is mostly a winner-take-all proposition so put yourself in a position to make more shots and improve your craft, and each day you will be more likely to win. Start with doing something small every single day when you don’t know where to begin. Any goal you have can be broken down into a two-minute chunk that will help you master the art of showing up. A habit must be established before it can be improved. It has to become the standard in your life before you can optimize and scale it up and expand it into something more. One of the most motivating feelings for the human mind is seeing progress. A simple strategy to improve your business development habits is to create a way to visualize your efforts even if you don’t get any direct feedback. A visual cue is a powerful way to see your progress and increase the odds of you keeping pushing forward.   Previous Episode: bdhabits.com James Clear on Why Habits Are the Foundation of Business Development Success

Michael Hyatt shares the power of a compelling vision and how it can completely transform your business. Find out how to craft your Vision Script and turn it into a roadmap for your business’s success, while giving you the perfect filter to avoid the trivial many and stay focused on the vital few. This is an encore presentation of an episode that aired on August 6, 2020. Michael tells the story of how he struggled early on when he and a partner started their own book publishing company. Michael’s company had a lot of success and opportunity for the first few years, but a disastrous partnership led to them being $1.2 million in debt and having all their assets seized, leaving them with nothing. People don’t always see the history of those who succeed. Great things come all of the time when we hit our low points. Never waste a good crisis. Crises are an opportunity to dig deep and be reflective. One of the major issues Michael had with his business was the lack of a clear vision as a company about where they were going. Without a clear vision it’s very hard to discern the difference between a distraction and an opportunity. Michael’s company found itself fracturing its focus and attention, spread its resources too thin and everything fell apart. Michael went back to work for Thomas Nelson and was given responsibility for one of the 14 divisions of the company, specifically the worst performing division in the whole company. This was where Michael first implemented the Vision Script and described what that division would need to be to turn it around. The Vision Script became so inspiring for the team that the division managed to become the highest performing division in the company in only 18 months and stayed that way for the next decade. No matter where you are in an organization as a leader, being a leader presupposes that you are leading people somewhere, which means you must have clarity and vision. There is a big difference between a Vision Script and a Vision Statement. A Vision Script is a detailed document that describes your future business in detail three to five years in the future written in the present tense. A Vision Script is broken down into four different sections. The team, the product, the marketing and sales, and finally the impact. This is essentially a whole brain description of your future vision. Before executing your vision, you have to create alignment in your organization around that vision. This is not something you can outsource as a leader, you need to do it yourself. Start with the highest level and then cascade it down. To get buy in from your team solicit their feedback. People buy into what they help create and this takes the burden off of you as a leader. Your Vision Script should be the first thing you check in at your annual planning meeting. You must have a cadence of review in your organization because vision leaks, you need to be constantly repeating the vision and reinforcing the path. When you come up with your annual goals, ask yourself what are the seven to ten things that will move you towards your vision and when they are deliverable. Your quarterly goals will inform your weekly priorities, and further down to your daily MIT’s. Limiting yourself to three major goals each quarter is more effective than aiming for a higher number of goals at the same time. A vision helps you identify what you’re going to focus on but it also allows you to exclude what you’re not going to focus on if you use it as a filter. If something falls outside the scope of your vision, it becomes an easy “no”. Strategy answers the question how you are going to get from where you are to where you want to go, and should be revised as often as necessary. All progress begins with an honest assessment of where you currently are, because it’s hard to move beyond where you are until you get honest about where you are. Establish hard boundaries around your work. When you restrict your work time you force yourself to get things done in the time allotted. With a clarity of vision you are able to create boundaries and choose what is the most important. In line with the Pareto Principle, what are the three actions that are going to drive the biggest results in your business? A lot of people think that to get more you’ve got to do more, but it’s not what you do, it’s about doing the right things. It all comes down to your vision which gives you the courage to say no to the trivial distractions. In order to serve your clients fully you have to be able to say no to lesser opportunities. Michael describes the systems he uses to protect his time and deliver his best every single day. Any structure is better than no structure at all. Michael has a powerful system of automation that simplifies his responses and saves him an incredible amount of time that anyone can apply. Michael uses the Power of No formula to make sure that he protects his time and honors his commitments without closing any doors permanently. People are used to not getting a response so they end up appreciating this kind of response. Most people can handle a no, what they can’t handle is no response. People are vision starved. As a leader, if you have a clear, compelling vision you will be amazed at how confident you will show up and how well your team will respond.   Mentioned in this Episode: businessaccelerator.com/big bdhabits.com Michael Hyatt Reveals How To Create A Vivid Vision That Will Transform Your Business

Maria Kelly shares everything she’s learned over the years on developing client relationships at Sotheby’s and in her own consulting firm helping CEOs and bold leaders get unstuck. Find out about some key insights that will help you charge what you’re worth with confidence, how to communicate effectively in your client’s language and convey your value in a way that they will love, and one simple tactic that anyone can use to forge strong bonds with people and deepen their relationships.   Mo asks Maria Kelly: When did you realize that you really had to focus on business development and client relationships? Maria’s career didn’t begin in client-facing roles but they were usually oriented around being helping and finding solutions for people. When she moved into more managerial roles, she was overseeing people who faced the client. It wasn’t until Maria went through the GrowBIG training where she realized that business development had been a part of her life the whole time, and her clients were her colleagues and the people she worked with. Everyone who went through the GrowBIG training had the lightbulb moment where they realized that they could be doing business development differently. The ones that embraced the Snowball System started seeing results almost immediately and people took notice. Maria started doing bi-weekly meetings specifically focused on business development and the various strategies of the Snowball System. The Give to Get was a particular favorite of the team. One of the keys to Maria’s success with her team was in shifting them from retrospectives to thinking and planning for the future. Being proactive and changing the approach to being helpful allowed them to focus on the long-term view of their business. For small businesses, they often struggle with many of the same issues that many professional service firms do. Entrepreneurs have to be able to step back from the execution and take some time to focus on the future and growth of the business they are working in.   Mo asks Maria Kelly: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is about creating opportunities and value for other people. Doing that together is what makes business development fun. Often, people don’t see their own value and this is reflected in the general disdain for sales. You need to understand what value you bring to the table as a specialist and use that confidence in your skill to bring value to the other person. A lot comes to your presentation and how you approach the client. When you are genuine in your intent to help and you believe in your offering, it comes through in how you communicate. Email can be easily misconstrued and is a good example of how something can be taken differently depending on your language and other factors. Your client is a human being as well, and showing your human side builds connection. Listen to your client before talking. Empathy is important in understanding where they are coming from and how they want to communicate with you. To be able to communicate in all four ways of thinking, you first need to be aware of what your primary style is. From there you can be cognizant of how you communicate and be thoughtful of the other styles so you’re always speaking the client’s language. Maria works with already successful CEOs and helps them grow further, and how that happens is deeply connected to each individual and the obstacles they face. Maria spends a lot of time getting to know the entire business as a whole so that she can help take the blinders off of the client.   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 Maria Kelly: Tell us of a business development moment that you are really proud of. One of Maria’s first clients, when she ventured out on her own, was someone she had worked with in the past. This client reached out to her specifically to work with her one on one just as Maria was taking some time off. For years, Maria had been telling her team and her clients that they need to charge what they’re worth so when it came to pricing her services she knew she had to follow her own advice. What’s the worst that can happen when you ask for what you’re worth? In the worst-case scenario, they say it’s too expensive and there’s room to negotiate. If Maria hadn’t risked asking for what she was worth, she could have been stuck with the negative emotions associated with being undervalued and the fee scale of her first client.   Mo asks Maria Kelly: If you could record a video around business development and give it to your younger self, what would it say? The short answer would be to record Mo’s training. The longer answer is to start thinking about business development much earlier. Do not be afraid to reach out and ask for advice. Over the last 12 months, Maria has read so many books that would have helped her tremendously when she was younger. Highly skilled specialists often struggle with asking for advice, but it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to create bonds with people. The more you communicate, the more things come your way. Asking people for advice makes people feel good, and other things can come up during the conversation that can change the way you think. One of the ways that Maria had built relationships with clients was by asking them their advice on who she should hire and they loved the idea of having input. The worst that can happen is that the other person will thank you for thinking of them but they’re too busy to help. Start with something small that doesn’t require too much of the other person, or by asking someone you are fairly confident will say yes no matter what. When you’re trying a new skill, start small and start safe. If you have a business strategy that you aren’t sure of, reach out to your clients and run it by them first. It shows that you value them as a client and their opinion on what you do. There are a lot more opportunities than you think that don’t fit into the traditional client opportunity conversation box. Just being human is a simple thing anyone can do. Unstructured moments used to happen naturally in the past, but it’s okay to go out of your way to try and create more of those moments. Business development is a learnable skill, and the sooner you embrace it the more it will impact your career. Embrace who you are and bring that to the business development table, because that is your strongest tool. Your authentic self is the foundation for all the other business development skills.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn

Mo asks Maria Kelly: If you could record a video around business development and give it to your younger self, what would it say? The short answer would be to record Mo’s training. The longer answer is to start thinking about business development much earlier. Do not be afraid to reach out and ask for advice. Over the last 12 months, Maria has read so many books that would have helped her tremendously when she was younger. Highly skilled specialists often struggle with asking for advice, but it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to create bonds with people. The more you communicate, the more things come your way. Asking people for advice makes people feel good, and other things can come up during the conversation that can change the way you think. One of the ways that Maria had built relationships with clients was by asking them their advice on who she should hire and they loved the idea of having input. The worst that can happen is that the other person will thank you for thinking of them but they’re too busy to help. Start with something small that doesn’t require too much of the other person, or by asking someone you are fairly confident will say yes no matter what. When you’re trying a new skill, start small and start safe. If you have a business strategy that you aren’t sure of, reach out to your clients and run it by them first. It shows that you value them as a client and their opinion on what you do. There are a lot more opportunities than you think that don’t fit into the traditional client opportunity conversation box. Just being human is a simple thing anyone can do. Unstructured moments used to happen naturally in the past, but it’s okay to go out of your way to try and create more of those moments. Business development is a learnable skill, and the sooner you embrace it the more it will impact your career. Embrace who you are and bring that to the business development table, because that is your strongest tool. Your authentic self is the foundation for all the other business development skills.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn

Mo asks Maria Kelly: Tell us of a business development moment that you are really proud of. One of Maria’s first clients, when she ventured out on her own, was someone she had worked with in the past. This client reached out to her specifically to work with her one on one just as Maria was taking some time off. For years, Maria had been telling her team and her clients that they need to charge what they’re worth so when it came to pricing her services she knew she had to follow her own advice. What’s the worst that can happen when you ask for what you’re worth? In the worst-case scenario, they say it’s too expensive and there’s room to negotiate. If Maria hadn’t risked asking for what she was worth, she could have been stuck with the negative emotions associated with being undervalued and the fee scale of her first client.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn

Mo asks Maria Kelly: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is about creating opportunities and value for other people. Doing that together is what makes business development fun. Often, people don’t see their own value and this is reflected in the general disdain for sales. You need to understand what value you bring to the table as a specialist and use that confidence in your skill to bring value to the other person. A lot comes to your presentation and how you approach the client. When you are genuine in your intent to help and you believe in your offering, it comes through in how you communicate. Email can be easily misconstrued and is a good example of how something can be taken differently depending on your language and other factors. Your client is a human being as well, and showing your human side builds connection. Listen to your client before talking. Empathy is important in understanding where they are coming from and how they want to communicate with you. To be able to communicate in all four ways of thinking, you first need to be aware of what your primary style is. From there you can be cognizant of how you communicate and be thoughtful of the other styles so you’re always speaking the client’s language. Maria works with already successful CEOs and helps them grow further, and how that happens is deeply connected to each individual and the obstacles they face. Maria spends a lot of time getting to know the entire business as a whole so that she can help take the blinders off of the client.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn

Mo asks Maria Kelly: When did you realize that you really had to focus on business development and client relationships? Maria’s career didn’t begin in client-facing roles but they were usually oriented around being helping and finding solutions for people. When she moved into more managerial roles, she was overseeing people who faced the client. It wasn’t until Maria went through the GrowBIG training where she realized that business development had been a part of her life the whole time, and her clients were her colleagues and the people she worked with. Everyone who went through the GrowBIG training had the lightbulb moment where they realized that they could be doing business development differently. The ones that embraced the Snowball System started seeing results almost immediately and people took notice. Maria started doing bi-weekly meetings specifically focused on business development and the various strategies of the Snowball System. The Give to Get was a particular favorite of the team. One of the keys to Maria’s success with her team was in shifting them from retrospectives to thinking and planning for the future. Being proactive and changing the approach to being helpful allowed them to focus on the long-term view of their business. For small businesses, they often struggle with many of the same issues that many professional service firms do. Entrepreneurs have to be able to step back from the execution and take some time to focus on the future and growth of the business they are working in.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com askmariakelly.com Maria Kelly on LinkedIn